Ashley Abel, PhD, is CEO and Co-Founder of Metri Bio, a biotech company developing first-in-class, targeted therapeutics for endometriosis and endometrial diseases. Building on research she began during her PhD in Genetics at Yale School of Medicine, where she graduated with distinction and was a NICHD F31 Fellow, Ashley launched Metri Bio at the forefront of human-specific disease modeling, closing an oversubscribed $5 million pre-seed funding round led by Pillar VC in 2025.

Metri Bio is part of the Women’s Health Innovation Suite led by Eli Lilly and Pillar VC and is based at Lilly’s Seaport Innovation Hub in Boston. The company is a founding member of the Milken Institute Women’s Health Network, chaired by Dr. Jill Biden.

Ashley was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list in 2025 and is a 2026 Termeer Fellow.

Irene Alvarado is the founder and CEO of Berry Fertility, a software platform for fertility clinics that uses AI-powered workflows to streamline care delivery and patient management. She launched the company after her own experience with fertility treatment. Previously, she was a software engineer at Google and GitHub (Microsoft), where she helped build widely used digital products, including early AI-powered coding tools. Irene holds Computer Science degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University, and has also taught as an adjunct professor at New York University.

Dr. Francisco Arredondo is a physician and entrepreneur reimagining how fertility care is delivered in the United States. He graduated from Mexico’s top medical school and completed training at the World Health Organization, Mount Sinai, UT Health Science Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard.

His career has spanned both clinical medicine and healthcare leadership. He grew early fertility ventures from small teams into multistate organizations before serving as Chief Medical Officer for one of the largest fertility networks in the United States, leading more than 50 specialists.

Today, he is the “Chief Troublemaker” at Pozitivf Fertility, an IVF platform designed to become the highest-value fertility provider in the country. Pozitivf Fertility operates in San Antonio and Houston, with expansion planned for Austin and Dallas. He has raised more than $25 million to support the company’s mission and is also co-founder of IVF Academy USA, which trains the next generation of fertility professionals.

Dr. Pietro Bortoletto completed his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Weill Cornell Center for Reproductive Medicine. He is currently in private practice at Terra Fertility in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Janet Choi is Chief Medical Officer at Progyny, where she partners with employers to improve access to comprehensive fertility and family-building benefits. She is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with extensive experience caring for patients and advancing innovation in reproductive medicine.

Before joining Progyny, Dr. Choi served on the faculty at the University of Colorado and later practiced at CCRM New York. She has published extensively on reproductive endocrinology and infertility and is a frequent speaker on fertility care, women’s health, and expanding access to treatment.

Dr. Choi earned her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Eduardo Hariton is a double board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area. He serves as Senior Vice President of Clinical Growth and Innovation at US Fertility and Managing Director of the US Fertility Innovation Fund, where he leads investment strategy, partnerships, and clinic development across the network.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School, Dr. Hariton completed his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and speaks nationally and internationally on innovation, the clinical implementation of AI, and scaling IVF practices to meet growing demand. He serves as Chair of ASRM INNOVATE 2026.

Priyanka Jain is Co-Founder and CEO of Evvy, a precision medicine company leveraging the vaginal microbiome to improve women’s health outcomes. Evvy serves more than 100,000 patients through comprehensive testing and care for vaginal health, fertility, and menopause.

The company has built the world’s largest dataset on the vaginal microbiome, designed to unlock novel solutions for IVF outcomes, preterm birth, gynecologic cancers, and other women’s health conditions.

Priyanka earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, one of Inc.’s Top Female Founders, and one of Goldman Sachs’ Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs.

Roohi Jeelani, MD, FACOG, is a double board-certified reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) specialist, nationally recognized for her leadership in fertility care and women’s health innovation. As both a physician and a former fertility patient living with PCOS, Dr. Jeelani brings a unique combination of clinical expertise, scientific insight, and personal experience to every aspect of patient care.

Dr. Jeelani takes a proactive, patient-centered approach that integrates personalized care with evidence-based medicine. She views fertility as a critical indicator of overall health, enabling her to identify and address factors that influence well-being throughout a patient’s lifespan. Her focus is on delivering exceptional fertility outcomes while supporting long-term health.

As Founder and CEO of Onto Health, Dr. Jeelani is committed to expanding access to high-quality health care, building innovative clinical programs, and ensuring every patient feels informed, supported, and empowered throughout the path to parenthood.

Dr. Ravi Kapur is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of AutoIVF, where he develops technologies that translate biology into real-world clinical impact.

