At a pivotal moment for women’s health, student summit unites experts in call to action.
On Friday, November 1st, the Health Care Club Women’s Health Special Interest Group (SIG) held its inaugural Women’s Health Summit, organized by co-leads Ricky Cordova (MS/MBA ’25) and Christina Vosbikian (MBA ’25). This dynamic, one-day event included an inspiring series of keynote speakers, panels, and student pitches, connecting the broader Harvard community with trailblazing thought leaders, alumni founders, policymakers, and senior executives from Boston and beyond. It also marked a tremendous milestone for the club, as Vosbikian noted in her opening remarks to the packed lecture hall at Harvard’s Science and Engineering Center: “Today, our student interest group within the Health Care club has grown from a small WhatsApp group to a community of hundreds – and we couldn’t be prouder to bring students and industry together for this inaugural event.”
Last year, Cordova and Vosbikian worked with Women’s Health SIG co-founders Anna Lewandowska (MBA ’24) and Lindsay Muller (MBA ’24) to grow the community through mixers, small group dinners, and group chats that called attention to key issues and opportunities in the space. As they spent the summer planning for this year, however, the two vowed to turn that momentum into action. Addressing the Women’s Health Summit audience, Cordova added, “We want the impact of this event to go beyond raising awareness – we want to forge meaningful connections that will help you find summer internships, career opportunities, collaborators, mentors, and advocates.”
Hard Truths and Actionable Insights
TIME 100’s Carolee Lee, co-founder of the groundbreaking non-profit Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM), delivered an opening keynote address that set the stage for a day of hard truths and actionable insights. She reminded the audience of a glaring reality: healthcare systems, clinical research, and investment structures have historically failed women. Women were not required to be included in clinical trials until the NIH Revitalization Act was signed into law in 1993, creating a lasting shortage of data on how drugs and other common medical products might differentially affect women. “Women are not small men,” said Lee. “Their biology is distinct and they require specialized approaches for high quality care.” Despite making up more than half the population and controlling 85% of consumer spending, women’s health remains vastly under-studied and under-funded. Lee pointed out that “achieving parity in research isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s an economic opportunity,” as doubling research investments focused on women could generate a $14 billion return to the US economy.
Breaking Silos and Building Bridges
The first panel of the day, titled “Systemic Investment in Women’s Health,” dug deeper into root causes of the women’s health funding gap and offered some potential solutions. Moderated by Leslie Solomon, CEO of Veda Trials, the discussion featured perspectives from across the women’s health ecosystem, including physicians, researchers, payors, and venture capitalists. Dr. Vivian Ota Wong, Deputy Director of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), was quick to declare that “women’s health is not a niche market,” dispeling one of the most common myths heard from investors. Dr. Primavera Spagnolo, Associate Director of the BWH Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, echoed the point, noting that women’s health actually covers far more than just fertility and maternal care. In fact, the ORWH considers “women’s health” to encompass all diseases and health conditions that predominantly affect women (e.g., autoimmune diseases, depressive disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and gender-based violence), present and progress differently in women (e.g., cardiovascular disease, HIV, autism, reproductive aging, and lung cancer), or are female specific (e.g., PCOS, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cancer, and menopause).
With so many branches in the women’s health market, Victor Lanio (Partner at Flare Capital Partners), opined that it is unfair for investors to put the burden on the shoulders of founders to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution. Dr. Angelika Fretzen of Harvard’s Wyss Institute didn’t mince words either. “We’re in a vicious cycle,” she said, describing how a lack of data on women’s health increases the perceived risk of investment for VCs and Payors. “Without data, they can’t justify the investment. But without investment, we can’t collect the data.” To escape this bind, Fretzen suggested finding strategic partners earlier in the life of a venture who will share some of the technical risk and help founders close existing data gaps.
Lastly, Shannon Wilz offered an example of how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is revising their approach to women’s health, partnering with companies like Maven Clinic and Visana to give their members better access to comprehensive clinical and emotional support across life stages.
Panelists closed out the session by emphasizing that addressing women’s health challenges requires engaging stakeholders across all sectors, genders, and areas of expertise. They highlighted a collective responsibility to build solutions that are not only effective, but also equitable and accessible to all. Men’s involvement in these efforts is essential – not as passive observers but as active participants and allies in reshaping a system that impacts everyone.
Innovation with Impact
Entrepreneurial voices were central to the summit, with digital health founders (and Harvard alumni) Janine Versi (MBA ’14) of Elektra Health, Adrienne Nickerson (MS ’11) of Oula, and Laura Mackay (MBA ’14) of Planned Parenthood Direct sharing their journeys. Lexi Henkel, an investor at Maverick Ventures, kicked off the second panel by highlighting recent growth in women’s health investment. “In just six years, investment in women’s health has grown over 300% – outpacing overall healthcare tenfold,” she noted. However, Henkel emphasized that significant gaps remain: “36% of U.S. counties are maternity deserts, and 93% of recent medical graduates don’t feel competent treating menopause.”
