Dr Kiran Avancha has over 18 years of strategic and business leadership experience in biotech, healthcare innovation, clinical research and drug development.

He is currently working as the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer of HonorHealth since 2022. Under his leadership, HonorHealth established HonorHealth Innovations (H2I) and an Innovation Investment Fund that invested in 24 start-ups (digital health, diagnostics, medical devices & therapeutics) and continues to grow its portfolio. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and advisor and sits on the boards of couple of the portfolio startups.

He joined HonorHealth in 2015 as the Chief Operating Officer of the Research Institute (HRI), where he led clinical research operations for the health-system, strategic planning for HRI, business development and integration of community-based research practices into HRI. He built global collaboration of HRI with 400+ biotech, pharma, medical devices and life sciences companies.


He is the coFounder & CEO of Prizm Therapeutics, a late-clinical stage pediatric rare disease biotech, that is currently developing a novel therapy for the treatment of pediatric genetic disease called MCT8 deficiency, that is similar to cerebral palsy with high unmet medical need. He successfully launched and sold ClinSync, a full-service CRO based out of India which is now operating in 6 countries.

Dr Avancha is a licensed clinical pharmacist (RPh) and holds PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of South Florida. 

Chris Nienhueser is a Senior Director with Wexford Science & Technology, where he leads the planning, design, and development of mixed-use innovation districts and research-driven real estate projects across the western United States. He works closely with universities, academic medical centers, research institutions, and public sector partners to transform underutilized land into vibrant ecosystems that support discovery, entrepreneurship, talent attraction, and economic growth.

With experience spanning real estate development, design, and construction, Chris oversees complex projects from early planning through completion, managing multidisciplinary teams, project budgets, schedules, risk mitigation, and stakeholder engagement. His work focuses on delivering high-quality, sustainable developments that align institutional objectives with market opportunities while creating lasting value for communities and tenants.

At Wexford, Chris is currently leading multiple life science, innovation, and mixed-use developments that bring together research, education, healthcare, and industry partners to accelerate innovation and foster collaboration.

Claudia Whitehead is a program manager with Phoenix Community and Economic Development. Her specialty is siting and expanding bioscience, medical device and healthcare companies. Claudia was involved in the site selection Creighton University Medical School, the Wexford Science + Technology bio-innovation campus and shepherding bio and life science startups.

James Murphy was hired as a project manager by founder Jack Willmeng in 1999 and has led the company for more than 15 years as CEO. He earned his B.S. degree in Construction Management from the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University, as well as his master’s degree from the ASU School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His path at Willmeng includes time spent in multiple positions at the firm, from project manager, estimator and vice president, up to his current role.

James has been named Most Admired Leader by the Phoenix Business Journal, honored by ASU’s Alumni Group as a five-time inductee into the Sun Devil 100, and also named to the Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He has served on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of the East Valley, and is committed to training the next generation of leaders through NAIOP Arizona’s Mentorship program and through teaching programs at the Arizona Builders Alliance and the Del E. Webb School of Construction at ASU.

Away from the industry, James is at home in the outdoors, particularly hunting and fishing, or spending time with his family.

A broadly accomplished private-sector executive and community leader, Tammy McLeod joined the Flinn Foundation in October 2017 as President and CEO. In this role, she is responsible for all grants, programs, and operations of the Foundation.

Tammy served nearly 23 years at Arizona Public Service, Arizona’s largest electric utility, in several executive positions that culminated with the role of vice president for energy resource management. Previously, as the firm’s chief customer officer, she created a new company model for engaging in economic development, deployed new strategic community-relations plans, and reimagined the scope of the APS Foundation.

Tammy’s commitment to Arizona nonprofit organizations has included numerous board appointments, currently including the Arizona Community Foundation and The Nature Conservancy Arizona (treasurer). Prior to joining the Flinn Foundation, she served as a member of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee.

Tammy holds a doctorate in sustainability studies from Prescott College. A certified economic developer, she earned her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Among many honors for her work to foster strong organizational cultures and a vibrant broader community, Tammy has earned the Athena Award from the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the Most Influential Women in Business award from AZ Business, two American Business Awards, and Mom of the Year from Valle del Sol.

Mara is a healthcare industry pioneer with deep experience in leading genetics, genomics and diagnostics companies and commitment to civic involvement. Mara was president and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a billion-dollar division of The Roche Group, (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics). She led her world-class team to new financial success, more than two dozen major instrument and assay launches, as well as global leadership in companion diagnostics.

