Shift Labs has a core team of seven, and a cast of many.
We’re founded on a few key principles, including problem-driven, human-centered design and the fact that makers and hackers are especially good at creating disruptive technologies. So in addition to our CEO and CTO, we have a Chief Medical Officer and a Chief Hacker. We also have a Technology Advisory Board (aka, our Hacker Board), and some key Advisors.
CORE TEAM
Beth Kolko, PhD (CEO) is an internationally recognized expert in technology design for emerging regions who brings leadership and experience across the Shift Labs domains. She has successfully led large team projects for over 12 years, she has worked with the global innovation community for nearly a decade, she has 20+ years of fieldwork experience that informs product ideation at Shift, and she has worked on multiple disruptive global health technology projects.
Phil Rutschman’s (CTO) love of math, computers, and electronics was apparent at the tender age of 6, years before he got his degree in math and computer science. He fell into embedded programming and signal processing early on in his career, and never looked back. His network protocol and audio compression code has shipped in high-profile consumer devices. His passion is bringing seemingly unrelated ideas to bear in the solution of unusual problems.
Jenny Hu (Engineer) is a hands-on engineer and multi-disciplinary problem-solver focused on innovative yet practical solutions for developing world and global health. Her expertise is in early-stage technical development – rapidly turning ideas into field-ready hardware. She has experience working at startups, research laboratories, and with non-profits.
Dr. Shevin Jacob, MD, MPH, (Chief Medical Officer): Since 2006 Dr. Jacob has spent the majority of his time working as a researcher, instructor, and clinician in Uganda. His primary focus is on patients hospitalized with sepsis syndromes, primarily at two Ugandan government hospitals – Mulago National Referral Hospital and Masaka Regional Referral Hospital. In addition, he has been a consultant for WHO on improving the management of critically ill patients in austere settings.
Chris Coward (Partnerships & Marketing) previously started and led a multi-million dollar research center, and he has extensive business development experience working with public and private partners. He has spent 15 years working with technologies in emerging markets, and his background in international marketing and advertising provides a key component of the team. He has done work in 50 countries and brings extensive, well-developed global connections.
Willow Brugh (Business Development) is an organizer and facilitator who has worked with a range of organizations worldwide, running hackathons and other events to leverage open innovation. She specializes in helping governments and disaster and humanitarian response organizations work with their distributed communities to create innovative and appropriate technology solutions. Her work with Shift connects us to a distributed ideation community and builds partnerships.
ADVISORS
Pablos Holman, Hacker and Inventor, Intellectual Ventures Lab
Bre Pettis, CEO of Makerbot Industries
Brooks Simpson, former Vice President of World Wide Marketing at Physio-Control, currently founder of Pacific Rim Medical Systems.
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT and principal research scientist at the MIT Media Lab
TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD (aka Hacker Board + Medical Advisors)
Rob Flickenger has an extensive background in Internet technologies, TCP/IP and wireless networking, technical writing, and data visualization. He has built networks in NOCs, in Africa, and on the sea. Linux, IP networks, relational databases, scripting languages, and a willingness to share everything he has have learned are his my primary means. He is happiest when hacking on some “impossible” task that brings new insight to solving real problems.
Adam Cecchetti works in the computer security field, currently as Chief Research Officer for Deja Vu Security. He’s cycled through a few startups in his time, and he has extensive experience with both hardware and software hacking.
Pierce Nichols has an aerospace background, but most recently is founder and principal engineer at Logos Electromechanical. He is the creator of the Zigduino and other electronic products for the researcher, hobbyist, and maker markets.
David Hulton, co-Founder of Pico Computing and ToorCon. He works on FPGA boards, and also has experience with 802.11, Smart Cards, GSM, Bluetooth and other proprietary encryption and hashing algorithms. He’s also a co-owner of Ada’s Books in Seattle.
Dr. Cameron Bass is an MD with a Mechanical Engineering degree from MIT. He is CAD-saavy, has international medical experience, and had a brief brush with fame with his appearance on tv a few years ago.
Dr. Xandra Rarden, MD and MSF volunteer
Lisa Lafleur, PhD, (CH) explored electrical engineer and microfluidics before realizing she needed to be inspired by end users to find real joy in her work. In 2006 she found an opportunity to join a project to develop a diagnostic platform for use in low-resource settings. She splits her time between Shift Labs and working as the systems engineer for an instrument-free nucleic acid test under development at the University of Washington. Her range of engineering skills makes her uniquely qualified to design medical devices for low-resource settings.
Suresh Kalpana, PhD, is a marketing expert with experience at MTV/Viacom, McCann Erickson, and Ammirati Luris Lintas.