Fireside Chat Career Series: Curiosity as Your Driver: Lessons in Science, Advocacy, and Entrepreneurship

Monday, February 3, 2025, 6 – 8 pm

6 pm – Dinner for In-Person Guests   |    6:30 pm – 8 pm – Presentation

This is a hybrid event and dinner will be provided for in-person attendees.

In-person Registration

Virtual Registration

The ignITe Hub hosts a monthly Fireside Chat Career Series. Each month, we will host a trailblazing guest speaker to explore their unique tech career path. We will learn what sparked their interest in this area, meaningful experiences that impacted their journey and career advice for aspiring techies. Thank you to Verizon for their generous sponsorship of this series.

Dr. Arti Patel Varanasi is President and CEO of the social enterprise, Advancing Synergy, LLC. She has over 25 years combined experience in cancer research, advocacy, capacity building, public health and project management. Arti is passionate about developing innovations that build stronger communities and enable all individuals to lead healthier and longer lives. Her focus has been on leveraging technology to address chronic disease and advance health equity and justice. Arti was selected by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship to serve as a 2022-2023 Elevate Ambassador along with 11 other advocates to improve survivorship care in their communities. She is a proud graduate of Leadership Howard County and an active member of the health, entrepreneurial, and technology communities in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area. She currently serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Noncommunicable (NCD) Disease Roundtable, Chair of NCD Interest Group for the CORE Group, and Co-Chair of the American Cancer Society National Navigation Roundtable Workforce Development Task Group. From 2012-2016, Arti served on the Health Resources and Services Administration National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. Arti enjoys her role as an educator. She is a senior lecturer in the Master’s in Biotechnology Program at The Johns Hopkins University and has taught Health IT Fundamentals at Howard Community College. As an advocate for improving the training of postdoctoral fellows, she was one of the founders of the National Postdoctoral Association, the NCI Fellows and Young Investigators Association, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Fellows Committee. Arti was a fellow in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program from 2001-2005 where her research interests focused on nutrition, immunity, and cancer prevention. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MPH from Johns Hopkins University.  Arti is also a graduate of the National Science Foundation funded ACTiVATE® program for women technology entrepreneurs.

Guest Speakers

Arti Patel Varanasi, PhD, MPH, CPH
President & CEO
Advancing Synergy, LLC