The following was written by Jessica Mo, Pava Center Venture Insights Intern
The Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship is where startup connections are made. This month, the Pava Center is highlighting two recent collaborations in the dynamic ecosystem of Johns Hopkins affiliated ventures. Jodi Miller from Wellcheq and Emily Fleming from Yoga in Classrooms and Schools Consulting both have ventures in the education space, while Mark Wo from JJ Innovative Materials and Randi Williams from Metallic Luxury are both in the climate and sustainability space.
Education Collaboration
Founder Jodi Miller is the lead of Wellcheq, a web-based app that enables students to complete daily emotional check-ins, allowing them to more easily ask for help from adults in schools and providing educators with better insights into the emotional lives of students. Miller participated in the Spring 2024 Fuel accelerator cohort at the Pava Center and is a postdoctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Founder Emily Fleming is the lead of Yoga in Classrooms and Schools Consulting (YCSC), which empowers schools and youth-serving organizations to prioritize the well-being of students, staff, and families through yoga practices. Fleming has a background in education and yoga and participated in the 2021-2022 Social Innovation Lab cohort at the Pava Center.
At the Fall 2024 Social Innovation Lab mixer, Fleming met Paul Davidson, Associate Director of the Pava Center, who then connected Emily and Jodi over email. The two met for coffee, marking the start of a fruitful collaboration. Fleming said that she and Miller bonded over their shared backgrounds in education and solo entrepreneurship in the education sector. “It was so nice to talk with someone who understands the challenges that I’m facing and the concerns that arise when you have a startup,” Miller said. “We were giving each other ideas and talking about the next steps.”
One challenge that Fleming faced in developing YCSC was gathering data on the efficacy of yoga on student well-being. Fleming and Miller partnered together to use Wellcheq in combination with yoga sessions at a Baltimore school. Students would fill out Wellcheq check-ins before and after yoga, providing data on the effect of the session.
Fleming admires Jodi’s work with Wellcheq, saying, “I appreciate what Jodi is achieving and I hope we can establish a lasting collaboration to offer these services to schools.” Miller echoed the sentiment. “My hope is that she continues to do more of these different programs so we can bring Wellcheq in as part of it,” Miller said. “I think [the collaboration] helps us develop more evidence that Wellcheq can be used as an evaluation tool.” She added, “Most importantly, two women working together, supporting each other, and cheering each other on through the process is nice. To me, this is a good reminder to have conversations with folks. You never know where things will go.”
Climate and Sustainability Collaboration
Mark Wo is the Director of Manufacturing at JJ Innovative Materials (JJIM), which develops environmentally friendly construction materials. Wo was a part of the 2023-2024 Social Innovation Lab cohort and the Spring 2023 Fuel cohort. Randi Williams is the founder of Metallic Luxury, a sustainable community development company that focuses on climate-resilient construction and foreclosure prevention education for low- to moderate-income homebuyers. Like Wo, she was part of the 2023-2024 Social Innovation Lab cohort. Williams is also a PhD candidate in Architecture, Urbanism, and Built Environments at Morgan State University.
Williams met Anthony Watters, Interim Director of the Social Innovation Lab, through a mutual friend at Morgan State. She was later accepted to the Social Innovation Lab, where she met Wo and the two had an immediate connection. Williams said that the two often shared grants, programs, business plans, and lenders. “We talked every day,” she said. “We shared resources all the time. We would attend different meetings, equitech groups, and different things in Baltimore. It was almost like we were siblings.” Williams said that Wo had helped her understand how her venture ties into climate and energy. “[Wo] helped me understand the spaces we could exist in to discuss climate resilient housing models,” she said.
Recently, JJIM and Metallic Luxury were among the first 50 ventures to participate in the Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator for climate tech startups. Wo said Williams enabled him to make numerous helpful connections—for example, to the farming community. “It’s always better to have a warm intro than cold calling,” he said. “It’s nice to have that familiar and friendly face around.” Wo said that in the future, JJIM will move to larger sustainable drywall panels that can be used for building homes, which may open up future development opportunities with Metallic Luxury. “We cheer for her all the time and I feel that she’s supported us in many ways,” Wo said. “When I meet someone who has lived in Baltimore for a long time and wants to do something with housing, I will send them to Randi.”
Have you developed a strategic collaboration with another venture at the Pava Center? Please connect with us at [email protected] to be featured in a future article.