CENTER FOR MEDICAL INNOVATION
CENTER FOR MEDICAL INNOVATION
Mark H. Paul is the Executive Director of the Center of Medical Innovation at the University of Utah Health and the leader of the TLO medical device incubator. Prior to this role, Mark served for 16 years as the Global President of the Neurovascular division at Stryker. Stryker Neurovascular is a pioneer and world market leader in the development of technologies for the treatment of Hemorrhagic and Ischemic Stroke. During his tenure, the NV division delivered exceptional global growth as the fastest growing division to over $1.3B in annual revenue. Mark had full P&L responsibilities for all operational functions along with sales and marketing teams across 70 countries. Mark is a +31-year veteran of the Medical Device industry. Over that time, he has led organizations focused on technologies for the less invasive treatment of Neurovascular, Peripheral Vascular and Cardiology, including Peripheral Embolization, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms and Carotid Intervention. Much of Mark’s career and education has had a global focus, including serving as European Director of Peripheral Vascular based in Paris, France, and VP & GM of International for Boston Scientific Corporation.
Mark started his career with Procter & Gamble, where he spent 5 years in sales and sales management. Mark graduated from the University of Utah, and his education also included time in Selwyn College in Cambridge, England, and the Universite de la Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He has also completed Stryker Executive Business Programs at Harvard and Stanford University Byers Center for Biodesign Executive Program.
Mark currently resides in SLC, Utah. He and his wife, Jana, have 4 children.
Justin's passion for medical innovation was ignited as a competitor in CMI's Bench to Bedside competition in 2016. Now, with a Business Administration degree from the University of Utah and his MBA from The Wharton School's Executive Program, he propels innovation in health care. Off the clock, Justin savors high-altitude adventures, from skiing and hiking to flying—and occasionally, for the fun of it, accelerating the landing by jumping out of the plane instead.
Spencer Walker was educated as a Medical Device Development specialist (MSc) at Cranfield University (England/ UK) and has over 20 years of experience in the medical industry, including 10 years as a Regulatory Affairs and Quality Executive and Consultant/Advisor in the area of Medical Device Regulatory/ Quality Compliance. He joined the University's Center for Medical Innovation in 2015 as the Director of Regulatory Affairs, where he currently teaches and consults for new university/industry-based medical device start-ups.
Serving as CMI's Admin Officer, Jenny helps keep CMI running smoothly and will likely be the first person you meet when visiting our offices. Payroll, invoicing, and event planning are all within her scope of operations, and she brings a wealth of previous experience in personnel and sales management from her time in the rental and commercial vehicle industry.
When she's not in the office, you can expect to find Jenny spending time with her husband and family at many of her daughters' extracurriculars, trying new Thai restaurants, or simply enjoying the great outdoors.
Dillon joined the Center for Medical Innovation in 2022 as a full-time engineer after developing medical devices for two years at Merit Medical. He is passionate about bringing great medical device ideas into functioning prototypes and has experience in CAD design, 3D printing, programming, and electronics. Dillon received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University. Outside of work, you can find Dillon kickboxing or running.
Kolja’s passion for innovation and engineering began in childhood, sparked by LEGO Technic and nurtured by his grandfather's love for physics and natural sciences. This early curiosity paved the way for a career in the MedTech industry. His work spans diverse projects in the biotech industry and humanitarian initiatives with Engineers Without Borders.
He is driven by a commitment to innovation with a purpose, aiming to make a positive global impact. He holds a degree in Neuroscience from Heidelberg University in Germany, complemented by studies at the University of Utah and Jiao-Tong University in Shanghai. Kolja has contributed to the development of multiple medical devices and, alongside his team, earned the "Best in Engineering" Award at Bench to Bedside in 2023. Since his study abroad at the U, Kolja has a special connection to Utah, where he enjoys skiing, climbing, and road biking.
Jess is a lover of creativity and prototyping and enjoys both while working at the CMI as an Engineer and Lab Manager. With all her family working in health care, she is passionate about creating medical devices that improve patients’ lives and make health care professionals’ jobs easier. She received both her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on medical device design from the University of Utah. She looks forward to discussing your ideas and assisting you in prototyping your designs.
If Jess isn’t in the office, she is likely outside trail running, skiing, mountaineering, kayaking, canoeing, canyoneering, cycling, or climbing, all while listening to audiobooks and eating sweets.
