2016 Final Showcase Events
- 15Schools & Colleges Representedfrom across the University of Michigan
For five months, student teams from across the University of Michigan worked to develop solutions to a real-world challenge they are passionate about. On March 9th and 10th, they made their final pitches to a team of experts.
- $47KAwarded in Cash Prizesto the winning teams
Education: March 9, 2016
- Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm, with reception to follow
- Location: School of Education, Prechter Lab, room 2202
- $23,500 in cash prizes
- AUDIENCE CHOICE voting allows YOU to choose a winner of $1,000
- Keynote Speaker: Nichole Pinkard, PhD Associate Professor and Chair of the School of Design, College of Computing and Digital Media, DePaul University; Founder, Digital Youth Network; Co-founder of Inquirium LLC and Remix Learning LLC
- Learn more about the teams!
Education Competition Judges
JoAnn Chavez
JoAnn Chávez, Vice President & Chief Tax Officer, DTE Energy
JoAnn Chávez is vice president and chief tax officer for DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE), a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy- related businesses and services nationwide. Its operating units include an electric utility serving2.1 million customers in Southeastern Michigan and a natural gas utility serving 1.2 million customers in Michigan. The DTE Energy portfolio includes non-utility energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects, natural gas pipelines, gathering and storage, and energy marketing and trading. As one of Michigan’s leading corporate citizens, DTE Energy is a force for growth and prosperity in the 450 Michigan communities it serves in a variety of ways, including philanthropy, volunteerism and economic progress. Chávez has over 25 years of tax experience in the areas of tax accounting, controversy, risk management, mergers and acquisition, tax planning strategies, and is currently responsible for overseeing all of DTE Energy’s tax strategy, policy and compliance, including federal, state and local income, sales, use, and property taxes.
Previously, Chávez served as an international tax partner for KPMG LLP with experience serving large multinational clients in their Tampa, Chicago, Mexico City, and Detroit business units. Chávez earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. Chávez has been with DTE Energy since 2007 and, in addition to her responsibilities as chief tax officer, currently serves on the DTE Energy Foundation Board and the DTE Energy Investment Committee. She is also the executive sponsor of the Women of DTE and DTE SER, DTE’s Hispanic employee resource network group. Chavez is also the architect and executive sponsor of DTE’s Summer Talent Exposure Program (STEP), a college internship program which provides under-represented college students with an opportunity to gain experiences that will enable them to be successful in corporate America. DTE’s STEP is celebrating its sixth summer and has assisted more than 200 students.
Chávez has also spent her career supporting women and Hispanic initiatives in the community and currently serves as follows: Inforum Center for Leadership Executive Board, Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Board Chair, The Michigan Hispanic Fund President, Leadership Council for Advancing Women in the Workplace, and Detroit Cristo Rey High School Finance Committee Member. Chávez has been recognized by the Latino Who’s Who for her achievements in advancing the culture of the Latino American business community, and is a frequent speaker in the Hispanic Community.
Jeff Kupperman
Jeff Kupperman is an Associate Professor of Education at UM-Flint, and a core member of the University of Michigan’s Interactive Communications & Simulations (ICS) group and the Institute for Innovation in Education (iiE). A major focus of his work involves the development of technology-mediated programs that allow K-12 and university students to push the boundaries of play, communication, social action, and culture.
Kupperman has been instrumental in the design and implementation of numerous web-based educational programs, including DevInfo GameWorks (recipient of a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Award), the Arab Israeli Conflict Simulation, Place Out Of Time, RiverWalk, and the Michigan Student Caucus. His resume includes a wide range of teaching experiences as well as museum exhibit planning and professional software engineering. Kupperman’s research has appeared in journals such as the Journal of the Learning Sciences and the International Journal of Media and Learning.
Paul Dimond
Paul Dimond is a graduate of Amherst College and Michigan Law School and a former law clerk for a federal court of appeals judge. Mr. Dimond joined the Harvard Center for Law and Education in 1970, where he helped recruit Marian Wright Edelman and form the Children’s Defense Fund. He also helped pioneer the right to education cases to prohibit any state from giving up on the education of any child.
