This is the story of an athlete, a dual PhD holder, a tech entrepreneur and innovator.

Meet Ashleigh Kennedy. This is #HERstory.

Ashleigh is the CEO and co-founder of Neurovine, a digital health company combining wearable technology and AI to transform the brain recovery journey. She holds a PhD in Human Kinetics from the University of Ottawa and PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Nantes in France. Outside of work, she is a runner (she continues to hold the 400m sprint record for indoor track and field at Stanford University), a yogi, and the mom of three little world-changers.

She is raising $1000 for Dress for Success Ottawa to empower women and create open conversations about women in leadership.

“The more we discuss the struggles and wins as women in leadership, the more progress we make in setting new expectations from employers and our families.”

What if there were a better way for people to recover from concussions? That’s the problem Ashleigh Kennedy set out to solve, armed with a background in neurophysiological science, entrepreneurship, and athletics. The technology her company developed helps patients recovering from brain injury navigate rehabilitation, connect with clinicians, and develop actionable care plans. Her innovative work will benefit professional and elite athletes and individuals in the military.

After founding Neurovine in 2019, Ashleigh and her team faced a steep learning curve. As a data science company, Neurovine needed to partner with a hardware company to drive their platform, but couldn’t find an option that provided a sufficient signal. Instead, Neurovine decided to build their own hardware. It was an expensive process, but they overcame the hurdle together and created a high quality device that’s changing the recovery journey for their patients.

That kind of focus on doing things the right way instead of the easy way has also driven Ashleigh’s leadership style. Critics have told Ashleigh she needs to take a more authoritative position when dealing with employees, but she disagrees.

“This is not my leadership style and so I have not changed the way I lead our team. I believe this has been a barrier to raising capital but it has made our team incredibly productive and kept our employee retention rate at 100% through the pandemic.”

The pandemic opened up a real opportunity for Neurovine to support concussion patients virtually. As a remote monitoring company, the pandemic gave patients and doctors more comfort connecting virtually. It’s also given Ashleigh the space to push other women forward as an ally and a mentor. Seeing other strong women excel is important, especially those within her company.

“The proudest moment in my career was listening to one of my junior employees pitching our vision to a potential partner. It was awesome to see her ability to communicate the potential of our platform and to see her growth and confidence while doing so.”

As part of her commitment to empowering others, Ashleigh has set a fundraising goal of $1000 supporting clients accessing professional development programs, services and tools through Dress for Success Ottawa. Support her by donating $25 today.