Consultant Spotlight - July 2020

How long have you been with miLEAD? 

About three months.

What is the focus of your research?

My research focus is on the neural underpinnings of navigation, characterizing a new brain wave that my lab discovered, and characterizing a widely used Alzheimer's rat model.

What are your career goals? 

To be a leader in technology innovations, to be an inventor, and to bring good ideas to life.

What roles have you played on projects? 

I am currently working on my first project with a pharmaceutical startup as a consultant.

What led you to seek out milead?

I am an entrepreneuroscientist. As Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Intvo (an automotive technology startup which creates artificial intelligence systems to improve road safety), I saw that there were gaps in my knowledge on how to interact with corporate clients, conduct interviews, and perform research on customer discovery. With miLEAD, I am working to fill those gaps so that I can help my startup as well as other companies to work more effectively.

Since joining miLEAD, what skills have you been able to develop?

The biggest skill applies across the board, and it is a skill I would call "polishing". miLEAD has been excellent at helping me to develop polished presentations, to be able to talk to the people we are consulting with in a polished way, and to organize information while communicating with our groups. The miLEAD board sets a great example by the way they communicate with the rest of us. Polishing creates a high-quality experience for everyone. When it is clear that real thought and practice have been put into our deliverables, this goes a long way. Deportment—the way people carry themselves-- is important!

What has been one of your most rewarding experiences thus far working with miLEAD? 

Cultivating connections - this is bigger than just networking, it is actively contributing to a larger community. I also found it encouraging to be on a team where several different levels of experience are represented. More experienced clinicians on my team shared their approaches to find interviews with clinicians, which helped a lot. The team’s project manager and advisors also chime in to offer strategies for effective consulting. From time to time, I can chime in, offering knowledge about intellectual property and funding that I gained from my experience as an entrepreneur. Working with miLEAD has been a rewarding experience, especially as we progress on a project that may help a company make important decisions.