Ricardo Nuila, M.D. ’06, is a writer and an associate professor in the Alkek Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. For the past fourteen years, he has worked as a hospitalist and attending physician at Houston’s largest safety net facility, Ben Taub Hospital. His first book, “The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine”, was selected as one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews and The Washington Post. It also was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Dr. Nuila is the director of the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab (HEAL) at Baylor, which integrates arts and humanities into medical education and has received an Association of American Medical Colleges grant supporting its work. His writing has been featured in The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, VQR, The New England Journal of Medicine, New England Review and Best American Short Stories.
Ashley Hayden Monahan, Ph.D. ’24, is an artist, neuroscientist and science communication expert with a passion for making complex ideas clear, accessible and impactful for all. Dr. Monahan brings both scientific rigor and lived experience to her work, bridging research, education, and equity. She earned her B.S. in biology from Texas A&M University and her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine, where she studied RNA-binding proteins in memory formation. She now serves as a medical writer at the Neuroscience Education Institute, an HMP Global Company, where she creates continuing education materials for clinicians and develops innovative visual tools to support better patient care. Outside of her professional work, Dr. Monahan leads workshops on science visualization, storytelling, public trust and communication strategy for academic audiences through her own company, SciComm Consulting LLC. Her approach combines technical skill with empathy, helping researchers translate their science in ways that reflect both who they are and the communities they serve. In her spare time, Dr. Monahan loves tending to her indoor plants and vegetable garden, walking with her pitbull Otto and reading fantasy novels.
Kimberly Weiderhold, Ph.D. ’12, MBA, has spent her career reviewing, drafting and negotiating a variety of research contracts while keeping in mind academic expectations and federal guidelines and laws. Having a background in cell and molecular biology affords Dr. Weiderhold the ability to both understand and translate biomedical and life sciences into lay terms when liaising between stakeholders. In 2021, Dr. Weiderhold also earned her MBA to bolster her knowledge in business and leadership. During her spare time, she is an avid trivia player, baker and reader, and she enjoys travel and SCUBA diving.
Kindra Roberts is a talent acquisition associate at Baylor College of Medicine, where she has spent the last three years recruiting talent for the Administrative and Education missions. With a Master’s in Human Resources Management and over 10 years of experience in HR and Recruitment, she’s passionate about connecting great people with meaningful roles.
Joefrey Kibuule, M.D. ’14, is a software engineer at Instagram, where he continues to build scalable, user-centric products. He graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 2014. After graduating, he spent a decade as a software engineer at Apple Health, where he helped develop key features including the Clinical Health Records feature, the ECG app for the Apple Watch Series 4, Blood Oxygen Monitoring for the Apple Watch Series 6, as well as Medication and Pregnancy Tracking features. These projects combined technical innovation with a focus on improving user health outcomes. Outside work, Dr. Kibuule pursues personal projects in machine learning and artificial intelligence, exploring applications that bridge cutting-edge technology with practical solutions.
Giovanni Lauricella is the CEO of Lifeblood, an executive search firm for venture-backed MedTech companies, and the co-founder of Contrario Medical, an IVF device company. Additionally, he is a board member for public and private medtech companies, an angel investor and a limited partner in venture capital funds. He also hosts “The MedTech Experience” podcast. Mr. Lauricella has a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s in regulatory affairs for medical devices. He has travelled to 50 countries and lives in Houston, Texas.
Michael Dilling, Ph.D., MBA, is executive director of Commercialization and Technology Management at BCM Ventures, the integrated commercialization team at Baylor College of Medicine..
Baylor leads all Texas-based institutions in National Institutes of Health research funding and hosts top-ranked departments. Under Dr. Dilling’s leadership, BCM Ventures builds strategic commercial partnerships that help translate biomedical discoveries into products and services that benefit patients and support BCM’s academic mission. Over the past five fiscal years, the team has completed over 250 licensing transactions and negotiated industry-sponsored research and services contracts valued at over $95 million.
Dr. Dilling directs a team of seven technology management professionals and a compliance expert. With over 25 years in academic technology commercialization, he has negotiated or overseen hundreds of agreements between Baylor and commercial partners. He also teaches the graduate course Commercialization of Biomedical Technologies, covering intellectual property, startup formation, fundraising and product development.
An active member of the Association of University Technology Managers, Dr. Dilling contributes to its Mentorship Committee and helped develop new mentorship tools. He earned a Ph.D. in genetics from Texas A&M in 1993, an MBA from the University of Memphis in 1999, and completed postdoctoral work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He joined Baylor in 2000.
Guo Hu, Ph.D. ’24, is a clinical genomic scientist at Baylor Genetics, where she leverages human omics data to evaluate genetic variants for their clinical significance. With experience spanning oncology, aging research and biotech consulting, she integrates deep scientific expertise with strategic insight to drive translational and clinical impact.
Dr. Hu earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she studied the genetic and metabolic regulation of host microbiota interactions in aging. In addition to her academic research, she contributed to therapeutic commercialization efforts at Fannin (formerly Fannin Innovation Studio) and advised biotech startups on market entry, operational planning and commercialization strategies. She also has served as an Enrich Fellow at Enventure and as a life science consultant with the Consulting Club at the Texas Medical Center. Through volunteer work, internships and active engagement in professional communities, Dr. Hu has built a strong network that supports her career development and growth.
As a manager in Talent Acquisition, Ms. Motsinger leads, mentors and develops recruiters and Talent team members to source, recruit and hire achievers who raise our talent bar in the nation’s best research platform at UTHealth Houston. These roles often include emerging medical researchers, postdoctoral research fellows, leading medical scientists and biomedical informaticists whose research disciplines are unsurpassed.
