Venture Summit

Erica Anderson (she/they) is Co-Founder and CEO at THE NEW SAVANT (TNS). In its second year in business, TNS made $500,000 in sales, entirely through DTC with $0 spent on ads. The brand is driven by a mission to make people who have been historically left out feel seen using storytelling and original scent experiences.

Prior to TNS, Erica worked at the intersection of technology and media. A sought after disruptor, she worked for MTV News (2008), Katie Couric at CBS News (2009), Twitter (2009-15), Google (2016-19) and with tech journalist, Kara Swisher (2019-20). Throughout her time inside of the corporate world, she was an entrepreneur. She developed complex strategic frameworks and structures to shift core business models.

In 2019, Erica was one of the organizers of the historic Google Walkout, where 20,000 employees protested sexual harassment. She’s been named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in Media and Entertainment, among other honors.

She graduated from Indiana University’s School of Journalism in 2006. She rode in the Little 500 for Delta Delta Delta, a sorority that provided immense joy, support and structure during her collegiate years.

IU alumnus, Tom Allen, was named the 2020 American Football Coaches Association National Coach of the Year. Allen’s 26 wins are tied for the most for an Indiana head football coach over his first five seasons with the program’s all-time winningest coach Bill Mallory. Allen was named the 2020 Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year (Big Ten coaches vote) and the Dave McClain Coach of the Year (Big Ten media vote) and joined Mallory (1986, 1987) as the only Hoosier head coaches to earn the honor.

A 30-year coaching veteran, Allen was named the program’s 29th head football coach on Dec. 1, 2016 and made his head coaching debut in the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl. The New Castle, Ind., native joined Indiana’s staff as associate head coach/defense on Jan. 15, 2016, and he promptly went on to become a Broyles Award nominee. Allen has strong ties to the Hoosier state as he served as head coach at Ben Davis High School (2004-06), defensive coordinator at Ben Davis (1998-03) and Marion High School (1997) and earned his master’s degree from IU (2002).

Emily Atkinson has a BS in Health and Rehabilitation Science and recently graduated with a PhD in Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Physiology from IU School of Medicine. During her PhD studies she investigated multiple cross-functional disease areas including musculoskeletal health, metabolism, and oncology.

She is well versed in scientific writing and was an NIH-funded pre-doctoral investigator for her thesis work. Throughout her graduate career, Emily developed a passion for scientific outreach and bridging the gap between science and society. She is eager to expand her scientific and communication expertise with an introduction to biotech focused venture capital and portfolio management.

She believes venture capital will not only utilize, but synthesize her knowledge in cell biology and scientific communication to holistically push science forward and efficiently bring innovations from the bench to the public. Outside of work, Emily enjoys traveling to and hiking the National Parks, taking care of her two dogs, and supporting local coffee shops.

Ravi’s passion is turning new ideas into reality. Throughout his career, he has adeptly blended his background in law, computer science, and communication to bring a unique perspective to his work.

Prior to his life as a software entrepreneur, Ravi advised clients in high-stakes litigation on trial presentation strategy and effective jury communication. He frequently teaches and speaks on topics including product design, communication strategy, and data visualization.

Ravi completed his juris doctor from Washington University in St. Louis and is admitted to practice in Illinois. His undergraduate studies at Indiana University, Bloomington focused on cognitive science and computer science. Ravi is the 2004 winner of the Lewis F. Powell Medal for Excellence in Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers and the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Indiana University Cognitive Science Program.

IU alumnus Scott Dolson is in his third year as IU’s Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. Scott began his role at the helm of IU Athletics July 1, 2020, after spending the previous 11 years as the department’s Deputy Director of Athletics and chief operating officer. The Michigan City, Indiana, native graduated from IU with a bachelor’s degree in management from the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. While doing his undergraduate work, Dolson was a student manager for the IU men’s basketball team for four seasons, serving as the program’s head manager in 1988. Following graduation in 1988, he worked for Tim Knight Enterprises before joining the joining the Varsity Club staff in December 1989.

