I didn't take the expected path. That turned out to be the point.
After a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Minnesota and a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH, studying how diet and genetics shape aging and healthspan, I walked away from academic science. Not because the work wasn't important. Because the institution moved too slowly, and I couldn't stop thinking about building things.
I brought the same rigor I'd used to design experiments to building companies: test assumptions fast, kill what doesn't work, double down on what does. The scientific method and the startup method are the same method. Most founders just don't know they're using it.
From science translation to outdoor tech to medical aesthetics.
Science communications wasn't an established field when I entered it. I joined Spectrum Science in DC to help build it, then founded Decode Communications to run my own practice. What I learned across both: the gap between knowledge and action is almost never about information. It's about framing, trust, and timing.
Then came Sēkr, an outdoor travel platform I co-founded and built as COO. We raised $3.3M at a $20M+ valuation, built a team, and learned more about product-market fit, co-founder dynamics, and the reality of venture funding than any business school case study could capture. Alongside that, I co-founded Project Respect Outdoors, a community for women in the outdoor space.
After Sēkr, I founded SOM Aesthetics, a concierge dermatology and medical spa in Encinitas, CA. I still design clinical studies and run the business. Different industry, same instinct: figure out what's actually true about your customer, then move faster than anyone expects.
The van. The land. The through-line.
From 2017 to 2022, I lived and worked nomadically in a self-converted Sprinter van, building companies from national forests, desert highways, and coastal campsites. Documented the whole thing under @van.there on Instagram. The conversation was never really about the van. It was about how intentionally you design your life. About proving that freedom and productivity aren't opposites. That you don't have to sacrifice one life to build another.
In 2022, I bought 10 acres in Temecula wine country, currently off-grid, with plans to build eventually. Now based in Encinitas, where SOM Aesthetics also lives. The van is parked. The idea behind it isn't: you get to decide what your life looks like. Most people never stop to question whether the default version is the one they actually want. That question is what every company I've built has been trying to answer, in one form or another.
