As Director of Entrepreneur & Small Business Development for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Mary Ellen McClanahan helps find solutions and effective ways to build an entrepreneurial environment to support small business through mentoring, professional development, strategic planning and resource awareness. She also connects with Georgia’s business and community associations so that thousands of businesses, local leaders and practitioners are aware of resources and opportunities. She also directs any size businesses to the specific resources they need.Mary Ellen is also an Existing Industry Project Manager within the Metro Atlanta region. She calls on growing companies making them aware of state resources and incentives and provides assistance with their growth plans and decision-making process. She also works closely with the local economic developers with their existing industry support efforts.
Find out more at georgia.org/smallbusiness
Mark Bouzyk Ph.D. is a founder of AKESOgen and has served as Chief Scientific Officer since the inception of the company. Dr. Bouzyk was a Director of the Emory Biomarker Service Center (EBSC), Director, Basic Research Shared Core Resources, Emory Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University as well as Director of the Center for Medical Genomics at Emory University, Atlanta. These facilities were developed by Dr. Bouzyk as state of the art laboratory capabilities to enable high throughput genetic, genomic and microarray biomarker studies ranging from DNA, copy number variation, expression, miRNA and methylation profiling all supported by a robust and flexible data management infrastructure in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) environment. In addition, to help meet the increasing need for translational medicine solutions and by working closely with other laboratories he developed an infrastructure which provides faster, more cost efficient and streamlined genetic tests using rapidly advancing genetic technologies in a clinical environment. Prior to joining Emory Dr. Bouzyk spent approximately 9 years in a global pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, where he served as Director of Genetic Laboratory Sciences leading the company’s high throughput genomic efforts in Europe. Dr. Bouzyk’s interests lie in Pharmacogenetics as well as candidate gene and genomic association studies to identify susceptibility genes for both common and rare diseases particularly in the areas of Oncology, Cardiology, Neurological and Psychiatric disorders. Dr. Bouzyk holds a Ph.D. in Human Molecular Genetics from University of Hertfordshire and a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Biochemistry from University College London.
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Karen Cohen, Co-Founder & CEO of Omiga Inc. , is an accomplished digital artist & geek, with more than 30 years experience in Imaging Technology and Digital Image Processing. She has owned and operated (2) B2B companies and (1) B2C concern. Omiga, Inc. Is a for-profit developer of real-time, non-invasive impairment detection devices. Their devices identify and document discernible signs of physical and cognitive impairment from Marijuana, Alcohol, stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens, even traumatic brain injury – in short, anything that causes dysfunction of the central nervous system.
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Cherie Kloss is the founder and CEO of SnapNurse. Kloss is an entrepreneur at heart with a career-long dedication to bringing joy to people. Her varied experience includes providing quality patient care as a nurse and anesthetist for over 18 years and nearly a decade creating dozens of popular cable TV series as a leading TV executive producer. Her unique background and skill set enables her to have a comprehensive understanding of the difficulties that the healthcare industry and nurses face, while simultaneously leveraging her relationships in the entertainment industry to deliver impactful brand awareness. Kloss spearheads all growth, marketing and partnership initiatives for SnapNurse and works closely with her executive team to secure premier facility-partners such as Emory University and USPI, and connects them to the top pre-credentialed nurses in the area. Currently, Kloss is focused on connecting as many professionals as possible with healthcare organizations in need and hopes to help solve the critical nursing shortage worldwide by developing a global digital authorization passport and payment system for participating practitioners. She created NurseToken in 2018 to build a blockchain credentialing system that could ease the arduous process of vetting and approvals. SnapNurse will be the first system to utilize this revolutionary concept.