Akua Donkor is a second-year MBA student at Kelley School of Business with a major in Marketing. She is also a past fellow of IU Ventures. Prior to Kelley, Akua founded a chocolate company in Ghana. Her chocolate brand “KABI” is made from Ghana’s rich cocoa beans.

Kabi means to take a bite in Twi, a Ghanaian language. As part of the Ghanaian culture, whenever one gets a bar of chocolate, one takes a bite and passes it on till the whole bar is finished.

As an entrepreneur, she promotes female empowerment and children’s education in cocoa-growing areas. It is her dream to continue her chocolate business in the USA.

Scott is Managing Partner of High Alpha, a leading venture studio that launches, scales, and invests in enterprise cloud companies.

Prior to High Alpha, Scott co-founded ExactTarget and led the company as CEO and Chairman from start-up to global marketing software leader. ExactTarget went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March of 2012 and was acquired by Salesforce in July of 2013 for $2.5 Billion. Post-acquisition, he led the Salesforce Marketing Cloud which encompassed 3,000 employees around the world.

Scott serves on a number of non-profit boards including as Chairman of Nextech, Executive Committee Member and Past Chair of Indiana Sports Corporation, Executive Committee and Board member of Techpoint, Board Member at The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and Global Advisory Board member at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Scott also serves on the boards of several High Alpha portfolio companies. Scott is a business school graduate of Indiana University and earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Paul Ehlinger is an accomplished entrepreneur and leader in the venture capital and technology sectors. He currently serves as the founder and CEO of Flamel.ai, an AI-generative content design studio. After founding the company in Sep 2022, Flamel.ai has already raised over $2M in VC investment and added hundreds of users to its platform. Prior to this, Paul held two roles simultaneously, Director of Operations at Gifthealth and Co-founder/Venture Partner of Sixty8 Capital. Gifthealth worked to eliminate the complexities of prescription healthcare and, in doing so, grew rapidly to over 70 employees and >$30M in top line revenue. Sixty8 Capital is a pre-seed/seed stage fund dedicated to investing into the underrepresented – black, brown, and female founders between the coasts.

In a previous life, Paul’s career was oriented around neurovascular medical devices. Across positions with Medtronic and Wallaby Medical, he developed and brought to market patented devices for the treatment of neurovascular aneurysms. These devices are still being used in over 30 countries around the world. Outside of work, Paul lives with his wife Lina in Covington, KY where they spend their time nerding out on wine tastings, weekending to any good hiking spot, and trying to become serviceable home chefs. He holds an M.S in Biological Engineering from the University of California, and a B.S in Biological Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Kate Evinger serves as Senior Venture Analyst with IU Ventures. Kate holds a B.S. in Finance with a Co-Major in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Kate has over 6 years of experience within venture, having previously worked with nationally-ranked startup accelerator, gener8tor, throughout her undergraduate career at IU and into post-grad. In total during her time with gener8tor, Kate worked with 45 startup companies, helped to allocate over $1.4M in venture investments and was a two-time recipient of the Twin Cities “Inno Under 25” for her work in the Twin Cities entrepreneurial ecosystem. Kate also led the development and launch of a scale up program for Seed and Series A sports technology startups with Houston-based sports holding company, Pokatok, where she created programming to share resources and provide introductions to investors, advisors and subject matter experts for participating companies.

Kate looks forward to pairing her passion for entrepreneurship and IU to help support and uplift IU affiliated entrepreneurs.

Tyler Harris serves as the Executive Director of Hoosiers For Good and Executive Director of Hoosiers Connect. He spent the last four years with the IU Athletic Department, most recently as Associate Athletic Director, involved in all name, image and likeness activities at IU. Tyler oversaw the day-to-day operations of the Office of Compliance Services (OCS), and served as the primary compliance contact for football and men’s and women’s basketball.

Prior to IU, Tyler served as a compliance coordinator at Iowa State University and a postgraduate intern at the NCAA. A native of Barry, Illinois, Tyler graduated from Lindenwood University with a bachelor’s in exercise science and a master’s in business administration. He played as a four-year member of the men’s basketball team.

