Terrance Walless '14
Growing up in the city of Milwaukee, Terrance Walless was surrounded by entrepreneurship -- just not in the traditional sense.
“It was more of an urban entrepreneurship environment,” he said. “I saw neighbors selling food, giving rides for a fee because taxis didn’t serve the area, running barbershops and beauty salons, and setting up on-demand car repair services.”
What left a lasting impression on Walless was seeing how people created opportunities and income from whatever resources they had. That environment eventually inspired him to start his own business.
His greatest influence, however, came from his grandmother, who raised him. "Despite having only a third-grade education, she believed in having your own business,” Walless explained. “She went back to school later in life, got licensed, and started her own daycare business.”
As a child, Walless often tagged along on his grandmother’s doctor appointments, which planted the seed for his career in geriatrics. “I liked the idea of working with older adults like my grandmother,” he said. “Even back then, I genuinely enjoyed their company and was always drawn to their wisdom, humor and the stories they shared from ‘back in the day.’”
Walless’ path eventually led him beyond Milwaukee when he was bused to the suburb of Germantown, Wisconsin, for high school as part of a voluntary desegregation program. During those years, he ran track, wrestled and played football, suffering shoulder injuries that frequently landed him in the school’s physical therapy office.
Over time, he developed a strong rapport with his physical therapist, who inspired Walless to pursue a career in the field. He went on to study at the University of Alabama, earning both a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Walless’ first job as a physical therapist was with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Birmingham, Alabama, where he worked for more than three years. During that time, he collaborated with Dr. Cynthia Brown, an expert in balance and fall prevention, at the department’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center. What he learned from Brown would later form the foundation of his business.
In 2012, he left his position to pursue an MBA, heeding the advice of a physical therapist who owned a chain of clinics where Walless had interned. Despite the therapist’s success, he regretted not learning more about business before starting his practice.
Walless chose Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management for its partnerships with healthcare programs and entrepreneurship opportunities. While at Kellogg, Walless served as a board fellow for the North Shore Senior Center, an ideal fit for his experience working with older adults. The Golub Capital Board Fellows program offers MBA students the opportunity to serve on nonprofit boards and complete a pro bono project for the organization.
When Walless first joined the Senior Center’s board, he was hesitant to speak up in meetings as a young MBA student among more experienced professionals. But when the executive director asked for his input on their operational program, Walless gained the confidence to contribute more. “It just kind of reiterated to me that as a board fellow I could actually provide some valuable insights,” he said.
Through the fellowship, he learned how to engage meaningfully with older adults. That skill has proven to be essential at Smyl Fitness Rx, the Chicago-based digital health company he founded in 2020 that offers physical activity programs and fall risk assessments for older adults.
Based on years of research, Walless and his team built a computer vision model that automates fall risk assessments in clinical settings. Smyl Fitness launched the model in partnership with the Center for Better Aging (CBA) at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago and is working with several health plan s to deliver fall risk screening and programming to their members.
Smyl Fitness secured significant public and private funding—including support from the National Institutes of Health – to ensure clinical rigor, real-world applicability and scalable design.
“A key insight from my fellowship was recognizing the need to align board strategy with on-the-ground execution,” Walless said. “It reinforced the importance of realistically assessing both capabilities and financial capacity—an approach that now guides how we prioritize and implement initiatives at Smyl Fitness.”
His fellowship also deepened his understanding of board governance and strategy, preparing Walless well to join the board of the Center for Better Aging in 2023. He had helped write the grant that created the nonprofit, and Smyl Fitness remains a partner organization.
Recalling the benefits from his fellowship, Walless applied for the Center for Better Aging to participate in the Board Scholars program, a new offshoot of Board Fellows designed for Kellogg students in its accelerated and evening and weekend MBA programs.
Tigran James Tyler Pell, Kellogg ’25, became the first Board Scholar with the CBA. With a background in banking, Pell completed a critical financial analysis for the nonprofit. Walless mentored Pell, introducing him to the staff, showing him around the facilities and meeting regularly to discuss Pell’s project and to debrief after board meetings.
Niket Gupta, a dual-degree MD/MBA student at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Kellogg, recently began serving as a Board Fellow with the CBA. He is expected to draw on his clinical training and interest in population health for his fellowship project.
“I thought it was a win-win scenario for the Center for Better Aging to have fresh sets of eyes to help assess whatever issues that we’re dealing with,” Walless said. “And it is a phenomenal opportunity for the board fellows to get access to board leadership and also impact the nonprofit world. I want to support that as much as possible.”