The panel offered candid advice on funding and scaling women’s health businesses. Nickerson described how Oula adapted its business model to partner with health systems like Mount Sinai. “We realized that most of our patients weren’t considering traditional hospitals for their deliveries – they were looking for an experience only we could offer. That insight helped us position Oula as a partner for health systems seeking to differentiate themselves in women’s care.”
Versi echoed the importance of aligning business models with patient needs. “We started as a direct-to-consumer company during COVID, but in order to ensure that Medicaid patients could access our services, it became critical to start negotiating payer contracts,” she said. “Now, we work with both health systems and managed care organizations to expand our impact.”
Reflecting on her career transition from venture-backed companies to Planned Parenthood’s nonprofit structure, Mackay shared how nonprofit models still require a similar focus on sustainability. “No margin, no mission,” Mackay stated. She emphasized the importance of operational efficiency: “Any business – whether nonprofit or for-profit – needs to operate on strong unit economics and business fundamentals to keep its doors open, whether physical or virtual.” Mackay also highlighted Planned Parenthood Direct’s strategy of leveraging partnerships to scale effectively. “We’re focused on expanding services like telehealth STI testing by collaborating with the right partners. It’s about finding solutions that align with our mission while maintaining efficiency and speed,” she explained.
When it comes to fundraising, the panelists shared practical advice. Versi encouraged founders to be deliberate in qualifying their leads, focusing their energy on receptive investors: “If someone tells you menopause is a niche market, move on. This is a $600 billion opportunity affecting over 50 million women in the U.S. alone.”
Empowering Change Through Advocacy
Liz Powell, co-founder of G2G Consulting and the Women’s Health PAC, delivered the second keynote of the HBS Women’s Health Summit, calling for action to reshape the landscape of women’s health through advocacy, political action, and legislative reform. Drawing on her decades of experience on Capitol Hill, Powell offered a detailed roadmap for leveraging policy to advance women’s health initiatives.
Powell opened her address by highlighting the landmark White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, a program that has galvanized interagency collaboration and shone a spotlight on the critical gaps in women’s health. “This is a pivotal moment,” she said. “For the first time, we’re seeing coordinated efforts from researchers, policymakers, and executives to tackle issues like menopause, contraception, and holistic women’s health – not just bikini medicine.”
She praised the Biden administration’s commitment to this initiative, noting significant actions like the allocation of $110 million for ARPA-H projects focused on women’s health, and pointed to bipartisan support in Congress as a reason for optimism. “We’re seeing Republicans and Democrats come together around holistic women’s health,” she noted. Bills addressing endometriosis, fibroids, and menopause have proliferated, and new language in Senate appropriations bills directs funding toward women’s health innovation. “It’s not just lip service anymore. Real change is happening.”
Central to Powell’s message was the need to advocate for expanded funding and systemic reforms in reimbursement and data collection. “We’re leaving trillions on the table,” she asserted, referencing WHAM’s findings on the economic opportunity in closing gender gaps in health research. “Expanding reimbursement for women-specific conditions and collecting sex-based data are essential steps to achieve equity.”
Powell recounted her work with CMS on reimbursement issues, including ovarian cancer testing, which lacked coverage despite its critical importance. “Education is the first step to change,” she said, describing her efforts to bring data and real-world examples to policymakers. “When we provided evidence, CMS acknowledged the gaps and began to act.”
She also shared a success story from her advocacy work: creating a new funding line within the DoD for rare cancers. “That funding line didn’t exist before we started advocating. Now, it’s allocated over $60 million. Advocacy works when it’s strategic and persistent.”
Powell’s keynote wasn’t just a lecture – it was a call to action. She encouraged everyone to use their voices, whether by writing letters to Congress, meeting with health legislative assistants, or engaging in town halls. “Personal stories matter,” she emphasized. “They pull at the heartstrings of policymakers and make the statistics come alive.”
For those new to advocacy, Powell offered practical advice. “Contact your representative. Combine your personal story with data. And remember, advocacy is about persistence. It’s about polite, persistent conversations that keep issues at the forefront.” As her keynote drew to a close, Powell left the audience with a rallying cry: “Advocacy is democracy in action. Your voice matters. Use it.”
A Shared Responsibility
The closing fireside chat with Dr. Neel Shah, Harvard alum (MPP ’09) and Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, brought the day’s insights full circle.
