BAW Breakout Session Panelists

Stephanie Baker is associate professor and chair of the public health studies department at Elon University. She is a scholar-activist, and her work uses an anti-racism lens, combined with community-based participatory research, to understand and address racial health inequities.

Baker earned her PhD in health behavior from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in physical therapy from WashU. Her recent work, in collaboration with community partners, has focused on maternal and child health and reproductive justice. She is a co-founder and director of the Health Equity and Racism (HER) Lab, and she enjoys mentoring undergraduate students in research and career development.  

Kylia Combs is a builder, marketer, and entrepreneur who helps companies turn ambitious ideas into real-world impact. As founder of TheBuildCo., she partners with growth-stage organizations to bridge strategy and execution across marketing, operations, and product, including helping teams navigate how AI is reshaping the way we work and create. Over the course of her career, she has led growth and brand initiatives for companies ranging from Procter & Gamble and Dell to Grammarly and emerging startups. 

Beyond her client work, Combs serves as chair of the WashU Bay Area Innovators & Entrepreneurs Network, where she brings together alumni founders, innovators, and investors. She is passionate about creating pathways for the next generation of builders and exploring how technology can expand opportunity while keeping people at the center of innovation. 

Bettina Drake is the Michael F. Neidorff Professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and associate director of community outreach and engagement for Siteman Cancer Center. She is a cancer epidemiologist, and her research has focused on identifying preventive strategies and integrating community engagement approaches to reduce cancer disparities.

Currently, she leads two National Cancer Institute centers: the Participant Engagement and Cancer Genome Sequencing Study (PECGS), which aims to understand engagement among patients of rare cancers and high-risk populations; and the WashU Advancing Cancer Control Engaged Research Through Transformative Solutions (ACCERT) center, which was designed to directly address the social drivers of health identified as top priorities by community partners in the St Louis region. As director of the St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Practice she is building infrastructure to foster community-engagement within the university’s academic mission

Trained in biomedical engineering and neural engineering at Duke University and WashU, Jeff Gamble spent his research career working at the intersection of biological systems and computational intelligence, exploring how neural networks — both biological and artificial — could be leveraged to develop novel interventions for functional disabilities.

He has applied this experience as founder and COO of Rezilient Health, a tech-enabled health care services company pioneering a hybrid care delivery model that integrates virtual medicine with physical “CloudClinics.” Under his leadership, Rezilient has built a vertically integrated platform combining software, clinical operations, and multispecialty care to expand access, improve patient experience, and lower costs for employers and health systems. Prior to Rezilient, Gamble founded SnapPEAS, an AI-powered nutrition platform, and worked part-time in a product role at Neurolutions, a WashU startup that created the first FDA-approved brain-computer interface.

Dr. Lannis Hall is the director of radiation oncology at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital and professor of clinical radiation oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. She also serves as the director of clinical studies outreach and vice chair of the senior leadership committee on research, in addition to leading the Clinical Trials Outreach Core within the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) at Siteman Cancer Center. 

Her contributions extend beyond clinical excellence and research initiatives to encompass community education on early cancer detection and screening. She advises the St. Louis County Health Department on cancer summary reports and serves as an advisor on the St. Louis County Health Board. She spearheaded a partnership between the Hazelwood School District and Siteman Cancer Center to offer a young women’s breast health series, which has educated over 10,000 young women in the past seven years, and also leads The First Ladies of St. Louis Health Empowerment Seminar, a coalition of various community and hospital groups designed to provide screening and health education to faith-based communities.  

Sean Joe is the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development for WashU Brown School, and a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among Black Americans. His research focuses on Black adolescents’ mental health service use patterns, the role of religion in Black suicidal behavior, salivary biomarkers for suicidal behavior, and development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent urban African American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors. Working within the Center for Social Development, Joe has launched the Race and Opportunity Lab, which examines race, opportunity, and social mobility in the St. Louis region. Known as HomeGrown STL, the lab is a multi-systemic, placed-based capacity-building intervention to enhance upward mobility opportunities and health of Black males ages 12-29.

He serves on the Steering Committee of the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and the National Advisory Council of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative. In recognition of the impact of his work, Joe was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Society for Social Work and Research, and the New York Academy of Medicine. 

Andwele Jolly is president and CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network (IHN), a regional healthcare intermediary that brings together federally qualified health centers, health systems, academic institutions, public health agencies, and community organizations to strengthen the healthcare safety net and improve population health.

Beyond his executive leadership, Jolly serves on several civic and public health boards, including Build Missouri Health, the Missouri Public Health Institute, Forest Park Forever, and the National Council for the Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.

His commitment to healthcare innovation and systems transformation extends internationally. As a 2018 Eisenhower Fellow, Jolly studied innovative models of care in Rwanda and Australia. He holds multiple degrees from WashU and Georgia State University and previously served as the inaugural executive management fellow at WashU Medicine.

