Mel Barsky is a Director at the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI). CABHI, led by Baycrest Health Sciences, helps innovators develop, disseminate, scale, and promote adoption of promising innovations in the aging and brain health sector. CABHI was formed as a unique private / public collaboration that raised over $124M and has levered an additional $70M+ for investing in validation testing in the brain health and longevity sector. To-date, CABHI has funded over 300 projects globally. CABHI innovators and companies have secured over $110M in follow on investments. Mel is leading the continued international growth of CABHI.

Prior to CABHI, Mel was Co-Founder, President & COO of INTERVENT Canada. INTERVENT has served over 2.5 million patients globally; over 200 corporations; and has been published in more than 100 peer reviewed major medical journals demonstrating the efficacy of its programs and improvement in health outcomes.

Previously, Mel was a Founding Partner and Executive Director of Scotiabank Private Equity Investments, where, he invested private and public ventures, primarily in financial services and information technology sectors.

In his spare time, Mel enjoys playing basketball, guitar and travelling with his wife, 5 kids and Australian Labradoodle.

Lori K. Bitter provides strategic consulting, research and development for companies seeking to engage with mature consumers at The Business of Aging. Named one of Next Avenue’s Influencers in Aging, Lori’s book, The Grandparent Economy is a National Mature Media Award winner. She is a co-producer of the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit and The Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. 

She was president of J Walter Thompson’s Boomer division, JWT BOOM, the nation’s leading mature market advertising and marketing company and led that firm’s annual Boomer marketing event for five years. Prior to that she led client service for Age Wave’s agency, Age Wave Impact. Lori is also the former president of her own agency, Continuum Crew, and Crew Media, owner of Eons.com. Lori has more than 35 years of advertising, public relations and strategic planning experience.

Lori & her research team lead large studies for companies and associations focused on aging consumers and their product and service needs. Her current research project, Hacking Life Shifts, is focused on a three-generation view of the five key shifts of caregiving, moving, grandparenting, becoming single, and career encoring. It follows the Hacking Longevity study from 2018. From complex quantitative studies and segmentations to creative qualitative methods, the team has delivered projects on-time and on-budget for clients as diverse as Del Monte, AARP, and Comcast Corporate. Lori is a trained and skilled facilitator, who recognizes the key insights that drive a firm’s growth. She delivers insight-driven strategy to C-suite initiatives.

She is the contributor to five books on aging consumers and is a leader in research on topics relevant to the senior and boomer population. A frequent guest and expert in the media, Lori was featured on American Marketing Association’s blog, AARP Magazine, in the Los Angeles Times, on CNBC, Forbes magazine and was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 to Watch List. She holds a MS in Advertising and is a former Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations. She serves on the Leadership Council of the College of Media for the University of Illinois, and on the advisory board of several start-up companies. 

A sought‐after speaker, Lori has presented research, trends and analysis about mature consumers and the longevity marketplace to more than 200 conferences and events in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, most recently the Longevity Colloquium in Madrid, Spain. 

She has served as a judge and panelist for numerous award and business competitions, including the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the North American Effie awards. Lori enjoys mentoring and coaching encore entrepreneurs. 

Ken Bracht – Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer – NCOA

Ken is NCOA’s Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer. He is tasked with building awareness of the organization and its tools to help older adults stay healthy and financially secure, and he leads business development initiatives. Ken Bracht comes to NCOA with 20+ years of experience in marketing and branding through his work in the private sector in large firms such as Audi of America, Jaguar Land Rover, and BMW. Most recently he was Director of Brand Marketing for Audi of America, where he led numerous award-winning campaigns and partnerships, including two Super Bowl campaigns.Bracht has a Masters in Business Administration from Wake Forest University and a Bachelors Degree from James Madison University.

Tanya Van Court is the Founder and CEO of Goalsetter, a family saving, financial literacy and smart spending app that makes it easy for the whole family to go cashless and learn how to be money-smart.  Goalsetter is Nickelodeon meets Fintech—it combines the best of Fintech companies like Acorns and CashApp with financial education and gaming that appeals to the whole family.  As such, Goalsetter is the first money app for the whole family, giving kids—from cradle to graduation—healthy financial habits that will last a lifetime.

Prior to Van Court’s role at Goalsetter, Van Court served as senior vice president of partner marketing at Discovery Education, where she launched digital textbooks to schools across the country. She also formerly worked at Nickelodeon, where she led their digital preschool and parenting businesses, including NickJr.com and Noggin.com. Prior to Nickelodeon, Van Court served as vice president of new media products for ESPN, where she led the launch of ESPN3. 

