Luminary Labs expands team to support continued growth and larger engagements.
As the new year begins, Luminary Labs is celebrating new hires and promotions — and a new horizon of company growth. Our team is tackling increasingly urgent and complex problems, and the scale of our projects has grown proportionately. Over the past two years, Luminary Labs designed and managed one of the largest prizes in federal history. This year, we will launch multiple programs that are more than twice that size. Our investments in talent and infrastructure reflect the company’s expanding ambitions and impact, and will help us continue to serve visionary clients who are solving the world’s thorniest problems.
Recently promoted
Karen Wong joined Luminary Labs in 2020 and has been promoted to Vice President, Business Operations. Karen leads the team that ensures operational excellence at all levels, including administration, finance, technology, workplace experience, talent development, and organizational culture. In her newly created role, Karen will continue to serve as a thought partner to Luminary Labs leadership and expand on her previous work to bolster the company’s infrastructure and processes, laying the foundation for continued expansion.
Ben Alsdurf joined Luminary Labs in 2022 and has been promoted to Senior Director. Under Ben’s leadership, our future of health portfolio has expanded to include some of the largest prizes in federal history, as well as strategic advisory engagements with global pharmaceutical companies, an AI drug discovery biotech, and a global nonprofit. In Ben’s new role, he will continue to grow our future of health portfolio and will assume leadership of our scientific discovery portfolio. He will continue to oversee the delivery of groundbreaking work for clients such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including BARDA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Carthur Wan, Ph.D., joined Luminary Labs in 2023 and has been promoted to Engagement Manager. Carthur has leveraged his background in biology and fundraising for applied research and commercialization to support a strategic planning process with a nonprofit product-development partnership and shape our partnership with BARDA. He has a passion for bringing together consortia and helping innovative teams access the right resources to translate their ideas into impact, and is currently leading our teams working on the Lead Detect Prize, the LymeX Diagnostics Prize, and two international prize competitions with BARDA.
Maeser Allen joined Luminary Labs in 2022 and has been promoted to Senior Associate. Maeser has supported research, program design, and challenge administration across all of Luminary Labs focus areas, working on projects such as CTE Momentum’s Your Place in Space Challenge, the LymeX Diagnostics Prize, MagQuest, and an ambitious regional plan for advanced mobility.
New hires
Bella Li joined Luminary Labs as a Senior Associate. With expertise in business strategy and operations within digital health and biotechnology, Bella helps clients bridge the divide between innovation and market realities to drive tangible impact. Bella is currently supporting research and challenge design for two international prize competitions with BARDA.
Samantha Resnik joined Luminary Labs as a Senior Communications Associate. Sami has worked in strategic communications across tech, media, and nonprofit organizations. To her new role, she brings expertise in identifying and understanding diverse audiences and a passion for helping clients cut through the noise to tell stories that matter. Sami is currently supporting communications for our partnership with BARDA.
Jess Song joined Luminary Labs as a Senior Associate. Her diverse background in mental health, nonprofit programs, instructional design, and content strategy allows her to quickly identify patterns in complex, intersectional challenges and find human-centered solutions. She delights in finding the “why beneath the why,” dissolving barriers, and turning vague ideas into reality. Jess is currently supporting our ongoing work with Mission Daybreak.
Andrew Wallace joined Luminary Labs as a Senior Editor. Andrew is drawn to crossroads where diverse people and ideas converge to achieve amazing things. He values inclusion in all his work and takes care to ensure diverse voices are welcomed and empowered. In his new role, Andrew is leveraging over a decade of experience in the social sector to support research, sensemaking, storytelling, writing, and editing across client engagements and internal projects, including the Lab Report.
Photo by Red Morley Hewitt on Unsplash.
