Resume

Why I Joined

Most healthcare organizations want to provide better care, but always hit a ceiling: what will insurance pay for? Atria's membership model removed that constraint. Atria is the leading longevity medicine practice in the United States, and joining meant asking: if cost wasn't the limiting factor, what would primary care actually look like? I was also drawn to the physical infrastructure. You can do a lot digitally, but there's real value in having whole-body MRI, CT, DEXA, on-site labs, and a dedicated movement studio all under one roof.

What I Learned

• On AI adoption in healthcare: Many doctors are still learning to use the EHR, which is deterministic software. Asking them to trust nondeterministic AI is a bigger leap. Physicians are personally liable for patient outcomes, so any tool they depend on has to re-earn their trust with every use. That's a very high bar.
• On leading teams: Leadership is a continuous process of rebuilding clarity. I use that phrase in contrast to something like "creating order from chaos." I don't think you can reduce the complexity. Priorities shift, stakeholders change, context evolves. Your job is to rebuild clarity so your team understands the shape of the problem and can make decisions intentionally.
• On the opportunity cost of not using AI: In risk-averse environments like healthcare, people are comfortable discussing the risks of AI: hallucinations, errors, liability. That concern is well-founded. What I see less often is discussion of the opportunity cost of not implementing these systems. That cost is high and undervalued in most organizations.
• On attention to detail: Atria had a value: "The little things are the big things." Small touches and attention to detail have a tremendous impact on the overall patient experience. Atria gave every employee a copy of *Unreasonable Hospitality* by Will Guidara, which really shaped how I think about building products, particularly in an environment like Atria's.

Memorable Moment

I helped open Atria's second clinic in Palm Beach. I spent two weeks on site while construction was still happening, helping get patient rooms ready and training staff on our technology platforms. Being that hands-on reminded me why I got into healthcare in the first place. I was helping to build something that would actually improve patients' lives.

Why I Joined

After Flatiron, where I spent two years modernizing legacy systems, I wanted to build something from scratch. I turned down offers from more established companies to join a small, passionate team with a founder who had a compelling vision. When I joined, Salvo was just an idea in the whiteboarding stage. The only code that existed was a single-page landing site.

What I Learned

• On validating with customers: The team had a clear point of view on the product and care model, but it hadn't been validated with customers. We built a lot that we ended up having to throw away because customers wanted something different. Our MVP was not a true minimum viable product. This really taught me that you have to put something in front of customers and get actual feedback rather than building purely on intuition.
• On the joy of building: Building from scratch was extremely fulfilling. I felt more accountable for my work and for the platform because I had been part of it since the beginning. I learned how enjoyable the process of taking an idea from inception to reality can be. It's part of what I appreciate about AI now: it has shortened that idea-to-reality loop significantly for someone like me.
• On manual before automated: Before we built any technology to orchestrate care, I put together a spreadsheet to manage care delivery. It never would have scaled, but it let us start providing care immediately. That experience taught me to run manually for as long as possible until you're confident what you have works. It's better to launch a manual version quickly than to build technology for scale that may never come.

Memorable Moment

We received testimonials from multiple patients sharing how we had positively impacted their lives and their GI conditions, some of which were quite debilitating. We delivered a holistic model of care focused on lifestyle changes, not just prescriptions. Being part of that, and hearing directly from patients, was very rewarding.

Why I Joined

The projects I worked on at 23andMe suffered from a lack of access to clinical data. Flatiron had that data and was actively using it to recruit oncology patients for clinical trials, which is exactly what I had been trying to do at 23andMe. I also wanted to go deep on technology. My science background helped me engage with academics and scientists, but building fluency with engineering would be necessary to lead product and engineering teams. Flatiron and this cloud migration project were both chances to dive into the deep end.

What I Learned

• On system architecture: I learned how much I enjoy understanding the low-level details of systems and how they work. I didn't know I enjoyed this before. This role gave me the opportunity to explore it. I ended up getting the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certification, which is unusual for a PM but helped me build real credibility with the engineers I worked with.
• On building credibility with engineers: To build credibility with engineers and hold them accountable, you need deep familiarity with the systems they're building. If you don't understand how what your team is working on actually works, you can't ask critical questions, raise objections, or question scope. You can't be an effective product leader if you can't talk the talk. The minute engineers recognize that you understand what you're talking about, they respect you more and are willing to actually collaborate. I'm still good friends with many of the engineers I worked with at Flatiron.
• On knowing when to leave: After a series of reorgs, I ended up reporting to someone who asked me, "What does observability mean?" It wasn't his fault, but I knew then that it was time to move on. If your leadership doesn't understand the fundamentals of what you're working on, it's hard to get alignment or support.

Memorable Moment

We completed the cloud migration for Flatiron's largest customer on a night during COVID with about 50 of us on a Zoom call. Months of planning, meetings, and testing had led to this moment. We worked through the night so doctors would experience no downtime and patients could receive care the next day. It felt like an incredible achievement, and the project was critical to retaining that customer.

Why I Joined

I learned about 23andMe when I was in undergrad, and it was my dream company. I was passionate about the mission: giving people access to this innate part of themselves that impacts so much of their life, but that they had no knowledge of without this technology. Genetics weren't really part of the healthcare system at that point, and 23andMe was pushing that forward. I applied and got rejected multiple times before eventually getting hired. I was also drawn to 23andMe from Fred Hutch because I wanted to move faster and do more innovative things than the NIH and federal government research process would allow. 23andMe had already gone toe-to-toe with the FDA. Having been frustrated by federal bureaucracy, I was excited about that.

What I Learned

• On consumer experiences and research: 23andMe built a compelling consumer experience that encouraged 80% of users to contribute their data to research. This unlocked tremendous discoveries. I think it showed that people are inherently altruistic. They just need compelling avenues to contribute, and 23andMe offered that.
• On participant consent: 23andMe had a robust consent process: progressive disclosure of information, multimodal explanations. They did consent in a way that was impressive and admirable. Many companies building in healthcare today could learn from their approach.
• On the need to keep innovating: After I left, 23andMe went years without launching a new product. They could have been the primary leader in digital health, starting from your genes. But they took too long to innovate. They eventually tried direct-to-consumer medications and lab testing, but by then they had already lost market share to competitors who moved faster.

Memorable Moment

When I flew from Fred Hutch in Seattle to Mountain View for my interview, I went from an academic research center to 23andMe's office, where they had a bowl of fidget spinners with the 23andMe logo in the lobby. I remember thinking, wow, this is Silicon Valley. On that same visit, someone attended a meeting via a robot with a screen and camera on it. Looking back, that seems completely unnecessary, but it sure was cool.