He and his wife, Keri, have three daughters, Sloane, Reese, and Tatum, and a son, Nash, and reside in Bloomington, IN.

Collin Hartman was named the Vice President of Partnerships for Hoosiers Connect in June 2022.

Most recently, Hartman served as a business development representative at Wessler Engineering. Prior to joining Wessler, Hartman held roles in various industries including financial services and pharmaceuticals.

The Fishers, Indiana, native graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in business management from the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a five-year letter winner at Indiana University as a part of the men’s basketball team. He played integral roles with teams that won the Big Ten regular season championship as well as a run to the NCAA Sweet 16. Hartman was deemed the Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree in 2018.

Hartman has remained involved with Indiana University serving on the I Association’s Board of Directors, that works to connect former IU athletes and foster relationships between the generations that walk Bloomington’s campus.

He and his wife, Mary Kate, welcomed their first child in August 2022.

Matt Hedrick is the co-founder and CEO of AkiCept, LLC, and has a passion for mission-driven impactful tech companies.  Previously Matt served as CEO of Nanovis, a nanotech medical device company, where he signed a deal to transfer the lead technology to one of the world’s largest orthopedic companies.

Alan Henderson was born in Morgantown, WV and raised in Indianapolis. Alan attended Brebeuf Preparatory School and led them to the 1991 IHSAA Basketball State Championship game. He then went on to Indiana University where he was named an All-American. Now a member of the IU Hall of Fame, Alan finished his career at IU as the all-time leading rebounder and shot blocker. He graduated with a B.S. in Biology and was accepted to IU medical school in 1995.

After being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the 16th pick in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft, he played for 12 seasons. Nine seasons for the Hawks, followed by one year each for the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers. He was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 1998.
During his NBA career, he earned a Masters degree from the IU Kelley School of Business in 2010. He launched Henderson Spirits Group in the Spring of 2020. With a mission to “Diversify the Bar”, he is creating super premium spirits brands based on real African Americans in Spirits History. The first 2 award-winning brands, Tom Bullock’s and Birdie Brown, are distributed in 7 states with more on the horizon.

He is a member of Eastern Star Church, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and the professional fraternity Sigma Pi Phi. His Henderson Foundation supports causes related to the lower income population, children, and abused women. Alan loves spending time with his wife, Maxine, and their four kids – Jacob, Joshua, Brooke and Jonah.

Connor is CEO and Co-Founder of Homefield, a premium collegiate apparel brand based in Indianapolis. The venture began as a fun side project out of his college apartment in Bloomington in 2014, and in 2018, he and his co-founder/wife Christa quit their jobs to officially turn that side project into a full-time adventure. In the 4 years since the jump, the Homefield team has scaled to be an 8-figure brand with over 150 licenses, and is proud to have received investment from the IU Angel Network and Indiana University Community.

Dr. Kelley was appointed associate director of basic science research in 2005. Dr. Kelley, the Earl and Betty Herr Chair in Pediatric Oncology Research, also serves as a director of the Program in Pediatric Molecular Oncology & Experimental Therapeutics and co-leader of the IUSCCC Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Program. As associate director of basic science research, Dr. Kelley oversees all basic science activities of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, including stimulating interdisciplinary research collaboration, evaluating new research opportunities, and overseeing cancer center shared facilities.

Dr. Kelley’s work has focused on translational research in DNA damage and repair, specifically to determine how those activities can be exploited therapeutically to treat cancers and protect normal cells from oxidative and DNA base damage. He has focused on the enzyme apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1/ Redox effector factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1)—mechanistically as well as a therapeutic target in cancers and other diseases that manifest cancer-like properties.

APE1/Ref-1 is unique to the Base Excision Repair Pathway (BER), with dual repair and redox signaling functions that are crucial to cellular viability. He has concentrated on teasing apart these functions and in the process, he has discovered and has been developing redox-specific inhibitors of Ref-1. This original work was the impetus for becoming Chief Scientific Founder and Officer of Apexian Pharmaceutical targeting Ref-1 to produce new therapeutics for some of the deadliest and hardest-to-treat cancers.