At Maven Clinic, the world’s largest virtual clinic for women and families, Dr. Shah leads efforts to deliver holistic, life-stage-specific care. “We’re not just a fertility or maternity care company,” he explained. “We’re a life-stage company, addressing everything from menopause to postpartum care. Our mission is to reliably show up for people when they need us.”
Maven’s value-based care model ties outcomes to payments, ensuring accountability. “If we don’t improve outcomes, we don’t get paid. That’s how healthcare should be,” he said. Maven’s ability to integrate data from diverse sources – insurance claims, Apple HealthKit, and electronic medical records – positions it as an “AI-native” company. “We’re not splitting the atom,” he added. “It’s about finding people who need care, giving it to them, and proving it works.”
Dr. Shah acknowledged the challenges posed by misinformation and eroding trust in the healthcare system. “Trustworthiness is not a virtue; it’s an output of a system that works,” he said. He emphasized the need for healthcare providers to affirm lived experiences, meet people where they are, and provide reliable support. “TikTok excels at validating lived experiences, even if the content isn’t evidence-based. Our job is to match that validation with clinical rigor.”
Shah called for team-based healthcare models and stressed the importance of involving men in advancing women’s health. “The future of women’s health isn’t just a women’s issue: it’s a human issue,” he asserted. Engaging men is not only beneficial but essential, as they can be powerful advocates, collaborators, and allies in reshaping systems that affect everyone. Men’s involvement in these conversations fosters shared responsibility, stronger partnerships, and broader societal change.
Dr. Shah closed with a powerful call to action for the students and aspiring innovators in the room. “There is so much opportunity in this space. But you’ll hear all the reasons why your idea won’t work. Do it anyway.” His final piece of advice resonated deeply: “Nothing happens unless people decide to do it. The challenges are real, but the opportunity to create meaningful, lasting change in women’s health has never been greater.”
Supporting Student Founders
Capping off the summit was a student-focused pitch competition, sponsored by Pillar VC. The competition showcased innovative startups tackling critical gaps in women’s health, ranging from health literacy to disordered eating to dating violence. The winning concept, PeriPeach, was a medical device created by Dr. Tess Kim to help prevent perineal tears during childbirth.
Next Steps
The inaugural HBS Women’s Health Summit was a resounding success, not only raising awareness of pressing challenges but also galvanizing action. The Women’s Health SIG co-leaders, Christina Vosbikian and Ricky Cordova, expressed pride in the summit’s impact. Vosbikian noted, “This event is just the beginning of a continued movement to ensure women’s health is prioritized across healthcare stakeholders.” Cordova added, “Our goal is to foster a thriving community at Harvard and beyond, where people – even young men – feel empowered to make a positive impact.”
The two expressed gratitude for the generous support from Pillar VC, In Women’s Health, The HBS Health Care Initiative, and Health Care Club leadership for making the event possible. As they pass the baton to RC leaders Jenn Arnold, Andrea Gonzalez Corleto, Jane Douat, and Victoria Beecroft, they expressed their excitement for seeing how the summit event will continue to evolve, driving lasting change on campus.
Ricky Cordova (MS/MBA ’25) is originally from Tucson, Arizona. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Bioengineering, and completed the HealthTech Fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Prior to the HBS MS/MBA in Engineering Sciences, Ricky worked as an ovarian cancer research scientist and founded a pelvic health startup. He also worked as a design consultant for IDEO and the World Health Organization.
Christina Vosbikian (MBA ’25) is originally from Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Public Policy. Prior to HBS, Christina worked as a private equity associate at Berkshire Partners and investment banking associate and analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Jennifer Arnold (MBA ’26) is a dual-degree candidate in Harvard's MBA and Masters in Engineering Sciences programs. With a background in mechanical and biomedical engineering, she brings a decade of experience in the medical device industry. Prior to HBS, she served as COO and interim CEO of a medical device startup.
Jane Douat (MBA ’26) is originally from Paris, France. She graduated from Télécom Paris with a degree in computer science engineering. Prior to HBS, Jane was the co-founder and CTO of Omena, a women’s health startup building a mobile app for women going through menopause.
Andrea Gonzalez Corleto (MBA ’26) is originally from Guatemala. She graduated from Suffolk University with a degree in finance. Prior to the HBS, Andrea worked as General Manager at Skylight, a consumer electronics brand that connects millions of families. She was also the founder of Silkkin, the first DTC brand to provide skin-friendly silk face masks during the pandemic.
Victoria Beecroft (MBA ’26) is originally from Boston, MA. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Economics. Prior to HBS, Victoria worked as a private equity associate at Bain Capital and a business analyst at McKinsey & Company.
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