March 24, 2021
- Meet the 2020 Challenge winner and the runner up team.
- A panel of experts from the community, UW–Madison, local funders and technology industry.
- Get updates from the Round 1 winning teams.
- Learn about resources in Dane County to launch your big idea.
Congratulations to the Winning Teams
Speaker Bios
Lonnie Berger: Vice Chancellor in the Office of Graduate Research and Education and a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the School of Social Work. His research focuses on how economic resources, sociodemographic characteristics, and public policies affect parental behaviors and child and family wellbeing. He aims to inform public policy to improve family well-being. Member of the DreamUp leadership team.
Maggie Molter Pascaly: Community Investment Manager American Family Insurance which the American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation seeks to inspire, protect, and restore dreams by helping individuals find a path to self-sufficiency.
Lauren Usher: Managing Director, gBETA Social Impact. gBETA Social Impact is a free, seven-week accelerator that works with startups building products or services addressing equity in education or criminal justice reform.
Brenda Gonzales: Dir of Community Relations at UW-Madison overseeing the South Madison Partnership. She serves as UW–Madison’s primary point of contact with local community and nonprofit organizations. She is responsible for developing strategies to ensure the university is engaged with these organizations and the broader community. Member of the DreamUp leadership team.
Alex Shade: Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at CUNA Mutual Group, and is responsible for leading the strategy and execution of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs and initiatives, as well as, the CUNA Mutual Foundation portfolio and investment strategy. Alex also served on the DreamUp Wisconsin Proposal Review Committee.
May yer Thao: Assistant Deputy Dir WHEDA
Norm Davis: Director of City of Madison’s Civil Rights Department
Michael Collins: Fetzer Family Chair of Consumer Finance. He is the Faculty Director of the Center for Financial Security. Faculty professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a member of the DreamUp leadership team.
Katie Rice: Program director at WARF and UpStart She provides support to the private investment portfolio; helps manage WARF’s programs around entrepreneurship, including UpStart; manages outreach efforts and communications for programs associated with WARF’s startup activities.
Andy Richards: Director of Discovery to Product (D2P) where he works with the D2P team and campus community to set and implement strategic plans and programs that facilitate the commercialization of faculty, staff, and student innovation, while also supporting the regional startup ecosystem.
Connect Rx team
- Hayley Chesnik: Sr. Dir. Strategic Collaborations United Way of Dane County hayley.chesnik@uwdc.org
- Gabe Doyle: Dir Health United Way of Dane County gabe.doyle@uwdc.org
- Robin Lankton: Dir. Population UW Health rlankton@uwhealth.org
- Lana Woods: Community Dev Specialist City of Madison IWood@cityofmadison.com
- Georgia Allen: Corp and Comm. Engagement Mgr United Way of Dane County Georgia.Allen@uwdc.org
- Carole Trone: United Way of Dane County Carole.Trone@uwdc.org
LIFT Dane team
Marsha Mansfield: Dir. LIFT Dane mmansfield@liftdane.org
Ruth Schmidt: Ex. Dir. Wisconsin Early Childhood Association ruschmidt@wisconsinearlychildhood.org