Team
Our Team
BioRadar's team members have served at the highest levels of the U.S. government's biological threat response.
Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH
Co-Founder & CEO
Dr. Jha is a practicing physician and globally recognized expert on major issues impacting public health, and a catalyst for new thinking and approaches. A long-time leader in pandemic preparedness and response, his work spans groundbreaking research on Ebola and frontline leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, advising local, national, and international policymakers. In March 2022, President Biden appointed Dr. Jha as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, describing him as "one of the leading public health experts in America." In this role, he led efforts to expand access to vaccines and treatments, strengthen testing and surveillance, invest in indoor air quality, and build durable infrastructure to respond to current and future disease threats. Dr. Jha previously served as Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, held faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Jha holds an academic appointment as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Nikki Romanik, MD
Co-Founder & President
Dr. Romanik is a physician and policy strategist with deep experience leading U.S. preparedness and response to high-consequence biological threats. She previously served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President, Deputy Director, and Chief of Staff for the inaugural Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), where she helped establish the office and coordinate federal responses to major outbreaks, including mpox, COVID-19, and Marburg virus disease. Prior to OPPR, she served as Senior Policy Advisor for the White House Mpox Response.
Following her White House service, she was a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Global Health Security at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Romanik held senior leadership roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the World Health Organization (WHO). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as the CDC COVID-19 Liaison to the White House and HHS.
She is an Advisor to Network 20/20 and holds academic appointments at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Georgetown/MedStar National Center for Health Security and Resilience.
Following her White House service, she was a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Global Health Security at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Romanik held senior leadership roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the World Health Organization (WHO). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as the CDC COVID-19 Liaison to the White House and HHS.
She is an Advisor to Network 20/20 and holds academic appointments at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Georgetown/MedStar National Center for Health Security and Resilience.
Ambika Bumb, PhD
Chief Business Officer
Dr. Bumb is an entrepreneur, scientist, and strategic leader whose career has bridged biotechnology, government, and national security. Her work has focused on translating emerging science and technology into strategies, partnerships, and programs that address complex challenges in health.
Previously, Dr. Bumb founded and led as CEO of Bikanta Corporation, a biotechnology company that pioneered nanodiamond-based technologies for medical diagnostics and imaging. She served as the White House's Deputy Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and at the Department of State, where she led global health portfolios and complex interagency crisis response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the effort that brought more than 100,000 Americans home from more than 135 countries. As Deputy Executive Director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, she managed initiatives spanning biological threat preparedness, medical countermeasures, advanced technologies, and national biodefense strategy.
Dr. Bumb currently serves as Vice Chair of the External Advisory Board for Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Microbial Threats, among other scientific and technology advisory roles.
Previously, Dr. Bumb founded and led as CEO of Bikanta Corporation, a biotechnology company that pioneered nanodiamond-based technologies for medical diagnostics and imaging. She served as the White House's Deputy Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and at the Department of State, where she led global health portfolios and complex interagency crisis response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the effort that brought more than 100,000 Americans home from more than 135 countries. As Deputy Executive Director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, she managed initiatives spanning biological threat preparedness, medical countermeasures, advanced technologies, and national biodefense strategy.
Dr. Bumb currently serves as Vice Chair of the External Advisory Board for Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Microbial Threats, among other scientific and technology advisory roles.
Trapper Markelz
Chief Product Officer
Trapper Markelz is a startup veteran and product leader who has spent 25+ years building software from idea to production. He does his best work at the earliest stage, shipping a new product and working with customers until it finds product-market fit.
His career has centered on one problem: turning scattered data into information people act on. At 360voice, a company he co-founded, he built a service that used machine-generated narrative from raw data. As VP of Products at GamerDNA, he pulled player data from dozens of separate games into unified profiles and recommendations. At MeYou Health, where he served as Chief Product Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer, he built clinically validated digital health programs that got millions of people to form healthier daily habits. As Chief Operating Officer of Beamable, he ran a backend platform that game studios used to build and scale their live products. He also co-founded Modi Boxi, a Kickstarter-funded 3D printing product and community.
BioRadar brings those threads together. Trapper leads product and the platform that aggregates wastewater metagenomics, syndromic surveillance, behavioral, and open-source data, turning it into AI-driven briefings for public health agencies.
Trapper completed the General Management Program (GMP 18) at Harvard Business School and holds a degree in Information Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also a published poet, with work in more than 30 magazines and two collections, and serves on the advisory board of the New England Poetry Club.
His career has centered on one problem: turning scattered data into information people act on. At 360voice, a company he co-founded, he built a service that used machine-generated narrative from raw data. As VP of Products at GamerDNA, he pulled player data from dozens of separate games into unified profiles and recommendations. At MeYou Health, where he served as Chief Product Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer, he built clinically validated digital health programs that got millions of people to form healthier daily habits. As Chief Operating Officer of Beamable, he ran a backend platform that game studios used to build and scale their live products. He also co-founded Modi Boxi, a Kickstarter-funded 3D printing product and community.
BioRadar brings those threads together. Trapper leads product and the platform that aggregates wastewater metagenomics, syndromic surveillance, behavioral, and open-source data, turning it into AI-driven briefings for public health agencies.
Trapper completed the General Management Program (GMP 18) at Harvard Business School and holds a degree in Information Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also a published poet, with work in more than 30 magazines and two collections, and serves on the advisory board of the New England Poetry Club.