Originally from South Carolina, Amanda holds a BS in Bioengineering from Clemson University and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Utah. Amanda is the Program Manager for the Bench to Bedside competition, where she supports student teams as they develop early-stage healthcare innovations. She also works with students in the Dr. Julie Hansen Fellowship to advance projects within the CMI Venture Studio. In her role, Amanda regularly collaborates with healthcare providers, faculty, staff, and community members to help guide early ideas into the Venture Studio pipeline. Outside of the CMI, she finds joy in lacing up her running shoes and cheering on the Clemson football team.
Student Fellows
Emily Ferguson is pursuing a dual MBA/MHA at the University of Utah, where she is developing the business and strategy acumen to complement nearly five years of hands-on clinical and operational experience. Before joining the CMI, she worked in direct patient care, gaining firsthand insight into what it actually takes for healthcare systems to evaluate, adopt, and integrate new devices and products.
Emily is drawn to medical innovation by a straightforward conviction: well-designed systems and thoughtfully commercialized technologies can improve patient outcomes at a scale that individual clinical care cannot. That same operational instinct is what she brings to early-stage MedTech, with an eye for what works in practice, not just in theory.
She holds a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Utah and is on track to complete her MBA and MHA in May 2027. A Texas native who has called Utah home for eight years, Emily can typically be found skiing or snowboarding when she isn't at CMI or in the classroom.
Lincoln began as an engineering fellow at the CMI in the summer of 2023. From then to now, Lincoln has been pursuing an Honors Mechanical Engineering B.S. with an emphasis on biomechanics. He wants to specialize in upper-limb prosthetics and ergonomics and is passionate about wearable technology that mimics and enhances biological evolution. At the CMI he helped create a spinal traction device with 3 motorized degrees of freedom, a pressure chamber used to measure the effectiveness of a novel cataract extraction method, a cheap and transportable carbon monoxide monitor, and more to come.
His design ability stems from a young-age interest in building everything out of things lying around his house, only limited by his curiosity. Aside from developing medical devices, Lincoln enjoys sketching, origami, and cooking.
Alexander Gibson is pursuing an MBA and an MS in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah. His work bridges health policy, biomedical research, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on expanding access to high-quality healthcare. He is passionate about developing culturally grounded, AI-powered tools for underserved communities and has co-authored publications at Stanford Medical Center on Medicaid access and trauma care. He earned a BS in Biophysics from Brigham Young University, where he published research on machine learning for cancer detection. He led the development of TriagePoint, a mobile pre-screening system that won the 2025 Best in Medicine Award at Utah’s Bench to Bedside competition. Through his fellowship at the Center for Medical Innovation, Alexander brings technical depth and business strategy to early-stage projects, preparing to lead as a future scientist at the intersection of medicine, invention, and entrepreneurship.
Steven has wanted to be a part of the CMI since his first semester as an engineering student and competitor in Bench to Bedside (2025). After winning the Grand Prize Runner-Up award with his team Impedia, he worked as an engineering intern in Zhejiang Province, China, where he prototyped his first medical device. His passion for medical innovation originates from a love of service he developed as a volunteer in the Philippines, as well as a lifelong aptitude for engineering. He is currently working towards starting his own company with the goal of reducing global health disparity. When he’s not at work, you can catch him studying, tethered to the side of a mountain, or enjoying a good book.
Amy Rees Anderson is the Founder and Managing Partner of REES Capital, an Angel Investing Firm. Amy is also an author and serves as a weekly contributor to Forbes and the Huffington Post. She is currently serving on 13 Boards.
Prior to founding REES Capital, Amy was the CEO of MediConnect Global, a company she grew and sold in 2012 for over $377 million.
After selling MediConnect, she founded the IPOP Foundation, a charity focused on promoting entrepreneurship as a pathway to self-reliance.
Amy has been the recipient of a number of awards, which include being named CEO of the Year and receiving the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Inc Magazine, Businessweek and many other national publications as a result of her many accomplishments, and in 2015 Amy received an honorary PhD.