Mara spent 13 years at Genzyme Corporation, as president of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics was a leading provider of diagnostic testing and genetic counseling in the oncology and reproductive markets. She transformed the business from a small, specialized player to one of the top five laboratories in the US while setting the industry standard for quality testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for $1 billion. Previously, Mara led Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and its transformation to an international leader in specialized pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.

Mara also has strong VC expertise co-founded BlueStone Venture Partners with a robust portfolio of diagnostic, medical device and digital health companies.

She has a passion for education, publishing the popular Sensitive and Specific: The Testing Newsletter and the annual Health Catalysts Diagnostics Year in Review. This commitment to expanding knowledge drove her to create the Biomedical Diagnostics master’s degree program at Arizona State University, the only program dedicated exclusively to diagnostics and genomics. During the pandemic, Aspinall emerged as a national authority on COVID testing. She was the principal investigator at ASU on The Rockefeller Foundation grants - creating TestingCommons.com and EvidenceCommons.com - Internationally recognized interactive databases on COVID tests.

Mara was named Arizona Biosciences Leader of the Year by the Arizona Biotechnology Association and one of the “100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences” by PharmaVOICE magazine. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University, and is certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon/National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).

Scott joined HEP in 2022. Before joining HEP, Scott served as Chief Digital Officer of Aerosafe Global, a leader in global cold chain solutions for the biopharma industry. He serves on the board of Toney Healthcare. Prior to that, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at ClearDATA, a leading provider of secure, compliant healthcare cloud computing. Before joining ClearDATA, Scott was an IT Vice President at CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest not-for-profit hospital systems in the nation. Prior to joining CommonSpirit, he was Vice President and CIO at the nationally ranked Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Previously he spent over 17 years helping build the healthcare practices at EY, Siemens Healthcare and Capgemini (a practice now part of Accenture) serving hospitals, health insurers and life sciences companies.

Scott previously served as a director for Tag-N-Trac.

Mary Foote serves as Director of the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), where she

strengthens Arizona's workforce and economy through coordinated development strategy and

economic research. With 15 years of experience in economic development, business attraction,

and workforce strategy, she brings a unique combination of financial expertise and public sector

vision to her role.

Before joining OEO, Mary revitalized the Greater Arizona Development Authority, securing $1.4

million in infrastructure funding for underserved communities. As CEO of Pipeline AZ, she

transformed the organization into Arizona's leading technology platform for career mapping with

150,000 users. She previously served as Vice President at the Greater Phoenix Economic

Council.

Mary holds a Master of Public Administration from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of

Interdisciplinary Studies in Business and Philosophy. She earned a Global Leadership

Certificate from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is a Phoenix Business

Journal 40 Under 40 honoree.

As President and CEO of AZBio, Joan Koerber-Walker works on behalf of the Arizona Bioscience and Medical Technology Industry to support the growth of the industry, its members, and our community on the local and national level. Ms. Koerber-Walker is also a life science investor and has served on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.

The Arizona Bioindustry Association, Inc. (AZBio) serves as the unified voice of the bioscience industry in Arizona. AZBio strives to make Arizona a place where bioscience organizations can grow and succeed. It accomplishes this by creating a forum for the bioscience community to come together, educating policy makers and the public, influencing public policy, and advancing the economic interests of individual organizations as well as the sector as a whole. In the life science industry, Ms. Koerber-Walker is a past-Chair of the State Medical Technology Alliance (SMTA), a consortium of state and regional trade associations representing their local medical technology companies. SMTA’s mission is to collectively support the medical technology industry on the local, state and national levels by fostering a collaborative environment through sharing of best practices, promoting the industry, and advocating for public policies that support innovation. She also represents Arizona as a member of the Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA) and the Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes (CSBI).

Active in the entrepreneurial and investment communities, she also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation which provides entrepreneurial education, mentoring and support to at-risk members of the community and AZAdvances, OTEF’s initiative to support the community effort to make Arizona home to a Top-Ten health innovation sector, on the Board of Advisors to CellTrust, Inc. which provides secure communication technology to the healthcare industry, and as Chairman of CorePurpose, Inc. which she founded in 2002.

Her past experience includes two years as the CEO of ASBA (the Arizona Small Business Association), service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Small Business Association in Washington D.C.; President of the National Speakers Association/Arizona; Chair of the Board of Advisors to Parenting Arizona, the state’s largest child abuse prevention organization; as a member of the Executive Committee of the Industry Advisory Board for the Thomas and Joan Read Center at Texas A&M University; on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Technology Council; as Treasurer and Board Member for Ribomed Biotechnologies, Inc.; and as an executive at Avnet, Inc, where, for over a 20 year, span she held a wide variety of roles in sales, marketing, technology, supply chain management, and global administration.