Working at the intersection of life sciences, automation, and translational medicine, he focuses on transforming complex, labor-intensive biological processes into scalable, reliable platforms. Throughout his career, Dr. Kapur has successfully moved innovations from the laboratory into clinical and commercial practice, bridging science, engineering, and execution.

He currently leads efforts to modernize and automate critical workflows in reproductive medicine and cell-based applications, enabling greater consistency, broader access, and improved patient outcomes.

His teams and collaborators include clinicians, engineers, manufacturers, and global partners, united by the belief that meaningful breakthroughs matter only when they reach patients.

Dr. Kapur is motivated by solving technically complex, operationally challenging problems and by building teams that transform vision into scalable systems.

Brian A. Levine, MD, MS, FACOG, is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist and founding partner and Practice Director of CCRM New York. Dr. Levine is nationally recognized for his expertise in fertility treatment, third-party reproduction, fertility preservation, and LGBTQ+ family building.

He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Levine has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is a frequent lecturer on reproductive medicine, fertility preservation, and innovation in IVF. He is committed to expanding access to fertility care through technology, education, and patient-centered treatment.

Santiago (Santi) Munné, PhD, earned his doctorate in Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a pioneer in preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), having developed the first preimplantation genetic test for aneuploidy (PGT-A), which received SART awards in 1994 and 1995; the first PGT-SR for chromosomal translocations, recognized with a SART award in 1996; and the first whole-genome sequencing (PGT-WGS) approach to detect de novo mutations. His research also demonstrated that PGT-A reduces miscarriage rates and increases implantation rates per embryo transfer, earning another SART award in 1998.

Dr. Munné has authored more than 270 scientific publications and has received eight SART and ASRM awards between 1994 and 2022, as well as consecutive ASRM Star Awards from 2011 through 2022. In 2024, his team’s paper on automated intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSIA) received the Robert G. Edwards Prize from Reproductive BioMedicine Online (RBMO).

In 2001, Dr. Munné founded Reprogenetics, the world’s first commercial PGT laboratory, which performed more than 100,000 procedures before being acquired by Cooper Companies (NYSE: COO) in 2016. In 2011, he co-founded Recombine, a genetic carrier screening company that was also acquired by Cooper Companies in 2016. Together, these organizations became CooperGenomics, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer.

In 2017, Dr. Munné co-founded MedAnswers, an infertility telehealth platform, and its spin-off, Ovum Health. That same year, he co-founded Overture Life, a company focused on automating the IVF laboratory, which published the first births resulting from automated ICSI (ICSIA) in 2023.

Dr. Munné is Co-Founder and President of HoMu Health Ventures, an incubator focused on early-stage biomedical innovation in women’s health. He also serves on the boards of SAMA, Butterfly Bio, GenEmbryomics, Ovum Health, and HoMu Health Ventures.

Errol Norwitz is a physician-scientist, academician, educator, healthcare executive, and entrepreneur based in Boston. His current positions include Executive Director of the KMH Center for Health Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Babson College, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of CognitiveCare, and Professor at Tufts University.

His previous positions include President and CEO of Newton-Wellesley Hospital (Mass General Brigham), member of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Board of Scientific Counselors, and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University.

Dr. Norwitz completed his medical training at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), earned a PhD from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, completed fellowship training in obstetrics, gynecology, and maternal-fetal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and earned an MBA from Boston University.

He is the author of 14 textbooks, more than 90 book chapters, and more than 300 original research articles and reviews (H-index: 81). His goal is to use the full breadth of his training, scholarship, and leadership experience to identify and implement creative, systems-based solutions to humanity’s most pressing healthcare challenges.

David Sable, MD, directs healthcare and life science investing, including both public and venture investments, for AWM Investment Company in New York.

After graduating from the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he completed residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at New York Hospital and fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Sable co-founded and served as Director of the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey. He also founded Assisted Reproductive Medical Technologies, which was acquired by Saint Barnabas in 1999, and co-founded Reprogenetics, which was acquired by CooperSurgical in 2015. After leaving clinical medicine, he managed a proprietary healthcare investment portfolio at Deutsche Bank before joining AWM Investment Company.

Dr. Sable teaches Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology at Columbia University and has lectured on healthcare investing, policy, and biotechnology business development at the Wharton School, Penn Medicine, New York University, Rockefeller University, and Rutgers University. He has delivered keynote presentations for the American Fertility Society, Texas Fertility Society, and Mexican Fertility Society and has appeared on CBS Morning News, ABC World News Tonight, NY1 News, CNN, and PBS’s Nova to discuss innovation in reproductive medicine.

