Tell us a little about your education and career background
“I moved from Chicago to Edinburgh in 2019 to study for my Masters in Sociology and Global Change. My dissertation explored how sex education affects women’s emotional wellbeing and adult relationships.
“Alongside my degree, I cofounded Back Off Scotland, the national campaign that successfully fought for safe access zones around abortion clinics. After graduating, I began leading social media for organisations across female and sexual healthcare.
“That work eventually inspired me to create Elsie, a global network helping people build sustainable careers in the sector. I’ve since been named one of the Young Women’s Movement’s 30 Under 30 and a Woman of Inspiration by the Association of Scottish Businesswomen.”
What made you want to study at Edinburgh?
“I didn’t become involved in domestic violence prevention until my final year of university and by graduation I felt I’d only scratched the surface of my interests. I wanted to continue exploring sex education and healthy relationships as a career, despite having just spent four years studying something completely different. I’d also always wanted to live abroad.
“Edinburgh was a relatively small, English-speaking city with a prestigious university, and its flexible programme allowed me to explore something as specific as the sociology of emotions. I’d never formally studied sociology before and had only visited Edinburgh once, for two days. To say it was a leap of faith would be an understatement. At 22, I couldn’t have imagined that this city would become my second home.”
When and why did you decide you wanted to become involved in female and sexual healthcare?
“During my undergraduate degree, I created and secured funding for a position that allowed me to deliver domestic abuse prevention workshops to around 1,400 students, primarily athletes and members of sororities and fraternities.
“The project completely changed the trajectory of my career. It introduced me to the sector and the thrill of creating something from scratch. Hearing football teammates speak openly about their feelings and relationships made me think deeply about the sex education young people receive and the consequences when it’s inadequate. I continued exploring this at Edinburgh through my masters dissertation, interviewing women about how sex education had shaped their emotional wellbeing and adult relationships.
“While studying, I became certified to teach sex education in Scottish schools, cofounded a national campaign around abortion care and volunteered with a contraception campaign. I once considered myself a generalist, but I was always magnetised back to this sector. Now, I can’t picture myself working anywhere else.”
Tell us about some of your roles since graduating
“I cofounded Back Off Scotland while completing my masters, helping to build the campaign for 150-metre safe access zones around abortion clinics. This involved speaking with people in Edinburgh about their varied and nuanced experiences of abortion care and access to it, as well as working with news outlets to communicate the campaign to a wider audience. Our campaigning contributed to safe access zones being passed into Scottish law.
“Since then, I’ve led social media strategy and content for organisations including Daye, Jude and Vira. Today, I lead social media for Fertility Matters at Work, communicating the realities of navigating fertility treatment alongside employment. I work with an incredible England-based team who have been hugely supportive of both me and Elsie. This year, I travelled to the UK Parliament with them and observed an important conversation about bereavement leave in the workplace.”
Why did you decide to set up Elsie?
“Before Elsie, I spent several years building a general freelancing platform while funding it through my freelance work. While freelancing, I developed a portfolio across female and sexual healthcare and realised I’d found the sector I wanted to devote my career to.
“I also saw how underfunded the sector was, how heavily organisations relied on freelance and part-time support, and how little infrastructure existed to help independent professionals form long-term connections. Many were working in isolation and relying on cold applications or unpredictable algorithms, while networking brought me every opportunity I secured.
“Elsie was the result of having the courage to pivot away from a business that no longer felt right, transforming a general, transactional platform into a sector-specific community built around relationships.”
What is Elsie’s main aim?
“Elsie helps people build and sustain careers in female and sexual healthcare through three areas: connecting, upskilling and applying. Members form meaningful professional relationships, learn directly from experienced practitioners and gain access to relevant paid opportunities. We also help people become more visible through our public directory.
“Underpinning everything is the belief that the right introduction can do more for somebody’s career than 100 cold applications. Networking is often treated as an optional extra or something people should instinctively understand. Elsie gives people the structure to build relationships that can lead to work and make their careers feel less isolating.”
What impact has Elsie had so far?
“Elsie has welcomed more than 150 paying members across over 15 countries. Its clearest impact can be seen in what those relationships have produced.
“A translator in Germany met a menopause-app developer who needed a website translated. A researcher and illustrator seated together at an Elsie event went on to collaborate on a six-month project about period pain. Another member was introduced to a podcast host in California. These people probably wouldn’t have met without Elsie.
“We also share around 20 to 50 relevant opportunities each week, helping members understand where work exists. Elsie is making a fragmented international sector feel more connected and easier to navigate.”
