2022 Mentoring Pilot Project - Mentors
Leila Safavi
Leila earned her Ph.D./MS in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and BS in Chemistry, all from UCI. She is currently the CEO and Co-founder of Purist, a company based on a patented technology she co-invented during her graduate studies. In 2019 Purist was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health. Leila is also an entrepreneurial fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads program. The Innovation Crossroads program and NIH SBIR have provided over half a million dollars in funding and resources to accelerate Purist’s technology towards commercialization. In 2021, Leila was selected to be in the first class of 250 entrepreneurs for Forbes’s NEXT 1000 list.
Paulos Lakew
My background is in transportation economics and I have over eight years of transportation consulting and economic advisory experience. My work spans planning, environmental and public policy issues that affect airports and the broader transportation industry.
Alma Zaragoza-Petty
Dr. Alma Zaragoza-Petty is a community worker dedicated to systemic change by reimagining what is possible in the public and social impact sectors. She is skilled and experienced in organizational monitoring, evaluation, and learning, program strategy, and management. She has over 20 years of experience in the education field and 6 years as a consultant for faith-based organizations. She currently chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee at a non-profit, where she works full-time supporting first-generation students to and through college and into their first professional career.
John Nhieu
My passion is focused on advancing health care through human-centered design, innovation, business development, and performance improvement. I am a Senior Project Manager and Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with experience in healthcare strategy consulting, healthcare innovation project management, and business operations management. My strategic skills include developing program-wide solutions, leading cross-functional teams, and implementing complex transformational healthcare solutions. My advanced analytical skills include building financial models, performing operational feasibility and business risk assessment on new health care initiatives, and developing business cases/plans. My operational skills include designing, developing, and scaling innovative business ventures across different teams and geographical spaces. I am committed to teamwork and personal development with a strong record of critical thinking, high emotional intelligence, and delivering results. In addition to my professional passion for advancing health care, I have a personal passion in advancing higher education, contributing forward and investing in a brighter future. As a life and career coach, I love helping others reach their breakthrough moments and achieve their purpose.
Juan Calcagno
PHD in Applied Economics Field, Columbia University (2007). Fifteen years in financial services including 7 years in consulting (KPMG, Moody’s). Check LinkedIn profile.
Jaime Duarte
Jaime is the co-founder and CEO of MyoSwiss AG, a spin-off from ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) founded in 2017. MyoSwiss develops and commercializes wearable robotic devices that support people with mobility impairments. Jaime holds PhD and MSc degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Following his doctorate, Jaime joined the Sensory-Motor Systems lab at ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral researcher where he worked until founding his company.
Feliza I. Ortiz-Licon
The proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, Dr. Feliza I. Ortiz-Licon has invested nearly twenty-five years in the field of education working in various capacities, but primarily focused on issues of diversity, access, and equity, specifically as it relates to Latino students and English learners.
A committed champion of equitable education and opportunities for all students, Feliza currently serves as Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer at Latinos for Education. In this role, Feliza leads the organization’s policymaking and advocacy efforts to create equitable, educational opportunities for Latino students. This current position truly enhances her passion in reshaping the narrative and opportunities afforded to Latinos as well as advancing Latino leadership and proposing responsive policy recommendations that improve educational outcomes. Prior to joining Latinos for Education, Feliza served as the Principal of Education Programs at UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.
Feliza holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in Political Science, a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in City and Regional Planning, and a doctoral degree in Education Leadership from the University of California, Irvine. In 2015, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Feliza to the CA State Board of Education where she served for five fulfilling years. Feliza is happily married to a seasoned educator in the Long Beach Unified School District, and they have two children attending a dual language program in the same district.
Lamar Blackwell
Lamar completed his PhD at the University of California Irvine in Biological Sciences. He completed his postdoc work at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where he studied signal transduction pathways. There, he used organ specific mouse knockout models of angiotensin converting enzyme, to understand aberrant cellular communication associated with blood pressure and inflammation. Following his postdoc at Cedars Sinai Medical center, he started his professional career as a scientist at Janssen R&D where he developed assays to determine the best antibodies to move forward for clinical trials. Lamar moved to the Consumer section and worked as Principal Scientist and an R&D global lead in the Baby franchise. Currently he works in R&D on the scientific engagement team to help represent the professional voice to J&J Consumer R&D teams and to share R&D insights with health care professionals to improve human health.
Gabriel Vargas
Dr. Gabriel Vargas obtained his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of California, Berkeley where he majored in Anthropology & Genetics. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Irvine followed by a research track residency in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
After a clinical and research fellowship, he joined the faculty at UCSF as an assistant professor in the Psychiatry Department where he spent three years leading a research group. After leaving academia in 2006, he spent five years at Roche, the last three in Basel, Switzerland as the head of the Neuroscience Clinical Biomarker Group where he worked on molecular and digital biomarkers.
