“You can’t expect new ideas if you’re casting the same net in the same waters,” said Ingrid Ellerbe, executive director of Diversity by Doing HealthTech (DxD). That belief is the foundation of DxD’s Pathways in Health Technology program, which introduces community college STEM students to career opportunities across the healthtech industry.
Five years ago Stanford Biodesign and Fogarty Innovation launched DxD as part of a commitment to improving diversity in the healthtech industry through programs that serve individuals across the career pipeline. In addition to Pathways, DxD offers a Healthtech Exploration Workshop to provide an expanded learning experience for diverse college students interning at companies in the ecosystem; Speed Mentoring, which introduces early- to mid-career women and minorities to mentoring as a way to help them succeed in the workplace; and Building a Business of Purpose, a seminar series for company leaders that helps them operationalize diversity in the workplace. The next in this series, “Untapped Talent, Unmatched Value: Strategies for Inclusive Innovation,” is coming up on May 19.
Together, the programs have served 312 students, 468 mentees, and 335 mentors, with 150 companies participating, demonstrating the growing momentum behind DxD’s mission.
Expanding the talent pool
Pathways is personal to Ellerbe, who previously ran science and technology programs for community college students. She had recognized a blind spot in the industry, as companies told her they sourced talent and interns almost exclusively from four-year institutions. With highly capable community college students not even on the radar, the practice limited access to the healthtech field.
Ellerbe’s goal was to show companies that two-year schools are teeming with high-aptitude, motivated students, many of them first-generation college students. “Companies were overlooking very gifted students,” she said. She pointed out that many of those students also go on to four-year colleges, citing past Pathways students who have transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Harvard University, Howard University, UC Davis, and University of California, Berkeley, to name a few.
Ellerbe sees Pathways as a chance to extend the pipeline with new and emerging talent that wouldn’t otherwise be considered. And once companies engage with Pathways students, they are impressed. “They reach out to us and tell us that these students come prepared, ask such good questions and often know more about the company than some of their new hires.”
Confidence, connections and career clarity
The Pathways program has grown significantly since its launch, receiving 100 applications for just 30 spots in its most recent class.
Under the direction of senior program manager Claudine Joseph, the program has added new elements as well. The class now shadows clinicians in hospital settings, and some attend the Advamed MedTech Conference, a premier industry event where they engage with healthtech leaders.
It’s there that Ellerbe sees how the confidence they develop is a critical byproduct of the Pathways program. “By the time they get to the MedTech Conference, they are confident enough to walk up to the microphone in a room of hundreds of people and ask a CEO a question,” she says. “When I was that age, I would never have done that.”
Of course, the networking is also key to future success, and Ellerbe ensures students recognize the access Pathways offers them, “You’re going to meet people in this program that others would love to have simply pick up their call, so use it to your advantage,” she emphasizes. “If they can’t help you directly, they will put you in touch with someone else in their network who can help you.”
The other benefit Ellerbe underscores is how Pathways works to broaden students’ sense of what a career in healthtech can look like. “Not everyone is interested in being an engineer or innovator, but the industry has multiple entry points, from marketing to finance to research,” she points out. “This exposure turns on a light switch for them about their possibilities.”
Staying connected on their future journeys
DxD support continues well after Pathways ends. The initiative maintains a private LinkedIn group that allows graduates to peruse internships and job postings and keep up on their connections. “Claudine is like a shepherd for the students while they’re in the program and then she stays in touch with them afterwards to help with mock interviews and other career assistance,” Ellerbe says.
Ellerbe also makes sure these voices are reflected in future planning. For example, she invited Karen Daniela Accinelli, a member of the inaugural 2023 Pathways cohort, who became a medical device engineering intern at Zuno Medical and is now a full-time employee, to join the DxD advisory board. “It’s important to have young voices participate in our planning and execution, because that’s who we’re serving,” she says. “And, the position gives Daniela board experience, on top of everything else she’s accomplishing.”
A spirit of “paying it forward” permeates the program, and Ellerbe takes pride in seeing alumni return to support and mentor newer cohorts. She also emphasizes that their presence in healthtech comes with responsibility. “I explain that most of the devices we have right now were built by people who didn’t look like them, and unfortunately, might not have taken their unique needs into consideration.”
Stronger with Fogarty
As part of the Fogarty Innovation ecosystem, DxD benefits from deep industry connections, infrastructure, and expertise. This relationship creates unique opportunities for students to engage directly with cutting-edge companies and leaders shaping the future of healthtech.
“Fogarty works with companies coming out with remarkable technologies, and we get to be housed within that space,” she says. Leadership from Fogarty’s associated companies regularly give their time, and Ellerbe recently added Efraín Torres, PhD the CEO of Adialante, one of Fogarty’s Company Accelerator Program (CAP) participants, to the DxD advisory board.
That’s just one of the ways that DxD’s extensive volunteer network supports its efforts. “We exist because of our volunteers, and people are so fascinated by the opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life that they raise their hands as soon as we start talking about what we do,” she says, adding that company participation has increased 10-fold since the program’s inception. “It’s a testament to the shared belief that expanding opportunity strengthens the entire ecosystem.”