I am the Director of a new Biodesign Program at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Hospital. In this role, I teach innovation and design methods to clinicians and co-create novel medical products in collaboration with doctors and nurses at CNH with the intent to commercialize the inventions. I also lecture at The University of Maryland’s Bioengineering Dept. and mentor promising senior capstone project groups. Prior to working at CNH full-time, I designed and co-taught original curricula with Stanford Children's Hospital physicians focused on healthcare design (products/services) at The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University. I was also fortunate to work as a product designer for The Safety Learning Lab for Neonatal and Maternal Care at Stanford Medicine for several years. As the founder of Maternal Life, LLC, I've co-invented and developed products that improve healthcare outcomes for women and children. My first product Primo-Lacto: A closed system for colostrum collection, was acquired by Lansinoh in 2018. I am currently working on a product called "NOOMA" with colleagues from Stanford Medicine to help facilitate delayed cord clamping for the preterm infant population, and "Kangarobe," a patent-pending garment that makes skin-to-skin care in the neonatal ICU safer and easier. Kangarobe is a collaboration with Gold Health, LLC.
1994
Alexander Graham Bell Award for Design & Invention
presented by the RISD ID Dept.
2007
Outstanding Packaging Design Award for Costco Private Label Spice Program presented by Graphic Design USA
2011
Carmen Christensen Fellowship in Fine Arts by the Stanford Institute for Creativity & the Arts (SiCA) Full Scholarship to pursue my MFA in The Graduate Program in Design at Stanford.
2011
SiCa Grant (Stanford Institute for Creativity & the Arts)
Independent project to explore data visualization
2014
New England Pediatric Device Consortium Pre-Seed Grant
Selected for a "Pre-Seed Grant Award" and up to 40 hours of direct NEPDC support for the development of “Primo-Lacto: A Closed System for Colostrum Collection”.
2015
New England Pediatric Device Consortium Full-Seed Grant "Full-Seed grant Award" to support pilot studies for Primo-Lacto in hospitals.
2016
National Capital Consortium For Pediatric Surgical Innovation (NCC-PDI Award)
Children's National Health Systems & The University Of Maryland
Maternal Life won a $50,000 grant supported by Award Number P50FD004895 from the Food and Drug Administration.
2016
Stanford Med X Medical Product Design Award