Speakers

Matthew R. Glucksberg is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. His technical expertise is in tissue mechanics, microcirculation, and optical instrumentation. His laboratory has developed image-based instrumentation to measure pressure and flow in the circulation of the eye, instruments to measure the response of pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells to their immediate mechanical environment, and is currently involved in developing minimally invasive optical biosensors for monitoring glucose, lactate, and other measures of metabolic function. He is a co-Founder of Northwestern’s Global Healthcare Technologies Program in Cape Town South Africa and leads a MS-certificate program in Global and Ecological Health.

Dr. Glucksberg is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, and serves as a founding board member for two non-profit organizations devoted to technology in global health: World Health Imaging, Telemedicine and Informatics Alliance and the Northwestern Global Health Foundation.

Kara Palamountain is the President of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation. She is also a Research Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the Executive Director of the school’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). The GHI is currently working in partnership with NU’s Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies (CIGHT) to develop and produce affordable HIV diagnostics for resource limited settings.

Ms. Palamountain has played a crucial role in identifying the more strategic aspects of introducing diagnostics developed by CIGHT. She has managed over 50 Kellogg field research teams conducting market entry analysis in Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.
Ms. Palamountain is a co-investigator on a cost-effectiveness project at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda funded by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health. Ms. Palamountain has also served as an external reviewer for various projects under consideration by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a peer reviewer for Grand Challenges Canada. She also authored University Leadership for Innovation in Global Health and HIV/AIDS Diagnostics recently published in Global Public Health -- an International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice.
Prior to her work at the Northwestern Global Health Foundation and at Kellogg, Kara worked as a management consultant in Deloitte's Healthcare practice for over six years (1998-2002; 2004-2006) where she helped clients identify and implement initiatives to become more operationally and cost effective.

Lars Olson is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University. His primary areas of research are vascular physiology, computational fluid dynamics, high performance computing and global medical technologies. Dr. Olson has been involved in international education at Marquette since 2003. He has been on or directed trips to Guatemala, El Salvador and South Africa. He developed curricula for biomedical engineering students to participate in Marquette's South Africa service learning semester-long program. Dr. Olson also invented the Human Powered Nebulizer (HPN), an electricity-free, low-cost device that can help people in resource-constrained contexts receive respiratory treatment. In a clinical trial in Townships surrounding Cape Town, the HPN was shown to be equivalent to an electric nebulizer in producing sputum samples for TB tests. Also, perceptions of community health workers, doctors and nurses about HPN deployment is also being studied in El Salvador. He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tulane University (1987) and M.S. (1989) and Ph.D. (1993) degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Madhavan Raghavan is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at University of Iowa. Research in his BioMechanics of Soft Tissues Lab focuses on the experimental and computational study of arterial aneurysms, pulmonary mechanics, and the design of devices such as stent grafts, embolization coils and heart valve prostheses. He teaches courses such as biomedical design where students design solutions for challenges in medicine. He also has an interest in biomedical design for the developing world. Dr. Raghavan recently conducted a study abroad course in rural India where a group of students were provided exposure to technological issues relevant to healthcare in a developing world setting.

Melissa brings over 16 years of experience to her new position at Engineering World Health as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Melissa’s career started in the non-profit sector at the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in New York City. Since that time, she has held the following positions:
• Consultant with both the national and state offices of the American Lung Association;
• Program Coordinator for the North Carolina office of the American Cancer Society;
• Program Manager for a statewide public school based vision screening program for Prevent Blindness NC;
• Executive Director and Registered Lobbyist for several North Carolina based professional membership associations;
• President of Driving Force Relations where she provided nonprofit consultation and instruction services.

Her experiences in the nonprofit arena are varied and include Board development, program management, grant writing, government relations, fundraising and event planning. She is skilled in 5 languages and enjoys international travel.