Kristi Ebong - Partner

With seasoned operating experience and deep industry networks, Kristi understands digital health from the inside out.

Kristi currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Letters & Science, on the advisory board for The Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business; and as a KOL for the global thought leadership consultancy HealthXL. Prior to HealthX, Kristi was the 2nd full-time hire at Define Ventures, an early-stage VC fund with $800M AUM focused on investing in early-stage digital health companies that are redefining healthcare. She partnered closely with Define entrepreneurs to position them for growth & scale.

Before Define, Kristi was at VC-backed generative AI company Orbita. She joined at the seed stage working across product, marketing, and sales. She came to Orbita from her role as Head of Emerging Technology at Cedars-Sinai where she launched the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Powered by Techstars and partnered with early-stage healthcare startups through Cedars' corporate venture fund.

Kristi holds a BA in political science and global security from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MBA from The Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business, and an MPH from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Samantha McGrandy - Chief Financial Officer

Samantha brings over a decade of experience leading operations in the financial and social impact sectors. She spent a majority of her career at a boutique Venture Capital firm focused largely on health tech investments, maturing the firm’s operations and substantially growing the company’s profitability, client base and culture. Before joining HealthX, she also served as the Chief of Staff for a social impact start-up focused on funding opportunities for the underprivileged, helping launch the company’s first major global initiatives.

An NYU graduate and sixteen-year veteran of NYC, Samantha is a Midwesterner at heart and is excited to bring her skills and experience to the HealthX team. In her free time, Samantha loves nothing more than to be outdoors with her young daughter and is excited that things are opening again for traveling overseas and attending live concerts.

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Joel Martin - Operating Partner

With over fifteen years of experience in healthcare information technology, Joel knows the ecosystem inside and out. He's worked with the politics and people at every level of healthcare systems, from IT analysts to surgeons to executives, learning all the levers to pull, and traps to avoid, along the way.

Joel also knows the inside of rapidly growing startups, growing a business unit to $11 million in annual revenue while wearing a variety of operational hats as Nordic quadrupled in size over his five year there. A tireless problem solver, Joel helps our portfolio companies with every operational challenge imaginable, from product strategy to implementation planning to administrative systems.

Joel has a BS in Philosophy and Business from UW Madison and an MS in Statistics from the University of Minnesota. In his free time, he reads sci fi, plays racquetball, and chases around two little boys and a crazy coonhound.

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Shabaka Gibson - Principal

Shabaka brings over 20 years of experience supporting startups and large businesses. Prior to HealthX, Shabaka was the Director of the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Wisconsin, a globally-focused, seed-stage acceleration program for highly innovative start-ups in health and risk management. ​

​During his time at CDL-Wisconsin, Shabaka evaluated over 750 high-tech, innovative start-ups for selection into the program. Once in the program, Shabaka helped the companies gain access to high-quality business and scientific support through the massive network of exited founders, C-suite operators, scientists, and VC and angel investors he cultivated to volunteer their time with the founders.​

​Shabaka spent 8 years with ExxonMobil in various corporate affairs roles around the world, where he supported many major business development activities for the company. He is a former US Army military intelligence officer with a Bronze Star from his service in Iraq. ​

​Gibson holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Western Michigan University, a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate of business administration from the University of Maryland

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Laura Hilty - Principal

Laura Hilty has spent over 17 years working to improve the healthcare and clinical research ecosystem through technology in leadership roles spanning corporate strategy, M&A, product strategy, product management, and partnerships across stages from company start-up to scale. Through that time, she led and launched six technology products, drove M&A strategic evaluation and processes resulting in 6 acquisitions, and developed corporate strategy that drove the thesis for investment and acquisitions. She has been on the sell side of company exits twice, helping develop a strategic thesis for growth that the company has continued to follow. This has not only expedited clinical trials, but ultimately resulted in a 3-year turnaround from $1B to $5B company valuation. With clinical research domain expertise combined with experience in Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs), she is passionate about creating new paradigms in healthcare that create impactful and sustainable change.

Laura has a Bachelor’s in Molecular / Cell Biology from Vanderbilt University, is a mentor to start-up entrepreneurs in Madison, active in helping improve healthcare in Africa, and spends her free time negotiating with her young daughter or outdoors hiking or kayaking.

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Alexis Johnson - Executive Assistant and Office Manager

Alexis, a lifelong Madison resident, started her career in 2010 as employee #4 at Nordic Consulting Partners. In the early days at Nordic she did everything from cleaning the office to processing expenses for consultants and billing clients, eventually working her way up to Billing and Reimbursements Manager. In 2017 Alexis jumped on the opportunity to work with Mark Bakken again and joined HealthX. These days she is doing what she does best - a little bit of everything! From paying bills to organizing events to scheduling travel, if you’re not sure who to contact at HealthX, she’s a great place to start.

In her free time Alexis enjoys cooking, hiking, hot yoga, and hanging out with her animals.

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