Who we are
Our Story
The Emergence Program was started 3 years ago by a dedicated group of entrepreneurs and faculty at Stanford with a bold vision to create a new health innovation ecosystem that is rooted in prevention and inclusion.
Our motivation for starting the Emergence program came from our personal experiences in the healthcare industry and our realization of its gaps in addressing the growing pain and costs of chronic illness, which affect hundreds of millions of Americans, particularly the most vulnerable and unfortunate among us.
We recognized that to create lasting change, we must transform our healthcare system to prioritize prevention and address systemic issues that contribute to poor health, including inequities in access, food and nutrition insecurities, behavioral and social challenges, and environmental factors. Solving these systemic issues requires a fundamental rethinking of healthcare business models, collaboration between public and private sectors, and the mobilization of entrepreneurial talent and capital for health impact.
Our Accomplishments
We started the Emergence program because we believe in the power of education, innovation, and collaboration to catalyze this transition. We have developed educational programs and cultivated a collaborative community at Stanford and beyond. This work has included supporting over 150 students as they embark on their entrepreneurial journeys for health impact through our classes, engaging more than 200 industry and investor collaborators, and supporting over 20 ventures in our Accelerator program.
In September 2024, Emergence partnered with the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC) within Stanford’s Department of Medicine. We are now working closely with faculty at SPRC and across Stanford to expand our work in translating academic research into commercial impact.
At the core of our work is developing a collaborative community that bridges academia, industry, and social sector to support and scale innovations for impact.
visit https://emergence.stanford.edu/ to learn more!
About the Summit
The Annual Stanford Emergence Impact Entrepreneurship Summit brings together the Emergence cross-sector ecosystem of collaborators from Stanford, Industry, Government, Venture Capital, Family Office, and Philanthropy to celebrate and showcase research, founders, initiatives and examples of impactful innovation for preventive medicine and societal health.
