Everybody has a why.

For some, it is money. For others, it’s genuine passion. Some do what they do because it’s simply what they have always done. It’s a job, and there is nothing wrong with that. Still others are in the family business because their fathers were, and their fathers’ fathers before him.

For me, it is a little of all of those.

My dad was a career communications professional, and his love for the work rubbed off on me early. I worked with him for 24 years at DeeterUSA. When COVID impacted the business, and I needed to find something else, I spent a brief period in property management. But even then, I was just applying the principles of communications to a new environment. When the opportunity to return to a pure communications role opened up, I jumped at it. I now find myself working with Joe at Krieger, and I absolutely love it.

So yes, I got into communications because of my father. I continue in it because I love it. And it certainly helps pay the bills.

But my why goes a little deeper than that.

The Part That Made It Personal

I am blessed to have a beautiful wife who works in healthcare and two wonderful kids who keep us on our toes. Both have been lifelong swimmers, as I was growing up and still am for exercise.

My son is just starting high school and plans to swim through school and potentially into college. He has developed a genuine love for the sport, and I will support his goals any way I can.

My daughter was also a very good swimmer, particularly in her younger years. She was one of the top ranked swimmers in her age group in the state of Pennsylvania. When we moved to South Carolina, she was among the top in the state in her first year here. And then things changed.

Her times plateaued. She got physically tired more easily. Her grades were affected. Her balance was off. She was having vision problems. A CAT scan revealed a tumor abutting her pituitary gland.

For more than two years, our family fought for answers and relief. We eventually made our way to the leading pituitary tumor specialist in the world, part of the University of North Carolina hospital network. Several times a year, we would make the four-plus hour drive to meet with him and his team.

He was confident that through a cutting-edge prescription medication and proper care, the tumor could shrink, and our daughter could return to a normal life. He prescribed a medication called cabergoline. Within a few months, we started getting our daughter back. Her balance improved. The fatigue began to lift. Her grades came back. And almost a year later, her times in the pool started moving in the right direction again.

But she had missed two years of progress while other kids her age kept advancing.

We were thrilled she was better. We were also a little heartbroken. Her dream of swimming at a major university seemed out of reach. There were smaller programs that would have welcomed her, but she had bigger aspirations, and it looked like that chapter might be closed.

Then an email arrived from the University of Louisville rowing team.

They had followed her progress as a swimmer. They had success converting swimmers into rowers. They thought she was a candidate. She thought long and hard about it. And she ultimately committed to the University of Louisville rowing team, where she will begin this fall.

Why Any of This Belongs on a Life Sciences Blog

I have spent more than 30 years in marketing and communications, most of it on the agency side, with a consistent focus on the life sciences industry. Pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, national advocacy organizations, hospitals, large physician group practices, and more.

The idea that the work I do can help bring therapies to the people who need them most has always mattered to me. But until it was my daughter sitting in an exam room four hours from home, waiting for answers, I do not think I fully understood how much.

Cabergoline gave us our daughter back. That medication had to be manufactured correctly. The equipment used to make it had to be properly maintained, qualified, and calibrated. Someone had to ensure that every step of that process met the standard it needed to meet, because a patient’s life can depend on it.

That is what Krieger does. Joe and his team go into life sciences organizations and make sure the equipment and processes used to manufacture life-changing medications are working the way they are supposed to. I do not have the scientific background to do that work myself. But I have the skills to help tell that story, to help Krieger reach the organizations that need what they offer, and to play some small part in making sure the right medications get made correctly and reach the patients who need them most.

That is my why.

This morning I went to swim my laps. I was the only one in the pool. It was cold and a little drizzly, but I just kept going. When I finished and looked up toward my bag on the pool deck, there was a bright red cardinal standing there, looking my way.

I could not make that up.

But there he was. A reminder that everything our family has been through, every long drive to Chapel Hill, every difficult conversation, every setback and every small victory along the way, has led somewhere. Our daughter did not lose her path. She found a better one. And she has earned every step of it.

At Krieger, we talk a lot about validation. Making sure things perform the way they are supposed to. Making sure the process holds up. Making sure the outcome is what it needs to be.

That cardinal validated all of it for me.

Go Cardinals.