About Us

At Inlightened, we are passionate about optimizing healthcare innovation for all

Our mission is to improve a historically broken and biased process. The healthcare industry presents unique challenges, and there’s simply too much at stake to “move fast and break things.”

From engaging early and often for concept validation, to optimizing ongoing adoption, organizations of all sizes and stages require quality expertise at every stage of the innovation lifecycle. Relying on a static, siloed advisory board of key opinion leaders is no longer enough.

The Inlightened platform democratizes access to the only marketplace of curated, vetted, and engaged clinicians and healthcare professionals, passionate about shaping the future of their fields. Chosen for their highly-specialized knowledge, they vary by discipline, ethnicity, gender, geography, and methodology, but have one thing in common: They are highly specialized in their respective domains, and know knowledge is a precious resource that is most powerful when shared.

Accessing clinical insights and sector-specific subject matter expertise can be costly and time-consuming for companies. That’s why our technology effectively eliminates the administrative burden — with unprecedented transparency, and automated vetting, contracting, scheduling, and payment — so our members can focus on the task at hand: Disrupting responsibly.

Inlightened is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and was founded in 2019 by Shelli Pavone and Michelle Higginson. It is a WBENC-certified company, committed to celebrating diversity, upholding equality, and combating injustice, intolerance, and discrimination — in support of a culture for all.

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Team

Shelli Pavone

Chief Executive Officer & 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 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. She was named among Forbes‘ Next 1000 2021. Shelli is a graduate of The Ohio State University, with a BS in Psychology.

Michelle Higginson

Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder

Michelle Higginson is an accomplished operator and marketing professional, with more than a decade 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.

Advisors

Kevin Ban

Kevin Ban, MD, is a physician executive with more than two decades of clinical experience and a track record for optimizing clinical programs, healthcare information systems, and patient safety. Prior to joining Walgreens as Chief Medical Officer, Kevin served as Chief Medical Officer at athenahealth, driving collaborative and strategic initiatives with a specific focus on population health. A board-certified emergency medicine physician with over 25 years of clinical experience, he served as Beth Israel Deaconess Needham’s CMO, and was a member of Harvard Medical School’s academic faculty from 2003-2016. Kevin led the Tuscan Emergency Medicine Initiative from 2003-2010 — driving success in emergency medicine education, quality improvement, translational research, and simulation training in the region — and launched the first pediatric trauma center in Italy where he served as Chairman of the program. Kevin received his BA and MD from Georgetown University, and completed his Emergency Medicine training in the Beth Israel Deaconess Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program.

Eric Boutin

Eric Boutin is an accomplished serial entrepreneur and Managing Director at dRx Capital, Novartis’ digital health venture capital fund. He previously served as Founder and CEO of Evolve, a mobile technology and machine learning company, which was acquired by HubSpot. Prior to that, he was Founder and CEO of Good Start Genetics, a molecular diagnostics company, which was acquired by Invitae. Eric was also Founder of Flex Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating novel treatments for neuromuscular disorders, which went public in 2015. Eric was an Investor at Longwood Fund, and is currently a member of NextGen Venture Partners. He holds a BA from Duke University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Karen Leitner

Karen Leitner, MD, is a physician leader, healthcare consultant, and female physician coach, dedicated to empowering her peers to maximize their potential and fulfillment. Before launching her coaching venture, Karen oversaw medical patient advocacy programs as Medical Director of Transgender Virtual Medical Home for Teladoc Health, the world’s largest on-demand remote digital health delivery company. A board-certified internal medicine physician, she previously worked in urgent care for Harvard University Health Services, and in primary care for The Cambridge Health Alliance. Karen is known for her ability to design, implement, and support outstanding and cost-effective digital healthcare delivery programs, with specific expertise in physician recruitment, oversight, and professional development. She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University, attended the University of Rochester for medical school, and completed her Internal Medicine/Pediatrics training at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine.

Jonathan Porter

Jonathan Porter is a healthcare technology product leader, with more than 20 years of experience in the sector. He currently serves as Chief Product Officer for Bright Health, where he is responsible for defining the product strategy for all of Bright’s business units. Prior to joining Bright Health, Jonathan was Chief Product Officer at athenahealth, where he oversaw product strategy for the entire product portfolio. Jonathan joined athenahealth as part of an acquisition of Healthcare Data Services, an early stage population health company where he was Co-Founder and CEO. Jonathan previously co-founded White Stone Solutions, Inc., and worked in the data quality and integrity group at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Jonathan is a graduate of Babson College.

Gina Thomas

Gina Thomas is a talented nursing executive and advisor, with a wealth of healthcare, clinical, and operational knowledge. She currently serves as Chief Development Officer at Nobis Rehabilitation Partners. Prior to joining Nobis, Gina served as the Chief Development Officer at Lumere, where she built the SaaS platform’s commercial and marketing foundation. Gina previously held business development and consulting roles at The Advisory Board and MedAssets, with the early portion of her 35-year career devoted to clinical roles at 11 different healthcare organizations. Gina holds an RN and an MBA.

Lawrence Vernaglia

Lawrence Vernaglia is a seasoned authority in healthcare law. He practices and serves as a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, where he chairs the firm’s Industry Teams Department and manages overarching strategy and leadership. Widely published and respected for his expertise, Lawrence is a lecturer at Boston University School of Law and is regularly asked to speak about accountable care organizations, physician/hospital joint ventures, policies for the uninsured, corporate governance for nonprofits, compliance, HIPAA, reimbursements, and managed care. He is also a member of CommonAngels Ventures. Lawrence is a graduate of the New College of Florida and earned his JD and MPH from Boston University.

Partners