Van Court holds two degrees in engineering from Stanford University, and three degrees in parenting from her children Gabrielle, Hendrix, and Maxwell.

Mary Furlong, Ed.D, MFA’s president and CEO, is a leading authority on the longevity marketplace. She has guided the business development and marketing strategies of leading corporations, emerging companies, and nonprofit organizations for more than 30 years.

Her list of clients/sponsors includes AARP, Caring.com, CareLinx, First Republic Bank, GreatCall Inc., Link•age, PetPlan, and UnitedHealthcare (UHC). Mary founded MFA in 2003 to help socially- and consumer-conscious companies understand the real needs of this growing market.

In addition, Mary is the Dean’s Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

Before launching MFA, Mary founded the nonprofit organization SeniorNet in 1986 and ThirdAge Media in 1996. Throughout the course of her work for both organizations, she raised $130 million in venture capital funds, corporate sponsorships, and foundation grants.

During Mary’s tenure, SeniorNet served more than 500,000 adults age 50 and older. Much of her time was spent in the field at the organization’s learning centers, observing the applications that worked and the issues related to the technology. ThirdAge Media reached more than 2 million members – most age 45 and older – when Mary served as its CEO and visionary leader of the editorial team.

Mary has appeared on CBS, PBS, NPR, and NBC’s Today show to discuss trends in aging and technology, and her expertise has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, Fortune, People, and Fast Company, among other publications.

In 2001, Fortune Small Business named Mary one of its “Top 25 Women Entrepreneurs,” and Time-honored her in 1999 as one of its “Digital 50.” She also served as a White House Commissioner on Libraries and Information Science during the Clinton administration, and she has conducted hearings on aging and technology for the U.S. Senate. She was named one of the 100 most influential women in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and has been a recipient of the ASA Leadership Award. Mary is an advisory member of the Ziegler Link•age Longevity Fund, L.P.

Mary is the author of Turning Silver into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace, which was published in February 2007 by Financial Times Press. She also co-authored the book Grown-Up’s Guide to Computing, published by Microsoft Press in 1999.

Dan Gebremedhin is a Partner at Flare Capital Partners, and serves on the Board of Flare portfolio company Somatus. Prior to joining Flare Capital, Dan served as a Medical Director at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan. Dan spent over 8 years as a practicing Internal Medicine Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, after completing Internal Medicine Residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2010. He has served as a Health Policy Advisor for Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and currently sits on the Massachusetts State Board of Nursing Home Administrators. Dan earned a B.S. from the University of California, San Diego, an M.D. from the Morehouse School of Medicine, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Julie Halpert has been a freelance journalist for over two decades, writing for many national publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and AARP. She is the co-author of Making Up With Mom, which focuses on generational differences between women and their mothers. Website: http://juliehalpert.com/

Kerry Hannon (Kerryhannon.com) is a nationally recognized strategist on work and jobs, career transitions, entrepreneurship, personal finance and retirement. She is a frequent keynote speaker and TV and radio commentator. Kerry is the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming Great Pajama Jobs: How to Land a Job Without the Commute, Never Too Old To Get Rich: The Entrepreneurs Guide To Starting a Business Mid-Life, Great Jobs for Everyone 50+, Money Confidence, Getting the Job You Want After 50 and Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness. She is an expert columnist and regular contributor to The New York Times, MarketWatch, Forbes and the PBS website Next Avenue.org.

Dr. Brian Holzer, CEO, Lacuna
Dr. Brian Holzer is a senior physician executive serving as President of Kindred Innovations and the founder and CEO of Lacuna Health, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kindred Healthcare. Brian is a frequent speaker in the area of post-acute care and population health. In 2018, Brian was recognized by Health Data Management as one of the 30 top chief innovation officers at healthcare organizations as well as being selected to the “Council of 33” by the Healthcare Innovators Professional Society (HIPS).

Brooks serves as Executive Director of the women’s network at UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and directs the organization’s consumer facing brain health education and engagement programs as the General Manager for BrainGuide, the organization’s newest initiative focusing on bringing state-of-the-art technology to consumers across the country that are worried about their or a loved one’s brain health. She is leading a team of 40+ people across diverse functions and is charged with the growth strategy for the platform through strategic partnerships and marketing initiatives. Brooks has spent her career applying marketing and business know-how to social causes and has become a national speaker on women’s brain health, Alzheimer’s disease and caregiving.

