Success clusters: Innovation leaders shine among Lumi Award honorees at Digital Health Day

Clusters drive talent, noted Maria Meyers from the Lumi Awards stage Thursday, detailing the growing list of sectors developing in Kansas City — from digital health and biotech to critical materials — and the impact of embracing them as a region.

“It will drive research dollars. It will drive investment,” continued Meyers, winner of the Lumi Award for Impact and Influence at Digital Health Day, as well as vice chancellor of commercialization and entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “It will bring companies to your community because they know that’s the place to solve the problem in their industry.”

A crowd of Digital Health Day attendees applauds during the Lumi Award presentations at The Abbott in Kansas City’s East Crossroads neighborhood; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

The strength of Kansas City’s digital health cluster in particular was on display this week in the East Crossroads as 950 founders, investors, and partners from across 13 states gathered for the event, which included three days of panels, showcases, and networking sessions.

“We’ve got investors from 20 different firms in the room and we have leaders from 10 different innovation ecosystems,” said Elizabeth Shaffer, program director for Digital Health KC. “We believe that the incredible healthcare innovation happening in the Midwest is important; that we don’t do it in isolation, but that these ecosystems unite and we come together.”

“Because healthcare is too big and too complex,” she continued. “Not one person, not one organization, not one region is going to fix it or change it. We’re going to work together, and we’re really good at that in the Midwest. Kansas City is a very collaborative region. It’s one of our strengths, so the reach is further.”

Meyers — during her remarks for the Lumi Awards, spotlighting leaders in research, entrepreneurship, and investment in the digital health industry — reflected on the power of regional collaboration.

“When we can get the treetops to talk to the grassroots, it’s such a wonderful ability to connect people on the streets with people who have specific organizations or corporations here,” she explained. “It’s phenomenal.”

Recent headlines also have showcased the potential impact of such teamwork, with the region earning massive federal grants to boost biomanufacturing and critical materials hubs and infrastructures.

Brandy Thompson, co-founder and CEO of benefitbay, center, accepts the Lumi Award for Company Growth from Elizabeth Shaffer, program director for Digital Health KC, and Dick Flanigan, president of Digital Health KC, during 2026 Digital Health Day festivities; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Brandy Thompson, co-founder and CEO of benefitbay, received the Lumi Award for Company Growth. She noted Kansas City provides the supportive ecosystem of connections and mentors that she needed to build a company that was just named Ingram’s fastest growing in the city.

“If you’re starting a company from scratch, you absolutely need to network,” Thompson said. “You need to be considering what your network looks like and get involved in the ecosystems because they are going to help you be successful.”

Before handing out the Lumi Awards, Dick Flanigan, president of Digital Health KC, also gave an update on the digital health ecosystem nationally and regionally, noting the broader sector remains healthy.

“But we do see this bundling at the top, these mega deals at the top,” he explained. “We also see many of the deals actually continue to be focused on AI and AI enablement. So AI is in the room. It’s in the companies. It’s in the approach that we’re going to have to solve healthcare space challenges.”

Regionally, he continued, momentum is strong.

“Our companies are having success in the capital markets,” he added. “They’re raising money. They’re finding new clients, and most importantly, we’re continuing to see the ecosystem build new companies along the way.”

2026 Lumi Award honorees included:

Impact and Influence Award: Maria Meyers, UMKC Innovation Center

Maria Meyers, the retiring UMKC Innovation Center director and the founder of KCSourceLink, received the Impact and Influence Award, which acknowledges an individual or organization who has built a successful company and demonstrated a commitment to community impact, mentorship, and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Meyers’ career reflects an extraordinary blend of technical vision and civic leadership, Flanigan said, and her community leadership impact spans more than 30 years in the Kansas City region.

“Nowhere is this commitment to our community more impactful and more clear than in Maria’s founding of SourceLink,” he explained. “Maria had this idea to link together on — if you will — the information rail the resources that founders and early companies need to be successful as they found and grow their company. And SourceLink today is in over 100 different markets across the United States. That is an incredible accomplishment of KC Innovation, coming with Maria’s leadership and a wonderful team that’s been able to drive that across the country.”

“At UMKC, Maria continues to push boundaries,” he added, “driving university innovation, supporting tech transfer, and ensuring innovators find the capital, get the mentorship, and build the industry partnerships that are so critical to growing an organization.”

RELATED: Maria Meyers is passing the blueprint to KC’s ecosystem; it doesn’t come with a magic wand

The team at the Innovation Center supported more than 6,300 entrepreneurs, Meyers noted.

“I’m proud to look back and see where we were, such a fragmented group of organizations in the past, and today we work more like a system,” she explained. “I’m proud of the growth of the community. I’m proud of the growth of the entrepreneurs, and I’m proud of the growth of the teams that I’ve helped grow here in the region.”

“I really do want people to say Kansas City is the most entrepreneurial city,” she added.

Company Growth Award: Brandy Thompson, benefitbay

Brandy Thompson — co-founder and CEO of benefitbay, a leading Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) partner serving the nation’s top brokerages, employers, and their employees — received the Company Growth Award, which recognizes a company whose growth is measurable in revenue, hiring, client acquisition, and investment.

benefitbay was recently recognized as Ingram’s fastest growing company in KC with nearly 900 percent revenue growth over the last three years, closed a Series A $18 million funding round, and has grown to serve over 41,000 clients.

“Building the company in Kansas City has allowed us to have a more cost-efficient built client account,” she noted. “In addition, we’ve really been thoughtful about how we build our software. That’s allowed us to unlock a tech and service model that is cost effective.”

“We are at that hockey stick curve or that rocket ship,” she added, “and we are going to continue to grow and evolve beyond just the medical benefit plan.”

RELATED: KC-built startup brokers $18M funding round as benefitbay pushes market trends to the norm

Corporate Visionary Award: Scott Burgett, Garmin Health

Scott Burgett, senior director of engineering for Garmin Health, received the Corporate Visionary Award, which celebrates a leader whose foresight and strategy help shape where digital health is headed.

Olathe-based Garmin — a $7 billion global company that shipped out 20 million products last year — and Burgett aren’t just investing in their own success, Shaffer noted, they are partnering up with the community, the ecosystem, and digital health companies.

“We have survived for so long because we’re very diverse, always looking for the next opportunity,” Burgett said. “What’s an adjacent market that we can get into with our technology? And we’re very intentional about innovation. We invest a lot in innovation. We’re disciplined about it, and a lot of them have turned out to be super valuable.”

From the archives: Garmin survived the smartphone revolution; now it wears digital health innovation on its wrist

Digital Pioneer Award: Mark Hoffman, Children’s Mercy Research Institute

Mark Hoffman, chief research information officer for the Children’s Mercy Research Institute, received the Digital Pioneer Award, which recognizes a leader whose work moves the digital health ecosystem forward.

Hoffman — the former vice president of genomics research at Cerner, and has been awarded 25 patents — leads advanced computational biology, high-performance computing, and data science teams that directly impact discovery and patient care at Children’s Mercy.

“When I hear the word pioneer. I think of people who charge new territory, but also prepare for more people to follow them,” he said. “I try to be intentional about focusing on technologies that are likely to matter. A digital pioneer is somebody who can play things down the road and envision the likely impact of a new technology.”

Check out a photo gallery below from Digital Health Day, including Thursday’s startup showcase featuring Pineapple Academy, Goldfinch Health, ModRN, Spark Change, Archia, and Healium with Mosaic Medical Center-Maryville.