Jim O’Connor currently servers as Axena Health’s Interim Chief Executive Officer. Jim also serves as Axena Health’s General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer and leads the company’s Legal, Compliance, Finance and Business Development functions.  Jim brings over 20 years of experience advising private and public companies in a wide variety of legal, compliance, and business roles.

    Prior to Axena Health, Jim worked for over four years at Renovia Inc., the medical device company who developed and first commercialized the Leva® Pelvic Health System.  Prior to that, he spent 12 years at United Technologies Corp. (UTC), a Fortune 100 company, where he served in roles ranging from Deputy General Counsel to Chief of Staff to the CEO of UTC Climate, Controls & Security.  Jim also served as Senior Counsel at Noble Environmental Power, a renewable energy developer, where his work focused on project finance, regulatory, and employment law matters.   

Jim started his legal career as an associate at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, where his practice focused on securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing transactions for private and publicly traded technology companies.  Jim holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. in Economics from Boston College.

Dr. Pulliam joined Axena Health in 2023 bringing with her a breadth of experience in Women’s health, including a successful academic and clinical career. Dr. Pulliam joined Axena because of her passion for helping to treat the 20 million women, in the U.S. alone, experiencing urinary incontinence, using technology with proven effectiveness. Dr. Pulliam oversees Axena Health’s clinical research program.

Dr. Pulliam was previously the Chief Medical Officer at Renovia, Inc., where she directed clinical research, including the successful completion of an all-remote clinical trial using Leva during the global pandemic. She was the Division Director for Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) at UNC-Chapel Hill and Associate Director FPMRS at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and she was past Council Chair for the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) and remains active in the AUGS grants program.

Dr. Pulliam received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Duke University and her Medical Degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She completed residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Fellowship training at Mount Auburn Hospital in Boston. She is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and FPMRS.

Dr. Pulliam’s favorite quote is: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot.

Dr. McKinney joined Axena Health in 2023, bringing over 20 years of career experience as a women’s health care clinician,  educator and advocate across high- and low-resource settings.  With a deep commitment to health equity and career-long dedication to capacity-building in healthcare, Dr. McKinney joined Axena Health to pursue global access to care for women with incontinence through technology and clinical evidence.

Prior to Axena Health, Dr. McKinney served as a VP, Medical Affairs and Clinical Advocacy at Renovia, Inc. the medical device company who developed and first commercialized the Leva® Pelvic Health System, and she was co-founder of Marathon Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine (Eastern Massachusetts) and Director of Marathon’s Center for Pelvic and Women’s Health. Her career has included over 10 years as faculty in the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS; Urogynecology) fellowship program at Mount Auburn Hospital (Cambridge, MA) and mentorship of physical therapy students and early-career professionals. Dr. McKinney also provides programmatic and research support in global health and development and has contributed to multiple peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and academic videos in the areas of pelvic pain, global and domestic maternal and female pelvic health, fistula, and surgical ergonomics and is a regular educator and speaker on these subjects.

Dr. McKinney’s favorite quote is: “When many little people in many little places do many little things, then the whole world changes, but sometimes not fast enough for me” from the song “Gloria” by Michael Franti.

As Vice President of Patient Services & Commercial Operations, Annette Brewster leads Axena Health’s Leva Women’s Center to translate their mission into a personalized and caring experience for all women seeking to improve her pelvic health.  

Annette’s extensive professional background includes leadership roles in sales, marketing, and service at rapidly growing medical device and healthcare software companies. Her career has centered around her passion for helping people live better lives, with much of her experience in women’s health. As Vice President of Global Marketing for the Diagnostics Division at Hologic Inc., Annette focused on the commercial expansion of cervical cancer screening and prenatal care solutions.

Annette’s more recent experience includes successfully scaling up the Customer Care operations for sales, insurance billing and technical support at Insulet Corporation, a leading diabetes insulin pump company, and establishing a Patient Care Center for urinary incontinence digital therapy at Renovia Inc. the medical device company who developed and first commercialized the Leva® Pelvic Health System.  

Annette is a graduate of University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing.

Annette’s favorite quote is: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Julia Stark brings 20 years of product development, quality, operations and manufacturing experience in the medical device industry to Axena Health serving as their Vice President, Product & Strategic Operations. Julia began her career as an Emergency Medical Technician where she developed a passion for patient care. She brought this passion to Zoll Medical where she served as New Products Operations Manager leading cross-functional teams to introduce new technologies to market. Julia then joined Philips where she held progressively more responsible roles; initially as a Project Manager, leading a team focused on operations and customer service in the CT and MRI business, next as a Senior Manager responsible for supplier quality engineering and supplier management processes for over 400 suppliers and $450M in spend, and then as Director of Procurement where she was responsible for a $300M business focused on Patient Monitoring, Newborn Solutions, and Medical Consumables. Julia has spent the last several years in women’s health leading hardware and software development as well as operations and supply chain, most recently at Renovia Inc. the medical device company who developed and first commercialized the Leva® Pelvic Health System.

Julia is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and holds both an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT’s School of Engineering and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.  

Julia is an amateur wood worker, novice mountain biker, and an aspiring pro pond hockey player. What she lacks in skills she makes up for with enthusiasm and tenacity.

Julia’s favorite quote is: “A bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.” – Helen Keller

Alexandra Johnson brings with her 10 years of commercial and marketing experience in women’s health ranging from diagnostic lab sales to medical device sales with a passion for product launches that impact women’s lives in a meaningful way. As the National Sales Director at Axena Health, Alexandra is responsible for leading the commercial organization on its mission to standardize the Leva® Pelvic Health System as the first line treatment for women diagnosed with urinary and/or chronic fecal incontinence. Alexandra is passionate about building and scaling high performing commercial teams, while helping her team members realize their full potential. She has held a variety of commercial positions ranging from launching co-promotions with partner commercial organizations, management of strategic national partnerships responsible for high adoption of new technologies, to leading patient facing internal teams responsible for delivering patient care. She is a perpetual trainer and mentor of aspiring sales professionals and is fiercely dedicated to bettering patient outcomes and giving a voice to underserved communities. Prior to Axena Health, Alexandra was the Director of Sales for the East region at Renovia Inc. the medical device company who developed and first commercialized the Leva® Pelvic Health System.  

Alexandra is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.   

Alexandra is an avid scuba diver and appreciates the environmentalist community she has built through exploration of reefs around the world. She is passionate about experiencing other cultures through food and especially enjoys the dynamic conversation it inspires.  

Alexandra’s favorite quote is “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”— Ruth Bader Ginsburg.