Gurdane is a founder and Managing Partner of MBX Capital. He holds board roles at MBX partner companies Atlas Health, CareRev, Contraline, Freedom Biosciences, Thesis, and Vivodyne. Previously, he was the COO of FundRx, a healthcare and life sciences investment marketplace. Prior to FundRx, worked with private equity and corporate clients at Bain & Company and in public finance at Morgan Stanley. He has been an instructor on healthcare finance at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and guest lecturer in the Wharton School's healthcare management program. Gurdane earned an MPH in Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences from Yale University’s School of Public Health, where he was a Trowell-Harris Scholar. At Yale, he conducted research on the applications of human organoids and organ-chips in predictive toxicology. He earned his undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Public Policy from Duke University, where he was an A.B Duke Scholar. He was a Lord Rothermere Scholar at the University of Oxford and is a Kauffman Fellow.  

Justine Witzke, PhD, MPH Justine Witzke is the founder and CEO of Aligneage Fertility. Aligneage Fertility is a boutique sperm bank and fertility consultancy in New York City providing high-quality, equitably accessible andrology services, donor testing and screening, fertility guidance, and industry-specific consulting. The vision is to contribute to a world in which individuals can access the experts, information, services, and technologies to enhance their family building experience. Justine is an experienced strategist and operator having served in a variety of roles, including as head of clinical operations, at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Center for Reproductive Medicine. She is particularly proud of her work developing their fertility preservation program, expanding services to LGBTQ communities, and managing the department’s COVID-19 response, all of which required creative pragmatism. An expert generalist, Justine is passionate about sharing knowledge and information; she cares deeply about educating patients, colleagues, and the public. With interests in medical ethics, patient satisfaction, program development, and risk management, Justine is well-equipped to contribute as an advocate and thought leader in fertility. Additionally, she is a co-founder and President of CP Extension, a non-profit organization aimed at supporting families of individuals with cerebral palsy, and served as Chair of the Governance Committee for the Harlem Dowling-Westside Center Board of Directors in 2021. A graduate of the University of Florida, Justine received a Master’s in Public Health from Hunter College with a focus on Community Health Education and a PhD in Clinical and Translational Research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her dissertation was titled “Impact of Commercial Donor Sperm Preparation on Intrauterine Insemination Outcome.” 

Rafaela Villacres, MS, is a value-based consultant working for one of the nation’s largest municipal health care systems in the United States: New York City Health and Hospitals (NYC H+H). In her work, Rafaela supports providers and facility administrators in analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating healthcare interventions that have an impact on facility risk scores, patient care gaps, and retention within the H+H system. She has experience in project management, data analysis, and the dissemination of findings to stakeholders on progress and impact. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from CUNY, The City College of New York, in 2018 and her master’s degree in population health informatics from the CUNY School of Public Health’s first cohort in 2021. Rafaela is the co-founder of PBC Labs, a software development company that aims to leverage information science, technology, and public health to conceptualize, develop, and drive mobile health interventions. In the summer of 2021, her team participated in the Population Health Innovation Accelerator Program that CUNY SPH hosted with BLOOMELODY, a mobile health app designed for early-intervention therapists.