Our Staff

Harvey Rubin, MD, PhD 
Founder, Executive Director
 [email protected] 
 215-746-4234

In 2011, Dr. Rubin had a simple idea: leverage the pervasiveness of cell towers throughout the world to provide a power source for vaccine refrigerators in remote areas in underdeveloped countries. From that, Energize the Chain was born. Dr. Rubin has been successfully championing this idea ever since, launching EtC programs in Zimbabwe, Ghana, and now expanding into other countries, protecting underserved populations from preventable diseases.

Dr. Rubin is Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research in infectious diseases has been funded by the NIH, NSF, DARPA and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Discovery and has resulted in more than 90 peer-reviewed papers chapters or reviews.   

Denise Winner
Chief Financial Officer
 [email protected]
310-766-6451

Denise Winner has advised Energize the Chain since 2014, supporting EtC's vision and strategy. In 2018, Denise joined the team to support their operations and expansion. Prior to joining Energize the Chain, she worked as an entrepreneur and consultant with focus on fin-tech, capital markets, and block chain.  She also founded Conquer Our Run, a nonprofit to support Lupus and Breast Cancer, and is active in other nonprofits. Denise is CFO/Treasurer of Lupus LA and Treasurer of Rainbow Services, a domestic violence Agency. Denise received her BS from UPenn's Wharton School and completed her Master's research with focus on Artificial Intelligence at Brown University.  

Alice Conant 
Research and Development Coordinator 
 [email protected]

Alice is a co-founder of Energize the Chain (EtC) and leads the EtC India initiative. As an undergraduate working on launching the EtC model she worked in both Zimbabwe and India extensively studying the distribution network and efficacy of vaccine cold chain systems. Her research has been sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Econet Foundation and she has been featured as a keynote speaker at both the ECOSOC Partnership Forum for addressing the Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals and at the 2011 and 2013 International Conferences on Health Geographic Information Systems. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, she became a Penn Social Impact Fellow and was chosen as a Fulbright Scholar, travelling to India to further study issues of healthcare. accessibility in underserved communities.

Ocek Eke, PhD
Senior Consultant
[email protected]

Dr. Eke is the Director of Global and Local Service-Learning Programs at Penn Engineering. In this role, he is responsible for organizing and overseeing service learning courses in Philadelphia, Rwanda, Ghana, Hong Kong, China, Argentina, and Guatemala. Prior to assuming his current position, Dr. Eke served as a senior consultant and Editor for Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development where he worked on climate change and agriculture resilience. Dr. Eke has taught global studies and international communications at Penn State and UNC Chapel Hill, he has written peer reviewed publications and a book chapter. Dr. Eke received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications and Foreign Service, and Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Baylor University; he received his Ph.D. in Mass Communication Research from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.