Ransom currently serves as the executive director of the Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law at WashU, where she leads interdisciplinary scholarship and policy engagement at the intersection of health, law, technology, ethics, and governance. 

She previously spent nearly two decades at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she helped advance the fields of public health law and legal epidemiology and their application to public health practice. She is a longtime educator and lead editor of Public Health Law: Concepts and Case Studies. Her scholarship and national leadership span public health law, public health leadership, vaccine law and policy, health equity, and the legal and ethical dimensions of public health decision making. Ransom also is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) certified executive leadership coach, and a nationally recognized voice on belonging and leadership. 

Ndidi Oteh is the CEO of Accenture Song, the world’s leading tech-powered creative group. In her role, Oteh oversees the $20 billion service, leading a global team focused on helping clients develop customer growth strategies and create harmonized customer experiences across design, marketing, customer service, commerce, sales, and digital products. 

Previously, she served as the Americas lead for Accenture Song, overseeing its largest geographic market. Since joining Accenture in 2011, Oteh has led complex digital transformations and consumer growth strategies for Fortune 500 companies and served as global client account lead for one of Accenture’s largest products clients. 

In 2026, Oteh was named to ADWEEK’s inaugural AI Power 50 list. She is a member of the Fast Company Impact Council, The Wall Street Journal CMO Council and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in the U.S. 

Dr. Toriola is a professor of surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery at WashU Medicine, and a William H. Danforth Washington University Physician-Scientist Scholar. As an epidemiologist specializing in the study of the underlying determinants of breast cancer in premenopausal women, he leads several programs at Siteman Cancer Center and WashU Medicine, including serving as co-director of the PROUD-MED initiative at the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, which is aimed at enhancing the academic and professional development of early career clinical faculty, and is principal investigator of the Toriola Lab.

He was recognized for his achievements in breast cancer prevention with the 2022 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research.

Malcolm Townes is the director of technology development for the WashU Office of Technology Management/Technology Transfer (OTM), where he oversees the creation, implementation, and operation of programs and services to strategically refine, improve, and de-risk promising WashU technologies to help advance them towards successful commercialization. He has been a technology transfer practitioner for 20 years and previously worked for the technology transfer offices at Saint Louis University and Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is an active technology transfer researcher who primarily focuses on investigating issues at the intersection of public policy and practice. 

Townes earned a doctorate in public and social policy from Saint Louis University, an MBA with concentrations in marketing and entrepreneurship from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology. 

Ronné Patrick Turner joined WashU in 2016, and as vice provost of enrollment management is responsible for planning and directing the recruitment of undergraduate students to WashU, and for implementing strategies to increase the strength and diversity of the student body. She also oversees student financial services, and the College Prep Program, a free, three-year immersive learning experience that serves to prepare local first-generation high school students for college life. During her time leading undergraduate enrollment at WashU, Ronné and her team successfully implemented need-blind admissions, no-loan packaging, and other initiatives to expand opportunities for talented students regardless of their backgrounds.

Before WashU, Turner spent nearly 15 years at Northeastern University, where she led and directed undergraduate admission and enrollment. Prior to Northeastern, Turner worked for more than a decade at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she served in various admission roles. Turner also worked as an assistant director of admissions at her alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in social and behavioral science. She also earned a master’s degree in social foundations of education from the University of Maryland.

Josh Walehwa is special advisor to the executive vice chancellor & chief operating officer at WashU after spending much of his career supporting student affairs, finance, human resources, facilities, IT, safety and security, graduate enrollment, and administrative operations. Born in Uganda and raised by a single mother in California, Walehwa is a first-generation college graduate whose personal journey shapes his professional commitment to college access and student success.

He holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and has held senior administrative roles at institutions including Georgia Tech, along with over 20 years serving various higher education institutions across the country. 

Andrew Witt is the inaugural Kavita and Krishna Bharat Professor, a joint appointment in the Sam Fox School and the McKelvey School of Engineering. Witt leads university efforts in AI and design, integrating emerging technologies into both academic and studio experiences and developing new courses and research frameworks that shape the future of design education and practice.

Prior to joining WashU in January 2026, Witt had been on the faculty of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design since 2010, most recently as an associate professor in practice in architecture. He was co-director of Harvard’s Master in Design Engineering and the founder and director of the school’s Geometry Lab, which explores the intersection of design and the science of shape and form. He is the author of Formulations: Architecture, Mathematics, Culture, (MIT Press) and Light Harmonies: The Rhythmic Photographs of Heinrich Heidersberger (Hatje Kantz). His current book project, The Cyborg Home, considers the history and future of autonomous and artificially intelligent houses.