Apexian recently completed a phase 1 clinical trial using oral APX3330 in solid tumor patients (NCT03375086). This trial established safety, expected PK, target engagement, and responses in patients in the trial. Phase 2 trials are being developed in cancer and other indications, including ocular diseases. A phase 2 trial using APX3330 in diabetic retinopathy (DR) is underway using a drug he developed and licensed to Ocuphire Pharma (NCT04692688).

Dr. Kelley has more than 19 patents relating to the targeting the enzyme apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1/ Redox effector factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1) in cancer, ophthalmology diseases as well as other indications such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).

Dr. Kelley earned his bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and received his doctoral degree in genetics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. He completed an ACS postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Rockefeller University in New York in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Young, the 2017 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine, and was an assistant professor at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago prior to joining the Indiana University School of Medicine faculty in 1993. In 2021 he was selected as a Fellow to the prestigious AAAS Science Fellow association.

Dr. Kelley and his wife are the parents of two children who have graduated from college and are pursuing their careers. They are at home with the most adorable lab in the world, Ziggy (for Ziggy Stardust).

Mr. Zachary Kiehl is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Sentinel, where he directs the company’s efforts in achieving its mission to protect and prolong the lives of those at risk through modern, secure, and scalable technology. Zach is the principal engineer and visionary of Sentinel’s primary offering known as SafeGuard, which is an intelligent guardian platform that uses sensors, contextual analytics, and intuitive software to monitor and optimize human health, safety, and performance in real-time. Sentinel has grown from an idea funded by the Department of Defense to a venture-backed technology company providing lifesaving interventions to its clients and high-paying jobs to the Dayton region.

Before co-founding Sentinel, Zach was a research engineer and lead for Aptima’s Human System Performance capability, which used human-centered signals to assess the state and performance of individuals working on critical tasks in complex environments. Zach served as lead engineer, project manager, and principal investigator for multiple government programs, including (1) a Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) contract for the development of innovative hardware and software for the TALOS exoskeleton, (2) the development of an in-flight pilot physiological assessment system, and (3) a sleep optimization platform for SOCOM operators.

Zach holds an MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, as well as an MS and BS in biomedical engineering from Wright State University, where he completed a thesis entitled “Measuring Pulse Rate Variability During Motion Artifact with a Non-Contact, Multi-Imager Photoplethysmography System.” Mr. Kiehl is also a Project Management Professional (PMP) and has authored numerous technical publications and patents. Outside of his professional career, Zach enjoys spending time with his amazing wife Tory, his four wonderful children (William, Lexi, Benjamin, and Luke), and his loving extended family. Zach also enjoys various outdoor sports, video games, cooking, and personal finance. His first and foremost accomplishment is serving as a dedicated father and husband working to learn, teach, and lead by example.

Ariana McGee is the Founder and CEO of Navigate Maternity. Navigate has created a remote patient monitoring system for prenatal and postpartum patients. Mothers are dying and specifically, Black women are dying 3-4x the national average during childbirth and postpartum due to reactive care, data gaps, and bias. Ariana experienced the inequity in perinatal care after almost dying during childbirth with her fourth child.

As a healthcare leader in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries (BD, Biogen, Genzyme, etc.) for the last 11 years, Ariana brings a wealth of knowledge to the commercialization of their system.

Ariana is a proud alumna of Indiana University, native of Gary, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois. She has a vested interest in addressing women’s health and racial disparities in healthcare. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, AJ, and their four little ones – Jade (4), Trey (3), Naomi (2), and Aliya (infant). “We’re here to save the mamas and the babies.”

Nick is the founder and General Partner at New Stack Ventures. Prior to New Stack, Nick spent time as both an investor and an operator. He worked in M&A for Danaher, a science and technology conglomerate. Subsequently, Nick developed one of the most successful new products for Danaher, a novel method for testing compounds in drinking water. In addition to his investing efforts, Nick founded the first Venture Capital podcast, The Full Ratchet.

