Founders in the First Flight Venture Center Incubator

Ed Burgard

Company Name: Dignify Therapeutics

Company Website: dignifytherapeutics.com

Technology Sector: Pharma/Biotech/Medical Device

Founder Bio:

I have a PhD in Pharmacology and have led drug discovery/development teams for over 25 years in both large pharma and startup biotech. I was co-founder of Urogenix Inc, prior to co-founding Dignify Therapeutics in 2013. Dignify Therapeutics has two drugs and one medical device in development to treat bowel and bladder dysfunction. To date the company has raised over $20M from founders, venture capital and NIH grants.

Diana Little

Company Name: Anuma Aerospace

Company Website: https://www.anumaaerospace.com/

Technology Sector: Cleantech/Transportation

Founder Bio:

Diana is a computer scientist with over thirty years of experience walking into new business domains, rapidly assessing needs and requirements, then designing and delivering elegant solutions to complex problems.  She's a systems thinker with the ability to see and communicate the holistic big picture and architect systems that successfully address both near and long-term needs.  She's worked with myriad industries, including enterprise applications, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, logistics and supply chain.

Jim McLean

Company Name: Learning Machines

Company Website: https://www.verinetics.com/

Technology Sector: Verinetics – Medical devices / Learning Machines – Software/Education Software

Founder Bio:

Jim McLean has over 40 years of business experience across various industries including electronics manufacturing, telecommunications, cloud software, I/T services, state and local government, K-12 education and non-profit management.

During his career, Jim has served as a chemical process engineer, DP manager, marketing representative, sales manager, consulting practice leader, software designer, I/T architect, profesional services executive, startup co-founder, CEO, CFO, and CTO, for organizations ranging from IBM down to (or up to) a 3-person startup.

At Learning Machines, he co-designed cloud software for reading instruction which is currently used in a third of NC school districts; led teams who performed database conversions for over 7,000 public schools, districts and state education agencies; and currently focuses on software for data science applications.

He also has served in leadership and board roles for several education-related non-profits.

Jim's particular interests and skillsets are in strategy (business, marketing, I/T), engineering and design (process, software, data), as well as leadership and team-building in environments with limited resources (startups).

He earned an AB degree from Harvard College, and an MBA from University of Virginia (Darden).

Brenda Jamerson

Company Name: Isimcha

Company Website: https://isimchahealth.com/

Technology Sector: Healthcare

Founder Bio: Brenda Jamerson, PharmD, is Founder/CEO iSimcha, LLC.  iSimcha is a health and medical media technology company dedicated to improving clinical trial research recruitment and health outcomes in the aging and underserved community.  Prior to founding iSimcha, Dr Jamerson completed her postdoctoral drug development fellowship at University of North Carolina and was formerly Director, Depression/Dependence at GlaxoSmithKline.  In this role, her team was responsible for anesthesia, psychiatry and tobacco dependence drug development strategic planning and execution for Phase 2-3 studies for NDA submissions and medical marketing clinical research for Phase 4 studies.  Her startup experience has involved her role as cofounder of Trelion Pharmaceuticals, an anesthesia and neurology drug development company initially based in RTP, NC.  

Hortense Dodo

Company Name: Ingateygen

Company Website: https://www.ingateygen.com/

Technology Sector: Biotech/AgTech

Founder Bio:

Hortense Dodo PhD is the Co-Founder and President of IngateyGen LLC an early stage Agricultural Biotechnology Company developing innovative peanut varieties with improved safety and nutritional value that offer enhanced health and wellness benefits for consumers. The company's products pipeline includes the development of Allergen Reduced Peanuts, and novel peanuts with modified oil and protein profiles developed using the CRISPR gene editing technology. She owns four patents. 

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she was a full Professor of Food Science and Molecular Biology at Alabama A&M University where she successfully established a competitive research and teaching program in biotechnology, earned over $20 million in research grants and co-authored over 200 publications and scientific presentations. She is a pioneer in the development of improved peanut varieties using genome engineering and genome editing. She actively participates in STEM outreach activities toward the youth and women in the US and on the African continent.

Robert Creighton

Company Name: WindLift

Company Website: https://windlift.com/

Technology Sector: Cleantech/Energy

Founder Bio:

Rob Creighton is the Founder and CEO of Windlift, a pioneering company in the field of renewable energy. With a passion for deep-tech innovation, Rob has dedicated his career to pushing the boundaries of technological advancements in iterative design, modeling, and simulation. His extensive experience in this realm spans over two decades, during which he has successfully spearheaded numerous groundbreaking projects, including a Phase III Small Business Innovative Research Project with The Navy Research Laboratory and The US Marine Corps. Rob's profound understanding of the industry is complemented by his educational background, holding a BS in Genetics and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sunil Mehta

Company Name: Athem Bio, LLC

Company Website: https://athembio.com/

Technology Sector: Biotechnology

Founder Bio:

Dr. Mehta is the CEO of AthemBio. He is a scientist inventor and global entrepreneur who has over 25 years of diverse experience in biopharmaceuticals cell and gene therapy and vaccines. He is a proven leader who has developed technologies into quality products by effectively outsourcing.
Dr. Mehta developed and commercialized a single-use centrifugation technology and co-founded kSep Systems in 2011. As a CEO he managed kSep Systems predominantly as a virtual company and turned it into a high-growth global business before selling it to Sartorius Stedim Biotech in 2016. He held leadership and scientific positions at KBI Biopharma Johnson & Johnson and Roche. His expertise ranges from R&D to commercial cGMP manufacturing of biologics. Dr. Mehta received his Ph.D. from Brown University and early research experience at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He holds several key patents in diverse technologies pharmaceuticals and biotherapeutics.

