Education
Chen holds a Bachelor in Psychology and Economics from Pomona College, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, and an Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
founder of Embrace Chief Executive Officer of Embrace Innovations
Chen holds a Bachelor in Psychology and Economics from Pomona College, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, and an Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Currently, Chen serves as Chief Executive Officer of Embrace Innovations, which has a mission to design and bring to market healthcare technologies for the developing world, starting with the infant warmer. The Embrace infant warmer costs about 1% of a traditional incubator, and is currently being distributed across clinics in India, with pilots being conducted in 10 countries. The Embrace infant warmer is estimated to have helped over 150,000 babies to date.
Chen served as the first Chief Executive Officer of Embrace, the non-profit arm of the organization, before stepping into the Chief Executive Officer role for Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise that was spun off in 2012.
Chen"s early education was at Upland High School, in Upland, California. Prior to Embrace, Chen worked with nonprofit organizations on healthcare issues in developing countries.
She spent several years as the Program Director of a startup Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome nonprofit in China (Chi Heng Foundation), and worked for the Clinton Foundation’s Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Initiative in Tanzania. She also worked at Monitor Group as a management consultant, advising Fortune 500 companies.
Chen has been a TED speaker, and was selected as one of Forbes" Impact 30 in 2011.
In 2011, Chen was also recognized as the Inspirational Young Alumni of the Year by Pomona College, and was the keynote speaker at Stanford’s Women in Management event in the same year. She is also featured in Stanford’s “Tradition of Innovation,” and speaks at various international conferences, including the Skoll World Forum. In 2012, Chen was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and was featured in Dove"s "Real Role Models" campaign for women and girls.
She is also profiled in America Online’s Makers campaign.
Chen is a TED India Fellow, TED Senior Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and Rainer Arnhold Fellow. In 2013, Chen and the other co-founders of Embrace, Linus Liang, Nag Murty, and Rahul Panicker were awarded the prestigious Economist Innovation Award, under the category of Social and Economic Innovation.
Embrace
While doing her Master of Business Administration at Stanford, Chen and a few other fellow graduate students were assigned a class project to create a low-cost infant incubator that could be used in rural areas. In 2008, they co-founded Embrace, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to bring their project to life.
In January 2012, Embrace moved into a hybrid structure.
The non-profit entity, Embrace, donates infant warmers to the neediest areas through non-governmental organization partners, and provides educational programs on newborn health alongside the distribution of warmers. The for-profit social enterprise, Embrace Innovations, sells the warmers to paying entities, including governments and private clinics, all focusing on emerging markets. Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise, raised its Series A round of financing in 2012 from Vinod Khosla"s Impact Fund and Capricorn Investment Group.
Embrace Innovations" vision is to develop a line of disruptive healthcare technologies to reduce infant mortality in developing countries.