Meet the 2023 Changemaker Institute (CI) Fellows
Each year, a select group of undergraduate and graduate students in Taylor’s social venture accelerator, the Changemaker Institute, work tirelessly to propel their idea for social change into a viable and sustainable social enterprise.
Participants in the 6-month program deepen their understanding of the social issue their venture tackles, gain social entrepreneurship and business development skills, and work as a cohort to iterate their idea and build a sustainable business model. CI participants are either working to create their own social impact venture (such as a non-profit, program, student-run organization, or business) OR are focused on building a new and innovative capacity within an existing organization.
RoboRecovery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that catalyzes pathways into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for underserved students in New Orleans. We envision an equitable future for STEM education, where all youth have access to hands-on opportunities in STEM and can become future leaders in STEM. Through after-school and in-school educational robotics programs at local schools and after school organizations, we are empowering the next generation of innovators from New Orleans—one robot at a time.
William Bai, School of Science and Engineering
Opportunity Medical is a student lead start-up that is dedicated to unleashing the potential of unmatched medical school graduates. The companies’ mission is to integrate this hidden workforce by helping these doctors to obtain alternative licensure and develop in-demand medical skills. The company also seeks to help alleviate the shortage of healthcare providers by creating alliances for physicians to obtain employment commensurate with their level of education and ability.
Darrin Miller, Tulane SPHTM Environmental Health Sciences; Industrial Hygiene
Piper Biotech is an oncological pharmaceutical sensitivity and resistance testing service that empowers patients and their doctors in drug selection by testing drugs on a patient’s unique tumor sample outside of the patient’s body. This service seeks to quickly identify the optimal pharmaceutical option and prevent exposing the patient to a trial-and-error treatment process, which can place a physical, emotional, and financial burden on cancer patients.
Jae McKee, Bioinnovation PhD Candidate
Pinpoint Framework is an innovative approach that employs the City Health Dashboard data as a metric, tracking, and information tool, which will equitably pinpoint specific locations for resources to assist in prevention and recovery efforts. This innovation seeks to be an emergency management tool that will assist with unprecedented events such as chronic illnesses and addictions, destructive weather patterns, and biological and man-made disasters. As MPA students, we are driven to engage public officials to improve community conditions for vulnerable populations
Khamani “Gigi” Williamson, Master of Public Administration Candidate
Bedar “Bee” Warren, Master of Public Administration Candidate
Salonn22 is a Women’s Social Club slated to open in New Orleans later this year. Founded by four women, bios here, members of Salon22 will join an intentionally diverse community of like-minded women from across the city, becoming part of a safe, beautiful space to gather, develop meaningful connections, and advance themselves personally, professionally and in their community through comfortable co-working spaces, daily happy hours/coffee meet-ups, expert speakers, and extensive onsite resources.
Mariska Morse , Master of Liberal Arts, GESS Focus
New Orleans Free Health Resource App will increase awareness and access to charitable healthcare resources in New Orleans by creating a user-friendly website for patients and medical providers to consolidate and organize all available resources. This will increase utilization of free screening services for common diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, which may lead to earlier detection and decreased mortality in the New Orleans population
Craig Ballard, School of Medicine & Marcus Wright, School of Medicine and Freeman School of Business
To learn more, visit the Changemaker Institute page or email CI Director, Julia Lang, at jlang@tulane.edu.