2024 Houston Innovation Awards names esteemed judges for annual program

meet the decision makers

Here's who's calling the shots for the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards. Photos courtesy

Ten Houstonians are in the hot seat for deciding the best companies and individuals in Houston's innovation ecosystem.

InnovationMap has announced its 2024 Houston Innovation Awards judging panel, which includes startup founders, nonprofit leaders, investors, corporate innovators, and more. In addition to the 10 judges, InnovationMap Editor Natalie Harms will serve as the editorial representative on the judging panel.

The selected judges will evaluate applications from the nearly 300 nominations that were submitted this year. The judges will be using their expertise to evaluate the nominees' applications, which are due to InnovationMap this week.

Read about this year's judges below, and don't forget to secure your tickets to the November 14 event to see who the panel selects as the winners for the annual celebration of Houston innovation.



Angela Wilkins, chief data officer at Starling Medical

Houston data scientist joins medical device startup amid AI evolution in the sectorAngela Wilkins joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the intersection of data and health care. Photo courtesy

Angela Wilkins has had a decade-long career in data science in business and academia and now oversees data science for Houston health tech company Starling Medical. She founded Mercury Data Science, which became OmniScience, and previously ran Rice University's Ken Kennedy Institute as executive director.

Brad Burke, associate vice president for industry and new ventures at Rice University's Office of Innovation and executive director of the Rice Alliance

The 2023 recipient of the Trailblazer Award, Brad Burke returns to the Houston Innovation Awards as a judge. For over 20 years, he's led the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and recently took on a new leadership role within the university's growing Office of Innovation.

Calicia Johnson, senior product manager at Xbox and co-lead for Black at Xbox at Microsoft

Calicia Johnson is a leader within Microsoft's Houston office, especially when it comes to representing and encouraging diversity. She was named the winner of the 2023 DEI Champion award at the Houston Innovation Awards. Prior to Xbox, she worked for nearly 10 years in oil and gas with the bulk of that time at Chevron.

Emily Cisek, CEO and founder of The Postage

Last year, Emily Cisek's company, The Postage, a secure life planning and small business succession platform, was a finalist in three Houston Innovation Awards categories, winning the award for Female-Founded Business. She returns as a judge as her company continues to grow.

Grace Rodriguez, CEO and executive director of Impact Hub Houston

Grace Rodriguez was a judge for the inaugural Houston Innovation Awards in 2021, and she returns to judge the awards in accordance to her mission of helping "do gooders do greater." In addition to leading Impact Hub Houston, she is a board member of the City of Houston Office of Business Opportunity and is on the Board of Directors for Downtown Houston.

Joey Sanchez, founder of Cup of Joey

As the 2024 Ecosystem Builder award recipient, Joey Sanchez has worked for years leading Houston innovation, including as senior director of ecosystems at the Ion Houston and director of corporate engagement at Houston Exponential. He's now growing his startup, Cup of Joey, a weekly coffee meetup organization, across Houston.

Jon Nordby, managing partner at investment firm Anthropy Partners and founder of EconWerx

For years, Jon Nordby has been a champion of Houston innovation in his previous leadership roles at Houston Exponential, MassChallenge, and the Greater Houston Partnership. A former Houston Innovation Awards judge from 2021, he now works hands on with startups and organizations looking to grow an innovation ecosystem.

Margarita Kelrikh, counsel at Pillsbury

As counsel in Pillsbury's Houston office, Margarita Kelrikh has supported the firm's growing startup clients since her appointment earlier this year. Prior to joining the firm, she held in-house counsel positions at a few companies, including WeWork. She received her bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago and her law degree at Columbia School of Law.

Pedro Silva, co-founder of Milkify

Pedro Silva co-founded Milkify, a freeze-drying breastmilk service, with his wife, Berkley Luck, and the company has appeared on Shark Tank and won last year's BIPOC-Founded Business Award.

Wade Pinder, founder of Product Houston

As the 2023 Mentor of the Year winner, Wade Pinder has mentored countless Houston startups and has decades of experience in product development — most recently through his own company, Product Houston.

Editorial judge: Natalie Harms, editor of InnovationMap

For the fourth year, Natalie Harms will represent InnovationMap on the annual awards judging panel as the founding editor of InnovationMap the host of the Houston Innovators Podcast.

She reports on innovation and technology for InnovationMap and on energy transition for EnergyCapitalHTX — and their impact on the city of Houston. A Houston native, she's worked as a business journalist for almost a decade and has a degree in journalism from the University of Houston and a certificate in publishing from New York University.

