Alyssa serves as the Executive Director of Empower Aesthetics, a portfolio company of Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners, for which she served as an independent director at the platform’s inception as CEO from December 2023 through April 2026. Alyssa also currently serves as an independent director for Together Women’s Health, another Shore Capital Partners portfolio company in the women’s health space. Previously Alyssa served as an independent director for healthcare technology firm Health Data Movers, prior to the company’s acquisition by Citius Technologies. On all of her private company boards, Alyssa actively engages with fellow board directors and management teams on best in class execution, mergers and acquisitions and new platform strategies. Previously, she served as the CEO and a Director of Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ: HWEL), having managed the IPO, M&A, and all requisite financial reporting processes to the SEC throughout the SPAC’s lifecycle.  Finally, Alyssa is an elected member of Illinois’ District 36 School Board, where she has been twice elected by her peers as the board’s vice president.

Alyssa began her career as a Dot.com CEO in Silicon Valley, the founder and CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., an ecommerce platform (“Netflix for Wine”), that grew into a leading interactive media company in the alcohol beverage category. Thereafter, from 2015-2018, Alyssa served as the Managing Partner of AJR Ventures, a strategic advisory firm for family offices and private equity firms on market development and e-commerce strategies for select portfolio companies. Simultaneously, Alyssa served as a lecturer-in-management at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, previously teaching courses entitled the Global Dynamics of the Wine Industry and in the core curriculum, Managerial Skills, from 2014-2022. She  joined the faculty at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School in 2019 as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, teaching a course annually on Women as Investors, Directors, CEOs and Executives, and was asked the lead the Global New Venture Challenge for Booth for its global executive MBAs as of 2023.

 

From 2018-2021, Alyssa served as the Chief Executive Officer of Surgical Solutions, a B2B healthcare services business providing non-clinical surgical services to hospitals owned by Chicago based private equity firm, Sterling Partners. As CEO, Ms. Rapp led a successful turnaround of the enterprise, driving 21% sales growth with 90% customer retention, and successfully selling the company to a global strategic enterprise, Grupo Vitalmex. She served as CEO of the US subsidiary with the new parent.

 

From 2021-2023, Alyssa has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (“SPAC”), Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I, a $250MM SPAC (NASDAQ: HWEL) seeking to merge with a leading healthcare technology company. Alyssa has gained frontline experience as a public company CEO and director, leading the organization through the IPO and its robust merger and acquisition processes. Healthwell diligenced over 100 companies and submitted more than 14 LOIs over 24 months, while navigating a challenging bear market. Healthwell announced its merger with Starton Therapeutics in April 2023.

 

Alyssa earned a B.A. in Political Science and the History of Art from Yale University in 2000 and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2005. She is the author of Amazon Bestseller, Leadership and Life Hacks: Insights from a Mom, Wife, Entrepreneur & Executive (ForbesBooks, October 2019).

 

When not serving as a CEO, director, or lecturer-in-management, Alyssa loves to hike, ski, do yoga, read biographies, write and travel, and most important, continues to strive to decipher a curve ball from a slider from her MLB 1990 World Series Champion husband, Hal Morris, cheer on her tennis loving daughter, Audrey, her equestrian loving daughter, Henriette, or run their Bernedoodle, Yoda.