Elena Brondolo, MPH, MBA, EdD, Director, Future of Healthcare Residency, The Roux Institute

Elena Brondolo, MPH, MBA, EdD, is the Director of the Future of Healthcare Residency at The Roux Institute, Northeastern University. Her mission is to fast-track healthcare’s future by empowering early-stage health tech innovators.

With over a decade of healthcare experience, Elena fuses her passions for healthcare innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Her expertise spans experiential learning, change management, and program development.

Before joining The Roux Institute, Elena dedicated over four years to MaineHealth, initially in clinical implementation and later as a leader in innovation education and funding programs. She revamped program curricula, guided clinicians and researchers in commercializing their ideas, and fortified the innovation foundation of the health system.

Preceding her time at MaineHealth, Elena spent four years at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian, focusing on patient flow, behavioral medicine research, and organizational development. During her tenure, she co-founded a consulting company offering evidence-based leadership and organizational development support for academic medical research groups.

Elena’s people-first approach to program development and partnerships is rooted in her background in Organizational Psychology. She holds an MBA and MPH concentrating in entrepreneurship, change management, and health policy, and recently earned her EdD in Learning, Leadership, and Innovation from Northeastern University. Her doctoral research explored strategies for catalyzing healthcare innovation during the pandemic, translating these strategies into action through experiential learning for large systems.

Leo Waterston, Founder and President, Waterston Coaching & Consulting

Leo Waterston is the Founder and President of Waterston Coaching & Consulting, providing executive coaching, leadership development, and career transition services to professionals and organizations in Maine and across the U.S. With over 20 years of leadership experience in healthcare, public health, and scientific research, Leo specializes in helping technical experts strengthen the communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence skills that drive career growth and organizational success.

In addition to his coaching practice, Leo serves as a Career Consultant at ClearRock, a Boston-based coaching and consulting firm. He holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Fordham University and completed executive coach training through the Center for Executive Coaching and the University of Kansas. Leo currently serves as Board President of the Maine Public Health Association and is a mentor through the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs.

Basant Paradis, MS, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist – Research & Development, IDEXX

Originally from southern Georgia, Basant obtained her BS in Chemistry from Georgia Southern University in 1998. She then joined International Paper’s Chemical Products Division, Arizona Chemical (now Kraton Polymers) in Savannah, Georgia where she worked in new product development. She left to attend the University of Maine where she obtained her MS in Chemical Engineering in 2001.

Upon graduation, she joined Georgia Pacific Corporation in Old Town, Maine where she worked as a Process Engineer and supported process development initiatives. She left corporate America to be an entrepreneur owning several different types of businesses. She also taught Chemistry at the collegiate level for 4 years.

In 2016, she joined F-O-R-T-U-N-E Personnel Consultants of Bangor as the Director of Recruiting, Specialty Chemicals. Her recruiting focus was working with chemical, biotech, and paper companies finding research and development scientists and engineers. In August of 2021, she joined IDEXX as a Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist where she finds scientists and engineers for the Innovation Team. She truly enjoys working with candidates to help them find the best fit within the organization, and she equally enjoys working with hiring managers to find the best fit candidates for their teams.

She currently lives in Old Town, Maine with her husband, Mark, their two children, Andre and Olivia, their two 2 dogs, May and Daisy, and their juvenile red-foot tortoise, Scarlett.

Patrick Breeding, CEO & Co-Founder, Marin Skincare

Patrick is a biotechnology entrepreneur and co-founder of Marin Skincare, which develops active skincare ingredients from sustainable marine sources, and brings products to people through their brand Marin Skincare. Marin creates gentle and effective skincare products for people with eczema, psoriasis and dry skin using a glycoprotein found in lobster as the key ingredient. He is also a co-founder of KinoTek, an innovative movement analysis startup using motion capture and virtual reality to visualize, analyze and communicate biomechanical information to decrease risk of musculoskeletal injury.

Patrick earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2017 and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2019 from the University of Maine. He is passionate about biotechnology research and commercialization in various fields, spanning skincare, marine bioresources, drug development, medical education and sports performance innovation, and enjoys participating in regular K-12 outreach experiences motivating and mentoring students for careers in STEM.