Dr. Vargas joined Amgen in 2011 and directed a group of physician scientists as the Therapeutic Area Head for Early Development Neuroscience. In this capacity, he led the early development of the recently FDA-approved migraine prophylactic, Aimovig™. He also directed Digital Health activities for Medical Sciences and co-led Amgen’s Clinical Technology & Experience Lab and where he conducted several digital health studies to test wearable sensors and devices and patient engagement technologies.
In 2018 he joined CuraSen, a biopharma startup developing small molecule agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, as Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Vargas is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and currently serves as a volunteer clinical instructor for the UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program and as a volunteer associate clinical professor in psychiatry at UCSF.
Chief Medical Officer at CuraSen Therapeutics
Julius Edson
I have Ph.D. and Masters degrees from UC Irvine in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from City University of New York City College. I was formerly Co-Founder and CEO of Responsive Polymers Therapeutics, Inc. a startup company that was commercializing technology invented during my graduate studies. I was also part of the Business Development team at Zymo Research Corporation. Currently, I am a strategic advisor for various startup companies as well as a volunteer analyst with Tech Coast Angels San Diego.
Desirée Salazar
Desirée Salazar, Ph.D. is the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator for Extramural Programs at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Dr. Salazar provides leadership in DEI activities across NHLBI and manages a variety of programs including Diversity and Re-Entry Supplements, MOSAIC K99/R00 Postdoctoral Career Transition Awards to Promote Diversity, and the capacity building Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) and SuRE First Award programs.
Before joining NHLBI, Dr. Salazar was a program director at the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) within the Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity, where she managed a variety of training programs from the undergraduate to postdoctoral level. She managed research grants in the Division of Genetics and Molecular and Developmental Biology in stem cell biology and regeneration. Additionally, Dr. Salazar was the Director of the NIGMS intramural Postdoctoral Research Associate Training program.
Prior to joining NIGMS in 2016, Dr. Salazar was a Scientific Program Manager at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Dr. Salazar earned a B.S. in Neuroscience from UC Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine. She conducted postdoctoral studies at UC San Diego as part of the NIH funded IRACDA program.
Current professional title and organization:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator for Extramural Programs National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/National Institutes of Health
Kandarp Shah
I am a regulatory affairs professional with a track record of partnering across business functions, defining regulatory strategy and executing worldwide product registration for commercialization of medical products. I have experience with US, EU and international registrations for permanent implant and IVD products. I also have over 10 years of progressive experience in molecular and cellular biology, immunology, cardiovascular disease, and tissue-based diagnoses in research laboratories. I have demonstrated excellent ability to organize and communicate technical concepts to stakeholders while guiding and training junior staff. I actively participate in service of the industry through memberships, presentations and publications.
Current professional title and organization:
Manager, Regulatory Affairs
UCI graduate degree program and final degree completed:
Santiago Guisasola
Dr. Guisasola received his Ph.D. in mathematical behavioral sciences from the University of California, Irvine in 2018. He is a game theorist who specializes in mathematically modeling social and behavioral phenomena, with experience using accompanying computational tools. He finished his post doctoral research position at the Instituto de Matematica Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil in late 2020 and now works as lead researcher at Intelligent Analytics and Modeling.
Current professional title and organization:
Lead Researcher at Intelligent Analytics and Modeling
John Huang
John Huang is an Associate Director and Site Executive at Raytheon Technologies located in Fullerton, CA. John’s domain expertise range from large scale DoD development programs to commercial startup in providing C5I solutions, GPS Navigation Landing Systems, Radar mission applications and Identify Management products. John is experienced in full life cycle engineering development from safety critical, embedded, and hard real time systems to open data centric applications. He held position in Software Program Manager, Proposal Lead, Software Technical Director and System Integration Lead.
John holds a B. S. in Information and Computer Science from University of California, Irvine. His professional certifications include Software Architect Certification, System Engineering Technical Development Program and Software Program Management.
Current professional title and organization:
Associate Software Director, Site Executive at Raytheon Technologies
UCI graduate degree program and final degree completed:
Information and Computer Science, BS
Professional Path:
My professional path have been in all facets of software engineering. From requirements, architecture, development, test, new business growth and leadership.