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Dr. Evan Collins of Houston Methodist, Margarita Kelrikh of Pillsbury, and Howard Berman of Coya Therapeutics. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes a new innovator in residency, a Houston startup lawyer, and a neurodegenerative therapeutics CEO.

Evan Collins, innovator in residency at Houston Methodist

Dr. Evan Collins, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of the Houston Methodist Hand & Upper Extremity Center, was named the hospital's first innovator in residency. Photo via drevancollins.com

Dr. Evan Collins, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of the Houston Methodist Hand & Upper Extremity Center, is the inaugural innovator in residency at Houston Methodist Center for Innovation.

What does an innovator-in-residency do? Collins sat down with InnovationMap to explain. His role, he explains, is to encourage other clinicians to get involved in the innovation process, particularly using digital health care programs.

“When you look at all the technology, especially the digital technology that's being applied [in medicine], and the future of digital technology, whether you define it as AI or other variations, having a clinical perspective to vet a lot of these possible solutions, as opposed to just keeping it on the administrative side of things, has greater value,” he says. Read more.

Margarita Kelrikh, counsel at Pillsbury

Margarita Kelrikh joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss her career, legal tips for startups, and why she's dedicated to the Houston startup community. Photo courtesy

After working at WeWork and its upstart competitor for several years, Margarita Kelrikh realized it was time to move back into a law firm where she could help more early stage Houston startup clients. She recently joined Pillsbury's Houston office as counsel.

"I realized I wanted to work with the people who I worked with in the past, and the only way I could do that is if I went back to a law firm," she says, explaining that working in house means you can only have one client: your employer. "It's about having that variety and being able to work with a wide array of people."

Kelrikh shares some of her go-to startup legal advice on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast, and she emphasizes how ready and willing she is to serve the Houston startup community. Read more.

Howard Berman, CEO and co-founder of Coya Therapeutics

Coya Therapeutics is looking into how a trendy weight loss drug could complement its Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Photo via LinkedIn

Glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, agonists are all the rage right now thanks to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Though they’re currently being prescribed for diabetes and weight loss, a Houston company reports that it may have found another use for GLP-1s.

Coya Therapeutics, a publicly traded clinical-stage biotechnology company, has filed intellectual property protection for a combination of its proprietary COYA 301 and GLP-1. Coya’s team believes that combining COYA 301, a low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) intended to enhance the anti-inflammatory function of regulatory T cells (Tregs), with GLP-1 could be a game-changer in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Coya’s CEO, Howard Berman, “We believe that combination immunotherapy approaches will evolve to play a meaningful role in treating complex immune-based diseases that are driven by a host of pathophysiologic mechanisms.” Read more.

Margarita Kelrikh, counsel at Pillsbury, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss her career, legal tips for startups, and why she's dedicated to the Houston startup community. Photo courtesy

Why this lawyer is dedicated to problem solving for the Houston startup ecosystem

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 249

Margarita Kelrikh has taken a circuitous route to her new role working with her Houston startup clients at Pillsbury.

She started out her legal career in New York as a debt attorney, transitioned to investment banking then worked in-house at WeWork at its peak, before moving to Houston in 2022 with a mission of representing startups as an emerging companies and venture capital lawyer.

The common thread of her career? Tackling the most challenging problems she can get her hands on.

"I have this instinct — when someone tells me a problem, I say, 'Let me solve that for you,'" Kelrikh, who serves as counsel at Pillsbury, explains on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

After working in house for most of her career, her decision to go back into working at a law firm stemmed from wanting new, fresh, and varied problems for the connections she made and continues to make in the startup ecosystems of New York and now Houston.

"I realized I wanted to work with the people who I worked with in the past, and the only way I could do that is if I went back to a law firm," she says, explaining that working in house means you can only have one client: your employer. "It's about having that variety and being able to work with a wide array of people"

Since moving to Houston, she's dove headfirst into the startup community by going at events and other programming to grow her connections locally. Kelrikh says she doesn't see many EC/VC lawyers showing up like she does.

"What I really want to do at Pillsbury is to really spend time on investing in the Houston startup community," she says, explaining that this includes hosting events and office hours. "Pillsbury is really committed to the Texas and Houston markets."

Kelrikh's client list is industry agnostic, and says she usually looks for founders who have started their businesses, maybe reached some product-market fit, and is gearing up to raise their first round of funding. But there are some instances when she'll take promising, high-growth potential companies at incorporation stage.

"Some companies don't need to hire a lawyer — they just need someone to point them in the right direction," she says, adding that even if a company isn't ready to hire Pillsbury yet, the firm has a lot of free and useful resources on its platform, Pillsbury Propel.

