The Visionaries Behind UzObi
Leadership
Dr. Nneka Sederstrom
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Benjamin Moses
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Serge Alain-Wandji
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officier
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officier
Ifeanyi Mokwunye
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Nneka has spent twenty years as a clinical ethicist in the rooms where patients' wishes go missing: ICU family meetings, surrogate decisions, the 2 a.m. conversation nobody prepared for. She directed clinical ethics at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where her team ran more than 400 consultations a year, built the first clinical ethics fellowship in the Twin Cities at Children's Minnesota, and served as the inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer at Hennepin Healthcare. She holds two pending patents on digital advance directive management, founded the Journal of Hospital Ethics and the Journal of Pediatric Ethics, and sits on the Board of Regents of the American College of Chest Physicians. Sanctuary is the tool she wished she'd had at the bedside.
Ben is an anesthesiologist and critical care physician who trained in critical care at Johns Hopkins and spent five years on the faculty of the University of Virginia, attending in the surgical/trauma and cardiothoracic ICUs and serving as the anesthesiology department's liaison to the Central Virginia Advance Directives Collaborative. A former U.S. Army brigade surgeon, he has published and lectured nationally on end-of-life care, moral distress, and advance care planning in the ICU, including a two-hospital study of advance directive use that he and Nneka ran together. He leads Sanctuary's clinical design and the Care Guide content for critical care teams.
Serge-Alain is a serial health and technology founder with a physiology PhD and an executive master's in technology management from Wharton. He was Vice President of Strategy, Business Development and Innovation at Children's Minnesota, spent more than a decade managing intellectual assets at Cargill, and co-founded DiaspoCare, a digital health platform connecting patients in Africa with clinicians and pharmacies. He leads UzObi's health system and payer partnerships and the commercial path from pilot to contract.
Ifeanyi has spent more than 25 years building and running regulated technology platforms in biopharma, most recently at Takeda, where he owned the technical strategy for enterprise R&D and manufacturing systems and led their migration to AWS. His career has been spent in environments where data integrity is audited (FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GAMP), which is the standard he brings to patient-authored health information. He is responsible for Sanctuary's architecture, HIPAA infrastructure, and EHR integration.
Founding Team
UzObi was founded by six people who had worked together in hospitals, health systems, and startups. These co-founders shaped the product and continue to advise it.
Dr. Esteban Gershanik
Co-Founder
Esteban is an internal medicine and pediatrics hospitalist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, part-time faculty at Harvard Medical School, and board certified in clinical informatics. He has served as medical director of quality, safety and equity for Brigham Health and as Chief Information Officer and health informatics director for the Louisiana Department of Health. His published work on EHR summarization, patient safety tools, and disparities in serious-illness conversations is close to the problems Sanctuary is built to solve; he advises on informatics and research design.
Stan Alleyne
Co-Founder
Stan has spent more than twenty years in strategic communications, including six as Chief Communications Officer for Minneapolis Public Schools and earlier communications roles in North Carolina school districts. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Alleyne, Matlock & Associates, a Twin Cities firm advising executives and public officials on crisis communications, community engagement, and brand strategy. He built UzObi's early brand and messaging.
Our Roots in Minnesota
UzObi, Inc. was born from a deep commitment to transforming the way patients and clinicians communicate about complex lung health. We believe that every patient's voice deserves to be heard and understood.
Our journey began in the heart of Minnesota, where we combined clinical expertise with a passion for patient-led medical communication. We are dedicated to creating a safer, more transparent healthcare experience for everyone.
Get in Touch
info@uzobiinc.com
Location
Minnesota, USA