Meet the Board

Dawn Lissy is a biomedical engineer, innovator, serial entrepreneur, and someone who pays it forward. First founding Empirical Technologies Corp. in 1998, then growing and leading until 2025 – with a successful exit. Empirical offers the full range of regulatory and quality systems consulting, testing, small batch and prototype manufacturing, and validations services to bring a medical device to market.

Because Lissy was a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, she has first-hand, in-depth knowledge of the regulatory landscape. Lissy holds an inventor patent for the Stackable Cage System for corpectomy and vertebrectomy. Her M.S. in biomedical engineering is from The University of Akron, Ohio. She is a member of the ODT Editorial Advisory Board and frequent speaker at industry events and trade shows. Lissy co-founded and manages Intuitive Biotechnologies, LLC a biologics testing and CRO group.

In paying it forward, Lissy founded NeuroAlly Family Fund to support families with neurodivergence get access to tools and services that are not covered by medical insurance.

Steve is a seasoned senior executive with 30+ years of global experience at the CEO, CMO, COO, SVP, and VP levels—in large and small for-profit companies, large and small nonprofits, startups, and everything in between. He brings a broad range of experience across all aspects of successfully running an organization, including corporate and product strategy, sales and marketing, finance, business process analysis, communications, operations, and technology implementation.

Steve founded Executive Advisory Partners in 2015 to help organizations fix root problems and grow. In 2019 he co-founded Cogitant Partners to help organizations better align business needs with technology enablement to improve performance while lowering costs. In 2024 he co-founded Cutwater Advisory Partners to help owners achieve optimal exit value when selling their business.

Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Administration, with a minor in Economics, from Bradley University and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from DePaul University.

Josh Gillon received his PhD from Princeton University in 2012.

Since then, he has dedicated his life to K-12 education as a college counselor, a math and economics teacher, the national director of an international education management company, and, most recently, as the chair of the mathematics department at the Colorado Springs School.

Nick Cosentino serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Northwestern Mutual Colorado Springs. In his role, Nick is responsible for the financial operations of Northwestern Mutual Colorado Springs.

Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, Nick worked as a management consultant supporting ConocoPhillips Alaska and worked for several years in Corporate Finance at Delta Air Lines headquarters.

Nick earned his MBA from the University of South Carolina. A finance graduate of Loyola University Maryland, Nick lives in Colorado Springs with his fiancé and three young children, and they enjoy playing tennis, golf, basketball and hiking in the woods.