By background, I'm a microbiologist / biochemist by training, and while I spend my time in human reproduction now, I previously worked in mechanistic studies of bacterial virulence and antibiotic resistance.  

When I was at the bench, I could never fully get the big picture - How will my work be applied to eventually helping people? I asked professors, mentors, and was given plenty of statements to put on grants, but never any idea of our studies could improve outcomes of real people. 

So I started trying to help people by teaching, because it's easy to see the impacts in individuals when you're in the classroom every day. But ultimately I wanted to tackle something more fundamental. Something structural, that make some big changes in both health and society. My move into reproductive biology and contraception came as I was hired at Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI) in 2017 as the first full-time employee of the organization. 

In the intervening six years I have developed a research portfolio that covers over $12M across more than 60 grants, investments, and contracts all centered around the development of male contraceptives.  My portfolio strategy to help generate multiple novel contraceptives for men centers on de-risking individual assets, creating a pipeline of development, and incentivizing downstream investment. 

In addition to my work with MCI I am a founding employee of Contraceptive Accelerator Network and manage the direct translational development of male contraceptive assets.  

I think this work matters, and on top of that it tickles all the fun parts of my brain like strategic development, ideation, and critical analysis. Contraception for sperm-producers is an underappreciated approach that will reduce one of the globe's more pervasive public health crises - unintended pregnancy - and ultimately, that's how I see my work helping people.