Thereafter, in private law practice in Ann Arbor and as Director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil rights under Law in D.C., he explored the nature and scope of racial ghettoization in metropolitan America in a series of landmark cases reviewed by the Supreme Court from 1974 to 1979. As a professor of constitutional law in the 1980’s, he researched the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and developed The Anti-Caste Principle to guide judicial review under the Equal Protection Clause. This work culminated in Beyond Busing (UM Press, 1985), winner of the Ralph J. Bunche Book of the Year Award in 1986; reprinted in paperback for a twentieth anniversary edition with a new retrospect and prospect under the subtitle Reflections on Urban Segregation, the Courts and Equal Opportunity (UM Press, 2005); and The Supreme Court and Judicial Choice (UM Press, 1989). For the wrong of racial ghettoization of schools in metropolitan areas, Mr. Dimond proposed a novel remedy: empower every family with the opportunity and the responsibility to choose the publicly supported school the parents decide will best help their own child learn and thrive.
From 1985 through 1992, Mr. Dimond also served as a partner in McKinley, a private national real estate firm and as counsel for the Miller Canfield law firm. From 1993 through 1997, he served as a Special Assistant to President Clinton for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council, including with respect to metropolitan economies, distressed communities and the markets for housing, labor and education.
He returned to practice law with Miller Canfield and from 2001-2012 also served as Chairman of the Board for McKinley. In addition to writing a monthly column on national economic issues in the Detroit Free Press for several years, Mr. Dimond also co-founded the Wolf Pack for the National Wildlife Federation, the Greenways Initiative for Southeast Michigan and the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan. For ten years he also served on the Executive Committee of Ann Arbor SPARK. He now serves as a Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, The Henry Ford, and The Policy Board of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracy at the University of Michigan and a member of the Board of Directors of McKinley. He has authored dozens of articles and speeches on education, environment, energy and the economy. He is sponsoring a new prize at U of M to challenge students to invent the digital Learning Levers that will enable every child to learn by doing.
Mr. Dimond now focuses on writing fiction. He published his first novel, North Coast Almanac a story for young readers ages 9-12 in 2012. He’s now finishing an historical novel, The Belle of Two Arbors, 1913-1953, and a political intrigue, suspense thriller and love story, Succession at the White House: In the Line of Fire between Treason and Duty.
Jeanne Tayler
Jeanne Tayler has 15 years of broad-based financial management and organizational leadership experience working with small businesses, early-stage startups and high-growth companies. As Principal of Torrey Pines Management Services, Jeanne founded the firm in 2005 because she recognized that fledgling companies have a critical need for financial guidance, accounting oversight and operations leadership. In her work today, Jeanne provides CFO and related services to early and growth stage companies. She specializes in managing internal financial operations, organizational development and intellectual property security to drive the transition from startup to thriving company.
Jeanne began her career as a Research Associate with Henry Rowen at the Hoover Institution and Charles Wolf, Jr. of the Rand Corporation, studying the investment requirements of building, maintaining, and deploying conventional force structures in the former Soviet Union. Their work, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation, contributed to both academic scholarship and national security policy relating to the impact of economics on international stability and security concerns in the former Soviet Union.
Jeanne continued to develop her expertise in cost analysis and operations planning as an Investment Consultant at SRI International, advising European and Asian companies on manufacturing/distribution opportunities in Russia, Hungary, (former) Czechoslovakia, (former) Yugoslavia and southern China. Her work at SRI focused on evaluating the quality of existing physical, financial, educational and human capital infrastructures in those regions and the impact of infrastructure maturity on potential manufacturing growth and investment returns.
Through her professional experiences, Jeanne has also developed her ongoing interest in understanding why some geographic regions support start-up success and enterprise growth more than others, honing her ability to assess regional trends and geographic influences on the American start-up landscape.
After earning her BA in Political Science from Indiana University with an Area Studies Certification from the Russian and East European Institute, Jeanne completed her MA at Stanford University’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, specializing in the economics of transition in centrally planned economies. She is fluent in Russian and continues to follow Russia’s influence on European markets. Outside of Torrey Pines Management Services, Jeanne enjoys time with her 20 year old twins and is an avid baker, hiker and gardener.
