Our Team

Jonathan Mooney
Founder

Jonathan is a dyslexic neurodivergent writer, advocate, and social entrepreneur who did not learn to read until he was twelve years old. He holds an honors degree from Brown University in English Literature, is a Harry S. Truman Scholar for Public Service, and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.

He is the author of three books, Learning Outside the Lines (Simon and Schuster, 2000), The Short Bus (Henry Holt and Co., 2007), and the subtlety titled Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines (Henry Holt and Co., 2019).

A lifelong social entrepreneur, Jonathan has created and co-founded a number of social ventures including, Eye-To-Eye National, a movement-building organization for students with learning and attention differences.

He is currently the co-founder of The Divergent Impact Fund, a venture philanthropy investing in social ventures that support and empower neurodivergent individuals and their families.

Jonathan’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, HBO, NPR, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

He has spoken in all 50 states and 8 countries on disability and neurodiversity rights and inclusion inspiring those who live with differences and advocating for change.

Malcolm Kostuchenko
Founder

Malcolm has spent his entire career in finance and investing and is currently a General Partner at Enhanced Healthcare Partners (“EHP”), a lower middle market growth buyout fund focused exclusively in the healthcare industry.

He has spent the past 20 years building companies across a wide range of healthcare subsectors and working with founder-led companies as EHP is typically the first round of institutional capital.

Mr. Kostuchenko received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University studying International Relations with a focus on International Finance.

Prior to Brown, Mr. Kostuchenk grew up in Canada and spent summers volunteering at the Abilities Council, an organization that focused on summer programming for the neurodiverse youth population.

He has a neurodiverse child (Williams Syndrome) and is the co-founder of The Divergent Fund.

La Mer Walker
Advisor - UX & Brand

A multi-disciplinary design leader with over two decades of experience in advertising, television & film, and digital product innovation for global brands and leading storytellers.

With a track record of significant achievements in the media, technology and design sectors, La Mer has served as the Chief Product Officer at ORIGYN Foundation and as a Digital Media Managing Director responsible for building a portfolio of RWA collections that will now be realized with SuperPosition. Prior to his time with ORIGYN, La Mer has extensive experiences as a Digital Creative Director on numerous high-profile advertising, television, and film projects globally.

As a startup entrepreneur, La Mer co-founded Valence, a successful startup incubated with Los Angeles’ largest early stage venture fund Upfront Ventures with anchor investment rounds with GGV Capital, SoftBank, Maveron, and BCapitalGroup among others before the venture was later acquired by Greenwood Bank.

His leadership experience also includes 6 years with Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures (BCGX), where he established and managed the largest cohort of the global practice – digital product designers and marketing communications professionals.

La Mer is also a respected creative career pathway educator, serving as a Graduate Interaction Design Professor at ArtCenter College of Design. Currently, La Mer is channeling his expertise into Sublym Digital, a Web3 marketing consultancy and SuperPosition, a Real-World-Asset venture aiming to integrate blockchain and artificial intelligence to revolutionize digital transactions and asset management.

Gaetano Bavaro
Advisor

Gaetano is a visionary leader who transforms ideas into impact. As Global Managing Lead at Snap Inc., he drives strategy and partnerships with the world’s leading holding companies and organizations shaping the future of technology-enabled connections.

His leadership extends over two terms as the Global Managing Lead of SnapAbility, Snap Inc.’s Employee Resource Group, where he advocates for the inclusion of neurodiverse and physically diverse individuals, empowering a global audience of 800 million Monthly Active Users (MAU’s).

Gaetano’s career is a masterclass in innovation and resilience. From senior leadership roles at Microsoft and Yahoo! to founding, scaling and exiting many companies including his own boutique advertising agency, he has consistently merged strategic foresight with bold execution.

His ability to build and inspire high-performing teams has redefined how businesses harness technology to engage audiences and drive growth. Gaetano doesn’t just participate in the evolution of technology—he architects its future.

By blending innovation, empathy, and action, he exemplifies what it means to lead with purpose, building solutions that not only meet today’s challenges but also anticipate the needs of tomorrow.

Cheri Blauwet, MD
Advisor - Health & Wellbeing

Cheri Blauwet, MD is an Associate Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, the Chief Medical Officer of Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, and the Endowed Chair in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Blauwet is also a former Paralympic athlete in the sport of wheelchair racing, competing for the United States Team in three Paralympic Games (Sydney '00, Athens '04, Beijing '08) and bringing home a total of seven Paralympic medals. She is also a two-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons.