New Stack Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage Venture Capital Firm, based in Chicago. The firm partners with “Outsider Founders” — those that are not from the insider, silicon valley networks. With over $75M AUM, New Stack leads rounds with an emphasis on B2B SaaS, Fintech, Supply Chain, Cyber, Proptech, Healthcare, and eCommerce.

Jessica Peltz-Zatulove is a Founding Partner at Hannah Grey, a $51.6M early stage venture capital fund investing in visionary founders redefining everyday experiences. Prior to founding Hannah Grey, Jessica was the Senior Managing Partner at MDC Ventures, the corporate VC fund of Stagwell Group (formerly MDC Partners). She’s a known thought leader and was recognized on the Global Corporate VC PowerList for top CVC fund managers in 2019 and 2020. Jessica has led investments in Subject, August, Floor, Bennie, Catch & Release, Upstream, Lively (acquired by Wacoal), Mezzobit (acquired by OpenX), Gradient.io (acquired by Criteo), Netomi, Veritonic, Alleyoop, among others.

Jessica is an outspoken advocate for gender diversity and inclusion in the venture community. She’s also the co-founder of Women in VC, the world’s largest community for women investors which now includes 4,500+ women spanning 2,500+ venture funds across 200+ cities and 65+ countries. She is also an active mentor in the tech community at Techstars, ERA, and 500 Startups, as well as being a builder in several web3 communities, including JPEG Morgan, MetaCollective, JoanDAO, and led the recent NFT project for Women in VC to raise money for financial literacy organizations for Women’s History Month.

Jessica lives in New York City and holds a BS in Marketing and International Relation from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Josh Roche is the Co-Founder and CEO of Indy-based startup Quiptu. Josh was born and raised in Indianapolis and attended Indiana University from 2011 to 2016. While there he was a distance runner for the track and field program and received degrees in Accounting and Finance. After a stint in Chicago, as an auditor for Crowe Horwath, Josh moved back down to Bloomington to work as an analyst and controller for Cook Medical.

It was during his time at Cook Medical that Josh had the opportunity to bike across the back roads and mountains of Montana, spurring his imagination for how much more accessible the great outdoors could be if people were able to readily rent outdoor gear from individuals, rather than relying on a business or having to purchase the gear themselves. That imagination turned into Quiptu, which is operating in Indiana, Colorado, and most recently, Miami.

Todd Richardson became Indiana University’s Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer on June 20, 2022. He is responsible for leading IU’s human resources strategy, talent acquisition, leadership development, organizational design, compensation and benefits, employee relations, and people operations for all of IU’s campuses.

Richardson received both his law and undergraduate degrees from Indiana University. A labor/employment and business attorney by trade, he began his career in private practice before becoming General Counsel and EVP of HR for one of the largest private real estate companies in the US. Following his time in real estate, he served as EVP of Administration at ExactTarget. Richardson helped take ExactTarget public and ultimately worked with the team to sell the company to Salesforce.

Brian Rosenzweig is a co-founder of Joule Ventures with nearly two decades of experience working in Israel’s venture investment market as both an investor and entrepreneur.

Brought up and educated in the U.S. but with most of his career spent in Israel’s innovation ecosystem, Brian has extensive experience in working with Israel-based founding teams on their product-market fit, strategic partnership development, and the aggressive pursuit of traction in key North American markets.

Prior to Joule, Brian worked in Israel as the Director of Marketing for New York City-based venture fund 21Ventures, where he was responsible for developing and executing market entry and expansion strategies for the firm’s 45+ portfolio companies.
Brian lives in Atlanta and holds a B.A. in Journalism from the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a minor in Hebrew.

Sam Schierloh is a former Finance and Sustainable Business Major at Indiana University. He founded his first company, Next Life Energy, in 2020 to help combat the issue of solar panel waste. Sam and his cofounder/cousin, Brendan Devine, turned 15 decommissioned solar panels, destined for the landfill, into over 100 solar phone chargers. They then sold the phone chargers to help fund the prototype for the first fully recyclable solar panel. Sam co-founded his most recent company, Solesca, in 2022 to help accelerate the worlds’ transition to renewable energy.

