FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DR. JILL KALMAN TO JOIN WHAM VENTURES

Top clinical leader brings health-system scale, clinical translation, and an adoption lens to precision health investment for women

GREENWICH, Conn. (Set. 16, 2026) — WHAM Ventures today announced that Jill Kalman, MD, will join its founding team as Strategic Partner. One of the nation’s most respected health-system leaders, Dr. Kalman brings a rare ability to assess what it takes for promising science to become adopted, scalable care, strengthening a critical link in the WHAM Ventures model: connecting scientific and investment rigor with real-world clinical need, validation, workflow integration, and health-system adoption.

WHAM Ventures is a transformative platform built to catalyze innovation, research, and commercialization across women’s health, uniting researchers, investors, clinicians, and patient advocates to fund and prioritize neglected areas of precision health. Building on the foundation of WHAM’s Research, Investment, and Life Science Collaboratives, WHAM Ventures will advance promising ideas and solutions from discovery to impact, bridging the critical gaps that continue to slow progress in one of healthcare’s largest and most underserved markets.

A renowned cardiologist with three decades of experience across clinical medicine, health-system leadership, and innovation, Dr. Kalman currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Deputy Physician-in-Chief at Northwell Health—New York State’s largest health system and private employer—where she is the first woman to hold the system’s top clinical role and oversees all clinical aspects of care. Previously, as executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital, she elevated its reputation as a national and global destination for tertiary care and led it through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has built her career around translational medicine, moving breakthrough research out of the lab and into daily clinical workflows and adopting technologies such as AI to improve outcomes and give clinicians back their time. An expert in congestive heart failure who has published extensively in the field, she is widely recognized for putting Northwell on the national map across innovation, AI, patient experience, and women’s health.

“Breakthrough science creates value when it can reach patients. Advances in data, AI, and precision medicine are opening new possibilities to prevent, diagnose, and treat the conditions that affect women, but moving from evidence to adoption requires clinical rigor, real-world validation, and the right capital. WHAM Ventures is building that bridge, and I am proud to help advance the opportunities with the greatest potential for impact and scale.”

— Jill Kalman, MD

Dr. Kalman joins a leading team building this platform spanning women’s health, investing, science, strategy, and platform-building—institutional discipline, scientific depth, and mission-built access. WHAM Ventures is led by Carolee Lee, Founder and CEO of WHAM. She is joined by Andrea Pfeifer, PhD, Strategic Global Partner and Chief Scientific Officer, co-founder and former CEO of AC Immune, who brings deep scientific and public-market leadership; Jackie VanderBrug, Strategic Partner and gender-lens investment pioneer who has built and led more than $45 billion in investment platforms; Janet Foutty, Senior Advisor and former Deloitte US Chair and Consulting CEO, a recognized leader in AI, workforce, and institution-building; and Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik, Chief of Staff and Strategic Partnerships of WHAM, who leads WHAM’s strategy, partnerships, and organizational growth. Together, the team combines the scientific authority to translate evidence into investable opportunity, the experience to move capital with rigor, and the institution-building track record to bring solutions to scale.

“Dr. Kalman is exactly the kind of leader this moment demands, a leader who has delivered clinical transformation at the largest scale and knows how to turn science into outcomes. Her partnership signals what WHAM Ventures is here to do: bring world-class talent, capital, and conviction to a market the rest of the industry has overlooked.”

— Carolee Lee, CEO & Founder, WHAM

WHAM Ventures will build on the research, relationships, and convening power WHAM has developed across its Research, Investment, and Life Sciences Collaboratives. In the months ahead, it will begin advancing an initial pipeline of opportunities and engaging aligned investors, founders, researchers, health systems, and industry partners to help move the most promising science forward.

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About WHAM Ventures

WHAM Ventures is an investment and acceleration platform designed to advance precision health and prevention for women. Building on WHAM’s research and cross-sector network, it identifies high-potential opportunities and mobilizes capital, scientific expertise, clinical insight, and strategic partnerships to accelerate their path from evidence to adoption.

About WHAM

Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) is a data-driven nonprofit organization leading the transformation in redefining women’s health while forging critical partnerships across public, private, and research sectors. Through its groundbreaking research, reports and innovative initiatives, WHAM is building the business case for investing in women’s health in this historically underfunded, undervalued space. For more information, visit whamnow.org.

Media Inquiries

Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik | WHAM | marianne@whamnow.org | (203) 434-2383