Dr. Gregory Critchfield received a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from Brigham Young University in 1976, an MD degree from the University of Utah in 1980, and a master’s degree in Biophysical Sciences at the University of Minnesota in 1985. He served as a reviewer and study section chair for the NIH for 15 years in biomedical computing programs for SBIR, STTR and R01 programs. His research spans a number of areas in laboratory medicine, with recent work in clinical genetics and proteomics. He has served on the medical school faculty of the University of Minnesota, Wayne State University and Duke University. He served as Chief Medical and Science Officer of Quest Diagnostics from 1995-1998. He joined Myriad Genetics, Inc. in 1998, where he was President of its diagnostic subsidiary, Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc. until 2010, where he built Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc. into one of world’s leading molecular diagnostic companies. He chaired the Governor’s State Advisory Council on Science and Technology for the state of Utah in 2007. He has served and is serving as an independent director in industry association and various life science companies developing breakthrough diagnostic technologies and tests. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Sera Prognostics, Inc., a women’s health company focusing on preterm birth diagnostics, where the company has raised more than $85M in venture funding since 2011. He also serves as a Trustee of Bear Lake Watch.
Gary L. Crocker is the Managing Director of Crocker Ventures, LLC, a privately held life science and high technology investment firm. Since 2004 he has also served as Chairman of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, a personalized oncology drug development firm. He has held senior executive or board director level positions in several prominent life science and technology firms, including: Chairman of ARUP Laboratories; director of Interleukin Genetics, and LineaGen Genetics; co-founder and director of Theratech Pharma (acquired by Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1999), and Vice President of Marketing for the Critical Care Products Division of Abbott Laboratories. He is currently the Chairman and sole investor in three orthopedic medical device firms, Nexus CMF, LLC, Nexus Spine, LLC and Nexus, TDR Inc (an artificial back disc firm).
In 1983, Crocker founded Research Medical, and was the Chairman and CEO of this publicly held manufacturer and marketer of specialty open heart surgery catheters until the sale of the firm to Baxter International’s Edwards Laboratories division in 1997 for $236 million, at that time the largest medical device merger in state history. He has been selected twice as Utah Entrepreneur of the Year by both Ernst and Young and the MountainWest Capital Network. He earned his MBA and also graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University.
In October 2018, Kelvyn H. Cullimore Jr. was named President and CEO of BioUtah, the state trade association for life sciencecompanies. Prior to his role with BioUtah he was for 25 years the President & CEO of Dynatronics Corporation, a leading manufacturer of physical therapy devices and products with an international reach. Dynatronics is a publicly traded, Cottonwood Heights, Utah based company originally founded by Mr. Cullimore and his father in 1979. He continues to serve as a Director of Dynatronics. From 2003 to 2016, Mr. Cullimore served on the board of directors of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association headquartered in Washington, D.C. He is a past Trustee of the Utah Technology Council an industry association which at the time included life science and high‐tech companies. Mr. Cullimore also serves as a board advisor for ITEC Attractions, an entertainment company with operations in Branson, Mo. In addition to his professional career, Mr. Cullimore was elected the first Mayor of Cottonwood Heights in November, 2004 and served in that capacity until January 2018. As Mayor, Mr. Cullimore was a member of the board of the largest fire agency in Utah, the Unified Fire Authority, serving as the chairman of its finance committee. He also served on numerous other County and State committees. Mayor Cullimore was a recipient of the Best of State Award in 2008 as the Best Elected Official. He graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University in 1980 with a degree in Financial and Estate Planning. Kelvyn and his wife, Laurie Lyn Cullimore, are the parents of five children and have twelve grandchildren.
Shawn Fojtik is co-founder of Distal Access, Control Medical, CIRCA Scientific, Pinyons, and others with sales, training, and marketing experience at GE Medical, Boston Scientific, and Black & Decker.
His experience includes devices for cardiology, interventional radiology & oncology, electrophysiology, surgery, enteral feeding, and other procedures and has closed transactions with Boston Scientific, Covidien, Mallinckrodt, Medtronic, Merit Medical, Teleflex, and others.
Control Medical’s award-winning patented platform is used to remove blood clots during acute myocardial infarction (AMI), peripheral vascular disease, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and ischemic stroke. Control has one of the largest FDA cleared platforms in the United States and has been used in 10,000+ procedures.
