There is a reason Shamus Roeder switched his career path from being a doctor to an engineer.

“I had the realization that [being a doctor], I could only help the patient in front of me,” Roeder said. “With biomedical engineering, if you make a key innovation, it propagates and can help a lot of people.”

Roeder uses that analogy when it comes to giving back to the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC). As a mentor, he sees himself as having a “scalable impact,” and Iowa JPEC agrees.

Roeder (BS, human physiology, ’17, BSE, biomedical engineering, ’17, MS, biomedical engineering, ’19) has been named Iowa JPEC Mentor of the Year and will be recognized Oct. 11 at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Honors event.

“What I struggled with in the past is the fact I never received a formal business education outside of being in the (Iowa JPEC) accelerator program,” Roeder said. “I didn’t get my entrepreneurship certificate or a business degree. When I spoke business with people, I encountered resistance because I am ‘just an engineer.’ This award gives more confidence to the people I mentor that I know what I’m talking about.”

Roeder ‘does a little bit of everything’ as senior product manager and government affairs lead for Whiterabbit.ai. He has also done a little bit of everything for Iowa JPEC. It began as an undergraduate student when Roeder was walking down the sidewalk and saw a flyer promoting Startup Games.

“I decided to do it, and I failed miserably the first time,” he said. 

That summer, Roeder joined the Iowa JPEC accelerator as an engineer, where he observed other entrepreneurs, embraced the structure of the program, and resolved to build a startup of his own. 

The following fall, Roeder founded ABAL Therapeutics at Startup Games and went on to place third at the International BMC competition in 2017 in Mountain View, California. In the summer, Roeder again participated in the Iowa JPEC accelerator, this time as a founder, where ABAL Therapeutics won Best Startup for its cohort. In 2018, the venture was named the Student Startup of the Year by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Roeder was born in Iowa City, grew up in central Illinois, and returned to Iowa City before starting high school. He now resides in Washington, D.C. His involvement with Iowa JPEC has included roles as a program participant, class speaker, coach, judge, an entrepreneur for Venture School, and mentor, including one of 67 currently assisting with Venture Mentoring Service. 

“Shamus exemplifies a true mentor, someone always present, ready to guide, and uplift others,” said Jeralyn Westercamp, economic development manager for Iowa JPEC. “I am fortunate to work with him and many others in Iowa Venture Mentoring Service.” 

His message to University of Iowa students is clear: get involved with Iowa JPEC.

“If nothing else, having identified a problem and gone out of your way to build a sustainable venture to address it, that will distinguish you more than anything else you can put on your resume,” he said. “A lot of people get 4.0s (grade-point averages). Not everyone has built a business and had some real metric of success in that regard.”