Lawrence was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada where as a child, Lawrence’s father founded a non-profit assisted living facility for older adults. Lawrence grew up spending nights and weekends visiting the facility and was amazed by the wisdom of the residents who had so much more to give. Before co-founding GetSetup, Lawrence oversaw Business Development and Partnerships for IFTTT, an IoT Connectivity Platform. He also led Sight Machine’s Asian Pacific business operations and was the VP of Global Partnerships at Yahoo when it was just getting started. Now Lawrence is combining his skills in Business Development with a product to give back to older adults in a product that echoes the insights he learned as a child. Lawrence is an avid cyclist and trail runner, so it is no surprise that the two co-founders met on the trail and continue to trade ideas and enhance the lives of those around them based on ideas hashed out while sweating on the trail.

Scott Oliver handles patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret matters, blending creative legal strategies with comprehensive, digestible explanations of complex technology. He designs and implements individualized legal strategies depending on each client’s unique business objectives. An experienced and highly technical litigator, Scott has handled more than 150 matters and a dozen trials before both the International Trade Commission (ITC) and juries. He has more than 25 years of experience defending and advising companies across an array of industries, including wireless, software, semiconductor, and digital distribution. In addition to his litigation experience, Scott advises clients on strategically growing and managing their intellectual property portfolios,guiding young companies through patent strategy, and consulting handset manufacturers and patent pools on the licensing of 802.11, 4G, 3G and LTE patents.

Meredith Oppenheim, has dedicated herself to the well-being of older people for more than three decades. January 2020 she launched Vitality Society™ for people 60 and better to remain at their best with live fitness, wellness and enrichment classes, as well as affinity groups. The community has grown to thousands of members and has achieved an unprecedented level of engagement amongst its members. Prior to serving as the CEO of Vitality Society, Oppenheim spent twenty years gaining operational experience in the senior housing industry across the full continuum and worldwide. Most recently, she actively asset managed a multibillion-dollar portfolio for a healthcare REIT. She also served on Mayor Bloomberg’s Age-Friendly NYC Commission and the NYC Department for Aging board. Oppenheim earned a US Congressional Award for her service to older people and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and Cornell University.

Dr. David Thimons
Dr. Thimons was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania and has enjoyed a
successful medical career in the region over the past 2 decades. His career
passions are caring for the frail elderly and developing new models of healthcare
delivery to better serve these vulnerable patients. This is reflected in his research,
practice, and professional appointments in the specialties of geriatrics, hospice
and palliative medicine. Dr. Thimons is board certified in Hospice and Palliative
Medicine as well as Family Medicine. He is also a Certified Medical Director.
Dr. Thimons co-founded Personal Care Medical Associates in 2001. The practice
has grown through the years, and now includes multiple physicians and nurse
practitioners that care for patients in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living
facilities, hospitals, hospice units and the home. Dr. Thimons holds several
additional positions. He is the Deputy CMO for Aspire Health. He is also the
medical director of multiple skilled nursing facilities.
Dr. Thimons has been a part of multiple research studies, publications, and grant
awards in the fields of geriatrics and palliative medicine. He was a co-medical
director of the RAVEN grant – a Medicare funded grant to create systems and
practice guidelines to reduce hospitalizations among long term nursing home
residents. He has also offered presentations and lectures at several local and
national conferences. Dr. Thimons loves his work and feels blessed each and
every day. He is happily married to his beautiful wife, Amy, and has 3 children
(Kaelyn age 18, Jaren age 16 and Brigitte age 7).

Sherwin Sheik Founder & CEO of CareLinx a nationwide caregiver marketplace with over 300,000 professional caregivers. CareLinx is working with several of the largest Medicare Advantage plans, At-Risk Providers and is the in-home care partner for AARP for their 35 million members. CareLinx has been innovating better care for all over the past decade while reducing the overall cost of care. CareLinx was Acquired by Generali Global Assistance in 2017. Generali is the 3rd largest insurance company in the world. Prior to founding CareLinx, Sherwin worked and invested in the healthcare industry for over ten years. His business interests centered on large healthcare corporations while working in Healthcare Private Equity and Investment Banking.

Anu Shukla

Anu is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of high-tech industry experience. She is an active angel investor personally supporting and investing in women and minority led enterprises. She is a venture partner with elevate.vc to continue the mission to serve under represented minority founders.

Anu has founded and exited several software companies: Fintech loyalty currency company RewardsPay, Mobile adtech and monetization player Tapjoy, e-commerce personalization company MyBuys, and early marketing automation pioneer Rubric, Inc. She has successfully exited two startups with $600M enterprise value.

Anu is the CEO of RewardsPay and is the Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Botco.ai, an emerging player in the application of AI/NLP to enterprise marketing automation use cases. She serves on several non-profit boards and has experience in SaaS, Adtech and Martech product companies. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Stephens College, and an MBA and Doctorate (Honorary) in Business Administration and Management from Youngstown State University.

