PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR

Katie Campbell, PhD is an assistant professor of interprofessional education at St. Catherine University - a women’s centered, minority serving institution. She completed her PhD in Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Mayo Graduate School with a research focus in Regenerative Medicine. As a post-doctoral fellow, she co-taught courses in entrepreneurship through the Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship and now brings that innovative lens to her ongoing curricular and co-curricular leadership. She is currently the Director of Collaborative Undergraduate Research at St. Catherine University and Principal Investigator on an R25 Research Education Program funded by the National Institute on Aging. These synergistic roles provide Dr. Campbell a unique perspective on supporting and empowering BIPOC women to pursue STEM research and build solutions to national systems of inequity.

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Maarten Rotman, PhD is an entrepreneurial educator with a neuroscience background. After completing a PhD in Alzheimer’s disease in the Netherlands, Dr. Rotman joined Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida to study neurodegeneration and neuro-oncology, the latter with a focus on the brain cancer glioblastoma. In 2018 he joined the Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship to design and teach the Lean Startup Methodology for life sciences to Mayo Clinic’s doctors, researchers, students, and other colleagues. The courses he and the office have designed are nationally accredited for higher learning, and for medical continuing education, and aim to empower a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the enterprise. He is furthermore on the advisory board of the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Jacksonville and the scientific advisory board of a small neuroscience startup.

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Rahul Roy, PhD is an Assistant professor of Biology at St. Catherine University - a women’s centered, minority serving institution in Saint Paul, MN. He has a Masters in Plant Biotechnology from University of Hyderabad, India and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Iowa State University, USA. As a US Department of Agriculture’s Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities , he discovered novel genetic circuits that control nectar production in flowers and discovered a novel red pigment from a lizard pollinated flower from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. He got interested in Entrepreneurship as part of a class he took at Iowa State University’s CBIRC and ever since has encouraged students to think of ways to innovate and disrupt with their biological knowledge. Besides teaching multiple courses, Rahul runs a research lab at St. Kates in close collaboration with other universities across the country researching nectar biology and root physiology. He also is piloting career readiness coursework to better help seniors in pitching to industry and academia. He is excited to usher in entrepreneurial education in the undergraduate classroom, especially encouraging increased representation of BIPOC women in these spaces.

DIGITAL STRATEGIST

Kathy Zamarripa is a junior at St. Catherine University majoring in Biology with a minor in Longevity and Aging. Ms. Zamarripa has experience working with digital marketing with healthcare institutions including Mayo Clinic. She has worked extensively with Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship to showcase the entrepreneurial educational services provided to physicians and research leadership roles. Other than digital showcasing entrepreneurial education, Kathy offers her data analytics to support research development in Latin/Hispanic immigrant populations diagnosed with hypertension in St. Paul. Adding to her professional development, working with the CONNECT team will further connect her with skill-building tools and a deep network of inter-professionals dedicated to entrepreneurial education and supporting under-voiced communities.