Save the Date for Symphonic Capital's 2nd Annual
Orchestrating Opportunities in Health
A Two-Day Health and Equity Conference convening Founders and Investors committed to addressing health disparities to build a more inclusive economy in the US and beyond.
October 6th-7th
Union Square Ventures
New York, NY
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How to Meet This Moment
We are in a gear that feels unprecedented, but is it really? Spend these two days with other practicioners, investors and founders to explore how we meet this moment grounded in the proper historical context and what that means for the future of health equity in America.
Our 2025 Sponsors
Our 2025 Speakers
Throughout her career, Afia Asamoah has worked at the intersection of technology and health. After nearly 8 years in senior health roles at Google, most recently as Head of Legal for the Google Health business unit, guiding strategy and managing risk as Google entered the health space, Afia co-founded Waymark, a health technology start-up that uses a community based model to improve care delivery to people with Medicaid benefits. In founding Waymark in 2021, Afia combined her interests in health technology innovation and equitable access to care to improve healthcare for underrepresented and lower income populations. Afia is recognized as a leader and digital health innovator -- in 2020, Afia was named "one of the 10 most influential minority healthcare executives'' by FierceHealthcare. In 2024, as part of the inaugural class of catalysts recognized by f7 Ventures, Afia was named one of 10 “exceptional leaders and operators at high-growth companies that are driving real change in their communities.”
Prior to joining Google, from 2009-2011, Afia served as Special Assistant in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner's Office, where she created a new FDA center for regulating tobacco products and led initiatives to increase technology innovation by biotech and medical devices companies. For her efforts, she received the FDA's highest award, the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation “for strong leadership and innovative management of the FDA Transparency Initiative and Task Force.”
Outside of work, she serves as board director for Lucille Packard Stanford Children’s Hospital, chairing the audit committee, board director and vice chair of the Public Health Institute, a non-profit that focuses on improving health and equity globally, and a board director on the governing board of the Carol Emmott Foundation, an organization dedicated to achieving gender equity in healthcare leadership and governance. Afia received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, her Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and her BA from Harvard University.
Courtney Lyles, PhD, is the Director of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Research and Policy (CHPR) and the Arline Miller Rolkin Endowed Professor in Informatics. With over 15 years in academia, Dr. Lyles has wide-ranging research experience in health equity, digital health, and translational methods into real-world practice and policy. Specifically, her work has co-designed, implemented, and rigorously evaluated new digital platforms for patients, clinical teams, and community-based organizations, with an emphasis on accessibility and impact for chronic disease prevention and treatment. She is also the co-founder and co-director of a consultation service for digital health companies, S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech. Prior to her time at UC Davis, Dr. Lyles spent over a decade at the University of California San Francisco (based at San Francisco General Hospital) and completed a sabbatical on the Google health equity team.
Grace is a social entrepreneur with over a decade of healthcare experience across the private and public sectors. Grace was part of the leadership team that built Partners In Health - United States, where she cultivated critical partnerships and implemented strategies to drive health equity efforts nationwide. She also managed partner growth at Honor, a technology company radically increasing access to quality in-home care. Prior to that, she sourced and supported top early stage startups as a venture philanthropist with the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. Grace started her career in global health, where she strengthened public health care delivery and scaled a network of maternity hospitals in Kenya.
Grace is currently training as a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner at Yale University. She also works as an independent consultant, advising social sector organizations on leadership, innovation, and growth strategy. She holds an MBA and MPH from the University of California - Berkeley, and a BA in Sociology from Wesleyan University.
Kelli Tice, MD, is afamily physician with a background in public health who serves as GuideWell andFlorida Blue’s Vice President, Medical Affairs and Chief Health ImprovementOfficer. In this role, Dr. Tice creates solutions that improve health outcomesand reduce healthdisparities for GuideWell’scustomers and communities. She also has responsibilities in public healthsurveillance and served as the clinical lead for Florida Blue’s COVID-19response. In 2022,Dr. Tice received GuideWell’s esteemed Circle of Excellence Award for Communityand Social Impact
Before joiningGuideWell, parent company of Florida Blue, in 2018, she spent 17 years as apublic health physician, serving in numerous leadership roles including that ofCounty Health Officer and State Medical Director for the Florida Department ofHealth. Throughout her career, Dr. Tice has worked to address healthdisparities, including training physicians and medical students on theincorporation of evidence-based health outcomes improvement techniquesinto public and private clinical settings. She is a recent graduate ofMassachusetts General Hospital’s Harvard Disparities Leadership Program.
Dr. Tice is a memberof several medical organizations, including the Florida Academy of FamilyPhysicians, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Florida State MedicalAssociation, Florida Medical Association, and National Medical Association. Sheholds leadership roles in the Northeast Florida Medical Society (President),Jacksonville Transformation Coalition's Health Workgroup (co-lead), andnational committees suchas the Health Evolution Forum's Data-Driven Health Equity Strategies Roundtable(co-chair) and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Health Equity LeadershipCommittee (chair). In addition, she serves on both the Florida State HealthImprovement Plan (SHIP) and Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative (FPQC)steering committees.