I’m what you might call an artist entrepreneur. My background is in music, blended with a passion for technology and the startup culture.

It all comes together in myFamilyChannel, a private TV channel that helps residents, families, and staff of senior care communities stay connected through a system that is designed to be simple and safe for the older person.

We believe that bridging the digital divide for analog natives is one of the game changers of our lifetime.

I have spent most of my professional life in the music business, as an artist, producer, and label guy. In 2008 I began to develop digital media and communication strategies for corporate clients, which led to serving as Director of Communications for Signature Healthcare, a leading provider of long-term healthcare and rehabilitation services based in Louisville, KY.

In 2015 I founded SeniorGroup Studios, developers of myFamilyChannel, a healthcare technology team whose mission is to reduce isolation and loneliness in the aging population through digital experiences that are intuitive and delightful, impacting social determinants of health. #sdoh

Sasha Spellman is the Director of Startup Collaboration at AARP Innovation Labs. AARP’s inaugural innovation lab is the Hatchery – a 10,000+ square foot structure in the heart of Washington DC, where breakthrough innovation is fostered, incubated and accelerated. In this role, Sasha is responsible for developing the ecosystem of collaborations to create added value benefits for AgeTech startups. Sasha also works with clinical and commercial entities to create pilot environments to help our portfolio startups test and validate their solutions.

Prior to AARP, Sasha was at Consumer Technology Association where she fostered entrepreneurship and growth of small business by managing the startup program at CES called Eureka Park. She helped grow investment of early-stage startups from 100 startups at CES 2012 to over 1200 startups at CES 2020.

Sherri Snelling is a corporate gerontologist, author and founder/CEO of Caregiving Club, a strategic consulting and content creation firm with an expertise in life course aging, caregiver wellness and Alzheimer’s. She is the author of A Cast of Caregivers – Celebrity Stories to Help You Prepare to Care and is a contributing columnist on caregiving for PBS Next Avenue, Forbes.com, Thrive Global, USA Today and “The Longevity Report” on Newsmax TV. Her innovative employee wellness programs include the Me Time Monday ™ and 7 Ways to Caregiver Wellness workshops.  She also serves as the Ambassador for the Caregiver Monday public health education campaign and is a co-executive producer for an upcoming PBS caregiving documentary scheduled for fall, 2021. Sherri has participated on boards, task forces and advisory groups for the National Alliance for Caregiving, the White House Middle Class Task Force: The Sandwich Generation, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as well as several start-up companies in gerontechnology. She is also a Spring 2021 reviewer for the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs. Sherri has a master’s degree in gerontology and master’s certification from MIT Sloan School of Management “Shaping the Workplace of the Future.”

Lisa Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer of iN2L (It’s Never 2 Late), the leading provider of engagement technology for senior living. With more than 20 years’ experience as an executive leader in the healthcare IT space, Lisa is known for her ability to drive growth through cutting-edge solution development, unwavering focus on client experience and a passion for organizational health. Lisa regularly advocates for the need to engage the senior population to improve quality of life, with a focus on how technology specially designed for this purpose and group delivers impactful results.

Joy Toliver is a program analyst at the National Institute on Aging’s Office of Small Business Research, which provides over $130M in non-dilutive funding to U.S. owned and operated small businesses for the research and development of innovations that enhance healthy aging and address age-related diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-related dementias. Joy co-leads the NIA’s Investor Initiatives, where she builds investor relations and strategic partnerships with industry leaders to promote the NIA’s seed funding programs (SBIR/STTR) and awardees. She is also the lead on the NIA’s Applicant Assistance Program, a mentorship program designed to help never-awarded, eligible start-ups to become familiar with and apply for SBIR/STTR funding. Joy’s previous experience is in health administration and geriatric care management, where she served in leadership roles in senior living facilities. She has a master’s degree in public health from the University of Maryland College Park. Her interests include long-term care quality, dementia care and caregiver support, and disparities in aging.

As the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging, Edwin L. Walker leads the Administration on Aging in advocating on behalf of older Americans.

In this capacity, he guides and promotes the development of home and community-based long-term care programs, policies, and services designed to afford older people and their caregivers the ability to age with dignity and independence and to have a broad array of options available for an enhanced quality of life. This includes the promotion and implementation of evidence-based prevention interventions proven effective in avoiding or delaying the onset of chronic disease and illness.

Prior to joining HHS in 1992, Mr. Walker served as the Director of the Missouri Division of Aging, responsible for administering a comprehensive set of human service programs for older persons and adults with disabilities.

He received a Juris Doctor degree in law from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University.