Advisory Board

Maria Bahena is the Director of Market Research at the American Medical Association (AMA), where she leads qualitative and UX research initiatives to inform the development of digital products and programs for physicians and medical students. She partners with business units across the organization to uncover insights into human behavior and decision-making. Outside of her role at the AMA, Maria serves on the Digital Usability Group for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), offering guidance on the organization’s digital platforms. She is also a member of the Metrics Workgroup for West Side United, a coalition of healthcare institutions, community organizations, and residents working to advance economic investment and improve health outcomes for historically under-resourced neighborhoods on Chicago’s West Side​. Prior to joining the AMA, Maria held research positions at various associations and nonprofits, contributing to a range of mission-driven initiatives. She earned both her B.S. and M.S. from the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Julian Cheng is the Managing Partner at Gen 1 Capital investing in early stage technology founders and startups. He has managed several financial and institutional VC funds totaling $175M of committed capital in 70+ startups in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, health tech, robotics, computer vision, space, autonomous vehicles, genomic sequencing, fintech, and others. Several investments from his funds have generated tremendous business, social, technology, and investor value with several startups becoming acquired or IPOing including several $300M+ acquisitions and an IPO at $2.5B+ market cap.

Julian is passionate about supporting and mentoring founders to build world-changing businesses, making an economic impact on the community, and building character and culture while producing outsized returns. Before becoming a venture capital investor, Julian managed and developed software and hardware for enterprises and co-founded two start-ups in the Internet of Things and education spaces. After working at large tech companies and start-ups in SF, LA, Austin, and NY, he returned to IL to help invest in and cultivate the local technical and entrepreneurial ecosystem in hopes to transform the community.

Julian has a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studied engineering management at Stanford and Northwestern Universities where he obtained his Masters in Engineering Management, and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Craig is responsible for driving the adoption and utilization of digital capabilities and technologies and strategies across the enterprise. Digital Solutions consists of an engineering/developer team, product management, UX, Testing, Knowledge Management, Digital Marketing and Sharepoint.

Director, Patient Integration, Abbvie International Pharmacovigilance Network

Duhig is a U of I Alumnus, who is the team leader of human factors engineering and health literacy in AbbVie Patient Safety. At AbbVie, he created fellowship and experiential rotation programs for human factors. He also is an adjunct faculty for UIUC Healthcare Engineering Systems Center and UIC College of Pharmacy.

Ekaagar Singh Hara is a Data Scientist at AARP, where he applies predictive modeling, natural language processing, and AI to improve member engagement and topic‑related initiatives like health programs and fraud prevention. He has led efforts to build innovative models for Medicare and Social Security programs and to streamline analytics processes to save costs and increase impact. Passionate about using data for social good, he mentors colleagues and students, contributes to leadership programs, and shares insights on emerging AI trends. Ekaagar holds an MS in Data Science from George Mason University.

Director, MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare

Associate Professor, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Vice President of Scientific Affairs, MedStar Health Research Institute

Ratwani is an active applied researcher serving as principal investigator on numerous grants and contracts. He has expertise in health information technology, usability and safety, interruptions and workflow, data visualization, and modeling. He serves on the federal 21st Century Cures Act Health Information Technology Advisory Committee and has testified to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Founder & CEO, Metaphase

Dr. Rutter is the leading expert in ergonomic design and a specialist in hand intensive products and packaging and Founder of Metaphase. As Founder & CEO of Metaphase his portfolio of work ranges from surgical instruments, devices & robotic surgical systems to smart phones, computer input devices & wearables through to food & beverage and beauty & personal care products for several of the world’s most prestigious and influential brands including MEDTRONIC, AMGEN, SONY, PFIZER, COCA-COLA,  COLGATE-PALMOLIVE, BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB, J&J, MOTOROLA, MICROSOFT, DELL, LG, BIOGEN IDEC, GENENTECH, GATORADE, KRAFT, BAUSCH HEALTH, KELLOGG’S, McDONALD’S, RUBBERMAID, COLGATE PALMOLIVE, JOHN DEERE, CATERPILLAR, BAYER, BACTERIOSCAN, ORAL-b, REVLON, GILLETTE.
 

As an industry thought leader Dr Rutter has been profiled and interviewed by major media including the WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNN, CTV, CITYTV, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, THE TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL, LEXUS MAGAZINE, APPLIANCE DESIGN, OPRAH’S O-MAGAZINE, METROPOLIS, BUSINESS 2.0, and BUSINESSWEEK. Metaphase has received 125+ International Design Excellence Awards and awarded 115+ patents, has several designs in the Chicago Athenaeum’s Good Design Museum Collections and two products selected by Museum of Modern Art.

R&D Manager, Human Factors Engineering, ICU Medical

Sit has 30 years of human factors research and industry experience; the last 15 years in the Medical Device industry. He has worked at ICU Medical, Smiths Medical, Medtronic, IBM, and Microsoft. Sit is a Member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Chief Medical Officer for Digital Health and OSF Innovation

Vozenilek works primarily across two wonderful entities in central Illinois; University of Illinois College of Engineering (BioEng) and Health Care Systems Engineering Center and as Chief Medical Officer for Digital Health and Innovation, leading OSF Innovation and the OSF Jump Center.

At OSF, the work began as proper training for clinicians, now the center leads the charge to incorporate design and engineering into our healthcare work. Currently, the simulation center allows designers and engineers to observe and characterize “work as performed” for their creative efforts.

As Chief Medical Officer for Digital Health and Innovation, Dr. Vozenilek leads efforts to improve health outcomes; in particular via physician and provider workforce development, in telehealth applications, human centered design work to address disparities in health outcomes due to non-clinical determinants of health, and in the design of interventions addressing cost, quality, patient and provider experience. Under his remit, the “Innovation Discovery Labs” have established key focus areas for healthcare innovation at OSF.