Career

I have spent my career asking how an idea moves from a promising paper or product into a system people can actually use. That has meant working with researchers, families, clinicians, executives, advocates, legislators, and public agencies. The settings have changed; the questions about evidence, access, safety, and trust have stayed remarkably consistent.

Science, access, and communities

As a student, I interned with Epicyte Pharmaceuticals and Mapp Biopharmaceutical, early experiences with the long path from scientific research to care. In Oaxaca, Mexico, I worked on community organizing, health, and market-based clean-water initiatives, drawing on approaches such as the ceramic water-filter model advanced by Potters for Peace.

At Genetic Alliance, I worked on privacy and security, access to health information, newborn-screening blood-spot policy, and access to rare-disease treatments. I supported CEO Sharon Terry in her work on the federal Health IT Standards Committee and supported the organization’s participation in the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children. Families’ interests had to be heard when technical standards were being set.

Health information technology and federal advocacy

In Washington, DC, my work with Horizon Government Affairs, Health IT Now (later the Health Innovation Alliance), and the Council for Affordable Health Coverage brought together health policy and technology. During the HITECH-era electronic health record rollout, I focused on interoperability, health information exchange, access, and market-based solutions that could work for more than the best-resourced institutions. I also worked on privacy, medical innovation, and how regulators could approach new tools without foreclosing patient access.

Newborn screening: from recommendation to practice

I helped build the Newborn Coalition’s domestic campaign for screening newborns for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD). The work began with the national recommendation and continued through state legislation, implementation planning, and the practical work of bringing screening into hospitals. At the Newborn Foundation, I helped carry that work beyond the United States, including international screening efforts.

In 2013, I testified twice before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee about health technology, patient access, and the regulation of emerging tools. Those hearings reinforced the need for oversight that recognizes what a technology actually does and how people use it.

Patient safety and health technology

As president of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, I worked with hospital leaders and clinicians on commitments to change care practices and prevent avoidable harm. I also spoke publicly about the work. At Masimo, as vice president of global government relations, I worked across the boardroom and Capitol Hill on patient safety, health-technology policy, and opening markets for products that could improve care.

Children, families, and mental health

At ZERO TO THREE, I worked on policy for babies, toddlers, and their families: early childhood education, child care, infant and early childhood mental health, health care, child welfare, and paid family and medical leave. Paid leave sits at the intersection of family wellbeing, labor and workplace policy, economic security, and gender equality.

The pandemic made the stakes tangible. I worked on disrupted care and learning, access to support, and the mental-health needs of young children and caregivers—before, during, and after the acute COVID-19 emergency.

At the Perigee Fund, I worked through philanthropy to strengthen communities’ capacity to support maternal mental health and infant and early childhood mental health. The work connected policy, partnerships, and the people delivering support on the ground.

What I do now

I founded Pine Lake Policy Group to help organizations make decisions where evidence, policy, politics, and implementation meet. The work includes advocacy, research design, policy analysis, and thought leadership. A growing part of it is AI policy strategy for companies using AI in health, education, and human services. I help teams anticipate how public agencies, institutional buyers, advocates, professionals, and families will assess AI-enabled products in sensitive settings, then bring those perspectives into product, partnership, and market decisions.

I am also CEO of TrustedRide Certified LLC and fractional CFO of TRC Assist Inc., doing business as TrustedRiders. These are distinct roles in related efforts to make transportation and services more trustworthy. Pine Lake Potential, my tutoring practice, is another way I put my experience to work in my own community.