Washington State Medical Device Summit 2022

Dr. Leslie Cornick joined the University of Washington Bothell as the Dean of the School of STEM in 2020, where she provides leadership and support to over 140 faculty and staff, and nearly 2,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Prior to joining the UW, Dr. Cornick was the Associate Dean of the College of STEM at Eastern Washington University, and the Dean of Research and Sponsored Programs at Alaska Pacific University. She earned her PhD in Wildlife Ecology from Texas A&M University in 2001 and was an NSF Minority Post-doctoral Fellow from 2002-2004. Her research has focused on the impacts of human activity on marine mammal foraging ecology and physiology, and on the impacts of climate change on subsistence users of living marine resources. She has served on numerous professional society boards, including the Marine Mammal Society and the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), and was a Senior Policy Fellow for the Marine Conservation Institute. She currently serves on the board of the Council of Colleges of Arts & Sciences and the Innovation Partnership Zone. She is committed to creating a culture of diversity and inclusion in the organizations she serves, and mentoring women and underrepresented minorities in STEM. Her vision for the School of STEM is to be the indispensable partner in the region.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene represents Washington’s 1st Congressional District, which spans from northeast King County to the Canadian border and includes parts of King, Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.

Joy Emory is the CEO of Workforce Snohomish and oversees the public workforce development system in Snohomish County, serving thousands of employers, youth, and job seekers annually. The system, encompassing WorkSource is focused on meeting employer needs for a skilled workforce; while providing opportunities for residents of Snohomish County to access high-quality jobs through training and employment services. Workforce Snohomish is committed to the local workforce board’s vision of system transformation through broad coordination of stakeholders, inclusive and equity-centered services, and measurable results.

Janice Hogan is the Managing Partner of Hogan Lovells’ Philadelphia office and is Co-director of their FDA/medical device practice. Janice focuses her practice primarily on the representation of medical device, pharmaceutical, and biological product manufacturers before the US Food and Drug Administration. Janice is a biomedical engineer and focuses on regulatory counseling related to high-technology medical products. 

She has authored articles regarding the medical device 510(k) review process, regulation of medical software, orphan drug regulation, and medical device product liability. She is currently authoring articles regarding the interface between FDA regulatory and reimbursement considerations in medical product clinical trial design. She has authored a chapter of a recent textbook, Promotion of Biomedical Products (FDLI 2006), and is authoring a chapter of a forthcoming textbook on the regulation of orthopedic implants.

Gabe Jones has over a decade of leadership experience in technology and intellectual property law, with specific expertise in product development, business strategy, and engineering management. He began his career in international trade and IP law in Japan and Washington, DC, and worked in large-scale mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street.

Loretta Little focuses on investment opportunities in the life sciences such as medical devices, digital health, and scientific instrumentation. Her portfolio includes consumer technology, software and advanced materials companies. She has worked closely with several of WRF Capital’s investments including C-SATS (acquired by J&J/Ethicon), FlexMinder (acquired by JellyVision), Clarisonic (acquired by L’Oreal), Mirador Biomedical (acquired by Centurion Medical Products), Amnis (acquired by EMD Millipore), Mobisante (acquired by Renew Group), and EKOS (acquired by BTG plc). She oversees WRF Capital’s investments AbSci, Lightspeed Microscopy, MDmetrix, Medcurity, Direct AMS, Transformative Med, and Cardiac Insight.

Previously, Ms. Little served as senior technology licensing manager at Washington Research Foundation. Before joining WRF, she worked as a marketing manager for a biotechnology company and as a market consultant. Ms. Little received an MBA from the University of Arizona and a B.A. in zoology from Pomona College. She currently serves as a board member with the Alliance of Angels.

Patrick Martin is Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Nalu Medical and has worked in the clinical/regulatory/reimbursement field in Washington state for over 30 years. He previously served as Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs for Mirabilis Medica from 2013 to 2020. Patrick also worked at SonoSite, LipoSonix, Integrated Diagnostics, and SONUS Pharmaceuticals in various positions from 1997 to 2013. He received a BS in Diagnostic Ultrasound from Seattle University and completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School.

Shruti Pai is a R&D Director of new product development at Philips Ultrasound in Bothell. She is delighted that in this role she can apply her passion for healthcare to deliver on Philips’ mission to improve lives through meaningful innovation. Shruti is eager to participate at the 2022 Washington State Medical Device Summit Career Panel and share insights from her own development over the past 10 years at Philips. Prior to joining Philips, Shruti graduated with her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and conducted research at the Center for Limb Loss and MoBility at the VA Puget Sound.  

Scott is the founder and CEO of StarFish Medical, a medical device development services firm with 200 staff headquartered in Victoria, BC.  Scott holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the UBC. Prior to starting StarFish, he worked in diverse areas such as lithium batteries, UV spectroscopy instrumentation and hi-fi audio speakers. Under his leadership StarFish has grown into a diverse professional organization with clients around the world and multiple offices.  He is Past Chair on the LifeSciences BC board, member of the VIATeC Board of Directors,  Fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering, winner of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2017 Pacific Awards Technology category, and sits on various private company boards.

Jens U. Quistgaard is currently CEO of Taproot Medical Technologies, which is developing medical devices based on a class of novel biomaterials. He was formerly CEO of Mirabilis Medical (non-invasive therapy for uterine fibroids), CEO of LipoSonix (non-invasive aesthetic surgery devices), and was one of the founders of SonoSite (hand-carried diagnostic ultrasound imaging). He also held several technical and management positions at ATL Ultrasound (now Philips Ultrasound).

Mr. Quistgaard is a graduate of Stanford University (BS Applied Math) and the University of Washington(MSEE, PhD EE). He is a Director and Executive Committee Member of Life Science Washington, Vice Chairman of the Washington State Medical Device Innovation Partnership Zone, and a member of the University of Washington College of Engineering Visiting Committee.

Arna’s deep expertise in Design Thinking guides her in any challenge, from delivering impactful healthcare solutions to building a successful new enterprise.

Michael Willingham is the Director of Regulatory Affairs at Google Health and is involved in using artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist in diagnosing cancer, predicting patient outcomes, preventing blindness, and much more. He is a 20+ year senior executive with 30+ years of experience in the healthcare technology industry, with roles in Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, Information Security, Research, Product Development, Human Resources, and International Business.

Specific experience in healthcare IT, medical device design and manufacturing, embedded and stand-alone software, management system certifications, total quality management, and worldwide regulatory affairs.

Elizabeth Anne Wright is a Partner with Cooley and specializes in European Union law and regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. She advises clients and publishes extensively on digital health issues, such as their implications for CE marking obligations for medical devices, and related obligations for life sciences companies. She has been practicing in the life sciences sector for over 35 years in private practice and international institutions. She helps clients navigate the process and regulations to place and keep their products on the European Union market through strategic advice, advocacy before institutions and agencies, and litigation before EU courts.