Meet the Team

Daniel Fletcher

Faculty Director

Phillip Denny

Director

Contact: Email
Dr. Dan Fletcher is the Chatterjee Professor of Bioengineering & Biophysics at UC Berkeley and Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He and his laboratory, The Fletcher Lab, study membrane and cytoskeletal organization and develop optical and force microscopy technologies, with applications to immunology, virology, and cancer biology. They also build mobile phone-based microscopes that are being used to detect infectious diseases in developing countries. Dr. Fletcher has been involved with the Big Ideas Contest since 2007 when a team of students, under his mentorship, received a Big Ideas award to test the idea that a camera in a cell phone could be used for low cost, remote, microscopy. The latest version of CellScope, called LoaScope, has proven effective in Cameroon, where it is being used to combat River Blindness (Onchocerciasis), a Neglected Tropical Disease.

Phillip Denny serves as the Senior Program Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies, a position he assumed shortly after the Center was established in March 2006. Through his leadership of Big Ideas, Phillip has encouraged and supported approximately 3000 interdisciplinary teams to develop creative solutions to today’s most pressing social challenges. Under his direction, the Big Ideas Contest has helped secure millions of dollars in seed funding for student start-ups and recruited over 1,500 industry, government and non-profit experts to judge ideas and mentor participants. He has also been integral in developing key partnerships across academia, private sector organizations, and entrepreneurship networks to strengthen social innovation initiatives across the 10-campus University of California system. As recognition for his leadership of Big Ideas, he received UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award in 2015. 

Phillip Denny

Director

Areas of Focus: community building, networks & partnerships, civic engagement, grant/proposal development, team building, strategy

Phillip Denny serves as the Senior Program Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies, a position he assumed shortly after the Center was established in March 2006. He manages the Big Ideas@Berkeley contest–one of the oldest and most respected student innovation competitions in California. In this capacity, he has encouraged and supported approximately 1,400 interdisciplinary teams to develop creative solutions to today’s most pressing social challenges. Under Phillip’s direction, the Big Ideas Contest has helped secure millions of dollars in seed funding for student start-ups, expanded the contest to 18 campuses, and recruited over 1,000 industry, government and non-profit experts to judge ideas and mentor participants. He has also been integral in developing key partnerships across academia, private sector organizations, and entrepreneurship networks to strengthen social innovation initiatives on campus. As recognition for his leadership of Big Ideas, he received UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award in 2015. Prior to joining the Center, Denny held leadership roles in multiple successful grass-roots and political campaigns, specializing in research and communications strategies for both candidates and organizations.

Karenna Rehorn

Program Manager

Karenna Rehorn is the Founding Manager of the Health Tech CoLab and the Program Manager for the Big Ideas Contest. They  graduated from UC Davis with a bachelors in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Technological Management. Karenna is passionate about supporting students in developing their social innovations with diversity, access, inclusion, and belonging at the forefront. In their spare time, you can find them exploring new restaurants, hiking, or trying out a new recipe.

Austin Nicola Ardisaputra

Web Developer

Austin is a junior from Indonesia studying Computer Science and Economics. His interests range from full stack development to AI and data engineering. In his free time, he enjoys playing the electric guitar, playing basketball, and traveling to new places.

Lila Voci

Graphic Design Big Ideas Student Associate

Lila is a second-year student at UC Berkeley majoring in English and intending to minor in Creative Writing. Her areas of interest include but are not limited to contemporary fiction and short story writing. Lila is also a practicing artist with four years of training in a variety of mediums at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. In her spare time, Lila enjoys painting, writing music, traveling, cooking for friends and family, and spending time with her cat, Gidget.

Vardaan Tekriwal

Admin & Outreach Big Ideas Student Associate

Vardaan is a second year student at UC Berkeley double majoring in IEOR and Engineering Math & Statistics with minors in EECS and Data Science. His areas of interest are financial technological innovation, social entrepreneurship, and mathematical modeling. Vardaan himself was a finalist in the Big Ideas Contest! Besides his curricular interests, Vardaan is an avid adrenaline junkie and sports enthusiast; scuba diving, long-distance running, motorsports, badminton, and football (soccer) are all his alley.

Pranav Prabhakaran

Program Coordinator

Pranav is a fourth year student at UC Berkeley majoring in Economics with minors in Data Science and Global Poverty & Practice. His areas of interest are economics research, nonprofit consulting and development work. Outside of Big Ideas, Pranav is a member of 2 campus clubs, Project RISHI and The Berkeley Group. For fun, Pranav loves to watch and play soccer, drink dirty chais, listen to Indian Music, and watch movies from around the world.

Lily Benney

Social Media Big Ideas Student Associate

Lily is a third-year transfer student at UC Berkeley majoring in Urban Studies and planning to minor in Journalism. Her areas of interest are community relations and development, particularly utilizing communication tools like social media for community outreach. In her free time, Lily enjoys wheel-thrown pottery, listening to podcasts and music, and baking

2020 Innovation Ambassadors

Cheukai Makari

UC Berkeley

Zehra Jafri

UC Hastings

Kyra Trinh

UC Irvine

Paolo Shamoon

UC Los Angeles

Ankita Ahluwalia

UC Riverside

Marina Akhavein

UC Santa Barbara