Dr. Tice receivedher bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University, and her medical degreefrom the University of Florida College of Medicine. She is the proud mother offour young adults and loves reading and traveling.
Vadim Gordin is the founding director of NYU's Future Labs A/X (FLAX) Venture studio, where he supports and initiates medical device and diagnostic software projects that solve for human impact at scale that has had a 60% IRR since inception. The FLAX portcos have received follow-on investments from Peter Theil, Cian Bannister, Lightbridge, Obvious Ventures, and many others as they build tools to close economic and rural care gaps including oncology screening, cardiac disease, and pediatric asthma. Outside of NYU, he leads a NYC healthtech founder and operator community that connects novice and experienced builders called MarkOne Health.
2024's Conference Agenda
Chelsea Clinton (Clinton Foundation)
David Whelan (Town Hall Ventures)
Toyin Ajayi (City Block)
Sydney Thomas (Symphonic Ventures) -Moderator
Tim Sullivan
Lucia Luminate
Dr. Ivor Horn (Former Chief Health Equity Officer @Google)
Dr. William Cherniak (Rocket Doctor)
Adimika Arthur
Moderator: Sydney Thomas (Symphonic Capital)
Erin Sietstra (Hope Labs)
Anne Wanlund (Canopie Health)
Ashley Edwards (MindRight)
Moderator: Prativa Joshi
- How to Build a Venture-Backed Startup Focused on a Niche Community | Dr. Michael Smith (Marti Health)
- Keynote: The Evolving Health Industry, The Imperative for Health Equity, and The Opportunity for Venture Capital | Dr. Yele Aluko (EY Americas Health Advisory Practice)
- Navigating Private and Public Approaches to Medicaid | Veenu Aulakh (Acumen America)
- Social Determinants of Health | Congresswomen Bonnie Watson Coleman
Lucia Luminate
Symphonic Team
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About Symphonic Capital
Symphonic Capital is an early stage fund that invests in companies closing access gaps in health and wealth launched by Sydney Thomas who has spent almost a decade building and investing out of VC funds. She is joined by Shruti Shah, a YC alum and former co-founder.
Our Planning Committee Team
At the heart of Orchestrating Opportunities in Health is our dynamic planning committee, a group of visionaries whose diverse expertise and dedication have shaped what startup founders, venture capitalists, medical professionals, and other passionate health equity advocates will experience in together on October 7-8 in Manhattan and Jersey City.
Aarti Chandna is an impact/angel investor working with early-stage ventures. Given her deep passion for social change and empowerment, Aarti mentors social entrepreneurs and invests in innovative companies driving social change. She is a member of the Impact Investing leadership team and Investment Committee at Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, where she is a partner. She is on the leadership team for MIT Solve’s Innovation Future Fund and and an Investment Advisor and LP at Symphonic Capital (VC Fund) and an LP at Black Opal Ventures and Impact First. Aarti is also an investor in the Portfolia funds. She serves on the board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University and Chairs the Development Committee. She is on the board of directors at Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund and Shine Together, and recently stepped off the board at Peninsula Bridge after two terms. She is on the advisory board at the Center for Asian Health and Research at Stanford Medical School and the Advisory Board at the Miller Center – Santa Clara University. She also mentors at MIT-Solve, Stanford Emergence and Stanford GSB Startup Garage. Aarti previously held executive positions in information technology and led global IT teams at several technology companies. Organizations she has worked at include Oracle, Hitachi, Coherent, Autodesk, and Nikon. Aarti holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Bombay University and an M.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University.
André is a partner in True Search’s Healthcare practice. As a pioneer in the digital health landscape, he has years of experience guiding top health tech companies recruit expert leaders in inclusive healthcare.André is dedicated to building the future of health through an equity lens. Prior to joining True, he was founder and CEO of an executive search and advisory firm dedicated to creating a more diverse workforce ecosystem to power an equitable future of health. His insights on digital health and inclusive healthcare have been featured in notable publications, such as Business Insider, Fortune, Forbes, NPR, and U.S. News and World Report. He was recently named one of Fortune Magazine's 2020 “40 Under 40” in Healthcare.
Anne is the Co-Founder and CEO of Canopie, a maternal health platform providing access to mental health and social support for perinatal populations across all levels risk. Before Canopie, she spent 5 years leading maternal health organizations in East Africa, most recently as the COO of an award-winning social enterprise that uses technology to improve maternal and child nutrition. She has worked in global health for the State Department, USAID, and Massachusetts General Hospital and has a Master's degree from Tufts University, where she served as a bioethics Teaching Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. Anne channels her passion and expertise in maternal health and personal experiences with mental health conditions as a new mom (1-year-old and 4-year-old) to address the enormous care gap.
Brendan Ahern is Director of Impact Investments at The SCAN Foundation. He’s based in Boston and brings nearly 15 years’ experience in impact investing, investment banking, and consulting across the US and emerging markets.Prior to joining TSF, Brendan worked for Accion International, a global non-profit known for its work in financial inclusion, leading impact investments in the Americas and managing its $250 million portfolio. Brendan also worked for BCG earlier in his career and studied at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Pace University. In his spare time, he enjoys competitive running and traveling.
