Who’s behind the Kellogg Business of Healthcare Conference?
By Charlotte Matthews ’26 and Mackenzie Anderson ’26
Two-Year MBA Program students
We chose to be the 2026 Kellogg Business of Healthcare Conference (KBHC) co-chairs to strengthen the school’s reputation as a thought leader in healthcare. We wanted to help drive engaging and innovative discussions. During our first year at Kellogg, we both served on the speakers committee, where we helped bring distinguished panelists to the conference. As co-chairs, we were excited to build on that experience by curating the broader conference theme and bringing renowned keynote speakers to campus.
This was the first time either of us had managed a diverse team of more than 50. We viewed it as an incredible learning opportunity, as most professionals don’t have the chance to lead a team of this size until much later in their careers. Through this experience, we learned how to balance providing strategic leadership with hands-on support.
As we pass the torch to next year's leadership, we are excited to welcome Two-Year MBA students Rachel Tao ’27 and Joe Turk ’27 as the 2027 KBHC co-chairs. For the 2026 conference, they both served as first-year directors, with Rachel working on the logistics committee and Joe on the sponsorships committee.
First-year MBA students can get involved with KBHC by serving as directors across its six committees. Meet members of the Class of 2027 who served as directors for the 2026 conference, as they share the insights gained and skills sharpened through this year’s conference.
Marketing committee
Kila Tripp ’27
Current Industry: Consulting
“As a first-year director, I had the opportunity to collaborate across marketing, speakers and logistics teams, which gave me a much deeper appreciation for the importance of an integrated approach to planning KBHC. Our marketing approach focused on engaging a diverse community to give visibility to sponsors and speakers, connect with attendees and highlight the importance of this year’s mission.
“This experience mirrors the cross-functional teams I intend to lead in my career: bringing together different perspectives and aligning around a common goal to make thoughtful decisions that strengthen solutions to advance whole healthcare.”
Sponsorships committee
Joe Turk ’27
Current Industry: Healthcare Private Equity
“My 2025 KBHC ‘aha moment’ came during the final sprint to our conference fundraising goal. After onboarding several legacy corporate partners, we realized we needed to build new relationships to close the remaining gap to our target. Our standard sponsorship pitch fell flat with these potential partners, whose objectives differed from those of returning sponsors. In response, we shifted our approach to prioritizing an understanding of each partner’s goals and tailoring bespoke sponsorship packages accordingly.
“Working with the KBHC team reinforced a lesson I will carry forward: effective partnerships do not begin with what you are offering but with a clear understanding of what the other side values.”
Speakers committee
Anand Chatterjee ’27
Current industry: Data Science
“I worked on the remote patient monitoring (RPM) panel with a great team that brought together diverse industry leaders, and I also had the opportunity to moderate the discussion. That experience pushed me to dig deeper into RPM trends, especially how regulatory tailwinds like the ACCESS Act and Medicare reimbursement for shorter-duration monitoring are shaping adoption.
“I also gained perspective on how value-based care is influencing product and care model design and how AI and RPM are converging in areas like clinical trials.”
Startup Growth Fair committee
Paul Dickinson ’27
Current industry: Healthcare tech
“Helping organize the SGF committee gave me direct access to founders and investors across the healthcare ecosystem. With my background in healthcare technology, I was drawn into conversations about business models, fundraising dynamics and growth strategy across biotech, pharma and consumer digital health. What struck me most was how each segment is navigating the regulatory environment and the eruption of AI as both a complement and a threat.
Logistics committee
Rachel Tao ’27
Current Industry: Healthcare Consulting
“Orchestrating the largest MBA health conference in the nation, a missed detail can cause moments of chaos, and being a part of the logistics committee gave me a systems-level view of how a large-scale event actually functions. I had to understand every workstream and see how they interconnected. That forced me to think not just about my tasks but about dependencies and handoffs across the whole operation.
“Because the conference is entirely student-run, there's no safety net. I had to scope my own work, set milestones and hold myself accountable to deadlines that directly affected other teams. That meant translating ambiguous responsibilities into concrete action items and proactively communicating progress or blockers to the right stakeholders.”
Community committee
Clara Baumann ’27
Current Industry: Private equity operations
“The KBHC team did an amazing job bringing together all corners of the healthcare universe. Our speakers, attendees and team represented wildly different parts of the industry across different sectors, geographies, company stages and business models. Because healthcare is such a vast, yet interconnected ecosystem, it's essential to build together with all perspectives.
Follow @kellogg.kbhc to stay in touch and receive the latest conference and industry updates.
Read next: No one goes it alone: How Healthcare at Kellogg’s community fuels growth in the industry
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Kellogg School of Management or Northwestern University.