Network Innovation Summit
Exploring the Future of Networks | Spring 2021

At our first annual Network Innovation Summit in May 2020, we engaged with leading experts on network thinking and collaborated with network innovators from around the world. In partnership with the University of CO Denver, Center on Network Science, we explored how our field can help lead humanity through this pivotal time.
Take some time to learn about our amazing group of sponsors and speakers, view our solution pitches, recordings and slides, and sign up below for event updates to hear more about our future events and programs. We hope to see you again for our next Summit in the spring of 2021.
Thanks to our Network Innovation Summit Sponsors!

As a community of network innovators, we are uniquely positioned to generate valuable insight and expertise that our communities, our governments, all of humanity desperately need at this critical time.
What questions are we asking & exploring?
What are the systemic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across sectors?
How do we maintain social health in a climate of self-isolation?
How can we more effectively track and share critical resources and information across sectors?
How can we gather accurate information, share data, and also respect privacy?
How do we address health access, social equity, and racial divides in an interconnected society?
The NIS Schedule At-A-Glance
To see the entire, detailed Network Innovation Summit schedule, click here.

Framing the Future
We start by framing the day around several big questions about the future of networks and times of crisis, including a special panel on the COVID crisis. A series of TED Talk inspired sessions led by network thinkers and leaders.

Defining Problems

Designing Solutions
Meet our Network Innovation Summit Speakers

Shreya Nallapati
Founder & Executive Director
#NeverAgainTech
Shreya Nallapati is the Founder and Executive Director of #NeverAgainTech, a project that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to prevent mass shootings. After watching Emma Gonzalez address the death of 17 of her classmates at the Parkland shooting, Shreya knew she wanted to take technology to empower the movement as opposed to simply posting thoughts and condolences. She currently leads a team of 200 young women, all across the nation, who are passionate about using computer science for social good. Shreya has been featured in Forbes, the Smithsonian Institute, NPR, Solomon’s Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines, and has been recognized by actress Amy Poehler, among many others. Shreya will be featured in an upcoming documentary, titled the Great Divide, about the heroes fighting gun violence, and is in talks about filming a second one solely on her work with #NeverAgainTech. Shreya has been named as Colorado Youth Tech Leader of the Year and one of 33 2019 Global Teen Leaders from across the world representing the United States.
Shreya is a recipient of the highly selective Boettcher Scholarship, which awards a fully paid tuition to the brightest students in Colorado. She is attending the University of Denver, majoring in mathematics and computer science with an AI concentration. In her spare time she kickboxes and spends time with her family and her dog, Teddy.

Dr. Somava Saha
Executive Lead, Well Being & Equity (WE) in the World
Somava Saha, MD, MS (aka Soma Stout) has dedicated her career to improving
health, wellbeing and equity through the development of thriving people,
organizations and communities. She has worked as a primary care internist and
pediatrician in the safety net and a global public health practitioner for over 20
years. Currently, Soma serves as Founder and Executive Lead of Well-being and
Equity in the World (WE in the World), as well as Executive Lead of the Well Being In
the Nation (WIN) Network, which work together to advance inter-generational well-
being and equity. She serve as faculty at Harvard Medical School, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Governance Institute.

Dr. Charles Rutheiser
Senior Associate-Annie E Casey Foundation
Modal Box Title
Charles Rutheiser is a senior associate in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Civic Sites and Community Change, where he manages national grant portfolios on housing and community development, as well as the neighborhood transformation strategy for the Foundation’s work in Baltimore. Previously, Charles directed the graduate program in applied anthropology at Georgia State University and taught cultural anthropology and urban studies at the Johns Hopkins University, Bryn Mawr College and Western Michigan University.
A former Fulbright and Inter-American Foundation Fellow, Charles ‘s publications include two books, Imagineering Atlanta: the politics of place in the city of dreams (1996) and The Opportunity Makers: the first half-century of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (2016), as well as numerous blogs, articles, book chapters and reports on the roles that systems and networks play in reproducing inequality or advancing social equity in United States and Latin America. He is the founding chairman of the Anchor Institution Funders Group of The Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and a founding member of Funders for Housing and Opportunity funding collaborative. He also serves on the boards of The Mount Vernon Place Conservancy and The Art of Leadership, a leadership development program for high school students in the Baltimore metro area.
Charles received a MA and PhD in cultural anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University and a BA in anthropology from New College of Florida.

Rachel Beisel
Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer,
Cable Labs
Rachel is a fractional CMO, entrepreneur, executive, teacher and athlete. She’s always in search of the next thing to build. In search of the lifestyle upgrade, Rachel found herself in the Colorado mountains building the internet from the application layer to the physical network. She founded the largest women’s cycling team, Colorado Women’s Cycling Project, Vino & Velo and LeadOut Sales, a B2B technology marketing firm. When not building brands, you’ll find her on a bike, skis, yoga mat or caring for my three adopted cats.

