Strategic Planning
I take big ideas and develop the vision, goals, strategy, and tactics that result in system-level change. These programs have increased sales of sustainable products, created large media attention, and improved environmental laws.
Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP)
Six UC Berkeley faculty, including author Michael Pollan, created an academic center to advance the science and public discourse about psychedelics. As Interim Executive Director, I helped these academics transition ideas into concrete plans for flagship programs and organizational structure. I set the strategy, launched the BCSP website and online course, organized the multimillion budget, started a fellowship for Indigenous scientists, and got the organization to commit ten percent of funds to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Tiffany & Co.
In collaboration with the iconic jeweler Tiffany & Co., I created the brand, the strategy, and marketing materials for Too Precious to Wear—a program to increase sales of products that celebrate the beauty of coral without harming the ocean. Our strategy engaged fashion media and luxury jewelry designers to tell the story that corals are in trouble. On a single day, our press conference held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City generated over 100 million impressions in global outlets such as Time, Bloomberg, O, WWD, House and Garden, and The New York Times, as seen in our clip book.
Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI)
Created the strategic plan for Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) that aspires to create new paradigms of medicine and sustainable agriculture. Jennifer Doudna (the Nobel Prize winner and co-inventor of CRISPR) created the IGI at University of California, Berkeley.
Ocean Conservancy
As Acting Director of the Trash Free Seas program for two years, I created and Implemented Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Program. The strategy successfully established Ocean Conservancy as the global thought leader on ocean trash. I developed a vision for the program, crafted the proposal and business plan, shared that vision with top scientists, and convinced them to lead a working group at an eminent ecology think tank. The strategy also established the Trash Free Seas Alliance to advance corporate solutions to the problem. Ocean Conservancy is now recognized as the catalyst and gatekeeper of this body of work.
Science Policy Fellowship Project
In aggregate, there are more than 11,000 alumni from over 40 science policy fellowship programs. These alumni share a common identity as scientists and health-care professionals who have firsthand experience with policy. They also have training in basic and social science, medicine, engineering, and technology, and are skilled at analyzing and synthesizing data and complex concepts. They are interested in sharing their talents with society. This working group led five foundations to identify how to mobilize this expert network.
California Council on Science & Technology (CCST)
I conducted a management assessment of CCST’s Science & Technology Policy Fellowship and created a strategic plan for the Fellowship program. As a third project, I created a strategic plan for the whole organization. In a fourth consulting engagement, I created an innovation scan to find new opportunities for how CCST could provide science advice to the State of California.
Ocean Enterprise
I was hired to create Ocean Enterprise—a new program of investment services, analytic consulting, research and development, and training. Ocean Enterprise helped investors identify ways to make money from better management of commercial fish. We also helped fishermen understand new management rules and get access to investors that could provide capital to their businesses. This was important because fishermen were experiencing considerable financial pressure and confusion because of overfishing and new government rules.
I created the program strategy and brought together a team of Wall Street financial experts, business plan writers, fishing businesses, and economists. We established the most comprehensive design manual and largest-ever database of 900 effective global fish management systems.
Institute at the Golden Gate
The Institute at the Golden Gate is an action tank that develops solutions to environmental problems. I worked closely with the Executive Director to develop flagship programs. I created the vision and wrote the proposal for a program to revolutionize the delivery and sale of food in the National Park Service. I also developed a program to connect the National Park Service with the medical community to increase exercise and recreation activities in national parks to combat the national obesity problem.