Margaret Cartiera serves as the Innovation Director at Yale’s Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT) and the YNHHS Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI). She is also a Venture Advisor at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (TsaiCITY).

Dr. Cartiera has a passion for early stage innovation and holds nearly 20 years of experience working across the medical device, diagnostics, health IT, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology sectors. She's held various leadership positions and has expertise in investments, competitive intelligence, operations, team building, and business development. She successfully transferred technology from the academic setting, secured funding, and negotiated collaborative agreements with leading industry partners. Prior to joining Yale, Dr. Cartiera led Connecticut’s $200M 10-year Bioscience Innovation Fund and the Regenerative Medicine Research Fund.

Dr. Cartiera earned a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. from Yale University in biomedical engineering.

Kaakpema, who goes by “KP,” is a global entrepreneur and public health practitioner with experience working across the public and private sectors in the United States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Caribbean. He is a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health and the Faculty Director for InnovateHealth Yale. Kaakpema Co-Founded InOn Health in 2018. The company improved access to care in the United States using digital communication channels and consumer insights to better connect multicultural populations to healthcare services. Prior to InOn Health, he also founded access.mobile International. access.mobile was a global digital health company that developed solutions to improve access to health information and services in African countries. KP served as one of the early employees of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and worked as a management consultant for Dalberg Global Development Advisors. He is a member of the External Equity and Innovation Advisory Board for the American Medical Association and was appointed by Governor Jared Polis to serve on the Colorado eHealth Commission, which he chairs. Kaakpema received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Brown University and a Master of Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health. He is a 2023 Rock Health Top 50 in Digital Health Luminaries honoree. 

Walter Lindop is a dedicated champion of healthcare transformation, guiding innovators and clinicians to develop and scale digital health solutions that address urgent clinical needs. As Lead Innovation Consultant at the YNHHS Center for Healthcare Innovation, he mentors teams throughout the innovation lifecycle, from ideation to implementation, drawing on his expertise in product management, data analytics, and patient-centric design. Walter also leads the early-stage digital health venture investments portfolio, where his team sources, vets, and invests in technologies poised to transform the standard of care for hospitals and health systems.

Before joining Yale New Haven Health, Walter helped create and build a novel spin-out, where he led cross-functional teams to develop and launch disease management and big data platforms, significantly improving care coordination for patients with chronic conditions.

Recognized for his leadership in health AI, Walter oversees the strategic selection and co-development of advanced administrative and clinical solutions, accelerating transformative improvements in patient care and outcomes. His expertise in both healthcare and technology is shaping tomorrow’s breakthroughs in patient care.

Dr. Shawn Ong is a physician–scientist and clinical innovator at Yale School of Medicine, where he integrates patient care with translational research and healthcare innovation. His work is centered on improving clinical outcomes through data-driven approaches, digital health solutions, and system-level innovation that strengthens how care is delivered across diverse settings. In his academic and clinical roles, Dr. Ong collaborates closely with interdisciplinary teams spanning medicine, technology, and health systems to translate emerging evidence into practical tools and workflows that support clinicians and patients. He has contributed to initiatives aimed at advancing evidence-based care, strengthening clinical decision-making, and accelerating the responsible adoption of innovative technologies within academic medicine and healthcare delivery organizations. Trained through rigorous medical and doctoral pathways, Dr. Ong also supports the next generation of clinicians and researchers through mentorship and professional development, while remaining actively engaged in Yale’s broader ecosystem of clinical research, entrepreneurship, and innovation.