Speaking and Consulting
I bring more than two decades of healthcare access strategy, built while fighting for my own family inside those same systems. The result is a conversation that moves people and moves systems.
Education
MPH and Executive MBA, Rutgers. BS, Brown University.
Industry
More than two decades in commercialization and market access.
Companies
Merck, Johnson and Johnson, GSK, Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Market Access
U.S. lead for the first CRISPR based gene therapy approved for sickle cell disease.
Board Service
Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Brown University Sports Foundation.
Leadership
Employee resource group design and sponsorship inside global healthcare companies.
Speaking
Healthcare organizations and employers
You are working to close the gap between policy and people. I built access strategy on your side of it for more than twenty years, while fighting through it as a parent. I speak to what that gap costs the families living inside it, and what actually closes it.
Clinicians and care teams
You see these families every day. I was the parent across the desk, the one who understood exactly how the system worked and still could not make it work. I speak to what caregivers carry into your office and rarely say out loud.
Schools and educators
You are often the first to see it. I spent years in evaluations, IEP meetings, and placement disputes, learning what a parent hears in those rooms and what they are afraid to ask. I speak to what families need from you long before anything becomes a crisis.
Speaking Topics
Caregiver Support and System Navigation
Practical frameworks for supporting families navigating mental health systems, and for the employers, clinicians, and educators who want to meet them where they are.
Bridging Policy and Lived Experience
More than two decades of commercialization and market access strategy, while fighting those same systems from the other side. What patient-centric design actually requires, from someone who has sat in every seat at the table.
Mental Health Advocacy in the Workplace
What caregivers are carrying into work every day, why silence is the predictable result of workplace culture, and how leaders can build environments where accountability and accommodation coexist.
LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Healthcare and Corporate Settings
Creating systems, policies, and cultures that affirm LGBTQIA+ patients, employees, and families, informed by both professional expertise and the lived experience of parenting a transgender son.
Formats
Keynote
Panel
Fireside
Workshop
Parent and caregiver sessions, delivered through schools, health systems, and employers. The institution hosts and the parents attend at no cost to them.
A limited number of these sessions are offered at no fee each year to parent support groups and community nonprofits.
Consulting
Training for people leaders and HR teams, built from more than twenty years inside healthcare systems, years of employee resource group leadership, and my own family’s fight through those same systems.
Mental Health in the Workplace
What employees carry into work while managing their own mental health, supporting someone they love, or caregiving through chronic illness. Why silence is a predictable result of culture rather than character, and how accountability and accommodation coexist.
Supporting Transgender Employees
Support begins years before anyone requests leave. It begins in name and email changes, benefits and dependent coverage, manager readiness, and what a team is told and by whom. Most of what goes wrong happens in that stretch, and most organizations have never looked at it.
Half-day or full-day, on site or virtual, and able to pair with a keynote. Fees vary by format, audience, and travel. Please inquire.
Selected Engagements
Healthcare and market access
Collaboration Conference, February 2026. TED-style session, Advancing Patient-Centric Market Access: Strategies for Inclusive and Compassionate Leadership.
Collaboration Conference, 2020. TED-style session, Innovative Key External Expert Engagement During and Post-COVID.
GSK Global Panel, 2020. Resiliency and Adjusting to the New Normal.
Caregiving, mental health, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy
I have been giving this talk since 2016, ten years before the book carried the same name.
The Dr. James Show, Pride Month 2021. Fighting For Their Lives, on raising a transgender son.
Collaboration Conference, February 2018. TED-style session, Fighting for Their Lives: A Caregiver's Journey.
Mind Share Partners, Mental Health at Work Mini-Conference, May 2018. Fighting for Their Lives.
Johnson and Johnson World Mental Health Day, 2016. Fighting for Their Lives.
Across more than two decades in pharmaceuticals and biotech at Merck, Johnson and Johnson, GSK, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, I have presented to national key opinion leaders including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists. I have also presented to payers, to senior leadership at hospitals and integrated delivery networks, and to executive leadership teams inside the companies where I worked.
Watch and Listen
Healthcare organizations and employers
“If you work in healthcare, access, policy, or systems, or if you know someone navigating institutional barriers, this will change how you see the work and the person doing it.”
Clinicians and care teams
“In my group counseling practice, we have many gender-diverse clients and I think this book will be a good addition to the library available to the counselors who work for me.”
Schools and educators
“It is heartfelt, thought provoking, and inspiring, emphasizing the importance of persistence, compassion, and ensuring every child is truly seen and heard.”