John McDevitt

Company Name: OraLiva

Company Website: https://www.oraliva.com/

Technology Sector: Cancer Diagnostics

Founder Bio:

Dr. John T. McDevitt is the Scientific Founder and a shareholder of Oraliva, Inc. He is Full Professor in the Department of Biomaterials at NYU Dentistry and a member of NYU’s Bioengineering Institute.  

Professor McDevitt is a pioneer in the development of ‘programmable bio-nano-chip’ technologies. He has a strong track record of translating essential bioscience, artificial intelligence and medical microdevice discoveries into real-world clinical practice. He has served as the Scientific Founder for a number of diagnostic and clinical services companies. McDevitt and his team have raised over $45M in Federal and Foundation support. 

Over the past 10 years, Dr. McDevitt has served as the Principal Investigator for 6 major clinical trials and 2 clinical pilot studies, all involving the programmable bio-nano-chip. Through these clinical efforts, mini-sensor ensembles are being developed for major diseases in the areas of oral cancer, cardiac heart disease, trauma, drugs of abuse, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.

Joe Sebastian

Company Name: OraLiva

Company Website: https://www.oraliva.com/

Technology Sector: Cancer Diagnostics

Founder Bio:

CEO, 25 Years in Pharma, Clinical Diagnostics, >100M in DX sales, LTD developer

Dr. Joe Sebastian serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Oraliva. He has more than 25 years of scientific leadership experience with extensive management roles in lab operations as applied to diagnostics and clinical trials. He has served as an independent consultant to assist in the completion of required prerequisites to transition R&D assays to standardized clinical assays for screening and diagnostics in the areas of Oncology and Liver diseases. As a consultant, he has interacted with emerging biopharma and large biopharma companies. Prior to this role, he served as the senior scientific advisor at Q2Solutions focusing on Liver, CNS, and Infectious diseases.

Michael Shain

Company Name: Oxihealth

Company Website: N/A

Technology Sector: Medical devices

Founder Bio: President and CEO of Oxihealth, OxiHealth is developing the Accure Total Antioxidative Capacity Assay, which provides a precise measurement of the oxidative stress state and can identify antioxidative compounds to rebuild a patient's capacity to combat oxidative stress.

Samuel Fox

Company Name: Seneca Devices

Company Website: https://senecadevices.com/

Technology Sector: Medical devices

Founder Bio: Sam Fox is a graduate of Duke University with a biomedical engineering degree. He founded Seneca Devices in 2018, the Seneca team has developed EasyShift in collaboration with Duke Nursing and the Duke School of Nursing Health Innovation Lab. EasyShift is a medical mattress overlay that can turn and reposition patients at the push of a button to reduce the risk of bed sores, as well as greatly reduce two key risk factors for caregiver musculoskeletal injuries in hospitals and nursing homes.

Troy Chavis

Company Name: Choropharma

Company Website: https://www.choropharma.com/

Technology Sector: Pharmaceutics

Founder Bio:

Troy Chavis, a Chemical Engineer and Molecular Biologist by training, is the Founder of ChoroPharma, LLC.  Troy established ChoroPharma, LLC in 2018 and is responsible for directing the company’s global strategy, business development and key growth initiatives.

Before starting ChoroPharma, LLC, Troy has held various positions in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and is well versed in the complete drug development process, from formulation development to regulatory filing.  With his leadership, ChoroPharma, LLC will have the ability to reach it company’s mission of supplying safe, quality and affordable generic medication to patients.

Matthew Craver

Company Name: Breezi.io

Company Website: breezi-pro.io

Technology Sector: Predictive Maintenance (PdM) technology for Heating, Ventilation, and

Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Founder Bio:

Curious and driven engineer who enjoys problem solving and working with multi-disciplinary teams. I have been fortunate to have worked with many different people on a wide variety of embedded systems projects from wireless machine condition monitoring, wireless crack detection, electronic textiles, to insect based robotic learning. This has enabled me to build up skills outside of those standards for computer and electrical engineering cemented my desire to work with people and groups who view work as more than just a job.

Cory Sanderson

Company Name: Sustaera

Company Website: www.sustaera.com

Technology Sector: Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology development company.

Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Founder Bio:

Cory Sanderson is VP of Technology at Sustaera, a Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology development company. He has been leading technology and engineering development at Sustaera as a founding member in 2021 and incubated the technology at Susteon two years prior to that. Previously, he developed novel adsorption technologies for CO2 and Helium separations as well as executed large capital projects as a process engineer in hydrogen and air separation at Air Products and Chemicals. He has a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from University of Delaware. Cory enjoys spending time with his wife and three young children at home, on nature walks, or at the beach.