Evan Erickson is the Senior Director of Partnerships & Events at Embarc Collective, a nonprofit startup hub that providescoaching, connections, and resources to help early-stage technology companiesgrow and scale. She works with founders, investors, corporations, universities,and community organizations to create opportunities that support the growth of technology startups. Evan leads strategic partnerships across Florida’s innovation ecosystem, building relationships that strengthen support for startups and foster collaboration among key stakeholders. She also oversees Embarc Collective’s public-facing events and community engagement initiatives, helping connect entrepreneurs with the people, resources, and networks they need to scale.

Adriana Carreno serves as the Life Sciences Cluster Manager for the Florida High Tech Corridor, where she works with startups, researchers, healthcare organizations, investors, and industry leaders to help strengthen Central Florida’s innovation ecosystem. Through the Corridor’s Cenfluence initiative, she supports emerging and established companies across life sciences, healthcare, and health technologies by connecting them with strategic partnerships, regional resources, and growth opportunities. With a B.S. in Sports Medicine and Fitness Technology and a background spanning program management, startup support, and ecosystem building, Adriana is passionate about fostering meaningful collaboration between industry and academia while helping companies scale and thrive in Florida’s innovation economy.

‍

Bethany Corbin, JD, is a nationally recognized lawyer and women’s health ecosystem builder dedicated to transforming the landscape of digital healthcare. As the Managing Partner of Women’s Health Innovation Consulting and CEO of FemInnovation, she champions health equity and drives innovation across the femtech sector. Her mission is to foster sustainable growth and investment in women’s health technologies, ensuring that care is patient-centered, evidence-based, and accessible to all.

‍

Through her leadership, Bethany has become a prominent voice in the movement to reclaim women’s right to quality healthcare. Her book, The Femtech Revolution: Harnessing Technology to Supercharge Women’s Healthcare, introduces readers to her SAFE method—a framework designed to help individuals become confident, informed users of digital health tools. The book serves as both a call to action and a practical guide for navigating the evolving world of femtech.

‍

Bethany’s impact has been widely recognized. She was named one of the Top 200 Trailblazing Leaders in Women’s Health and Femtech and received the 2023 Champion in Healthcare Award from the Global HEaL Awards.

‍

Her thought leadership has been featured in major media outlets including Forbes, Fortune, Bustle, NPR, BBC, Cosmopolitan, and Teen Vogue. She also contributes regularly to industry publications such as Entrepreneur, Med Device Online, and MedCity News.

Dr. Parnaz Rafatjou is a healthcare and technology strategist passionate about helping organizations turn innovation into meaningful improvements in health and care delivery. Throughout her career, she has partnered with healthcare organizations, technology companies, and startups to transform bold ideas into practical solutions that improve outcomes, expand access, and enhance the patient experience.

She believes technology, especially AI, doesn't replace human care; it amplifies it by making healthcare more personal, more proactive, and more accessible. Parnaz is especially energized by the opportunity to advance women's health, an area that has long been underserved despite affecting half the world's population. She is passionate about helping accelerate a future where healthcare is centered on prevention, personalization, and empowering women to take a more active role in their health.

As Founder of Simple Steps Forward, Parnaz partners with organizations to translate emerging technologies into scalable, human-centered solutions that create measurable impact and healthier communities.

I knew from a young age that I wanted to work with numbers. I took finance and economics while attending university and I started my career in financial services by working at a small credit union while still in school. In 1998, I graduated from McMaster University in Canada with a Bachelor of Commerce with an Economics minor and immediately began working for one of the national banks there.

My passion for finance resulted in quickly moving up the ranks within the bank and I took the necessary courses to become accredited as a Financial Advisor by the age of 24. It was definitely challenging convincing clients to trust their life savings with a kid, but my focus, service and growing knowledge allowed me to build one of the most successful practices within the bank.

When I speak with people about why I started Life Science Wealth and why I have a passion for helping professionals in this field, the answer is simple. My father Albert is my mentor and idol, and I almost lost him at a young age due to cardiac issues. He is still with us today due to the work and advancements made by professionals within the life sciences. My talents lie in wealth management, not sciences, and I find it extremely motivating and satisfying to take the weight of financial decisions off industry professionals so that they can do what they do best and concentrate of scientific advancement. In doing so, I feel that I am doing my small part in helping make sure that someone else’s mentor and loved ones will continue to be with them for years to come.

Doug Nissinoff is the Founder and General Partner of Intelligence Ventures, an AI healthcare venture firm investing at the pre-seed and seed stage across biotech and pharma tools, medical devices, diagnostics, and healthcare SaaS. Based in the Tampa Bay area, he built the firm as a solo GP over roughly three years, developing a proprietary deal sourcing operation and, most recently, the IV Accelerator, a 10-week cohort program for early-stage AI healthcare startups launching its first class in September 2026. Doug holds an MS in Biotechnology from Georgetown University and a BS in Biological Science from Florida State University, and draws on a career spanning clinical biotech, university technology transfer, and fractional executive roles across more than 25 startups. He is also a prominent build-in-public voice on LinkedIn, where he shares his thesis that proprietary data moats are the defining competitive advantage in AI healthcare with an audience of 25,000+ followers.

