Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education Prize Judges
Meet the expert practitioners and innovators who will serve as the Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education prize judges for Startup Yale's 2023 pitch competitions.
The Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education is a $25,000 cash prize awarded to the best student-led venture focused on social innovation in health or education for underserved communities in the United States or low-resource countries.
The Thorne Prize was created in 2014 with generous support from the Thorne family. The gift is managed by InnovateHealth Yale based at the Yale School of Public Health.
Dr. Arjun Kalyanpur is the CEO and founder of Teleradiology Solutions, a global healthcare Company headquartered in Bangalore, that reports radiology scans for over 150 Hospitals in the US, Singapore, India, Europe, and Africa. Teleradiology Solutions was ranked the number 1 teleradiology company in the US for 2011 and awarded the title of “Best in KLAS”. It is the first organization outside Singapore to be accredited by the Ministry of Health, Singapore, and was showcased to President Obama on his visit to India in 2010. The organization also has a software company that develops workflows for teleradiology, TeleradTech, a not-for-profit division, The Telerad Foundation, a teaching portal Radguru, and a clinical research group, Image Core Lab. Its AI group is working to develop deep-learning algorithms for the early detection of breast cancer, brain hemorrhage, and lung diseases. Dr. Kalyanpur was trained at AIIMS, New Delhi, Cornell University Medical Center, and Yale University in the US. He is an active contributor to the scientific literature, has edited a radiology textbook, serves as a reviewer for several radiology journals, and is on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Radiology. He was awarded Modern Medicare’s Entrepreneur of the year award in 2007, was named one of the 50 pathfinders in Healthcare in India in 2009 by Express Healthcare magazine and was one of 25 healthcare influencers by Healthcare Executive in 2015. Frost & Sullivan honored him with their Healthcare Entrepreneur of the Year Award during their 7th Annual India Healthcare Excellence Awards 2015.
Danielle Kling, ’96, M.P.H, has 20+ years of business experience and is currently an Operating Partner for Goodwater Capital, a venture firm that specializes in consumer technology. She serves on the board of Curiodyssey – a science and animal museum located in Northern California. Previously, she worked at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. as the Senior Vice President of the GMM Pottery Barn brand. She was also a Manager at Homestead Technologies and at the Permanente Company and a Healthcare Consultant at Deloitte & Touche. Danielle is a graduate of Stanford University and has an MPH from Yale University. She and her husband, Dave, an attorney, have a 16-year-old son, Carter, and a 14-year-old daughter, Coco.
Phyllis Mugadza is the founder and CEO of Sprxng LLC. Sprxng is developing the next generation of menstrual products and therapeutics for menstrual pain. Phyllis was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. She received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale and her Master's Degree in Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health. Phyllis was selected as a 2022 MIT Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Solver and was the recipient of the Pozen Social Innovation Prize. She is passionate about developing Menstrual Health Management (MHM) strategies for menstruating people with disabilities, transgender people, and those living in post-crisis, humanitarian, and low-resource environments.
Bruce Randolph Tizes graduated from Northwestern (JD), the Chicago Medical School (MD), and the Yale School of Public Health (MPH). He has worked in medicine for 30+ years, and served the Oglala Lakota as TEM’s Medical Director, Indian Health Service on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Tizes leads Strategy at Andela, is CEO of ScribeOne, Board Member for global humanitarian relief organization GoDocs, and is the American Public Health Association’s Ethics Section Chair-Elect. Tizes is on the Fulbright Specialist roster, is a Mentor-in-Residence at the University of Auckland Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK), and the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (New Zealand) for social impact.
Margaret Yates Thorne is the Managing Partner of Sociable Weavers, providing seed investing to transformational start-ups in education and healthcare. Margie is also the owner of Niknats, a personalized needlepoint gift business. She has worked for the last thirty years with a wide range of non-profits, providing support in start-up management, fundraising, and finance. Margie has chaired the boards of The Bronx Preparatory Charter School and Peer Health Exchange and served on many boards, including Student Sponsor Partners and READ. Margie has a BA from Yale and also studied educational psychology at Columbia’s Teacher’s College. Prior to her work with non-profits, she worked for fifteen years at Citigroup. Margie is married to Nate Thorne, previously head of private equity at Merrill Lynch and Blackrock, and is the mother of two sons. The whole family is Yale graduates. They are actively engaged in restorative agriculture in the Hudson Valley.