Translating her background as an athlete to the clinical setting, Dr. Blauwet is a change agent in the area of health equity, with a specific focus on sport and physical activity for health promotion and chronic disease prevention. She is deeply committed to ensuring that opportunities for achieving optimal health are equitable and universally accessible to all, including marginalized populations. Her scientific research is focused on injury and illness prevention, with particular focus on athlete mental health, concussion, and the unique needs of the female athlete as well as athletes with disabilities. As evidence of the impact of this work, since joining the Harvard faculty she has been invited to provide 58 national and 29 international lectures on these topics, including multiple keynotes and plenary sessions at major sports medicine and rehabilitation conferences. She has published over 100 peer reviewed papers in distinguished academic journals. In 2021, she was appointed to the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research under the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

She serves as a Member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Medical Committee, the International Olympic Committee Medical & Scientific Commission, and serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). She additionally serves as Chair of the Board for the Boston Athletic Association (Boston Marathon). In 2016, she was the recipient of the Harvard Medical School Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award and was named one Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders” by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In 2019 she was named by the Boston Business Journal as one of the “40 under 40” community leaders.

Kim Brandt
Advisor – Policy & Legal

Kimberly Brandt is the Principal Deputy Administrator for Operations and Policy of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In that role she supports the Administrator for all activities necessary for the operation and management of CMS and its programs, including, Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Kim served as Chief Oversight Counsel and General Counsel on the Majority staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee from January 2011 – August 2017. Before joining the Finance Committee staff, Kim was a Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird in Washington, D.C. Her previous government service includes serving for seven years as the CMS Director of the Medicare Program Integrity Group. Prior to her first tenure at CMS, Kim worked for five years at the HHS Office of Inspector General as a Senior Counsel.

Kim received her J.D. with a concentration in health law from the DePaul School of Law, an M.A. in legislative affairs and health policy from George Washington University, and her B.A. from Valparaiso University. She is a nationally recognized expert in healthcare compliance and fraud and abuse issues and in 2016 received the Healthcare Compliance and Ethics Professional of the Year award from the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association.

Jason Rifkin
Advisor – Development & Operations

Jason has extensive experience in developmental stage life science and healthcare companies. Across his career he has managed all aspects of company operations including clinical operations and affairs, business development, technology licensing, and capital raising.

Jason is EVP Business Development of Syncromune, Inc., a clinical stage company developing a novel immunotherapy platform. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of PhageNova Bio, Inc., a targeted gene expression company initially focused on an oncology indication. Prior to his role at PhageNova Bio, Jason was President of Cage Pharma, Inc., an early-stage oncology company where he oversaw the development of a Phase I clinical trial program. Prior to joining Cage Pharma, Jason held a number of executive positions at Delcath Systems, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company focused on oncology, where he served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and Affairs, overseeing the clinical development program and completion of Delcath’s Phase II and III clinical trials, and then the transition from a developmental stage company to a commercial entity with regulatory approval and marketing authorization.

Jason is currently a Director at Episteme Prognostics, Inc., and has served as Co-Head Life Sciences at Spring Mountain Capital’s West Harlem Innovation Network fund, and has been an advisor and/or Board member to a variety of companies in the oncology and neurology fields, including Allyx Therapeutics, Inc., MAX BioPharma, Inc., and Metaba, Inc.

Prior to working in the life sciences field, Jason practiced law with Fox Rothschild, serving as an associate in the Corporate Department-Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Group. Jason received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Law Degree from Northeastern University School of Law, and a Masters of Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Elise Philippi
Advisor – AI & SAAS

Elise Philippi, MBA, is the Founder and CEO of Mindful AI, is also currently serving as CCO at Lantern Partners AI, where Elise drives strategic content initiatives that bridge technical AI capabilities with practical business value, building on her expertise in data-informed storytelling to accelerate adoption of innovative SaaS solutions for operational excellence.

Prior to launching Mindful AI in 2024, Elise was a as Senior Strategist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she single-handedly owned the full architecture content and strategy portfolio—defining and executing cross-platform initiatives that leveraged customer data from campaigns and programs to deliver measurable business growth. A lifelong connector of science, strategy, and storytelling, Elise earned a double MBA from Brown University and IE Business School, a BSc in Biology from Montclair State University, with specialized credentials including AWS Cloud Practitioner, NYU’s Certificate in Technical Content Development.

Fluent in data-driven decision-making, team leadership, digital storytelling, and thought leadership, she brings deep expertise in business and content strategy, change management, and mission-aligned innovation to every endeavor. Whether scaling content engines at Fortune 500 companies or building the next frontier of AI, Elise turns complex ideas into clear, impactful narratives that resonate and drive real-world change.

