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Iowa Ideas 2023
Keynote Speakers
Iowa Ideas 2023 Keynotes
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Thursday Keynote
Thursday Morning Keynote, October 12, 2023Lisa BluderU of Iowa Head Women's Basketball Coach
About LisaLisa Bluder is heading into her 24th year at The University of Iowa as the P. Sue Beckwith, MD, Head Women's Basketball Coach.
As the all-time winningest coach in program history, the Hawkeyes have made 21 postseason appearances (17 NCAA and four WNIT) in 23 seasons, including NCAA Tournament berths in 13 of the last 15 seasons. Iowa has advanced to 15 consecutive postseason tournaments (13 NCAA and two WNIT). Bluder is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (2001, 2008, 2010) and was recognized as the Naismith National Coach of the Year in 2019.
Most recently, the Hawkeyes advanced to the 2023 Final Four for the first time since 1993 and made its first ever appearance in the National Championship game. Bluder has produced two consensus National Player of the Year award winners in Caitlin Clark (2023) and Megan Gustafson (2019) in the last five seasons. She has mentored four Hawkeyes to consensus All-America status a total of six times over the last nine seasons (Samantha Logic, 2015; Gustafson, 2018 & 2019; Kathleen Doyle, 2020; Clark, 2022 & 2023).
Bluder has coached her Hawkeye teams to four Big Ten Tournament championships (2001, 2019, 2022, 2023), including three in the last five years, and two regular season league titles (2008, 2022). She has notched 850 career wins and 247 Big Ten victories in her storied career and surpassed C. Vivian Stringer in 2022-23 as the all-time winningest coach in conference history. She is one of 14 Division I coaches to ever win 850 games or more, including one of four active coaches.
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Thursday Morning KeynoteLisa BluderU of Iowa Head Women's Basketball Coach -
Thursday Keynote
Thursday Morning Keynote, October 12, 2023Jan JensenU of Iowa Associate Head Women's Basketball Coach
About JanJan Jensen is in her 24th season with the Iowa women’s basketball team and her 20th as associate head coach. Jensen has helped guide Iowa to 21 postseason appearances, including 17 NCAA Tournament berths. With Jensen on staff, the Hawkeyes have claimed four Big Ten Tournament and two Big Ten regular season titles.
A nationally-known presence on the recruiting trail, she serves as the recruiting coordinator and also works with the post players. Under her tutelage, nine Hawkeyes have claimed a total of 21 All-Big Ten honors, including eight first team selections. Jensen also guided Megan Gustafson to the first consensus National Player of the Year honor in Big Ten history. Jensen was also integral in recruiting current Hawkeye star, Caitlin Clark. In Clark’s first two seasons, she holds numerous National Point Guard of the Year awards, All American honors, as well as being named the 2022 and 2023 B1G Ten Player of the Year.
Off the court, Jensen is active in her community. Jensen has co-chaired record-setting United Way Fundraising campaigns, served on the boards of the United Way, Shelterhouse and Iowa City Community School Foundation. Her recognitions include the 2007 United Way Volunteer of the Year, a Corridor Business Journal Woman of Influence in 2014, and was one of five honorees to receive the 2020 LGBTQ Legacy Leadership award by Des Moines Magazine and One Iowa.
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Thursday Afternoon KeynoteJan JensenU of Iowa Associate Head Women's Basketball Coach -
Thursday Keynote
Thursday Afternoon Keynote, October 12, 2023Frances HaugenAdvocate for accountability & transparency in social media
About FrancesBorn in Iowa City, Iowa, Frances is the daughter of two professors and grew up attending the Iowa caucuses with her parents, instilling a strong sense of pride in democracy and responsibility for civic participation.
Frances holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Olin College and an MBA from Harvard. She is a specialist in algorithmic product management, having worked on ranking algorithms at Google, Pinterest, Yelp and Facebook. She was recruited to Facebook to be the lead Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team, which dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and later also worked on counter-espionage.
During her time at Facebook, Frances became increasingly alarmed by the choices the company makes prioritizing their own profits over public safety and putting people's lives at risk. As a last resort and at great personal risk, Frances made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on Facebook.
Frances fundamentally believes that the problems we are facing today with social media are solvable. We can have social media that brings out the best in humanity.
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Thursday Afternoon KeynoteFrances HaugenAdvocate for accountability & transparency in social media -
Friday Keynote
Friday Afternoon Keynote, October 13, 2023Leslie J WilliamsCo-Founder, President, & CEO hC Bioscience, Inc
About LeslieLeslie J Williams is a biopharmaceutical industry veteran. As a serial entrepreneur, an experienced biotech CEO and board of directors’ member, she has proven expertise in building companies, raising funds, and negotiating strategic collaborations both domestically and internationally.
Leslie is founding CEO, President & Director of hC Bioscience, Inc. a pioneer, innovator and leader in protein editing with tRNA based therapeutics targeting genetically defined diseases including cancer. She serves on the Board of Directors for Ocular Therapeutix (Nasdaq: OCUL), Windtree Therapeutics (Nasdaq: WINT), and CSCRI (Coral Sea Clinical Research Institute) and the Board of Advisors of Life Science Cares. In addition, she serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader, is a founding Ambassador of BioBoost and serves as a mentor at the GLG Institute.
She is an EIR at University of Iowa and University of Virginia and is an Operating Partner at Accelerator Life Science Partners. Ms. Williams was formerly Founder, Director, President and CEO at ImmusanT developing immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases until the reverse merger in 2019. Prior to that she was President & CEO at Ventaira Pharmaceuticals and was a founding member of the INO Therapeutics team developing a treatment for pulmonary hypertension in newborns.
She has prior pharmaceutical experience at Merck and GSK, and drug-delivery and monitoring experience at Datex Ohmeda. She was a venture partner at Battelle Ventures where she sourced and evaluated deals. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business and B.S.N. degree from the University of Iowa.
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Friday Afternoon KeynoteLeslie J WilliamsCo-Founder, President, & CEO hC Bioscience, Inc
