Marissa Koscielski
When Marissa Koscielski got to Notre Dame as an undergrad, majoring in math and researching neuroscience, she “started to get really interested in how healthcare is delivered and how these models of care impact patient outcomes.”
After graduating in 2017, she was led to the ESTEEM Graduate Program at the University of Notre Dame, to acquire the business acumen to interlace her academic interests and foster innovation to have a tangible and sustainable impact in the health space. She saw ESTEEM as her “opportunity to take research past the bench and impact people’s lives.”
Koscielski was encouraged to enter the McCloskey Competition by David Murphy, Director of ESTEEM. Although she had assumed the competition was only for a student who considered herself to be revenue-minded, taking her Founder’s Idea capstone project through the process changed Koscielski’s mindset entirely. “Business is the platform in which innovation can be a force for good in the world.”
Through McCloskey, Koscielski was able to form connections, benefitting from the multidisciplinary student team she built and from the mentors and potential investors that involvement with the Competition brought her. “McCloskey also taught me the importance of tailoring your message to your audience. We still ask ourselves this today at Enlighten Mobility,” the company Koscielski founded and now leads.
The lessons learned are not lost on Koscielski. “It’s important not to underestimate the healing power of human connection, especially in the medical field; likewise, it’s important not to underestimate the power of innovating for the good of the human person in entrepreneurship.”
Originally published by at ideacenter.nd.edu on April 20, 2020.