Julia has been a visionary entrepreneur and strategic brand builder in the veterinary industry for 30+ years. Her achievements include building and scaling two successful start-up veterinary pharmaceutical businesses and launching 28 veterinary products. She was Founder and CEO of Summit VetPharm, which exited to Ceva Animal Health in 2010. As Chief Commercial Officer of Aratana Therapeutics (PETX), she was instrumental in the IPO and the buildout of a fully integrated commercial organization. Julia led the co-promotion and the licensing of Aratana’s lead osteoarthritis product, Galliprant®, to Elanco. Aratana exited to Elanco in 2019.

Julia is Founder and President of Avviare, LLC, providing consulting services to start-ups and established players in veterinary biopharmaceuticals. In addition to the start-up experience, Julia’s career includes senior-level positions at Ceva, Forest Laboratories (Allergan) and Pfizer Animal Health (Zoetis) and their legacy companies.

Julia presently serves on the Boards of Elias Animal Health, Exubrion Therapeutics and Okava Pharmaceuticals. Julia is a Founding Director and Board Member of Feather in Her Cap, recognizing outstanding women in Animal Health.

Julia received her Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, with additional education at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University.

Geng Wang is the CEO and co-founder of Civic Champs, a volunteer and mentorship management platform that triples volunteer capacity and retention for nonprofits. Prior to Civic Champs, Geng co-founded two companies, Rent Jungle (an apartment search engine) and Community Elf (a social media management firm). Both companies were acquired in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Geng is also a former McKinsey & Company consultant and holds a bachelors from Michigan State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jason Whitney serves as Vice President of Venture Development and Executive Director for the Indiana University Angel Network, supporting and developing Indiana University affiliated entrepreneurial ecosystems nationwide.

Whitney’s responsibilities include managing the operations of the IU Angel Network, leveraging new and existing partnerships to fully benefit IU entrepreneurs, and conducting business development and due diligence activities for the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund.

Prior to his appointment, Whitney served as Vice President for Launch Indiana at Launch Fishers where he was responsible for the development and execution of the statewide innovation-driven entrepreneurial capacity building.

Jason holds a B.S. in management from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

Karen Wurster is Chief Executive Office at Adipo Therapeutics, a startup biotech company developing new treatments that transform energy storing white fat to energy burning brown fat to treat obesity related diseases. Karen is an experienced pharmaceutical executive with over 30 years of experience developing, launching and commercializing pharmaceutical products for the global market including the launch of multiple block buster, first in class treatments for type 2 diabetes. At Adipo, Karen has leveraged her experience to recruit and lead a cross-functional team, raise over $2 million in seed funding, and drive the product development. Karen has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Indiana University, and an M.B.A. from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Dr. Sunny Zhang is a founding partner at Born Global Ventures, an investment firm focused on early-stage globally scalable tech startups led by resilient immigrant entrepreneurs. She is also a tenured marketing professor at the Cameron School of Business, University of St. Thomas-Houston. Her accolades include Outstanding Professor for 2021-2022 in the Cameron School of Business and the 2021 Small Business Champion of the Year at the U.S. Small Business Administration Houston District.

Dr. Zhang specializes in venture investing and venture building with 20 years of experience in behavioral science, digital marketing, social networks, and international business. Zhang’s publications on her academic research have appeared in premium scholarly journals. She has taught at business schools for the past 19 years, including the University of Alabama, Indiana University, and Colorado State University, prior to joining the University of St. Thomas in 2012.

She is passionate about bridging gaps and closing divides for underestimated founders and underserved communities. She founded the Born Global Community (501c3), and serves as the Program Advisor of Women in AI USA, on the Board of Advisors of George H. W. Bush Foundation of U.S.-China Relations, Advisory Board at StudioHub, and Board of Directors at World Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. in Marketing with a Social Psychology minor and Master of Business from Indiana University, Bloomington, and her M.S. in Applied Psychology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She and her husband Sandip have two children, Eshaan and Rohaan, and a schnauzer Bobo.