Team NEMIC Grows, Welcoming Director Lara Zimmerman and Intern Lily Badiani
NEMIC is growing—and with that growth comes an opportunity to bring new expertise, perspectives, and energy to our work supporting the next generation of healthcare innovators.
We’re excited to welcome Lara Zimmerman as NEMIC’s new Director of Consulting + Innovation Programs and Lily Badiani as our Fall Intern.
Together, Lara and Lily bring complementary experience spanning venture capital, startups, innovation, product design, entrepreneurship, and health technology. Their arrival strengthens NEMIC’s ability to help innovators navigate the journey from promising idea to commercially viable solution—and ultimately, to real-world impact.
Meet Lara Zimmerman: Expanding NEMIC’s Consulting + Innovation Capabilities
As NEMIC’s new Director of Consulting + Innovation Programs, Lara Zimmerman brings more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of early-stage startups, investment diligence, venture development, and founder enablement. Lara’s career has included experience with Harvard Innovation Labs, the Global Accelerator Network, startups, and angel investing, giving her a broad perspective on what it takes to build and scale an early-stage company. Her work has exposed her to both sides of the innovation equation: the challenges founders face as they build their businesses and the questions investors and industry partners ask when evaluating emerging technologies. That combination is particularly valuable in healthcare, where promising technologies often face a complex path from concept to commercialization.
At NEMIC, Lara will lead the organization’s growing consulting and innovation programs, helping startups, entrepreneurs, and partner organizations navigate the strategic, operational, and commercial challenges that stand between an innovative idea and a successful healthcare product or company. Her experience will also help NEMIC deepen its ability to provide practical, founder-focused support across areas such as commercialization strategy, investment readiness, business development, market validation, and innovation programming.
“Healthcare innovation is an incredibly complex journey,” says NEMIC President Dr. Jenny Hoffmann. “Lara brings the combination of entrepreneurial experience, investor perspective, and founder empathy that will allow us to meet innovators where they are and help them move forward with greater clarity and confidence.”
Lara’s addition comes at an important moment for NEMIC as the organization continues expanding beyond traditional accelerator programming and building out its role as a natural innovation partner for healthcare and life sciences organizations across New England.
Meet Lily Badiani: Bringing Design + Entrepreneurship to Health Innovation
NEMIC is also excited to welcome Lily Badiani as our Fall Intern. Lily recently earned her MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME) from Brown University, following her undergraduate studies in Product and Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins in London.
Her background sits at an especially interesting intersection for healthcare innovation: design, technology, entrepreneurship, and human needs.
During her time at Brown, Lily explored the full product lifecycle—from financial analysis and consumer insights to intellectual property, patents, and globalization strategy. She also gained hands-on experience through a number of highly interdisciplinary projects.
One of those projects was Haunani, a free interactive resource Lily created for people with visual snow syndrome and dyslexia in collaboration with the Visual Snow Initiative. Lily’s interest in the problem is also personal: she has lived with Visual Snow Syndrome since childhood and was diagnosed at age 15. Her experience illustrates the kind of human-centered perspective that can be particularly powerful when designing solutions for overlooked healthcare needs.
Lily also worked with the RISD design team on NASA’s SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) Challenge, helping design telemetry interfaces for astronaut spacesuit operations. More recently, she was part of a Brown team that won first place in the SharkNinja Jailbreak EDU AI Hackathon, applying AI to real-world product and operational challenges.
At NEMIC, Lily will support the NEMIC Accelerator through design and analysis work while also contributing to the Health Innovator Pathways Program (HIPP).
Her ability to approach complex problems from both a designer’s and entrepreneur’s perspective will add a valuable new dimension to NEMIC’s work with founders and innovators.
Building the Next Generation of Healthcare Innovation
Lara and Lily join NEMIC during an exciting period of growth for the organization and Rhode Island’s broader health and life sciences ecosystem.
NEMIC’s work increasingly sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, commercialization, workforce development, investment, and healthcare innovation. As the organization expands its programming and partnerships, building a team with diverse professional experiences becomes increasingly important.
From experienced venture professionals who understand the realities of building and financing companies to emerging designers and entrepreneurs who bring fresh perspectives to healthcare challenges, NEMIC is intentionally building a team capable of supporting innovators at every stage of their journey.
We’re thrilled to have Lara and Lily on board and look forward to the expertise, creativity, and new ideas they’ll bring to NEMIC and the innovators we serve.
Please join us in welcoming Lara Zimmerman and Lily Badiani to the NEMIC team!
