The 2024 Pitch Competition judges pose with Anne Glauber, Don Holzworth and the students from the first-place Sensible Pad team.
Gillings expands innovation through new roles, faculty collaboration, student pitch winners and startups advancing real-world public health solutions.
At the Gillings School, we are united by a deep commitment to advancing public health through real-world impact. In response to today’s pressing challenges, we are broadening participation across the school to accelerate the translation of innovative ideas into meaningful outcomes — through new roles, collaborative communities and targeted innovation support.
Innovation Strategy Advisor: A newly established faculty overlay role, held by Will Vizuete, PhD, expands Innovation@Gillings’ reach to drive public health impact.
Faculty Innovator Group: A community of innovation-focused faculty fostering collaboration, idea sharing and networking to address global health challenges. The group hosted a fireside chat with faculty innovators and awarded four micro grants to fund prototyping activities beyond traditional federal support.
Gillings Student Pitch Competition featured 12 teams and 10 coaches:
- First Place ($3,000): Sensible — A diagnostic menstrual pad screening for cervical cancer, coached by Erik Eaker.
- Second Place ($1,500) & People’s Choice ($400): Olea Health — AI-driven, SMS-based health education for underserved populations, coached by Sammy Orelien.
- Third Place: MedFam ($750) — Discounted lodging for families in medical emergencies, coached by Richard Kelly.
Startup: Couplet Care Inc., which markets bassinets that safely connect parents and newborns, completed its first commercial sales in N.C. and M.I. The patented technology was developed over nine years by a team led by UNC and Gillings-affiliated researchers Kristin Tully, PhD, Catherine Sullivan, MPH, Carl Seashore, MD, and Alison Stuebe, MD.
Intellectual property: AI-driven ultrasound technology by Jeff Stringer, MD, Ben Pokaprakarn, PhD, and Michael Kosorok, PhD, was patented and licensed to expand fetal imaging access in rural and low-resource settings.
Pilot funding: $7.8M invested in 44 Gillings Innovation Labs has generated $332M in follow-on funding, 500+ publications, three startups and two patents. Six active labs on generative AI reached midpoint with $6M follow-on funding and new invention disclosures.
