Equalize is a virtual mentor program and pitch competition designed to take national action around the disparity of women academic inventors forming university startups.
In our biggest cohort yet, 36 women academic entrepreneurs have been selected for the Equalize 2025 program. Mentorship and educational sessions began in January, and the program will culminate with a Virtual Pitch Competition on June 25, 2025.
MEDTECH
Ahna Skop
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Hilary Liu
University of Pittsburgh
Carolina Cabalín
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Jordyn Ting
University of Pittsburgh
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz
University of Arizona
Elizabeth Lipke
Auburn University
Kimberly Hutchison
Oregon Health & Science University
Fateme Fayyazbakhsh
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Deblina Sarkar
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mary Austin
Johns Hopkins University
PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Abigail Clarke-Sather
University of Minnesota – Duluth
Chiara Mongiovi
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, Italy
Lisa Sundahl Platt
University of Florida
Margaret Elmer-Dixon
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Varsha Shukla
Dartmouth College
Marika Ziesack
Wyss Institute at Harvard Univeristy
Warda Ashraf
University of Texas at Arlington
TOOLS
Suzanne Mitchell, MD
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Gail Keenan
University of Florida, College of Nursing
Sunghye Cho
University of Pennsylvania
Frederike Petzschner
Brown University
Yuexing Hao
Cornell University
Shannon Stott
Mass General Brigham/Harvard Medical School
Beatriz Martinez-Martin
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Stephanie Jones
Brown University
Jenna Whalen
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
THERAPEUTICS
Anarkali Mahmood
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute
Carolina Haass-Koffler
Brown University
Danielle Benoit
University of Oregon
Fadia Kamal
Pennsylvania State University
Ingunn Stromnes
University of Minnesota
Polina Lishko
Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
Sonal Dalvi
University of Rochester Medical Center
Stephanie Liu
University of Alberta
Sue Hammoud
University of Michigan
Yuan Liu
University of Pittsburgh
To read more on our Equalizers, please go to our Cohorts Page.