Shawn has 50+ combined issued and pending global patents; has been a speaker/ author/contributor/research contributor at Heart Rhythm Society, Cardiovascular Research Technologies, and other conferences; and has a BS from the University of Illinois and a MA from Harvard University.
Gabrielle Daines Gay is Director of Emerging Markets Strategy and Philanthropy at Kensington Capital Holdings, a single-family office based in Boston, Massachusetts. Gabrielle received an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and a B.S. in Economics from Utah State University.
In her role at Kensington Capital, Gabrielle manages initiatives and investments in emerging markets, with emphasis in West Africa. She acts as COO and chief strategist of Ensign College of Public Health, Kpong, Ghana – working to develop sustainable, innovative, impact-driven solutions to advance healthcare in the region. Gabrielle also advises Kensington Capital on philanthropic opportunities and manages partnerships.
Prior to joining Kensington Capital, Gabrielle worked at Gap Inc., a leading global specialty retailer, located in San Francisco, California. She was a manager in the Growth, Innovation and Digital (GID) Strategy Division. In her role, she analyzed retail and digital industry intelligence with a focus on new products, new markets and alternative business models. Gabrielle was also part of the GID team that conducted detailed due diligence on acquisition candidates and conducted all Gap Inc. acquisitions.
Dr. Julie Hansen graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. She practiced as a registered nurse for approximately 20 years at St. Mark’s hospital and specialized in women’s health, including high-risk pregnancy, delivery, and neonatal complications.
Throughout her nursing career, Dr. Hansen has been an advocate for women’s health and healthcare education. In 2007, she began her career in nursing education at Ameritech College of Healthcare and held several positions including Nursing Program Director and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Hansen was instrumental in gaining the nursing program’s initial accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.
Recognizing the importance of lifelong learning, Dr. Hansen completed both a Master’s Degree in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She has developed several nursing curricula with a focus on holism and she continues to teach and promote holistic nursing concepts in her practice. She is board certified by the American Holistic Nurses Association as an Advanced Holistic Nurse. Dr. Hansen believes wholeheartedly that the focus on health and healing must embrace healing the whole person as its goal. According to Dr. Hansen, “Advancing the concept of holism in healthcare will translate to an empowered workforce that provides person-centered care, embraces wholeness, and enacts a paradigm-shift to a healthier world.”
Dr. Patel is the co-founder and managing director of Aqua Recycling Group (2017) and founder and managing director of Patel Family Investments (2014) and co-founded vSpring Capital ($400 million under management) in 2000 and has been a founding managing director till October 2014.
He serves on several non-profit boards, and has won numerous awards including; 2013 Willem J Kolff Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2011 Father of the Year, 2010 Utah Youth Village Helping Hand Award, 2006 Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame Inductee, 2006 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, US Small Business Administration’s Business Achiever Award, Scientific and Technology Award (State of Utah), Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Mountain West Venture Group) and Scientific and Technology Development Pioneer of Progress Award to name a few. He is also a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Steve Peterson is the General Partner and Portfolio Manager of Millrock Capital and Millrock Development, founded in 2001. Millrock is a value investor and developer in long term real estate investments. Prior to co-founding Millrock, Mr. Peterson founded American International Systems (A.I. Systems) a software developer and leading technology systems integrator, and client service centers. He sold the business in 2001 to a public company, RAND Worldwide, www.rand.com, one of the world’s leading providers of professional services and technology to the engineering community.
Mr. Peterson received a BS in Administrative Systems, Management and Operations from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at USU. Mr. Peterson is an Entrepreneurial Founders Board Member at USU School of Business and serves as a Board Member of the Center for Medical Innovation at the University of Utah. In addition, Mr. Peterson is actively investing in new business startups that involve innovative ideas that tackle important business issues.
Wm. Dean Wallace, obtained an MD and PhD from the University of Utah, then founded several medical companies that grew and were successfully sold to larger companies. He recently started a new company, Liger Medical LLC. (www.curemedicalglobal.com), which focuses on treating pre‐cancerous lesions of the cervix with the hope to eradicate cervical cancer world-wide.
He was previously the President, CEO, of Clinical Innovations, Inc., Murray, and Utah Medical Products, Inc., a clinical assistant professor at the University of Utah, and is listed as inventor on over 20 medical patents related to women’s healthcare medical devices. He is happily married, and the father of four children and 12 wonderful grandchildren.