3 female Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Nicole Rogers of Validere, Allie Danziger of Ampersand, and Ashley Small of Medley Inc. Courtesy photos

Editor's note: In the week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three female innovators across industries — from energy tech to business entrepreneurship.

Nicole Rogers, senior vice president at Validere

Nicole Rogers, senior vice president at Validere, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss how her company has grown exponentially over the past year. Photo courtesy of Validere

Nicole Rogers joined Canadian startup Validere during the summer last year — right smack dab in the middle of a pandemic. But despite COVID-19 and the drop in oil prices, the energy company grew exponentially — in clientbase, in venture capital support, and in employee count.

"One of the things we found that was to our advantage throughout the pandemic was a lot of folks in oil were having a career identity crisis. Oil really struggles with employment elasticity," Rogers says. "A lot of the colleagues we were talking to were just fatigued with the ups and downs going on in the past decade."

Rogers, who's based in the company's Houston office, shares more about Validere's growth and opportunities in the new year — plus what she thinks Houston needs to do to maintain its status of energy capital of the world in the episode. Click here to read more and to stream the podcast.

Allie Danziger, founder of Ampersand

Houston entrepreneur, Allie Danziger, wanted to create a program for young professionals looking to gain experience in unprecedented times. Photo courtesy of Ampersand

Allie Danziger has two small children, but she started thinking about if her kids were college age, would she want them to enroll in a virtual college experience or hold off for a time where they could have a more traditional experience. Realizing she probably wasn't alone, she thought about how she could create an alternative for high school grads — in this time of the pandemic but also in a time where college degrees aren't the best option for job security.

"I really believe that it scales way beyond this pandemic," says Danziger. In her research, she saw a lack of career-focused gap curriculums and resources available. "There are no programs that help you determine what the right path for you is—to really do that self-exploration and then apply it to your career path," she explains. Click here to read more.

Ashley Small, founder and CEO of Medley Inc.

From events to online shopping — here are four tech trends to look out for this year according to Ashley Small. Photo courtesy of Medley

It's a new year and the perfect time to reflect on where society is at from a technological standpoint. In light of the pandemic and an overarching trend of tapping into tech to provide solutions to COVID-19-related challenges, 2021 will likely see more of these trends.

"As a business owner, it's clear to me that many of these shifts will persist long after the pandemic has ended," writes Ashley Small, founder and CEO of Medley Inc., in a guest column for InnovationMap.

From subscriptions to online shopping, Small highlighted the types of tech in the digital realm that deserve our special attention in 2021. Click here to read more.

Nicole Rogers, senior vice president at Validere, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss how her company has grown exponentially over the past year. Photo courtesy of Validere

Canadian energy tech startup doubles down on Houston and plans to scale

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 65

While the pandemic and last year's drop in oil prices may have caused their own set of challenges, at least one energy tech startup saw plenty of opportunity for growth amid the unprecedented times.

In 2020, Validere, which is based in Calgary and has a growing office in Houston, closed a $15 million series A round with participation from two Silicon Valley firms — Greylock and Wing Venture Capital — as well as doubled their employee base. The company has software and hardware supplychain solutions for oil and gas companies that improves visibility and trust in oil testing.

"We came out of our Q2 and Q3 having the best quarters that the company had ever had," says Nicole Rogers, senior vice president at Validere, on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Many of our results were tied to our customers being forced to do something differently. When you can't earn your profits the same way you did before, you will constantly look for profits somewhere else — and we are core to that movement."

Hiring for startups is always a challenge — especially competing with both big tech and big oil companies — but Rogers says this is another example of how both the instability in oil and gas coupled with COVID-19-caused crisis played to their benefit.

"One of the things we found that was to our advantage throughout the pandemic was a lot of folks in oil were having a career identity crisis. Oil really struggles with employment elasticity," Rogers says. "A lot of the colleagues we were talking to were just fatigued with the ups and downs going on in the past decade."

Validere's technology is also beneficial to oil and gas companies who are looking to use data and supply chain optimization increase transparency in a market that is prioritizing sustainability and ESG — Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance.

"ESG is a supply chain problem and opportunity — and that's what we do at Validere," Rogers says. "We're transforming the world's largest supply chains through the use of software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and our staff."

Rogers, who's based in the company's Houston office, shares more about Validere's growth and opportunities in the new year — plus what she thinks Houston needs to do to maintain its status of energy capital of the world in the episode. Listen to the full interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.


Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

UTHealth Houston team joins NASA initiative to protect border drinking water

water watch

Climate change means far more to public health than living with hotter days. Transformations in our weather are contributing to challenges in accessing safe drinking water in some communities.

One of the most dire situations is along the US–Mexico border. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking to address that issue with its Water Quality Applications program. An 11-researcher project led by a UTHealth Houston School of Public Health faculty member has been selected to participate.

“Drinking water is one of the most fundamental public health protections, but producing safe drinking water involves a delicate balance,” Yun Hang, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, said in a news release. Her team’s proposal was one of 93 that were submitted for funding through NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES)-2025 program.

This is the first time that NASA has worked with a team devoted to water quality applications. The group, which includes researchers from across the nation, will use satellite observations of Earth, as well as hydrologic modeling, to potentially anticipate and act on water quality conditions as they change. Challenges addressed over the course of the three-year program, which kicked off in June, might include problems with water quality due to climate variability and increased pressure on water resources.

Hang’s team will focus on a pair of borderlands: Paso del Norte and the Rio Grande Valley.

