About the Institute for Innovation and Change
Sponsored by the Technological Leadership Institute and the Graduate School
The Institute for Innovation and Change (IIC) cultivates mindsets and skill sets to turn ideas into action – innovation into change. The institute houses an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary community of impact leaders. Each year, a new multidisciplinary cohort of graduate students and postdocs is recruited to this community. Cohorts are taught, advised, and mentored by the IIC community, to learn by doing to see themselves as agents of change (whether shaping systems, influencing policy, founding organizations, founding startups, or reimagining the future of their worlds).
For seasoned innovators, impact leaders, and agents of change, join our community >
Meet the Inaugural Cohort of Graduate Students and Postdocs
Quynh Akers
Department of Design Innovation | Design Graduate Program: Product Design | College of Design, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To support overwhelmed food shelf managers with technology that matches incoming donations to available storage and community demand, ensuring valuable food is not turned away or wasted when families need it most.
Rawan AlGahtani
Organization, Leadership, Policy, and Development | College of Education and Human Development, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To connect international students with safe, affordable, and reliable housing through a centralized platform that streamlines housing searches, roommate matching, and leasing resources, ensuring that students can focus on their education rather than housing uncertainty.
Sulia Altenberg
Civic Engagement | College of Continuing and Professional Studies, Master’s Student
Individual challenge
To address the growing isolation that keeps people from realizing their power to shape the world by creating spaces where they feel seen, valued, and connected enough to act together.
Farhana Anjum
Data Science | College of Science and Engineering, Master’s Student
Individual challenge
Every year, patients in rural clinics develop advanced, harder-to-treat cancers from warning signs that were already there but buried across lab results and forgotten between visits — so I'm building an AI system that connects those dots for the doctor who only has 15 minutes, before a preventable tragedy becomes an unavoidable one.
Bryan Burton
Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling | Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development | College of Biological Sciences, Master’s Student
Individual challenge
I aim to build genetic health tools that explain genetic risk clearly and responsibly, so people don’t have to make life-changing healthcare decisions based on information they don’t fully understand.
Upendra Chalise
Medicine/van Berlo lab | Medical School, Postdoctoral Fellow
Individual challenge
Nepal bears a significant burden of cardiovascular disease, yet lacks the nationwide comprehensive data needed to drive informed clinical and policy decisions — my goal is to build a non-profit research network that works with tertiary hospitals in Nepal that systematically collects prevalence, outcomes and risk of heart diseases across the country.
Tamara de Paula e Mancilha
Exercise Physiology, School of Kinesiology | College of Education and Human Development, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To help people with obesity break the cycle of frustration and weight regain by turning complex nutrition and health information into personalized tools that build confidence, healthy habits, and lasting change.
Daniel Antonio Hernandez Linares
Natural Resources Science and Management | College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
The small, culturally diverse farms of the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest produce the foods, sustain the economies, and preserve the ecological practices that industrial agriculture cannot replicate — but structural barriers keep these farmers from accessing the land, capital, and programs they need to survive — so I am partnering with these communities to develop science-based, culturally grounded tools that give their farming systems the recognition and support they deserve.
Penina Kadalida
Biological Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, McNulty lab | College of Liberal Arts, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
Cradle of Resilience supports girls and women facing poverty, harmful cultural practices, and barriers to education by providing mentorship, advocacy, and educational support so they can live safely, continue learning, and build independent futures.
Mary Kosuth
Institute on the Environment, Postdoctoral Associate
Individual challenge
In a time of intractable partisan gridlock and polarization, the organization Compassionate Science Communication, seeks to build trust and mend divisions between scientists and oppositional/hesitant audiences by creating meaningful personal connections through mutual respect, transparency, deep-listening, authenticity, and empathy.
Ryan McWay
Applied Economics | College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
Companies are depleting natural resources and generating pollutants to fuel our economy -- we measure the hidden environmental costs firms create and the natural resources they're silently consuming, so markets and regulators can finally act on the truth.
Augustine Nwaka
Organization, Leadership, Policy, and Development–Higher Education | College of Education and Human Development, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To connect with graduate students at U.S. public research universities who face financial, food, and housing insecurity by advancing stronger institutional funding, coordinated support systems, and student-centered policies that promote their well-being, persistence, and academic success.
Gavin Oliver
Cognitive and Brain Sciences (CAB), Psychology Department | College of Liberal Arts, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
I plan to develop and lead a program of workshops that trains researchers to integrate AI into their research workflows in ways that improve efficiency, rigor, and innovation while maintaining ethical and responsible research practices.
Emmy Paulson
Public Health Data Science, Cannabis Research Center (CRC) | School of Public Health, Master’s Student
Individual challenge
While Minnesota families and youth endure severe emotional distress trying to find cannabis treatment, providers are left guessing how to help; my research identifies the specific barriers blocking care so we can build effective programs that support family stability, empower young people's futures, and sustainably leverage community resources.
Jochebed Quarshie
Health Data Science | School of Public Health, Master’s Student
Individual challenge
To improve health outcomes in underserved communities by developing culturally responsive, data-informed solutions that integrate traditional healing practices with modern medical systems.
Vivasvaan Aditya Raj
Astrophysics, Dr. Lucy Fortson lab | College of Science and Engineering, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To address the steep learning curve in computational astronomy—where unclear, inconsistent workflows slow down research and exclude newcomers—by creating a small, reproducible pipeline template that makes it easier for students to understand, run, and build on existing code.
Zainab Seidu
Nursing | School of Nursing, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To reduce loneliness and social isolation among older adults living with dementia and their caregivers by improving access to community support services that enhance quality of life and family well-being.
Yiran Song
Division of Computational Health Sciences | College of Pharmacy, Postdoctoral Researcher
Individual challenge
To build an open fairness audit framework that helps clinical AI serve every patient equitably, ensuring that women from underserved communities are not failed by the very screening tools meant to detect their cancer early.
Alexis Tarter
Human Factors and Ergonomics | College of Design, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To provide future social scientists with the community-driven technological solutions they need to master data tools, ensuring broken code never hinders research building better schools and healthier communities.
Qin Xie
Organization, Leadership, Policy, and Development | College of Education and Human Development, Doctoral Student
Individual challenge
To advance equitable access to generative AI in higher education by ensuring that every student, regardless of background, identity, or institution, has the resources and representation needed to engage with these technologies critically and confidently.
Valeriia Yustyniuk
Center for Animal Health and Food Safety | College of Veterinary Medicine, Postdoctoral Researcher
Individual challenge
To improve global animal disease detection by using AI to identify early signals in multilingual information, enabling faster containment and safeguarding food systems.
IIC Coordinators
David Nguyen, Ph.D.
Donald Osell-Gemini Chair in Engineering Entrepreneurship
Technological Leadership Institute
Noro Andriamanalina, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice Provost, Graduate Student & Postdoctoral Initiatives
Mariam Banahi, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Office of Postdoctoral Initiatives
Aimzhan Iztayeva, Ph.D.
Assistant Director
Graduate Student Initiatives