Graduate student and nurse Ramona Ramadas has won over $60,000 at pitch competitions to help fund her healthcare startup, New Trails Navigators.
The startup aims to connect homeless, incarcerated, addicted or uninsured individuals with peer health navigators who guide them through sustainable health solutions. Ms. Ramadas has won funding to develop her project while pursuing studies through an online program at the Arizona State University Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
She won $50,000 from the Alliance for the American Dream, an initiative of Schmidt Futures, at her first pitch competition. She has won several other competitions since then.
The startup has now received Innovation Partner status with a Washington state program for Medicaid patients, Ms. Ramadas said. "I am very proud to be a nurse. We are natural innovators."