Dr. Regina McNeil
Regina Clark McNeil (ABEd, Certificate ’72) received her MA in school and community psychology from Wayne State University and her PhD in psychometrics from the University of Minnesota. Dr. McNeil began her professional career with the Detroit Public Schools, teaching high school mathematics and later as a school psychologist. She continued teaching math and statistics at the high school and college levels before moving to the corporate world as a research scientist.
Dr. McNeil is the co-founder and president of The Ronald D. & Regina C. McNeil Foundation, Inc., a private foundation with a primary focus on education. The Foundation supports students through The McNeil Scholar Programs and various endowments.
Public Health: March 10, 2016
- Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm, with reception to follow
- Location: BSRB, Kahn Auditorium, between Palmer Commons and U-M hospitals on central campus
- $23,500 in cash prizes
- AUDIENCE CHOICE voting allows YOU to choose a winner of $1,000
- Keynote Speaker: Victor J. Strecher, PhD, MPH Professor and Director for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship University of Michigan Schools of Public Health and Medicine; Founder and President, JOOL Health, Inc.
- Learn more about the teams!
Public Health Competition Judges
Steve Bloom
Steve Bloom currently manages his own family office and owns minority interests in several hedge funds. He has more than 30 years experience in the alternative asset management business – he was one of five founding partners of Susquehanna International Group, a global proprietary trading firm, and he founded and managed Sagamore Hill Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar multi-strategy hedge fund.
Steve received a BA from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an MPH from the University of Michigan. He is actively involved with several volunteer activities including serving as: a Trustee at the New School University (past Vice-Chair), Chairman of its Investment Committee, and past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the New School for Public Engagement at the New School University. He is Chairman of the Binghamton University Foundation, past Chairman of its Investment Committee, and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the State University of New York and worked as an environmental scientist for several years before entering the investment field.
Greg Erber
Greg Erber is an accomplished healthcare executive with a record of success driving revenue growth and building efficient, cost-effective operations grounded in quality patient care and customer service. With a 20-year+ leadership career spanning health systems, hospitals, health plans and medical groups, Greg has deep knowledge of the US healthcare delivery system and provider-payer relationship dynamics, and the business expertise to organize teams for success, capitalize on market opportunities and lead a profitable operation.
As the current CEO of GEM Healthcare, an independently owned and operated strategic advisory firm, Greg partners with healthcare organizations to achieve operational and financial improvements and lead large-scale transformation efforts. Over the past several years, Greg developed the strategy for a new centralized, cost-effective call center operation, with best-in-class service delivery model, for a $7B US Catholic Healthcare System, and has made significant contributions in reducing avoidable hospital use in New York, while improving health outcomes. Greg led ground-up efforts for a NYC health system, earning a $400M government award, growing a provider participation network from zero to 5,500, promoting patient engagement through community outreach programs and building a new, dedicated, 25-member organization to lead the 5-year program remit. Most recently, Greg contracted with KPMG for his deep expertise in this area to drive the same success among a group of 25 leading New York hospitals and healthcare organizations awarded $7.4B by the NYS Department of Health.
Prior to founding his firm, Greg served in multiple healthcare leadership roles: EVP of Business Development and Operational Services at Sandata Technologies; Deployment Partner at UnitedHealthcare; and Vice President of Ambulatory Services and Business Development at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York. In each capacity, Greg led efforts to achieve double-digit, topline growth, profitability improvements and operational excellence through leadership talent upgrades, service portfolio and operational restructuring, new market penetration, expanded service lines, enhanced processes and technology infrastructure investments.
Earlier in his career, Greg founded and led the build, growth and subsequent sale of two healthcare management services companies: WIN Solutions and PageMed Medical. Greg began his career as an Associate Healthcare Consultant at The Lash Group and later advanced to Associate Regional Administrator for Queens Long Island and Kingsboro Medical Group directing cross-functional efforts in up to 25 healthcare centers.
Throughout his career, Greg’s leadership contributions have extended to the broader healthcare community in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. He currently serves as a strategic advisor to Scribe Inc., maintaining a long-term relationship with the company to which he sold his medical transcription business in 2003. His past board-level service roles include Chairman and Director for Northern Services Group, a $100M not-for-profit retirement community, and a near-20-year term, including Chairman, at Parker Jewish Institute, an adult healthcare and rehabilitation facility, which serves as a leading academic campus for healthcare professionals training and aging-related research, and is a teaching affiliate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and North Shore-LIJ Medical Center.