Emily Lockwood
Senior Program Officer,
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Emily develops and manages strategic investment portfolios to improve outcomes for young people of color and young people experiencing poverty. Investment strategies include narrative change, distributed networks, field building and mindset shift across three portfolios: Equitable Futures (social capital and occupational identity development in student pathways between education and career), Advancing Actionable Knowledge (infrastructure to drive increased awareness, selection and use of evidence based practices in K-12 education), Teacher2Teacher (peer to peer network of 1.6 million teachers designed to spread exchange of practices and innovation). She previously directed brand marketing strategy for Teach for America.

Dr. Danielle Varda
CEO Visible Network Labs, Co-Director, CU Center on Network Science

Chris
Bui
Senior Program Officer, Colorado Health
Foundation
Modal Box Title
Chris has been involved in the field of public health and health care for more than 12 years, and cites the role of health advocacy – and its impact on changing lives – as the key driver for promoting public health.
A licensed attorney and activist, Chris helped launch the Denver Health Medical Legal Partnership (MLP), which is dedicated to eliminating social and economic barriers impacting our communities. Working through a legal lens, Chris and MLP partners worked to foster collaboration between health care providers, other legal professionals and community leaders to alleviate adverse health outcomes for the most vulnerable Coloradans.
As a public health advocate, Chris has welcomed the opportunity to work alongside community members and testify before state and local policymakers on matters impacting public health. His specialization centers on tobacco prevention legislation and integrating health-in-all policies into any community change discussion.
In his role as senior program officer at the Foundation, Chris is eager to help communities navigate their journey toward creating positive change in the places they call home. He will be serving on the locally-focused team while working directly with communities in Eagle County. In his day-to-day, he aims to garner a better understanding of community and partner needs, while ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s cornerstones that are grounded in equity. Chris believes the most complex community challenges can be addressed through creativity and innovation. And of course, a public health lens.

Jason
Greer
CEO, Colorado Community Managed Care Network
CEO, Colorado Community Managed Care Network
Jason Greer is CEO of the Colorado Community Managed Care Network (CCMCN) is a non-profit organization governed by Colorado’s federally qualified health centers. It administers population health and clinical quality improvement programs on behalf of its members and their regional partners. CCMCN is a founding member of both Colorado Access, a health plan focusing on Medicaid, Medicare and Child Health Plan Plus, and Integrated Community Health Partnerships, a regional organization focused on population health improvements for Medicaid. Jason also serves as the CO-Chair of the Colorado eHealth Commission.

Christi
Tran
Senior Advisor for Network Approaches, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Christi Tran, senior adviser for network approaches, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2018 as the director of Network Leadership for Better Health. She views her role at RWJF as “an opportunity to advance equity and center those most affected by health disparities as we support and uplift networks of diverse people, organizations, and communities working together to build a Culture of Health.”

Pat
Smith
Chief Executive
Director,
Serve Denton
As CEO of Serve Denton, Pat’s main responsibilities include strategic planning, board development and construction. He rejoinsed the organization after founding it and serving as its first Executive Director several yeasrs back.

Dr. Kameron Hodgens
CEO, The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center
Dr. Kameron Hodgens is a connector. She is often called upon by those who need advice about how to better manage their nonprofit or who are seeking new job opportunities. Given her position as the CEO of Sarasota’s Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center, she weaves together threads of the nonprofit community from a unique bird’s eye perspective. The Center is home to 17 nonprofits and operates through generous contributions from the community, nominal rent from their tenants, and investment returns. Because the dollars are not tethered to any government systems, Dr. Hodgens’s perch is unbiased, neutral, and most importantly, honest.

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, MPH
Executive Director, CO Dept. of Public Health & Environment

Delaney
Keating
Managing Director,
Startup Colorado
As a Colorado native and rural resident, Delaney is honored to steward the inherent genius she believes exists because of living farther off the beaten path. Delaney is a seasoned creative, entrepreneur, and change agent. She successfully owned, operated, and exited her first company and has since been dedicated to fostering ingrained cultural values for art and innovation. As Executive Director of Startup Colorado, her mission is to drive greater coordination within the entrepreneurial ecosystem on behalf of rural entrepreneurs and the communities they call home. She is an unwavering believer in the potential of ideas, the people behind them, and the places they create.

Heidi
Ganahl
Regent, CU Denver
Founder, Fight Back Foundation
CEO, SHE Factor
Heidi Ganahl is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, author, and elected member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents. She is the founder and former CEO of Camp Bow Wow, an international pet care franchise. In November 2016, Ganahl was elected Regent of the University of Colorado. Heidi received the 2016 Colorado Brave Leader Award and was chosen as one of Fortune’s 10 Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs in 2014. She also was honored as a 2015 Parade Magazine Designing Women: 10 of the Most Amazing Female Entrepreneurs in U.S. History. Passionate about giving back, Ganahl serves on various boards that focus on entrepreneurship and education. She also leads her own nonprofit, the Fight Back Foundation, to positively tackle the most pressing issues facing today’s youth, including bullying, sex assault, school safety and substance abuse.