He has served on the boards of Genenews Inc., Hamilton Thorne, Ohana BioSciences, Celmatix, MedAnswers, TMRW Life Sciences, and RESOLVE, as well as the advisory boards of OvaScience, Progyny, Evvy, Conceivable, and Nucleus.

In addition to his academic publications, Dr. Sable has written for the Newark Star-Ledger, Yoga Journal, Xconomy, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Wharton Magazine, Forbes, and STAT.

Denny Sakkas, PhD, has been involved in the field of in vitro fertilization (IVF) since the early 1980s. He earned his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Alan Trounson at Monash University, one of the world’s leading reproductive research centers. During that time, he helped develop and disseminate several innovations that are now routinely used in IVF laboratories worldwide, including training numerous groups in micromanipulation techniques and helping introduce blastocyst culture.

Dr. Sakkas has since led his own research laboratories and served as Scientific and Laboratory Director of IVF programs throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

His research has focused on sperm DNA damage, fertilization, early embryo development, and male infertility. More recently, his work has advanced live imaging of human embryos, expanding understanding of embryo metabolism and cell lineage.

Throughout his career, Dr. Sakkas has received extensive research funding and continues to develop innovations spanning basic science, translational research, and commercial applications in human and animal reproduction. He currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Boston IVF / IVIRMA North America and Associate Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Ula Sankowska is CEO and Co-Founder of MIM Fertility, a Polish deep-tech company specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for the healthcare industry. She works closely with IVF clinics to standardize, optimize, and automate clinical workflows and leads the company alongside Co-Founder and CTO Piotr Wygocki.

The company’s flagship AI-powered products—EMBRYOAID, FOLLISCAN, and ENDOSCAN—are designed to enhance diagnosis and treatment, increasing success rates while reducing the time and cost associated with fertility care. Under her leadership, FOLLISCAN received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance, positioning MIM Fertility among the first companies to achieve this milestone in reproductive medicine AI and opening the U.S. market for the product.

Sankowska has more than 15 years of professional experience spanning business and government. She is a graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics and University College Dublin (UCD), where she received scholarships from both the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Irish government.

Her honors include the Polish Businesswoman of the Year Award, the Excellence in AI Award from the Perspektywy Foundation (2023), and recognition as one of Forbes’ Top 100 Most Influential Women (2023). MIM Fertility also received the Best Innovation Award from the European Fertility Society in 2023.

She is a frequent speaker at international reproductive medicine conferences and has represented MIM Fertility at events including ASRM, ESHRE, COGI, Fertivision India, and FSANZ.

Carli Sapir is the Founding Partner of Amboy Street Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in high-growth women’s health and sexual health startups. Her firm’s recent investments include Evvy — vaginal microbiome testing and care, Contaline — male birth control, Granata Bio — IVF therapeutics, and Juniper Genomics — whole genome sequencing of embryos.

Carli has a background in private equity and engineering. In 2023, Carli was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Carli also started the Female Founded Club (FFC), a global platform that introduces venture capital investors to high-quality female-founded startups. While operating the FFC, Carli recognized that the lack of venture capital invested in women’s health care was stunting the growth of startups tackling significant health problems for half of the world’s population. Carli founded Amboy Street Ventures to shift the funding landscape that, until now, dictated the innovation in this space.

Jaime Shamonki, MD, is Chief Operating Officer of US Fertility, the medical and laboratory services organization supporting the largest network of reproductive endocrinology and infertility practices in the United States. At USF, an L Catterton and Amulet Capital co-sponsored portfolio company, she oversees a $900 million revenue platform, covering clinical and commercial operations, sales, procurement, and the enterprise Project Management Office. Jaime’s two-decade career in life sciences includes executive leadership under five private equity sponsors. Prior to joining USF, she was VP of Clinical Strategy and Market Development at CooperSurgical, leading an international team across their women’s health portfolio. For the preceding eight years, she was Chief Medical Officer of Generate Life Sciences, a global platform in reproductive tissue banking, newborn stem cell banking, and IVF medical devices. Jaime is a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist trained at Weill Cornell and UCLA, with expertise across reproductive medicine, tissue banking, stem cell medicine, blood banking, clinical genetics, and laboratory management.