Dan Erstad
Advisor – Development & Operations

Dan Erstad is an advisor and consultant to early-stage companies in the technology and healthcare space, bringing 15+ years of experience driving growth, commercialization and marketing strategy for brands. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Monument, a venture-backed behavioral health company where he led commercial strategy and clinical operations. As a member of the executive team he built partnerships with national insurers, leading health systems and Fortune 100 employers. Monument was selected as one of the most innovative healthcare companies by DHNY.

Prior to joining Monument, Dan worked in leadership roles at WPP, where he was selected for the company’s competitive global MBA Fellowship, a multi-year leadership development program. He went on to build the healthcare practice at Group SJR, supporting clients including Pfizer and Janssen.

Dan began his career in the entertainment industry, working for Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin and later as a creative executive at De Line Pictures. There, he developed a slate of feature films such as I Love You, Man and Body of Lies. This early experience cemented Dan’s love for storytelling, a passion that continues to guide his work today.

A proud Philadelphia native, Dan now resides in the NY area with his wife and two children. He received his BA from Brown University and MBA from UCLA Anderson. As an advisor to the Divergent Impact Fund, Dan is excited to support founders navigating the earliest stages of their journey.

Dan Peters, PHD
Advisor - Health & Wellbeing

Dan Peters, PhD, has spent 30 years at the intersection of clinical psychology, neurodiversity, and human potential — supporting individuals through clinical practice, advancing the gifted, twice-exceptional, and neurodivergent communities through scholarship and advocacy, and coaching leaders to live and lead with presence.

A licensed psychologist, executive coach, author, and speaker, Dan is the co-founder and Executive Director of Summit Center, a psychology and educational organization in the San Francisco Bay Area and Torrance, California, providing neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental assessment, psychotherapy, and coaching to neurodivergent individuals, with specialties in giftedness, twice-exceptionality, dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and anxiety. He has led the organization for more than 17 years.

For more than two decades, Dan has served the gifted, twice-exceptional, and neurodivergent communities in leadership and advisory roles including the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), the Bridges 2e Center for Research and Professional Development, and Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG). His peer-reviewed research on the identification and assessment of gifted and twice-exceptional students has appeared in academic journals, and he is a co-author of the WISC-V Extended Norms technical paper for Pearson Assessment, supporting more accurate identification of highly gifted and twice-exceptional children.

He is the author of Make Your Worrier a Warrior and its companion From Worrier to Warrior; Bright, Complex Kids; and Boosting Your Child's Natural Creativity.

Through his executive coaching practice, Dan guides leaders through the shift from performance to presence — leveraging their strengths and helping them fully access their innate capacities and abilities. He also hosts Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan, a top-ranked weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations on living and leading authentically.

Above all, Dan's passion and purpose is to help every person fully realize their human potential — to honor their unique profiles, expand their innate capacities, and create a positive impact on humanity.

Ivon Rodriguez
Advisor - Business & Workforce

Ivon Rodriguez is a business executive, educator, entrepreneur, and advocate whose career has spanned leadership roles across marketing, higher education, media, entrepreneurship, and community impact. Her work focuses on building organizations, creating opportunities, and advancing innovation through inclusive leadership.

Professionally, Ivon serves as Executive Director of Career Readiness for a school district in Texas, where she leads initiatives focused on career exploration, workforce readiness, and pathways that prepare students for long-term success. Her career includes executive leadership positions as Chief Marketing Officer at Linqto, Managing Director for IE University across the Southern United States and Caribbean, Vice President of Marketing at Museum of Miami, and contributions to the launch and growth of multiple media organizations, including Telemundo stations in Boston and Providence.

Ivon is also the founder of Positioned, an executive positioning and visibility consultancy powered by The 360 Group, created to help women leaders, particularly those navigating transitions and next chapter opportunities, align their personal brand, leadership narrative, and professional presence with their future goals. Through Positioned, she helps women elevate their visibility, clarify their value, and prepare for leadership, board, consulting, and executive opportunities.

A graduate of Brown University with degrees in International Relations and Hispanic Studies, Ivon also holds a joint Executive MBA from Brown University and IE Business School. She is currently pursuing an Executive PhD in Business at Virginia Tech, where her research explores neuroinclusive approaches to the adoption of generative and agentic AI, organizational transformation, and the future of work.Beyond her professional work, Ivon is deeply committed to advancing neurodiversity, accessibility, and inclusive innovation.

She is a founding steering committee member of Brown University’s Disability and Neurodivergence Alumni Collective (DNAC), where she helps create spaces that elevate neurodivergent voices, strengthen community, and promote belonging. She believes that different ways of thinking are a source of creativity, leadership, and innovation, and that neurodiversity strengthens organizations, communities, and society as a whole.