Dr. Robyn
Mobbs
Co-Director, Center on Network Science,
University of CO Denver
Robyn Mobbs is a senior instructor at University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses in the Master of Public Administration program. Dr. Mobbs’ teaching interests include public management and administration, leadership, public policy, health policy, research methods and systems science. She especially focuses on the application of theories to practice and aims to foster knowledge, skills and techniques needed to successfully implement policies, projects and programs to address problems within organizations and in society. Dr. Mobbs’ research interests and expertise focus on health and public health systems, interorganizational relationships, networks, policy implementation and collaborative governance. Her research has been supported by the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Lisa
VanRaemdonck
Director, School of Public Affairs Institute, University of CO Denver
Lisa VanRaemdonck serves as the Executive Director of the School of Public Affairs Institute and is an instructor in the Bachelor of Arts in Public Service program and at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her work is dedicated to supporting the intersection of the School of Public Affairs and public service professionals through group facilitation, strategic partnerships, leadership development & training, peer networking, capacity building and policy communication. She is Director of the Denver Community Leadership Forum and the Rocky Mountain Leadership Program. Lisa approaches her work with a focus on collaboration, systems thinking, building connections, equity and social justice. Prior to her role at the School of Public Affairs, Lisa served as Executive Director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials and co-directed the Colorado Public Health Practice-Based Research Network. She came to public service after a brief, private sector career in public relations and business-to-business marketing communications. Lisa earned a Master of Public Health and a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Biology, with a special focus in journalism, from Michigan State University. Lisa has volunteered in animal shelters and animal welfare for more than 10 years.
VNL Learning Lab Testimonials
“I really enjoyed the anecdotes and stories, and appreciated the guided practice of reframing and collaborating. It gave us real practice. Roleplaying was great too because we were able to learn about how things could be improved, what went wrong, and how to fix it. The sessions were helpful and informative, thank you!”
-Previous Training Attendee
“Power and equity are both concepts I picked up that I will be bringing back. Also, network structure’s impact on outcomes made me think about my own network structure and what was happening. I liked this set of speakers! Thank you, it was a great three days. The instruction was very helpful and the group was the perfect size!”
-Previous Training Attendee
2020 NIS In-Progress Detailed Schedule
Take your time arriving at our virtual venue, finding a table, and watching a tutorial on how to interact throughout the day. Get yourself a coffee or tea, find a comfortable chair, get your camera and microphone on, and see who else is in the room!
Meet Dr. Danielle Varda, CEO of Visble Network Labs and CO-Director of the Center on Network Science at the University of CO Denver, as she opens the summit with a brief comment to set the context in the field of network science.
Jonathan Mischke, VP of Branding and Marketing at VNL, will set the tone for the day by grounding us all around the enormity of the task ahead of us – to deeply understand the impact of a hyper connected world, as both a systems problem and the ultimate path to solutions.
Meet the other amazing network innovators who are joining together for the NIS. These peers represent practitioners, thought leaders, and researchers. They come from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. You will get the chance to work with them through the day and in this morning network activity, you will get the chance to meet a few!
Dr. Charles Rutheiser from the Annie E Case Foundation will lead the day by introducing a series of “Big Questions” that we face in the future of networks, especially in times of extrodinary crisis such as our shared experience of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.
Join thought leaders from tech, data science, and community building to frame why we cannot wait another day to address the Future of Networks.
Join thought leaders from tech, data science, and community building to frame why we cannot wait another day to address the Future of Networks.
Join this dynamic hour as we dig in to the network effects that enabled COVID-19 to bring the global community to a screeching halt, and how the ripple effects of this event are transcending into every aspect of our social, health, and economic lives.
This 45 minute panel of speakers will dive deep into how the big questions presented in the morning have systemic implications for Health, Education, Philanthropy, and Rural Communities, especially in times of crisis.
Speakers include: Jason Greer (CEO of CO Community Managed Care Network), Chris Bui (Program Officer, CO Health Foundation), Emily Lockwood (Program Officers, Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation K-12 Team), and others.
In this 45 minute working session, your team will have the opportunity to engage in a collaborative, interactive systems mapping exercise. The goal of this session is to provide a forum for attendees to think through the implications of connected systems and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the sectors and outcomes we are most involved in.
You won’t want to miss this inspiring talk by Shreya Nallapati, Founder of #NeverAgainTech on how she turned the impossible into a network of innovative solutions to address the problems of school shooting head on.
Break into small groups for a fast-paced hackathon style workspace to iterate on potential solutions to the big questions presented early in the day. Pitch your ideas to a panel of judges and go home with a prize for innovative ideas.
More details to come soon!