As the Managing Director of Women’s Health at Springboard Enterprises, a non-profit focused on helping women entrepreneurs scale high-growth startups, Jennifer leads Springboard’s efforts in the vertical of women’s health innovation. Jennifer is also the Co-Founder of Freeze Health, an informational platform helping women decide if, when and where to seek fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF.
As the Co-Founder, she has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, and the Washington Post. Jennifer advises and supports several health innovation companies and initiatives.
Jennifer, welcome onboard the team as our Digital Health Today Ambassador!
- Tell us a bit more about yourself, your background and what you’re doing now.
I’ve been in the health innovation world my entire career, and don’t plan on leaving it! It’s such a cool combination of people who are business-driven, but also focused on a positive impact – the perfect combination of my interests.
- How did you get involved with digital health?
My undergraduate degree was in Biology, and I was pre-med most of my college life – but wasn’t certain I wanted to go to medical school, and ended up dipping my toe into the startup side of healthcare, and haven’t looked back.
- Tell us about where you come from and some of the health and technology innovation that’s happening there.
I’m from Baltimore, MD, which is most known for Johns Hopkins – one of the top hospitals in the nation (when I grew up it was #1, but Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic have surpassed it!). It’s also the headquarters for CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) – one of the most notable purchases of healthcare, and one of the most notable drivers of healthcare technology (Electronic Medical Records anyone?).
Now, I live in Miami, FL, which is most known for its Latino/a population. Over half of our population is foreign-born, over two-thirds are Latino/a and/or Hispanic, and almost three-quarters speak a language other than English at home. We are also home to the #1 eye hospital in the country, Bascom Palmer (part of University of Miami Health System). And, we are part the third largest state by population, including a larger-than-average senior population (who doesn’t want to retire in Florida?). This makes us a prime place to do business in healthcare.
- What are some of your top interests and what should people contact you about?
My biggest interest in health innovation is fertility, because I co-founded a startup in that space (Freeze Health). I’m also very interested in startups that promote transparency for consumers in all aspects of deciding on a provider (including, most importantly, cost). I would love to support anything that helps healthcare behave more like other technologies that millennials are accustomed to (like Uber and Airbnb) – as a member of the health innovation community, but also as a healthcare consumer myself.
- Anything else you’d like to share?
I love to meet people in person! If you’ll be in Miami, and you’re in health innovation, I would love to meet up to share professional interests, and to make sure you see what I love about Miami!
