Event Staff

Andrew Monk is the Program Specialist & Event Coordinator for the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM) and an Event Manager for IEM Innovation Week. He joined the University of Minnesota in November 2022. During 2023 he coordinated; The Otto Schmitt Lecture Series, Inspire Conference, IEM Annual Conference, MD&M, Innovation to Impact Series, and hosted The Society of Cryobiology's 60th Annual Meeting. This is his second IEM Innovation Week in which he has coordinated the IEM Reception Mixer (April 10), the IEM Innovation Week Distinguished Lecture (April 10) and the MN Neuromodulation Symposium & Workshop (April 10-12). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and Public Relations from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul and will be beginning his Master of Public Health program at UMN in Fall 2024. He has also worked for MNGI Digestive Health and Starkey Hearing Foundation. 

Taylor Lopez-Angel serves as an executive office and administrative specialist within the Department of Biomedical Engineering. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the coordination of both the neuroimaging and neuromodulation T32 fellowship programs. Additionally, Taylor provides assistance with the R25 NeuroTech Course program, the Center for Neuroengineering, and the Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium.

Having joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2022, Taylor is a University of Minnesota alumna who graduated in 2021 with a B.I.S. in Health Services Management, Psychology, and Public Health. Prior to joining UMN, she gained experience as a fellowship coordinator for various cardiology fellowships.

Karrie Molitor is the MnDRIVE Program Manager for the Discovery and Treatments for Brain Conditions. She manages the program's administrative operations and coordinates neuromodulation events, outreach activities, and fellowship opportunities. She is also the Administrative Manager for the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction and the Program Manager for the Minnesota Neuroimaging Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. She started working for the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Neuroscience in 2018. Before she came to UMN, she received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Minot State University in North Dakota. She has experience as a pharmaceutical auditing specialist, a family advocacy program assistant for the United States Air Force, and a psychiatric residential treatment advisor for children and teenagers with chronic psychiatric and behavioral health issues. While working at the Dakota Boys and Girls ranch in Minot, North Dakota she assisted with equine therapy and was the summer programming art teacher where she taught therapeutic techniques that improved the residents mental health and coping skills.

Dwight is a Senior Fellow with the MnDRIVE Brain Conditions Team where he focuses on increasing and strengthening MnDRIVE Brain Conditions relationships with business and industry. 

Role with MnDRIVE: Dwight is focused on industry and academic collaboration, increasing synergies between UMN research and regional and global neuro startups as well as industry leaders. He is facilitating effective clinical and preclinical research collaborations, creating a distinct deliverables-based research culture, and building a sustainable pipeline of Neuro research expertise, discoveries, and commercialization at the University of Minnesota. These business synergy efforts include driving and significantly improving the scientific foundation of the Minnesota medical device ecosystem, better connecting UMN resources and opportunities to partners in start-ups and strategic industry leaders, and establishing more effective academic-industry collaboration. Ultimately these programs bring cutting-edge, data driven breakthroughs to future patients and the Minnesota biotechnology ecosystem.