Greg earned his Master’s degree in Health Services Administration and undergraduate degree in Political Science at the University of Michigan and remains actively involved in supporting the university and student development programs as a member of the Tri-State Leadership Committee. Greg also holds a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification, which he achieved while working for UnitedHealthcare in 2007.
Steve Escaravage
Steve Escaravage is a Principal in Booz Allen’s Strategic Innovation Group with over 15 years of strategy and technology consulting experience. Steve is a leader in Booz Allen’s Data Science Practice serving Federal and Commercial Health clients including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the pharmaceutical industry. Steve also leads Booz Allen’s next-generation analytics product development initiatives in the areas of health surveillance, population health, and quantified self. Prior to his current role, Steve lead technical delivery and business development activities for US Civil Health Agencies, Oil and Gas Production Companies, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Financial Services Institutions, and organizations within the US Department of Defense (DOD). Steve’s expertise is in mathematics, risk-based optimization, and data mining. Steve holds an M.S. Degree in Operations Research from George Mason University and a B.A. Degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University.
Jan Garfinkle
Jan Garfinkle founded Arboretum Ventures in 2002. Jan has led more than a dozen investments and currently serves as a board director for NxThera, Cereve, NeuMoDx, and Cardiac Dimensions. Jan’s past investments include HandyLab (acquired by Becton Dickinson in 2009 for $275M), Esperion (IPO in 2013), and CardioMEMS (acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2014 for $435M).
Prior to founding Arboretum, Jan spent 20 years in entrepreneurial healthcare companies. She was President of Strategic Marketing Consultants, advising healthcare start-ups and major medical device companies. Prior to this, Jan held key management roles for two successful medical device start-ups, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems and Devices for Vascular Intervention. Each of these companies was acquired by Eli Lilly for more than $100M and became the foundation for Guidant Corporation. Earlier in her career, Jan was an engineer and product manager for Procter & Gamble. Jan is the past President of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, a member of the Board of Directors for the National Venture Capital Association, and a member of the Healthcare Advisory Board at the University of Michigan.
Jan earned a BS in Bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jeanne Tayler
Jeanne Tayler has 15 years of broad-based financial management and organizational leadership experience working with small businesses, early-stage startups and high-growth companies. As Principal of Torrey Pines Management Services, Jeanne founded the firm in 2005 because she recognized that fledgling companies have a critical need for financial guidance, accounting oversight and operations leadership. In her work today, Jeanne provides CFO and related services to early and growth stage companies. She specializes in managing internal financial operations, organizational development and intellectual property security to drive the transition from startup to thriving company.
Jeanne began her career as a Research Associate with Henry Rowen at the Hoover Institution and Charles Wolf, Jr. of the Rand Corporation, studying the investment requirements of building, maintaining, and deploying conventional force structures in the former Soviet Union. Their work, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation, contributed to both academic scholarship and national security policy relating to the impact of economics on international stability and security concerns in the former Soviet Union.
Jeanne continued to develop her expertise in cost analysis and operations planning as an Investment Consultant at SRI International, advising European and Asian companies on manufacturing/distribution opportunities in Russia, Hungary, (former) Czechoslovakia, (former) Yugoslavia and southern China. Her work at SRI focused on evaluating the quality of existing physical, financial, educational and human capital infrastructures in those regions and the impact of infrastructure maturity on potential manufacturing growth and investment returns.
Through her professional experiences, Jeanne has also developed her ongoing interest in understanding why some geographic regions support start-up success and enterprise growth more than others, honing her ability to assess regional trends and geographic influences on the American start-up landscape.
After earning her BA in Political Science from Indiana University with an Area Studies Certification from the Russian and East European Institute, Jeanne completed her MA at Stanford University’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, specializing in the economics of transition in centrally planned economies. She is fluent in Russian and continues to follow Russia’s influence on European markets. Outside of Torrey Pines Management Services, Jeanne enjoys time with her 20 year old twins and is an avid baker, hiker and gardener.
Learn more about the Innovation in Action Final Showcase
- VIDEO: watch last year’s final six teams make their pitches – IIA Final Showcase 2015 Pitches
- PHOTO: browse photos from the 2015 Finals – IIA Final Showcase 2015 Photos