BV Hub 20/40 Speaker Series October

I’m happy to share, this summer I worked with our team to develop a new series, The BV Hub 20/40 Speaker Series, a career speaker event featuring 2 speakers from the same or an adjacent career pathway; one who is just starting their career and another who is an established professional. 

An observation I made during my employment at BV Hub is, many students have an easier time engaging and connecting with career speakers who are closer to an age and experience level of their own. While career speakers who have several years of experience and promotions under their belt give a fuller picture of possible career trajectories and help students set goals. By inviting both a beginner and an experienced professional to speak at the same event, students have the opportunity to see a career pathway from different angles and entry points. Symbolically, they get to look at a sculpture vs a 2-D model of the industry. 

Each month, our BV Hub 20/40 Speaker Series will be hosted in-person at a different Partnered School location with the opportunity for all districts to join on zoom.

October 29, 2025 at 10am marks the launch of our first event at Northbridge High School with a focus on health science and care, featuring speakers, Dr. John E. Harris and Hunter Schulz. See biographies below!

Dr. John E. Harris was recently named the inaugural Chair of Dermatology at the newly formed Mass General Brigham (MGB) Hospital, a merger of the existing Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Harvard system.

He will transition from his previous position as Chair of Dermatology at UMass Chan Medical

School, beginning on November 1^st, 2025. Dr. Harris is a dermatologist and physician-scientist, caring for patients in a vitiligo specialty clinic and running a research laboratory focused on understanding disease pathogenesis and developing new treatments. His group integrates basic, translational, and clinical research strategies to accomplish this. As a result, clinical trials in vitiligo have shown success. Dr. Harris founded Villaris Therapeutics (acquired by Incyte in 2022) and 4 other companies to develop treatments for inflammatory skin diseases, which were merged into Alys Pharmaceuticals. He serves as Chief Innovation Officer for Alys, which has two clinical-stage programs as well as multiple preclinical programs in development.

Hunter Schulz is a graduate of Stonehill College where she obtained her bachelor's degree in health sciences minoring in healthcare management. She graduated cum laude and completed her internship hours within a medical spa working under a nurse practitioner. 

She now has a passion for brain injury advocacy as a brain injury survivor having founded her fundraiser “A Mile for the Mind” raising over $2,200 for the Brain Injury Association of America. She also hosts an Instagram live series called “Let’s Talk Beauty and Brains” and an educational series for youth called “Brain Buddies” both of which focus on brain injury awareness and advocacy. Hunter recently was Miss Blackstone Valley 2025 placing top 5 at the Miss Massachusetts America competition with her community service initiative, “Let’s Talk Beauty and Brains: Brain Injury Advocacy.”

Our BV Hub 20/40 Speaker Series objective is to engage and inform students along with school staff about future career pathway trajectories. We plan to highlight New England-based companies and training programs. We want to help students see themselves in the workforce, provide career awareness, and fulfill our goals for Partnered Schools along with the Connecting Activities program.

Please reach out with any questions that you may have, kerins.annie@bvhub.org