Cecilia Aviles, MBA, BSN, RN, is the Chief Executive Officer of LifeLong Medical Care, a Federally Qualified Health Center serving over 55,000 patients across Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the East Bay. A native San Franciscan who started her career as a trauma nurse, she brings more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience — including 11 years at Sutter Health and earlier stints at Kaiser Permanente, UCSF, KPMG, and McKesson — to lead one of the Bay Area's most vital safety-net providers. A Carol Emmott Fellow and recognized among the Bay Area's top Hispanic nurses, she is committed to making healthcare accessible, equitable, and affordable for underserved communities.
Susan Kuo is the Co-Founder and COO of Singular, a marketing intelligence platform headquartered in Palo Alto, California that unifies marketing analytics and attribution for the world's top performance marketers. A veteran of mobile ad tech and gaming, she previously built go-to-market strategy from the ground up as SVP of Sales & Business Development at Onavo (acquired by Facebook in 2013), and held senior roles at InMobi, Booyah, Gaia Online, and Electronic Arts. Since co-founding Singular in 2014 alongside Gadi Eliashiv and Eran Friedman, she has led global partnerships and business development while also championing diversity in tech through THRIVE, a community platform she founded to connect and empower women in growth marketing.
Rick Winningham is the CEO of Theravance Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company focused on organ-selective medicines for serious diseases including COPD, rare neurological conditions, and inflammatory diseases. With over 40 years in the pharmaceutical industry - including 13 years as CEO of Innoviva and 15 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb - Winningham has built a career defined by transformative drug development, strategic company leadership, and a widely recognized commitment to mentoring the next generation of biopharma executives, particularly women in leadership. He was named the 2026 HBA Honorable Mentor by the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association.
Valeska Schroeder, Ph.D., is CEO and Chairman of the Board at Cerapedics Inc., the Colorado-based orthobiologics company behind i-FACTOR and PearlMatrix - two of only three FDA PMA-approved bone grafts on the U.S. spine market. A materials scientist by training (BS, MS, PhD from UC Berkeley), she spent the first part of her career in medtech product development before transitioning to venture investing at KCK MedTech, where she led deals and sat on boards of companies including Sight Sciences, Aerin Medical, Intuity Medical, and Lungpacer. She joined Cerapedics' board in 2018, deepened her involvement in 2021, and took the helm as CEO in November 2022, steering the company through PearlMatrix's landmark FDA approval in June 2025 - making Cerapedics the only company with two PMA-approved spinal biologics.
Leslie Riley is an Analyst at Right Side Capital Management (RSCM), a quantitative pre-VC investment firm in San Francisco that has made 2,000+ early-stage bets since 2012. She brings a rare combination: West Point grad, seven-year Army Aviation officer who flew CH-47D Chinooks over Kosovo and South Korea, then reinvented herself as a facilitator, keynote speaker, and leadership coach for Fortune 500s and federal agencies before landing in venture. She's also a published author, founder of The Penny Project (which has raised $4,800+ for charity), an ultra-marathoner, and creator of the Lead Like a Girl community for women in leadership.