Constance Thurmond is deeply committed to the role that access to capital plays in uplifting overlooked communities. As the Founder & Principal of Kora Insights, her work focuses on creating economic and philanthropic opportunities in technology-driven spaces, helping founders and small businesses thrive in the global economy. As a strategist, data scientist, researcher, and event specialist, Constance has raised over $5M, convened more than 3,000 professionals for curated in-person and virtual events, and developed entrepreneurial curriculum and financing solutions for organizations such as Johnson & Johnson’s JLABS, Platform for Social Impact, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, Social Enterprise Greenhouse, Symphonic Capital, Collective Global and the Korean Innovation Center.
Constance holds an Associate of Arts in Philosophy and Business from Miami-Dade Honors College and a B.A. in Ethics, Politics & Economics from Yale University. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Constance is also a professional dancer, oftentimes incorporating her artistry into her work at Kora Insights. You can reach Constance at constance@korainsights.com or by visiting www.korainsights.com
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Erica Plybeah is a clinical and research informatics consultant turned technology entrepreneur with over a decade of expertise in health IT, acute patient care, pharmacy, and oncology. She has been instrumental in developing software solutions for healthcare giants like Epic, Cerner, Flatiron Health, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Driven by a deep connection to her community in Greenwood, Mississippi, Erica founded MedHaul to improve patient outcomes by addressing transportation barriers. MedHaul's digital platform empowers health organizations to schedule reliable transportation for vulnerable patients using innovative technology to enhance efficiency and accessibility.Erica's work with MedHaul has garnered recognition from Forbes, Essence Magazine, Google, and NPR. She has raised over $5 million from notable investors and funders including Morgan Stanley, Citi Ventures, Google, Merck, Unseen Capital, and BCBS Massachusetts.
Accolades include Aspen Healthy Community Fellow, MIT SOLVER, FierceHealthcare Fierce15, Business Journal 40 Under 40, and Women Business Leaders in Healthcare Fellow. An alumna of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Erica became a scout investor for Lightspeed Ventures in 2020, focusing on early-stage healthcare tech. Beyond her entrepreneurial endeavors, she serves as a mentor through various initiatives dedicated to eradicating poverty and empowering young entrepreneurs.
Simone Otenaike counsels investors, hospitals and healthcare systems, digital health companies, mobile health companies, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on how to navigate the maze of healthcare laws and address operational, regulatory, transactional, and compliance concerns. She also advises FDA-regulated companies in the food and beverage, dietary supplement, pharmaceutical and medical device, and technology industries on regulatory and compliance issues. Simone believes that equity in 'access to' and the 'delivery of' healthcare is essential to improving health outcomes for historically disadvantaged groups in America. She partners with investors and entrepreneurs at all stages to develop and implement innovative ways to achieve this goal.
Stella Tran is a Senior Program Investment Officer at the CHCF Innovation Fund, which invests in technology and service companies with the potential to significantly lower the cost of care or to improve access to care for Californians with low incomes.Before joining CHCF, Stella was an investor with Acumen America, where she supported early-stage companies that removed the barriers to opportunity, mobility, and prosperity for Americans with low incomes. In her role, she led investments in health care, financial services, and workforce development, as well as designed strategic initiatives, including Acumen’s Medicaid Innovation Collaborative. Stella has also served as the impact investing vertical lead for the Emerging Venture Capital Association. Before Acumen, Stella focused on building the field for social enterprises and impact investing, with roles at Just Business, The Miller Center for Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara, and The Ayllu Initiative.
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Sydney is the Founder and General Partner of Symphonic Capital - a venture capital firm that invests in companies making life better for the 99%. The launch of her fund was recently covered by TechCrunch. She has focused on this thesis for the past decade and has created a distributed network invested in this space by founding a podcast where she profiles these companies, launching a newsletter where she writes about these companies, and hosting events where she organizes people who care deeply about the impact these companies can have on our society.
She participates in several extracurricular activities to increase diversity in tech and level the playing field more broadly. This work awarded her a Black VC’s Making an Impact designation and an article in Marie Claire.
Sydney is a proven fund builder and investor. She joined one of Silicon Valley’s first Pre-Seed funds and scaled it from a Solo Operating GP with 10 investments to a 3-person team with 400+ investments and $200M+ in AUM.
Prior to her work in tech, she served in the Bloomberg Administration in NYC. Over the course of her tenure, she drafted federal legislation, negotiated a multi-million dollar contract, and received a full-ride scholarship to her business school of choice.
Sydney graduated from Berkeley with her MBA and Duke with her BA.
Conference FAQs
We recommend finding accommodation near Union Square or Gramercy Park.
Both the evening reception on October 6th and conference on October 7th will be held at Union Square Ventures, 817 Broadway, Floor 14, NY NY 10003
If you have special accommodation requests, please contact ea@symphonic.vc
Light snacks and beverages will be served on the evening of October 6th. Breakfast and lunch will be served on October 7th.
Business casual, please wear whatever makes you feel like your most radiant self!
