Our Team

Karen Smith is a physician health officer with extensive background in public health policy development and implementation, health equity and the social determinants of health, cross-sector approaches to community health improvement, applied public health informatics and data interoperability, and governmental public health at all levels. She served as California’s State Health Officer from 2015-2019 after serving as public health officer and director at the county level for 18 years. She worked as a Consulting Medical Specialist to Google Health from 2020-2022. Beyond strengthening traditional public health services, Karen’s work has been devoted to the science and practice of building healthy and resilient communities that provide everyone a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. Karen completed her Master of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and her medical degree, residency, and infectious disease fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Anne Quaadgras is the Director of the MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative, where she builds collaborations in health systems transformation across faculty, students, health care providers, and industry leaders. Her research focuses on health systems transformation, impacts of coordination of work in health systems, and the role of information technology in systems change. Before joining HSI, Anne was a Research Scientist designing and measuring the impact of coordinating work in health systems. She led field research as part of the DoD Post Traumatic Stress Innovations project, examining the continuum of care for PTSD and related conditions. This included creating a study of integrated nonmedical and medical services around behavioral health care at Camp Pendleton, and developing recommendations for adapting and scaling those efforts across the US Marine Corps. Anne earned her doctorate in Information Systems at Boston University. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT.

Mark Watson brings 30 years’ experience in finance combined with pioneering leadership in impact investing. He is the founder of Keel Asset Management LLC, a financial advisory firm that provides socially responsible financial planning and investment advisory services to nonprofits and public and corporation pension plans. He is also Managing Director of the Fair Food Fund, Fair Food Network’s impact investing arm, which provides catalytic capital and business assistance grounded in Fair Food Network’s national network and program expertise. At Boston Impact Initiative (BII), he built a national reputation for BII’s innovative work marrying financial rigor with a social impact mission supporting entrepreneurs of color in Eastern Massachusetts. Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from the University of Chicago School of Business.

Meg Taylor has extensive experience in health care operations and finance. She has spent her career working with organizations mission-driven to improve the lives of underserved populations. Meg was COO and CFO of Pierce County Accountable Community of Health (ACH), where she led the development of community-driven health innovation projects and was responsible for its Community Resiliency Fund. [Meg’s unique approach to developing this ACH is the foundation for approach to working with community collaboratives. Open the “Examples” tab to read her story.] In Seattle, Meg was CFO of Country Doctor, a Federally Qualified Health Center operating three clinics started by community activists decades ago to serve neighbors in need. In California, she served in senior financial leadership positions for innovative community-based health care initiatives. Meg graduated summa cum laude from the University of Idaho with degrees in Accounting and Finance and minors in English, Spanish, and Music. She is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and sits on the board of the University of Idaho Vandal Scholarship Fund.

Ken Kaplan brings expertise in strategic design and the development of health initiatives and projects with a diversity of stakeholders. He gained an inside view of the health system during his 10 years as a clinical social worker. Since becoming a designer, Ken has devoted much of his career to health systems consulting and research at Columbia, Harvard, and MIT, most recently as a strategic advisor to the MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative. Earlier, he co-led the MIT New Models for Health Initiative, collaborating with leaders and practitioners across a wide range of organizations and developing design-based projects addressing stroke, childhood obesity, and behavioral health treatment with a systemic approach. At Columbia, Ken co-founded the Urban Design Lab, which was dedicated to helping NYC neighborhoods promote environmentally just development that served community needs. Ken received his master’s in Social Work from New York University and his master’s degree in Architecture from Columbia University.

Tuoyo Louis is a venture capital investor with a deep commitment to healthcare, entrepreneurship, and innovation. He is Co-founder & Managing Partner of Seae Ventures, a healthcare service and technology fund that emphasizes sustainable and disruptive technologies and seeks out overlooked entrepreneurs.

Tuoyo’s experience includes investing and operating roles over the last 18 years. He helped found Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ adjacency growth strategy. As part of this strategy, Tuoyo led investments in a broad array of companies that offer global expat insurance, claims processing, urgent care, ancillary products, third-party administration, and data analytics; as well as all of the company’s seed stage and early venture investments.

As a Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Zaffre Investments, Tuoyo managed the firm’s financial operations. He also served on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Fund III Investment Committee and Board, Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Fund I&II Strategic Advisory Committee, Long River Ventures III Advisory Board, and Excel Venture Fund Advisory Committee. Tuoyo currently serves as an advisor on the Sanara Ventures International Advisory Board.

Tuoyo earned a Bachelor’s in Molecular Cell Biology from the University California, Berkeley; a Master’s in Health Policy and Management from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health; and an MBA in Finance from Clark Atlanta University.

Faye Karnavy Sahai is an executive innovation leader and investment impact advisor on strategy, startup, inclusion, and partnerships that grow new capabilities, develop new business opportunities, and position companies at the forefront. She is currently Managing Director at Vinaj, investing in digital health startups with Telosity.co Fund and consulting in innovation and venture investments with corporations.

Faye is a developer of innovation strategic partnerships, innovation centers, innovation funds and ecosystems that drive transformation initiatives in healthcare, technology, and financial services. She is a goal-driven collaborator and advisor with success in leading strategy, investments, and innovation for large, global corporations, building on her experience at Kaiser Permanente headquarters in Oakland, Blue Shield of California, AIG, Charles Schwab, and Deloitte Consulting.

She managed the Kaiser Permanente Innovation Lab and Fund for Technology and launched the AIG Global Innovation Center managing the advanced technology team. She has assessed thousands of innovations, piloted hundreds, and scaled new products and services such as care anywhere apps, robotic couriers, blockchain smart contracts, artificial intelligence for self-service, wearables for workers safety, and mobile apps for safe driving.