Shannon Pastizzo is the Director of USF CONNECT, leading innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives for start-ups at the University of South Florida. She also serves as Secretary for the Florida Business Incubator Association. With over 20 years of experience, Shannon is an expert inleadership, business development, and strategic planning. Previously, she was the Director of Business Development at Synapse. She holds a BS in Accountingfrom the University of Connecticut.

Elizabeth Nelson is the Director of Florida High Tech Corridor at USF, where she works on behalf of the The Corridor to bridge the gap between the university's research and innovation community and the region's high tech ecosystem. With more 15 years of experience in strategic communications, economic development and public sector funding, Elizabeth specializes in building applied research partnerships that help high-tech companies develop, validate, and commercialize their innovations — while connecting students and faculty to real-world applicationsof their work.

Charmaine Lykins is a seasoned executive with 30+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across multiple therapeutic areas. She has been Chief Executive Officer of Transneural Therapeutics, [1] a neuroscience-focused preclinical-stage company since January 2025. She also is a strategic advisor to Autobahn Therapeutics (major depressive disorder), Lighthouse Pharmaceuticals (Alzheimer’s disease), Frazier Life Sciences (a stealth CNS startup), and Cistern Capital, a health and wellness venture capital firm primarily invested in digital wellness and mental health platforms.

Prior to Transneural Therapeutics, Charmaine held pivotal roles across public and privately held companies during times of exponential growth, including roles as Chief Commercial Officer for industry trailblazers such as Karuna Therapeutics, [2] acquiredby BMS in 2023, [3] and MapLight Therapeutics. [4] Charmaine has been instrumental in building and leading the organizational competences necessary to commercialize new products, including Karuna’s strategic and operational launch capabilities for Cobenfy, approved in late 2024 for schizophrenia. Cobenfy was chosen by ABC News as one of the Top Five Medical Breakthroughs of 2024 [5] and by Time Magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2024. [6] While at Karuna, Charmaine was selected by Pharmaceutical Executive magazine as one of 2022’s Emerging Pharma Leaders. [7] Prior to Karuna, Charmaine was Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Global Product Planning at Acadia Pharmaceuticals.

Earlier in her career, she held commercial roles of increasing responsibility at companies recognized as the top therapeutic area innovators during the time she was in role. These include leadership roles at Lundbeck, Eli Lilly and Sunovion (now Sumitomo Pharma).

Her career spans the commercial strategy and execution of 10 product launches across the United Statesand global markets. Blockbuster brands she commercializedor led early commercial strategy for include COBENFY® NUPLAZID®, REXULTI® ABILIFYMAINTENA®, LATUDA®, STRATTERA®, CYMBALTA®, PROZAC®, and ZYPREXA®. These treatments were each recognized as first-in-class or best-in-class treatment at the time of launch. She gained significant commercialization and drug development expertise in depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, PTSD, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s therapeutic areas through her work on these brands, and earlier stage CNS assets still in development at Lundbeck and Acadia Pharmaceuticals.

Charmaine fosters a culture of innovation and strategic clarity. She is a results-driven executive who champions the growth and success of teams and brings direct practical execution experience to support organizations and leaders.

References:

1.    https://www.prweb.com/releases/transneural-therapeutics-emerges-from-stealth-to-transform-the-treatment-of-neuropsychiatric-diseases-with-novel-neuroplastogens-302432230.html

2.    https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/karuna-therapeutics-appoints-charmaine-lykins-as-chief-commercial-officer-2021-11-29

3.     https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/business/bristol-myers-karuna-drug-deal.html

4.    https://maplightrx.com/maplight-therapeutics-appoints-charmaine-lykins-as-chief-commercial-officer/

5.    https://beta.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/medical-breakthroughs-2024-117002912

6.     https://time.com/7094904/bristol-myers-squibb-cobenfy/

7.     https://www.pharmexec.com/view/epl-2022

‍

Ms. Flégeau began working in regulatory affairs while living in Paris, France. She has spent over 20 years in the medical device field working in diverse international companies both small and large, focusing on a variety of medical devices such as cardiac, orthopedics, catheters, active implantable devices…etc. She is an expert in CE marking, FDA submissions and international registrations. Her expertise includes regulatory strategies, submissions, technical files and creative problem solving.

Ms. Flégeau has worked directly with regulatory agencies in Canada, EU, China, Japan, Korea, France, and Brazil.

Ms. Flégeau holds a BA in International Business from Illinois Wesleyan University, and a Leadership Certificate from Kellogg School of Management. She is fluent in French.

Ms. Flégeau oversees the Florida chapter of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS). She currently is Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at Johnson and Johnson – Sterilmed division.

‍

Dr. Aurélie Joly-Amado is an academic researcher at the University of South Florida working on chronic and neurodegenerative diseases,with a focus on preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease and translationaltherapeutics. Through this work, she developed a deep understanding of the gapbetween promising scientific discoveries and their progression into real-worldtreatments. At the same time, she became increasingly interested in theunderexplored opportunity to innovate in veterinary medicine, particularly forage-related diseases that mirror human conditions and founded Blue ZoneTherapeutics, a startup aiming at developing innovative therapeutics forchronic diseases in pets.