In the same vein, Kelrikh shares some of her go-to startup legal advice on the podcast, and she emphasizes how ready and willing she is to serve the Houston startup community.

"What I like about Houston as a startup ecosystem is it's a startup itself, and that's my absolute sweet spot," she says. "For anybody who wants to be involved, not only is there an opportunity to participate, but there's an opportunity to take a really active role to build it."

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MD Anderson unveils $3.4B expansion with two new Houston cancer care facilities

major expansion

The cutting edge of cancer-fighting technology and science is getting even sharper after MD Anderson announced last week that it will open two new facilities in the Texas Medical Center within the next five years. Inspiration Tower and Prism will expand MD Anderson’s annual patient load in the TMC to 250,000 annually and will incorporate a variety of new techniques.

The $3.4 billion project will add 2 million square feet to MD Anderson's TMC footprint, bringing its total campus size to 22 million square feet by 2032. Located at the corner of Fannin Street and Holcombe Boulevard, the cancer center says the two new facilities will serve as its new "front door" to the TMC.

“Every detail of these buildings, from the technology to the treatment rooms, was designed around our patients who will receive their care in them and our employees who will work in them. The facilities will serve as a physical representation of hope for the patients and their families who will walk through the doors,” Dr. Jeffrey E. Lee, president ad interim of UT MD Anderson, said in a news release. “Inspiration Tower and Prism are the future of cancer care, and we are grateful for the longstanding support and guidance we’ve received from the UT System Board of Regents to bring these projects to life. These facilities are part of the most impactful capital expansion in UT MD Anderson’s history.”

Prism is especially exciting as it will represent fully half of the linear accelerator treatment in the TMC. Linear accelerator is a radiation treatment that uses magnetically charged fields to deliver targeted external radiation therapy, like shooting cancer with a rail gun. The treatment is safer and has fewer side effects than older radiation treatments.

In addition, Prism will contain 12 MRI machines, four CT scanners, two PET-CT units, 18 radiation vaults and seven radiation simulators. Patient comfort has also been put at a premium with multiple gardens and roof overlooks.

“Every patient we treat deserves an environment that reflects the excellence of the care they receive at UT MD Anderson,” Chris McKee, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at UT MD Anderson, added in the release. “Our new facilities will be innovative, agile, adaptable and beautiful, and they will allow us to care for more patients, more effectively – in an environment that enhances healing and well-being. We are building for our future and for every patient who will be counting on us.”

Prism is slated to open in 2030.

Inspiration Tower will have 25 floors of surgical, diagnostic, and treatment services. At 1.4 million square feet, it’s currently expected to be the largest cancer-specific treatment facility in the United States. The tower will be divided into units for specific types of cancer, making it easy to integrate the advancing research being done all over Houston.

Like Prism, Inspiration Tower is specifically designed to offer comfort and reassurance, with more garden space, terraces, and beautiful scenery to ease patient distress. It is expected to open in 2032.

Tesla will pull the plug on Cybertruck production at Texas factory in 2027

Tesla Talk

Tesla’s Cybertruck, the hulking, stainless-steel pickup that inspired devotion and derision with its science-fiction looks, will cease production next year.

CEO Elon Musk announced the model’s demise Friday, November 6, with a curt post on X, his social media site, simply noting production of the vehicle “will be winding down” around the middle of 2027 at its facility outside Austin, Texas. Musk said the move was to allow increased production of its Cybercab robotaxi.

For the Cybertruck, a pet project of Musk who insisted it was Tesla’s best product, it marks an unceremonious end to one of the auto industry’s most ballyhooed debuts.

“Few vehicles in history have generated as much attention,” said Armen Hareyan, whose Torque News site covers autos. “The Cybertruck became a cultural symbol – loved, mocked and impossible to ignore.”

The Cybertruck rolled onto the scene in a dramatic unveiling in 2019, when a Tesla designer hurled a metal ball at the vehicle to demonstrate its supposedly unbreakable glass, only to see it shatter. He repeated the stunt on another window of the truck only to shatter that one, too.

Even as some critics scoffed, Musk was steadfast.

“I just wanted to make a futuristic battle tank — something that looks like it could come out of ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Aliens’ or something like that but was also highly functional,” he told Automotive News. He called it “a better sports car than a Porsche 911” and “a better truck than an F-150.”

It struck some as the perfect vehicular reflection of the brash, convention-busting Musk.

“A really controversial vehicle unveiled by a controversial individual into a market where none of the electric trucks have been able to really capture demand,” said Spencer Penn, a former Tesla executive who left the company before the Cybertruck’s launch and now heads software developer LightSource.