Dr. Smith graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in molecular biology and subsequently matriculated from UCSF, earning a master’s degree in 2000 (UC Berkeley) and MD in 2002 (UCSF). After completing a general surgery internship and urology residency at the University of Utah and an Andrology fellowship from UCSF (2007-2009), Dr. Smith joined the UCSF Department of Urology faculty and became Director of Male Reproductive Health, ultimately achieving the rank of Professor in Residence.

Since 2023, Dr. Smith is Professor of Urology at UCSF and Chief Medical Officer of Fellow Health. At UCSF, he cares for fertility and sexual health patients, trains medical students, residents, and fellows. At Fellow Health, he leads the clinical research program, is the NY state lab director, and works closely with hospital systems, clinicians, investors, and payers across the US.

Dr. Smith’s male reproductive investigations have spanned basic science, translational, clinical trials, and large-scale epidemiological research. He is passionate about breaking down barriers in access to reproductive care and driving innovation in the field.

Dr. Smith is President of the American Society of Andrology, Past President of the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (AUA), and Past President of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology (ASRM). He loves collaborating with trainees, clinicians, scientists, patient advocates, health care payers, and biotech partners to address complex clinical, research, and public policy challenges.

Evan Sussman is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Granata Bio, a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing innovation in reproductive health and expanding access to fertility care.

Since founding the company in 2018, he has led the development of a diversified pipeline that includes commercial-stage fertility medicines and novel therapeutic programs focused on infertility, ovarian reserve preservation, and women’s reproductive health. Under his leadership, Granata Bio has secured support from leading healthcare and venture investors, established strategic pharmaceutical partnerships, and advanced multiple clinical-stage programs.

Before founding Granata Bio, Sussman spent nine years at EMD Serono (Merck KGaA), where he led the U.S. Fertility Technologies business. He previously served on the corporate councils of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University and an MBA in Healthcare Leadership from Yale University.

Melissa Teran is CEO and Co-Founder of Alife Health, where she combines deep expertise in clinical product development, executive leadership, and personal experience as an IVF patient to improve outcomes in fertility care.

As both CEO and former COO, she has spent more than five years building and scaling Alife, directing company strategy, operations, and product development.

Before co-founding Alife, Teran spent more than a decade developing products for leading surgical robotics companies, including total knee replacement technologies at Mako Surgical (acquired by Stryker for $1.6 billion) and robotic lung biopsy systems at Auris Health (acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $3.4 billion).

Throughout her career, she has led multidisciplinary teams spanning engineering, product management, and user experience, with a focus on translating complex clinical needs into impactful, user-centered solutions.

Teran earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Megann Vaughn Watters is a proven healthcare strategy, innovation, corporate development, and investment executive who has spent 15 years helping shape Labcorp’s growth strategy through the identification, evaluation, commercialization, and scaling of transformative science, technology, and strategic partnerships. As Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances and Managing Director/Head of the Labcorp Venture Fund, she leads one of the company’s most strategically connected functions, operating at the intersection of corporate strategy, innovation, venture investing, business development, diagnostics, and biopharma services, and executing strategic and commercial collaborations that accelerate access to emerging healthcare technologies.

As one of the founding members of the Labcorp Venture Fund, Megann has managed more than $300M in total equity investments in over 90 early-stage private companies with novel science and technology making healthcare more convenient, accessible, data-driven, and personalized.

Megann previously held positions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner for medical devices and Humacyte, conducting tissue engineering research.  Megann received her M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and her B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.

Megann is a mother of two young kids, wife, daughter, sister, reader, yogi, and Peloton enthusiast.

Beth Zoneraich is Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Fertility, Inc., one of the nation’s leading fertility care organizations. She leads the company’s strategic growth and oversees a nationwide network of physician-led fertility clinics, laboratories, and family-building services, including Pinnacle Egg Bank and Pinnacle Surrogacy. Under her leadership, Pinnacle has expanded rapidly through strategic partnerships while remaining focused on delivering exceptional clinical care and an outstanding patient experience.

Before becoming CEO, Beth co-founded Advanced Fertility Care (AFC) with her husband, Dr. Nate Zoneraich. Following AFC’s partnership with Pinnacle Fertility, she served as Chief Operating Officer before being appointed Chief Executive Officer.

Beth is recognized for building and scaling high-performing healthcare organizations through collaboration, operational excellence, and innovation. She is passionate about expanding access to fertility care, advancing reproductive medicine, and improving outcomes for the patients and families Pinnacle serves.