Hobbies/activities you enjoy outside of your professional life:
Family, Golf, Tennis, Lakers
Ram Hariharan
Dr. Hariharan is currently working as a Lead Data Scientist at Microsoft Corporation. He has worked in many leading technology companies in capacities as scientist, engineer, leader, and mentor. In these roles he always strives for technical, product, people, and organizational excellence. He has many years of applied research experience using machine learning, statistics, databases, and data mining in application domains such as search, advertising, digital customer service, e-commerce retail, and business apps. He has published many technical papers in reputed computer science conferences, has been issued 4 US patents, and serves as reviewer in many International and Industry held ML and AI conferences. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.
Current professional title and organization:
Microsoft
UCI graduate degree program and final degree completed:
Computer Science, PhD
Professional Path:
Started my career as Scientist at AT&T working on search technologies for 4 years. Then joined Microsoft continuing the applied scientist career, but also getting shaped as a good engineer, working on domains such as Advertising and Customer Service. Then jumped company again to Amazon and this time working in the e-commerce retail. Came back to Microsoft and ever since working in developing AI solutions for many different Business Applications.
Hobbies/activities you enjoy outside of your professional life:
Volunteering as leader in many professional organizations, reading especially eastern philosophies, practicing Yoga for physical and mental well-being.
Michelle Tabb
Following my postdoc at UCI, I joined Focus Diagnostics R&D in 2005 at the start of their commercial molecular diagnostic product line. Since then I’ve held additional roles within R&D, Project Management and Operations. The company was acquired by Quest Diagnostics in 2006 and then DiaSorin SpA in 2016, an Italian multinational biotechnology company that produces and markets in vitro diagnostic reagent kits used in immuno and molecular diagnostics. The company was renamed DiaSorin Molecular in 2016 and I serve as Chief Scientific Officer.
Current professional title and organization:
Chief Scientific Officer, DiaSorin Molecular
UCI graduate degree program and final degree completed:
PhD in Biological Sciences. Worked in both Depts of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Biological Chemistry. Also did postdoc at UCI in Dept of Developmental & Cell Biology
Professional Path:
After my PhD, I remained at UCI to complete my postdoctoral studies, deliberately switching from basic science to the study of a human nuclear receptor that was activated by clinically used drugs since I wanted to work in biotech or pharma. After a 5 year postdoc, I left academia to join biotech where my skills in molecular biology and project management were critical to completing assay development for infectious disease targets. My initial goal was to reach the role of Director of Research & Development and I was able to achieve that in 5 years after completing my postdoc.
Hobbies/activities you enjoy outside of your professional life:
Dodgers baseball fan, high school football and baseball fan, interested in ancestry, enjoy board and card games as well as fitness and global travel.
Carlos Solorzano
Carlos Solórzano, PhD is a Senior Principal at Section 32. Carlos has more than a decade of experience in healthcare spanning academic research, investment banking, corporate strategy and BD as well as venture capital prior to joining Section 32. At Section 32, Carlos focuses on the firm’s investment sourcing, diligence, and deal execution efforts primarily in healthcare.
Prior to Section 32, Carlos was a Senior Associate at Pivotal bioVenture Partners where he participated in nine investments into therapeutics companies across various stages of development and financing in various therapeutic areas. During his tenure at Pivotal, Carlos was an observer on the board or led diligence for Akouos (NASDAQ: AKUS), Avalyn, Evommune, Plexium and Arkuda.
Carlos previously was an Associate Director in the corporate strategy and business development team at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical where he worked on competitive intelligence, as well as portfolio, commercial and BD strategy. In particular, Carlos participated in Ultragenyx’ option to acquire GeneTx (ASO for Angelman Syndrome), the expansion of Ultragenyx’ collaboration agreement with Arcturus Therapeutics (nucleic acid therapeutics including mRNA), as well as in the technology and portfolio strategy of Ultragenyx’ gene therapy platform.
Prior to Ultragenyx, Carlos worked as an equity research associate at Deutsche Bank and Oppenheimer & Co. covering smid- and large-cap biotech companies. Carlos has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona, earned a PhD in Pharmacology from UC Irvine, and was an NIH postdoctoral scholar at UC San Francisco where he investigated the neurobiology of pain and itch.
Current professional title and organization:
Sr principal, Section 32
UCI graduate degree program and final degree completed:
PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology (class of 2010)
Professional Path:
I obtained my PhD in Pharmacology with the goal of becoming a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry in order to help develop new drugs. During my postdoc, I figured out that I preferred to be involved as a business executive in the biotech industry rather than being a bench scientist and that my training actually also enabled me to do that with some minor additional self education. I am now a venture capital investor where I help finance some of the most innovative companies in the industry and so actually do help advance medicines to patients by making sure they are properly resourced.
Hobbies/activities you enjoy outside of your professional life:
I like to spend time with my family, primarily going to parks with my two kids. When I get a chance I also enjoy going on runs outside and catching up with old friends.