Networking 101: Breaking the first barriers is a free event that will feature a panel discussion during which you will hear highly experienced professionals discussion their own tips and secrets on making those useful connections can alter the course of your career. This is the first of a two part series and will focus primarily on that initial meeting and interaction. The event continues afterwards with a Networking Session and libations, during which you can put your skills to the practice and make some meaningful connections. This event will be of particular interest to early career professionals and trainees, but will still be relevant to even the most senior professionals.

About the event: The panel is comprised of 3 local professionals who are well versed in networking and will briefly share their story and some key tips. The bulk of the panel discussion will be an open Q&A session.

The panel:

Dima Elissa - CEO and founder of VisMed-3D

Andrew Klein - Director of Sales and Support at Plexon, Inc.

Garry Cooper - CEO and co-founder Rheaply, Inc.

Moderator - Steve Gould - Founder and principal of The Gould Consulting Group

The agenda:

6:30 Open networking/find seats

6:40 Speaker introductions

6:45 Panel Discussion begins

7:30 Open Networking - Ryan Atrium

8:30 Event concludes

Dima Elissa is CEO and founder of VisMed-3D, a biomedical design and consulting firm that has emerged as the leader for 3D biomedical visualization and printing in personalized medicine. Dima was selected by Chicago magazine as one of the top Women in Tech, ChicagoInno’s 50 on Fire, MakeItBetter’s Top Chicago Women in Science and by Chicago Tribune’s BlueSky Vault as one of the Top 100 entrepreneurs in Chicago. Her current venture, VisMed-3D, a biomedical design and consulting firm, is in keeping with her thirst for new technology and innovation. Alongside this novel start-up, she is pursuing her passion — devoting time, energy and guidance to women founders and entrepreneurs. As an adjunct faculty member or Entrepreneur-in-residence, teaching Entrepreneurship or as an in-demand speaker, she exemplifies her commitment to giving back and paying it forward. Her most recent designation as the American Medical Woman’s Association (AMWA) Tech and Innovation Lead under the Diversity, Inclusion & Innovation (DI&I) sector, she is building an accelerator to drive STEMM for girls and women seeking healthcare careers or who want to commercialize business ideas to improve the practice of medicine.

Dima also serves as Board member for mHUB, World Business Chicago Advisory Council for Technology, Chair of the STEM steering committee for the Apareció Foundation, Executive Advisory Board Member for Ms Tech, Chicago Chapter President for Women in Bio.

Andrew Klein is Director of Sales & Support in Plexon Inc. He obtained his BSc in Neuroscience from Bowling Green State University in 2005. After that he spent time as a research associate at the University of Michigan before accepting a position at Plexon in 2008. He has over ten years’ experience with in vivo electrophysiology data acquisition & animal behavior analysis. He’s traveled the world to support Plexon electrophysiology acquisition systems. Plexon is the industry leader of electrophysiology data acquisition systems, with customers throughout North & South America, Europe, & Asia.

Garry Cooper is CEO/Co-founder of Rheaply, Inc., a Chicago-based tech startup which has development a novel platform for the exchange of surplus laboratory supplies for academic research institutions. Before co-founding and leading Rheaply, Garry was a Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young, LLP in the Life Science Advisory practice where he worked in performance improvement for biopharmaceutical clients, and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University Department of Physiology. Before joining Ernst & Young and his current position in the physiology department at Feinberg School of Medicine, Garry was a post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University in the department of physiology at Feinberg School of Medicine, where he worked with Profs. Richard Silverman, Eric Weiss, and D. James Surmeier in furthering efforts to develop and identify a therapeutic measure to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Before his post-doctoral training, Dr. Cooper was a consultant at Promidian Consulting, where led projects concerning late-stage clinical trial/pre-market launch strategy. Before joining Promidian, Dr. Cooper worked on drug development for Parkinson’s disease at Northwestern University. The majority of this work was done while completing his PhD in neuroscience at Northwestern University under the supervision of Richard B. Silverman and D. James Surmeier.

For the past 2 years, Steven A. Gould led Chicago Innovation Mentors (CIM), which supports university-based and local new technology innovation ventures through the use of mentor teams. MATTER acquired CIM in January 2016. Steve has extensive and broad-based experience in both clinical and scientific research in an academic environment, and executive management throughout the entire life cycle of an entrepreneurial biotechnology company. Steve is also the founder and principal of The Gould Consulting Group LLC, which provides advisory services to companies and universities seeking to develop and capitalize on biotechnology and life science innovations, and to venture investors evaluating promising and potentially transforming companies working in areas of disruptive science. Steve was previously a scientific founder and chairman and CEO of Northfield Laboratories Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that was focused on developing a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier as a blood substitute. Prior to Northfield he was chief of surgery at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and then the University of Illinois at Chicago. Steve received his BA from Williams College and his MD from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in surgery at Yale and the University of Vermont, and a research fellowship at Michael Reese and the University of Chicago.