DIRECTOR

NanaYaa Mensah-Thomas is the Managing Partner and founder of Purelite Ventures. Purelite Ventures is a Healthcare venture capital firm based in New York which specializes in funding seed stage startups. She graduated with a Biology degree from Grinnell College, and worked as a research and clinical laboratory scientist, as well as a quality control/quality assurance lead at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for over two decades. She completed her MBA at Columbia Business School, where her passion for venture capital was born. She currently serves as a mentor at Techstars Chicago, and Nucleate, where she has the opportunity to help the next wave of founders cultivate winning strategies for their startups.

ADVISOR/BOARD MEMBER

Céline Gauchey is a graduate student at Columbia University studying Computer Science. Prior to beginning her masters, she was a software engineer at JPMorgan Chase & Co for three years. She graduated from Barnard College in 2019 with a double major in Economics and Psychology. During her time at Barnard, Céline held internships at various venture capital firms and startup accelerators, including the Techstars IoT Accelerator, NextGen Venture Partners, and Founder.org. She also spent a summer interning in the fashion department of ELLE Magazine. While at Columbia, she was a part of the Columbia Economics Society and Columbia University American Red Cross Chapter executive boards. Céline is originally from San Francisco and is currently based in New York City.

ADVISOR/BOARD MEMBER

Lisa Smith is the CEO and founder of Moving On Productions, (TrAnscrIbed) a captioning and subtitling company. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Political Science and then worked as a journalist, writer, and television producer before completing her MBA. Immediately afterward she started Moving On Productions choosing to bootstrap and operate as a solopreneur but eventually expanding to a team in the US and the Philippines. Her experiences, and the obstacles along the way, have made her passionate about supporting other female founders in their startup journey. She regularly mentors and advises entrepreneurs. She also founded a nonprofit, Enable Mothers, which supports single mothers with an opportunity gap in obtaining remote jobs.

FOUNDER/BOARD MEMBER

Shashi Srikantan is a Managing Director and the Head of Level Up Ventures at Hearst Corporation, where she leads early-stage investments with a focus on bridging the funding gap for Black, Latino, and women entrepreneurs. She has over 20 years of experience in finance and entrepreneurship, beginning her career as a structured credit analyst before transitioning into venture capital. Before joining Hearst, she founded her own startup and held roles in investment and strategy. Beyond her work at Hearst, she is deeply engaged in the broader venture ecosystem, collaborating with investors, founders, and organizations to foster a more equitable and inclusive innovation economy. Her mission is clear: to unlock opportunities and create lasting impact where capital has historically been scarce.

SPONSORSHIP LEAD

Katherine Lee is a PhD candidate in Pathobiology and Mechanisms of Disease at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she investigates how ribosomal DNA damage impacts hematopoiesis and leukemia transformation. She is also an MBA candidate at NYU Stern, with strong interest venture capital ecosystem building. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she was a Cancer Research Training Award Fellow at the National Cancer Institute, where she studied mechanisms of carcinogenesis in oral cancer using advanced imaging techniques. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2019 with a BS in Biology, where she conducted research at both the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Georgetown University School of Medicine. Her current research was supported by the Genome and Epigenome Integrity in Cancer T32 Predoctoral Award for two consecutive years. Katherine is actively involved in mentoring through Columbia University's Health Sciences Exploration and Research Experience program, which aims to inspire students from historically underrepresented groups to join health professions. Originally from Hong Kong, she is currently based in New York City.

OPERATION LEAD

Marsha B. Murphy is an alumni of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation with a Master of Science degree in Real Estate Development. She is a 14-year veteran of the real estate brokerage sector in New York and New Jersey and is licensed with Serhant Real Estate via The Lesley Steiner Team. Over the years she specialized in international relocation, managing multiple accounts and hundreds of clients for the team in the Hudson County and New York City region, grossing millions of dollars in transactions. She has transitioned into the commercial and real estate development markets, where she concentrates on institutional-level off-market asset transactions throughout the country.

In addition to her work in real estate brokerage, Marsha specializes in redevelopment and value-add acquisitions and is in the process of securing investment properties of her own. Her goal is to redevelop the existing built environment into structures that no longer cause the significant carbon, water, material, and energy waste that contributes to the climate change taking place worldwide.

Marsha is a Chicago-born native with two undergraduate degrees: a BFA in Fine Art from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in Art from Western Illinois University. 

EVENT AND WORKSHOP LEAD

Orcun Dogmazer is a Fulbright Scholar studying International Affairs at Columbia SIPA with a particular focus on development. He graduated from Koc University in Istanbul with a degree in Economics and International Relations. During undergrad, he co-founded a digital marketing SaaS and engaged in various community-building activities, mostly through his podcast series. Before joining Columbia University, he worked as an analyst in a global development firm working to advance the SDG agenda. He has prior experience in product, growth & e-commerce and is an alumnus of the Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation.

FOUNDER LEAD

Vinita Vijay is a venture and strategy professional with over nine years of global experience across private equity, venture capital, and early-stage company building. She began her career in investing, managing over $100M in transactions across India, North America, and APAC, before co-founding a technology advisory firm supporting startups on go-to-market strategy, product validation, and fundraising. She also led U.S. expansion efforts for a $17B publicly listed multinational, launching operations across 10+ cities. Vinita has worked with founders across FinTech, HealthTech, and SaaS to refine business models, launch MVPs, and navigate key inflection points - from customer discovery and technical validation to early GTM, AI product strategy, and capital raise. While her expertise is rooted in business and investments, she thrives at the intersection of product and technology, translating market insights into actionable decisions. As a founding and investment committee member of a $20M India-based venture capital fund, she focuses on backing high-growth tech companies in emerging and underserved cities. Vinita holds a Master’s in Technology Management from Columbia University and remains actively engaged in the venture ecosystem through her commitment to building inclusive and innovation-driven communities.

INSTRUCTOR LEAD

Jessica is a seasoned finance leader with over fifteen years of finance and strategy experience at different financial institutions and tech companies, covering multiple industries. She has proven leadership in financial modeling and forecasting, credit risk management, capital markets strategies, investments and synthesizing it for executives. She is currently Head of Finance and Operations at Kea AI and in this role, she manages and owns all aspects of finance, from the operational to the legal to the compliance to the strategic aspects. She resides in San Francisco with her husband and two kids.