About Us

Your trusted partner in optimizing healthcare innovation

Mission

At Inlightened, our mission is to drive transformative healthcare innovation by seamlessly connecting companies with a diverse array of experts. We are committed to facilitating informed, responsible advancements that enhance patient care and address the pressing challenges faced by the healthcare industry.

Values

We are dedicated to promoting diversity, equality, and fairness. By democratizing access to curated and vetted healthcare professionals, we foster a culture that values specialized knowledge, transparency, and meaningful innovation.

Story

Inlightened was founded in 2019 by Shelli Pavone and Michelle Higginson in Boston, Massachusetts. We were acquired by LocumTenens.com, part of the Jackson Healthcare® family of companies, in August of 2023, and continue to operate as an independent entity. Inlightened has experienced significant growth in recent years, but one thing remains consistent. We are committed to changing the way healthcare innovation works — or historically hasn’t worked — by prioritizing diversity, transparency, and quality.

The Inlightened difference

Inlightened provides exclusive access to a curated network of highly-specialized healthcare professionals, each committed to pioneering advancements in their fields. Our platform simplifies and automates the traditionally cumbersome tasks of vetting, contracting, scheduling, and payments, freeing organizations to focus on harnessing critical insights to tackle the most urgent challenges in healthcare.

GET INLIGHTENED

Leadership

Shelli Pavone

President & Co-Founder

Shelli Pavone has more than 20 years of commercial experience in healthcare, and a history of developing sales strategy and teams from the ground up. She was named among Forbes‘ Next 1000 2021. She excels in managing change and executing adaptive programs in highly competitive segments. Having spent her entire career focused on healthcare, she understands the unique challenges that come with disrupting an incredibly complex market. She is dedicated to partnering with clinicians and innovators to help shape the future of healthcare. Previously, Shelli worked with Lumere, a startup focused on utilizing clinical evidence to facilitate patient-focused, cost-effective decisions around pharmaceuticals and devices. Most recently, she led the sales and marketing team at Avant-garde Health, a healthcare analytics company with solutions that guide hospitals to improve outcomes and lower costs. Shelli is a graduate of The Ohio State University, with a BS in Psychology.

Michelle Higginson

Executive Vice President & Co-Founder

Michelle Higginson is an accomplished operator and marketing professional, with 15 years of diverse experience that spans tech and healthcare sectors. She spent her early career contributing to exponential growth in fast-paced startup environments, and was instrumental in launching the content marketing and customer advisory board practices for LogMeIn, one of the world’s top 10 SaaS companies. Michelle then led marketing and communications for the Heart Center and Pediatric Transplant Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she directed multiple award-winning campaigns, pilots and initiatives, from concept through execution. She returned to the startup space as Director of Marketing at HBS-founded Avant-garde Health before co-founding Inlightened. Michelle holds a BS in Marketing from Bentley University, with a double major in Media Arts & Society. She also earned her MBA from Bentley’s McCallum Graduate School of Business.

Zoë Mercurio

Vice President of Operations

Zoë Mercurio is an experienced team leader with over a decade of diversified expertise in change management, relationship-building, process improvement, and integration across consulting, education, and healthcare. She boasts an extensive track record of building relationships, solving problems, and implementing creative solutions. Zoë spent her early career as an adult education specialist in London before transitioning to leadership development and client success at Cambridge Leadership Associates, a boutique management consulting firm in New York. She then oversaw Executive Education management programs at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, before moving to the startup space as Iora Health’s Training Manager, with a focus on implementation and internal process improvement. Zoë holds a BA in Sociology with a subsidiary in childhood education from York University in the UK, a Post Graduate Certificate in Adult Education from University College London’s Institute of Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Extension School.

Sarah Longacre

Director of Enterprise Solutions

Sarah Longacre has nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare market research, specializing in primary market research, project scoping, and tracking studies. With a background in project management, she excels in client relationship building, team development, and business development, and thrives in her ability to create successful experiences that lead to client, team, and participant satisfaction. Sarah has served as VP of Business Development at M3 Global Research and SAGO, and was Chair of the Young Professionals Committee at Intellus in 2017. She understands industry challenges, and is known for her dedication to proactively optimizing the insights experience for every project stakeholder. Sarah holds a BA in Communications from Northeastern University.

Emily Richardson

Director of Client Success

Emily Richardson is a seasoned healthcare insights professional, with more than 15 years of expertise in fielding solutions and both quantitative and qualitative market research. She excels in leveraging data-driven insights to facilitate an informed decision-making across product and market research, with notable strengths in project administration, vendor management, team building, and operational excellence. In her prominent roles at Fieldwork, Schlesinger, and M3, and most recently as Director of Qualitative Operations at Sermo, she built departments from the ground up both in the United States and Mexico. Emily is also recognized for developing and maintaining strong client relationships, amplifying diverse voices in healthcare, and identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

Lucas Longacre

Head of Product

Lucas Longacre has nearly two decades of experience in visionary product management and technology innovation, focusing on healthcare SaaS. He excels in leading cross-functional teams to deliver cutting-edge solutions. Lucas is recognized for his expertise spanning strategy,  agile project management, and emerging technologies like generative AI and VR. . Previously, Lucas served as Head of Product at Mebot AI Corp., Technical Director at Zero Point Reality, and Video Producer & Technical Lead at The Original Fare LLC. His professional approach is rooted in understanding the complex landscape of healthcare technology, enhancing user experiences, devisingand integrating compliant and forward-looking solutions that empower underserved communities and voices. Recognized as a Webby Award winner,  holds a BA in Media Studies from SUNY at Buffalo and a certificate in Full Stack Development from UT at Austin.

Partners