Petra Stegmann is the VP of Educational Programs at Connect, a non-profit founded 40 years ago which serves as a trusted partner to San Diego’s innovation community. She is actively engaged in the San Diego innovation ecosystem and has over a decade of experience in business creation and development, working with founders and entrepreneurs to accelerate and scale life science and tech startups and help them raise capital. Prior to joining Connect, she was a scientist and research faculty in academia where she worked at the interface of discovery and entrepreneurism, held various leadership positions, as well as serving in the role of principal investigator on numerous multi-stakeholder programs.

Petra holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from UC Irvine and Master of Science and PhD degrees in biology from the University of Kiel.