Our Team
Built by researchers, clinicians, engineers, and caregivers—united by one mission: supporting emotional wellness from the start.
Biobe was founded on the belief that families and providers deserve better tools to nurture children’s mental health. Our team brings together expertise from psychology, healthcare, data science, and design—with lived experience guiding every step. We’re deeply committed to making emotional wellness more accessible, equitable, and actionable for all.
Meet The Founding Team
Bryn Loftness
Co-Founder & CEO
Bryn is a researcher, speaker, and health technology innovator passionate about building practical tools that support emotional wellness in early childhood. With a background in data science and digital health, she leads Biobe’s strategy and product development to ensure the work stays grounded in science and built for real families.
Dr. Ryan McGinnis
Co-Founder and Lead Academic Translation Partner (Wearable and Digital Health Technology)
Ryan is a biomedical engineer specializing in wearable technology and digital health solutions. He leads Biobe’s technical development, focusing on how we can responsibly use data and design to create tools that support early emotional wellness in scalable and meaningful ways.
Dr. Ellen McGinnis
Co-Founder & Lead Academic Translation Partner (Child Psychology)
Ellen is a child clinical psychologist and researcher whose work focuses on identifying and supporting mental health concerns in young children. She helps guide the clinical vision of Biobe, ensuring all tools are developmentally appropriate, evidence-informed, and aligned with best practices in child mental health care.
Dr. Nick Cheney
Co-Founder and Data Systems Advisor
Nick is a machine learning expert and educator with a passion for applying intelligent systems to improve human wellbeing. At Biobe, he supports the design of adaptive technologies that are responsive to children’s needs and grounded in real-world data.
Together, our team brings expertise in:
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Wearable sensor development
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Pediatric psychology & mental health intervention
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Biomedical engineering
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Data processing and computational analysis
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Digital health innovation and commercialization
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Human-centered product design
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Business development and entrepreneurship
Passionate co-development network
We're proud to be contributing in the growing space of health technologies for children’s emotional wellness, and even prouder to be doing this work as a collaborative, passionate team.
 Through Drs. Ellen and Ryan McGinnis’ faculty roles at Wake Forest School of Medicine, we collaborate within a broader network of healthcare innovation and digital health research. Their leadership ensures our tools are developed with clinical integrity and designed to integrate seamlessly into existing healthcare ecosystems. |  Through Drs. Ryan and Ellen McGinnis’ leadership at the Center for Remote Health Monitoring at Wake Forest University, we are integrated into Advocate Health’s pediatric care network. This partnership enables us to directly collaborate with pediatricians and conduct in-clinic studies with families, ensuring our tools are developed and tested within real-world care ecosystems. |  As a Research Fellow (B. Loftness) and Faculty Member (Dr. Cheney) at the Vermont Complex Systems Institute (VTCSI), our team leverages this interdisciplinary research community to explore scalable, data-driven approaches to child mental health. The VTCSI provides ongoing collaboration, technical insight, and institutional support for Biobe’s development. |
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 We maintain an ongoing relationship with a core clinical partner at Essex Pediatrics, allowing us to gather valuable frontline feedback on our tools and ensure they align with the needs of practicing pediatricians and the families they serve. |  We collaborate with a clinical mental health counselor at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital who actively uses our tools in care settings and provides ongoing feedback. As a core co-development partner, their insights help ensure our work remains grounded in everyday clinical realities and responsive to the needs of both providers and families. |
Our Tools
Building an ecosystem to support early identification and emotional wellness. At Biobe, we’re developing tools that work together to support families, providers, and systems in promoting mental health from the start.
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Sprout is our emotional regulation toolkit—featuring 50+ evidence-informed strategies co-developed with child psychologists. Sprout helps parents, educators, and clinicians support children’s emotional wellbeing through simple, engaging activities.
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OAK (Objective Assessment for Kids) is our upcoming brief, biobehavioral screening tool that combines parent input with movement, physiology, and speech data to support earlier, more accurate identification of emotional concerns. More details coming soon.