What I'm working on now

These days I direct innovation partnerships at the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative at NC State. The short version: I help researchers turn lab work into real companies — connecting the people doing the science with the people who can fund it, build it, and get it out of the greenhouse and into the field.

I came to it the long way. I trained as a plant pathologist and wrote my Ph.D. on mummy berry disease in blueberries, then spent years in early R&D at Bayer and BASF before jumping to biotech startups. Sitting on both sides — the bench and the business — is what makes this work click for me. I know what a promising result looks like, and I know how easily one stalls on the way to becoming a product.

So that’s the job: finding the good science early and clearing the path in front of it. More on what that actually looks like soon.

(Placeholder draft in Kathleen’s voice — edit freely to make it yours.)