Penn remembered watching the unveiling and feeling initially revolted by the sight of the Cybertruck, calling its appearance “madness.” But the more he looked at it, the more his opinion changed. He signed up for a pre-sale reservation, though ended up not getting a Cybertruck when Musk’s promises of a price tag under $40,000 went unmet and the first trucks sold for double or more. Penn called the Cybertruck part of Tesla’s adventurous spirit that drives innovation.

“Some of these bets work and some of these bets don’t,” he said.

While the decision to end Cybertruck production may be driven by sales realities, it's also a reflection of Tesla’s shift to autonomous vehicles, on which Musk is betting the company’s future.

Musk once forecast he’d make 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. Kelley Blue Book estimated Tesla sold just 20,237 of the vehicles last year, down about half from the year prior. Sales through the end of September this year were down another 28%, according to Kelley Blue Book.

If the imposing, sharp-angled, dystopian appearance of the Cybertruck weren’t enough to turn many potential buyers away, Musk did so himself by allying with a panoply of right-wing figures, most notably U.S. President Donald Trump. He alienated some customers as his image morphed from eccentric innovator to polarizing force trading his billions for political influence.

Once-passionate Tesla drivers rushed to sell off their cars, or slapped stickers on the bumper declaring, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” Organizers staged demonstrations outside Tesla showrooms and urged investors to dump shares of the company’s stock. Anger spilled into violence, with Molotov cocktails hurled at Tesla vehicles, charging stations set ablaze, and dealerships covered in graffiti.

Lovers of the Cybertruck became targets, too, subjected to shouts of “Nazi!” and extended middle fingers.

Ross Blankenship is one of them. When he first laid eyes on the Cybertruck, he felt transported to a world from his childhood, when he would play “Halo,” the sci-fi video game. He had to have it.

“I had that sort of child in me wanting to be part of something cool that would change the future of automotive,” Blankenship said in a call from his Cybertruck as he drove through Sunnyside, Colorado. Even as Blankenship found he agreed with Musk on politics, he hated seeing a vehicle he loved turned into a political symbol. “I never bought it for any other reason than the fascination with the future technology of trucks … so that was a little heartbreaking.”

He would buy another Cybertruck again in a heartbeat, calling its end “a sad moment.”

UTHealth Houston officially opens new tower in TMC's Helix Park

open for innovation

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health recently opened its new state-of-the-art tower in the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park.

The 350,000-square-foot, 10-story campus at 1930 Old Spanish Trail was celebrated with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 28. The $229 million project will consolidate all UTHealth Houston School of Public Health operations into one facility. It will also connect students who are at the Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio campuses with peers and faculty through digital and distance learning.

Disciplines taught in the new tower will include epidemiology, genetics, nutrition, health policy, data science and health promotion, UTHealth shared when the building first broke ground in 2023.

Architects Kirksey Architecture and Smith Group designed the building, and Vaughn Construction served as general contractor. The facility features labs for studying human disease, classrooms and spaces to support interdisciplinary and community-based research, a broadcast studio and a teaching kitchen. A skybridge over Old Spanish Trail connects the new tower with a plaza that's shared with MD Anderson.

“This new facility reflects the kind of forward-looking investment that will serve Texans for generations,” Janiece Longoria, vice chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, said in a news release. “By creating an environment where talented people can learn, collaborate, and pursue new ideas, UTHealth Houston is building capacity to meet the challenges of tomorrow while strengthening its impact across our state.”

UTHealth says the system aims for the new campus to expand on collaborative research efforts and continue graduate education, as enrollment at the School of Public Health has increased by 27 percent over the last five years.

“This new building, with its state-of-the-art education technology and learning environment, will strengthen and advance the school’s mission to educate and train the next generation of experts who will advance scientific discovery, shape evidence-based health policy, and lead innovative solutions to the complex health challenges in communities throughout Texas and across the nation,” Kevin Morano, senior vice president, provost and chief academic officer of UTHealth Houston, added in a news release.

Attending the ceremony were Dr. Melina R. Kibbe, UTHealth Houston president and Alkek Williams Distinguished Chair; Eric Boerwinkle, dean, M. David Low Chair in Public Health and Kozmetsky Family Chair in Human Genetics at the School of Public Health; Texas State Representative Lauren Ashley Simmons, Texas House District 146; representatives of the offices of Senator John Cornyn and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis; and Dr. Theresa Tran, director of the Houston Health Department.

"This building represents far more than a home for our school,” Boerwinkle added in the release. “It represents the people who make our mission possible: the faculty, staff, and students who fill each laboratory and classroom with curiosity, discovery, and purpose to improve the population’s quality of life.”

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