“Working closely with El Paso Water ensures that our research addresses real operational needs while helping utilities better prepare for climate-related water quality changes and continue providing safe drinking water to communities across the Texas border region,” Hang added in the release.

She and the team will use data gathered by NASA on both past and future Earth-observing missions, which will allow them to track environmental changes that may affect source water quality. Combined with past water treatment records and hydrologic models, the team will also utilize artificial intelligence to develop predictive tools that aim to stop issues before they become larger hurdles to water safety.

Another one of the project’s goals is to create visualization tools and source water summaries that can be utilized by those without scientific expertise. The tools will be produced in English and Spanish to further broaden their accessibility.

The hope is that the materials made by the team will also go far beyond the border, with protocols that can be adapted or adopted by other areas dealing with water quality issues.

U.S. News declares Houston hospital No. 1 in Texas for the 15th year

Top of the Chart

Houston Methodist Hospital and over a dozen more Houston-area hospitals have earned bragging rights in U.S. News & World Report's newly released rankings of the Best Hospitals for 2026-2027.

Every year, U.S. News annually evaluates nearly 4,500 U.S. hospitals to determine which meet the publication's rigorous standards and offer the best care for patients across 14 adult specialties and 23 procedures and conditions. New to this year's batch of rankings, U.S. News introduced regional rankings in cancer; cardiology; heart and vascular surgery; orthopedics; and rehabilitation.

Houston Methodist Hospital was the only Texas institution named on U.S. News' Best Hospitals Honor Roll, a prestigious list of the 20 best medical centers in the country. Houston Methodist also reigns as Texas' best hospital for the 15th consecutive year.

The hospital also shines among the nation’s best in 10 specialties:

  • No. 5 – Gastroenterology and GI Surgery
  • No. 7 – Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • No. 10 – Cardiology, Heart, and Vascular Surgery
  • No. 11 – Pulmonology and Lung Surgery
  • No. 13 – Neurology and Neurosurgery
  • No. 19 – Cancer
  • No. 21 – Orthopedics
  • No. 23 – Diabetes and Endocrinology
  • No. 24 – Geriatrics
  • No. 43 – Urology
Houston Methodist also earned high performing distinctions across one regional specialty (Rehabilitation) and 21 procedures and conditions.

"This recognition reflects the remarkable dedication of our physicians and employees and their tireless focus on delivering unparalleled care to our patients," said Houston Methodist president and CEO Marc L. Boom, M.D. in a press release. "While we are honored by this recognition, its true significance lies in what it represents — an unwavering commitment to putting patients first."

Elsewhere in Houston, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked as the No. 1 best cancer hospital in the nation for the 12th year in a row.

"This ranking is a tremendous honor, and it reflects our unwavering commitment to continue making progress in our mission to end cancer," said UT MD Anderson president Peter WT Pisters, M.D. "We are deeply grateful to everyone who made this recognition possible: our faculty and staff, volunteers, donors, and the patients and families we are honored to serve."

MD Anderson also earned national rankings in two specialties — Urology (No. 6) and Gastroenterology and GI Surgery (No. 16) — and it received high performing distinctions in six procedures and conditions: Colon Cancer Surgery; Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery; Gynecological Cancer Surgery; Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma Treatment; Lung Cancer Surgery; and Prostate Cancer Surgery.

The additional Houston hospitals that ranked among the best in Texas for 2026-2027 are:

  • No. 3 – Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital (tied with Baylor University Medical Center Dallas)
  • No. 5 – Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Houston
  • No. 6 – Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston
  • No. 7 – Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital
  • No. 10 – Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital (tied with St. David's Medical Center, Austin)
  • No. 14 – Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital
  • No. 15 – Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center, Houston
  • No. 21 – Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital, Nassau Bay; St. Luke's Health-The Woodlands Hospital; University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston (also tied with six more Texas hospitals)
  • No. 30 – Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital (tied with five other Texas hospitals)
  • No. 36 – HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood (tied with Parkland Health-Dallas)
---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston helps power Texas’ rise as AI infrastructure hub, new report finds

eyes on ai

Houston plays a major role in Texas’ rapidly evolving AI economy, a new report indicates.

The report from Build American AI, a pro-AI advocacy group, notes Houston’s growing AI presence includes:

  • A factory being built by AI chipmaker NVIDIA and electronics manufacturer Foxconn that will produce AI supercomputers and infrastructure systems
  • Houston Methodist’s use of ambient AI to listen to health care providers’ conversations with patients, eliminating the need for manual notetaking
  • An abundance of AI products and services for the energy sector

Across the state, billions of dollars in new AI investments are fueling advancements in construction, manufacturing, energy production, logistics, and health care, according to the report.

“Texas is not merely a place where AI products will be used. Texas is becoming one of the places where the AI economy is being assembled,” the report says.

Particularly noteworthy are four major AI-related projects around the state representing an investment of more than $140 billion, including Google’s $40 billion buildout of AI data centers.

“While California had a headstart in building the software era, Texas will build the infrastructure era,” says the report. “That is not a slogan. Economic research has revealed for decades that innovation happens where the local conditions make building and collaboration possible, and Texas is positioned to be a central hub.”

According to the report, components of Texas’ infrastructure era include:

  • Energy leadership
  • Top-tier hospitals
  • Semiconductor investments
  • Construction capabilities
  • Data center growth
  • Major companies and universities

On the workforce front, Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index found Texas had 80,547 AI job postings in 2025, accounting for 8 percent of the national total.

“Texas no longer needs to ask whether AI will reshape the economy. It already has,” the report concludes. “The question is whether Texas will merely host part of that future or lead it.”

View All Listings