Talent War to Talent Creation: Why Solving Healthcare’s Labor Shortage Requires a New Playbook

Karen Alpuche is a Venture Partner at Humanist, where she supports founders building AI-native companies that expand access to economic opportunity and more purposeful work.

She is graduating from Harvard Business School in May, where she was active in the Future of Work Club, the Harvard Project on Workforce, and the AI Club.

Most recently, Karen co-founded Evea Cycle, a women’s health platform using wearable and hormonal data to deliver personalized, evidence-based insights. Through this experience, she developed a strong interest in how data and behavior change systems can better support individuals in navigating their health and lives.

Previously, Karen was at Guild, where she worked across solution consulting and enterprise sales during a period of rapid growth, helping drive over $100M in enterprise partnerships and expand access to education and career mobility for hundreds of thousands of workers. She began her career at Accenture Strategy.

Her work is grounded in a long-standing focus on economic mobility and building systems that better recognize and unlock human potential.

Charles has spent his career founding edtech companies — five of them across K-12 and higher education — all in pursuit of the same idea: that technology and data can dramatically expand access to learning experiences that change lives.

Most notably, he founded Civitas Learning, where he pioneered the use of data and predictive analytics in higher education — helping hundreds of universities unlock student potential and support millions of learners in persisting and graduating.

After Civitas, Charles and his wife took their sons Charlie and William world schooling across dozens of countries. It was the emergence of AI as a once-in-a-generation tool for the problems he's spent his career working on that brought them home.

Protagonist is the result — an AI-native guidance platform that helps colleges and universities deliver personalized student support at scale, from the moment a student is considering enrollment through career launch. Where earlier generations of edtech helped institutions understand their students, Protagonist acts — deploying intelligent agents that work alongside educators, anticipate student needs, guide critical decisions, and build a picture of each learner that gets richer and smarter over time.

Charles studied Political Science at Stanford, where a passion for education first took hold teaching high school kids on nights and weekends. His family is back in the Bay Area, though Charlie and William would still rather be in Japan.

CEO at Manifest, a platform providing just-in-time business intelligence, industry specific embedded education, and personalized coaching for the small business owner. Manifest is the first Humanist portfolio company. 

I am a founder and entrepreneur who has spent over two decades in the world of higher ed, specifically focused on improving college graduation outcomes with non-traditional learners. During that time, I built and led teams at companies including InsideTrack, Altius Education, and Helix Education. I then co-founded and served as CEO at ReUp Education (an Entangled company), which focused on improving success rates for college students who have dropped out. I built and scaled ReUp over the course of six years to a successful exit. 

I believe that small business is the heartbeat of our communities. In my city of Toledo, Ohio, I’ve seen small business owners entirely revitalize a community left decimated by the automotive industry. But these business owners don’t get the time, attention, and investment from the technology and education industries they need to help them succeed in the long term – despite there being an almost-universal appetite for it, across verticals. I am here to serve them. 

I love learning through service to my community, and especially at my childrens’ school - enriching my community with resources and connectedness provides context and inspiration for Manifest.

I am a COO and Venture Partner at Humanist Venture Studio, where I focus on building AI companies that create economic opportunity and purposeful work.

My career has been driven by a passion for improving access to opportunity. Most recently at Guild, I played a key role in building solutions that expanded equitable access to education for millions of working adults. Over six years of hyper growth, I served in various leadership positions across the commercial, product, and operations teams, contributing to Guild’s evolution from a Series A company to a $4.4 Billion value at Series F. Prior to Guild, I honed my expertise in finance, strategy, and global business operations at General Electric, helping to bring life-changing technologies to communities around the world. 

As an interdisciplinary leader, I believe even our most complex societal problems can be solved with the right combination of technology, people, and funding. Generative AI is poised to play a transformative role in addressing these challenges, but its impact will only be revolutionary if we ensure people from all backgrounds have the skills and access to leverage it fully.

I live in rugged Western Colorado with my husband and dog, where I spend my free time climbing up or skiing down any mountain I can find.

Co-Founder and General Partner at Humanist, where I specialize in new product innovation and management. 

I am a serial entrepreneur in the human potential space, steering numerous ventures including Academic Engine, Hobsons, Altius Education, Practice, and Ivy Bridge College. I am most proud of co-founding Entangled, the first ed tech venture studio. Entangled managed 21 portfolio companies, including Yellowbrick, Course Hero, RaiseMe, ReUp Education and Pathstream. Entangled was acquired by Guild, the market-leader in the human potential space, in 2020. I then stayed on at Guild as President, Learning Marketplaces. 

We are witnessing the next great technological solution – and is changing the nature of humans, work, and life. There’s an opportunity for this innovation to go incredibly right – or for it to leave many individuals and communities behind. We are founding Humanist to make sure that AI works for everyone. 

I earned a BA in public policy from the University of Chicago, where I picked up a passion for empowering people. I became an entrepreneur to do that work through the private sector, where change is faster, more iterative, and often more human-centered. I am also the founder and CEO of the Oakland Ballers, an independent baseball team competing in the Pioneer League, and based in Oakland, CA.

I am Founder & CEO of Humanist Venture Studio, where I focus on partnering with exceptional founders and building category-defining companies. 

In our first venture studio, Entangled, we launched six edtech companies that either steered to positive growth or successful exits. When Entangled was acquired by Guild in 2020, I served on the leadership team at Guild through a four year period of hyper growth and a Series F fundraise and $4.4 billion valuation. My expertise is creating category-defining brands and building go to market teams. 

With roots in the liberal arts, I believe every person has an innate hunger for purposeful work. Thanks to generative AI, we have a powerful new toolset for more people to find both economic stability and purpose, especially those who have historically been left behind. We founded Humanist to attract the best entrepreneurs to this vision -- and to stack the odds in their favor -- so we can build solutions that enable more people to thrive in the age of AI.

I am a mom of three little kids and live in the beautiful Presidio of San Francisco where I spend my free time learning new sports out on the ocean.

I regularly share what I am learning in my column on Forbes.