Why the name Elsie?
“Elsie is named after Dr Elsie Inglis, the Edinburgh doctor and suffragist who fought for women’s rights in medicine. Before the First World War, she founded a maternity hospital for the poor women of Edinburgh, staffed entirely by women. When she offered her services to the War Office in 1914, she was told to ‘go home and sit still’. Instead, she founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, all-female medical units that provided vital care on the front lines in France, Serbia and beyond.
“Inglis later travelled to Serbia as chief medical officer. I wanted the business to carry a name rooted in Edinburgh, the city that has supported me so generously, and to bring attention to the legacy of a local woman whose story is still not widely known.”
What have been the greatest success and the biggest challenge of your career so far?
“My greatest challenge eventually became my greatest success. My ability to remain in the UK depended on building an innovative and viable business, then proving its progress through the rigorous Innovator visa process.
“Around 17 months before my visa renewal, I made the risky decision to abandon my original concept and pivot towards Elsie. I spent 500 days giving everything I had to building the business in a condensed timeframe. While I’m not grateful for the circumstances or the stress they caused, they forced me into action in a way nothing else could. I ended up with my dream business and secured the visa that allowed me to stay in Scotland. The confirmation email remains the happiest moment of my life so far. It proved to me that I’m capable of doing incredibly difficult things when I set my mind to them.”
What would you like to see improve for professionals in the field?
“I’d like careers in female and sexual healthcare to become more accessible and sustainable, with stronger connections between the people working in the sector. It attracts deeply passionate people, but that passion is too often treated as a substitute for proper pay and stable work.
“Talented professionals struggle to find opportunities or understand what they should charge. Without much professional infrastructure around the sector, many also don’t know how to build the relationships that lead to work. Meanwhile, female and sexual healthcare remains underfunded and vulnerable to censorship online.
“Improving healthcare outcomes requires us to value the people doing this work and ensure they can afford to remain in it. I want people to see this as a viable long-term career, not simply a cause they’re expected to sacrifice for.”
Why is clear communication on female and sexual health important to you?
“Communication shapes how people understand their bodies and whether they feel able to ask for help. In female and sexual health, unclear information can reinforce shame, delay treatment and leave people believing that distressing experiences are simply something they must endure. My dissertation showed me that the information people encounter when they’re young can continue affecting their wellbeing and relationships throughout the rest of their lives.
“Clear communication means making information understandable without losing necessary nuance. It also means representing experiences that have historically been dismissed or excluded. Whether I’m working on a campaign or social media strategy, I see thoughtful communication as a practical form of advocacy.”
Did you have any support or experiences while at the University that helped with your area of work?
“Edinburgh Innovations is the reason my business exists. I approached them without a business degree while trying to find a way to prolong my stay in the UK. I’d never remotely considered myself a businessperson. They helped me develop an idea and secure my Start-up visa, while giving me access to expertise across the city.
“When I became unhappy with my original concept, they supported the pivot rather than treating it as a failure, and they never shied away from my desire to build something in sexual health and wellness. Instead, they believed in me as a founder and wanted me to work on an area that I loved.
“Throughout most of my twenties, I’ve been nurtured by people who saw my potential before I could. I’m eternally grateful our paths crossed at a time when their belief and visa endorsement could change the course of my life.”
How did it feel when you found out you were nominated for the University’s Being Edinburgh Alumni Award 2026?
“I felt incredibly honoured to be considered someone the University is proud of. I arrived in Edinburgh at 22, knowing no one and with no idea that the city, my research, and the support of Edinburgh Innovations would become so central to my life. Being nominated made me pause and recognise how much has happened since I first arrived.”
What are your next steps?
“My immediate priority is relaunching Elsie with a new business structure. I’m taking it from a relatively simple community membership structure to a more robust professional ecosystem, with broader ways for people to find opportunities and connect with one another. I’d also like to begin speaking to universities across Scotland about how we foster greater interest in FemTech and introduce young people to this emerging sector.
“There are so many possible careers within female and sexual healthcare, but students can’t pursue opportunities in a sector that they don’t know exists. I want to help make those paths more visible and show young people that their existing skills could contribute to some of the most important challenges in healthcare.”
Where do you see yourself and your work in five years’ time?
“In five years, I hope Elsie is an internationally recognised professional home for thousands of people working across female and sexual healthcare. I’d like it to become the place organisations come to find excellent talent and commission sector-specific work. However, I want Elsie to retain the closeness that makes it meaningful now. Growth should deepen our impact rather than dilute it.
“Personally, I’d love to speak more about the power of networking, particularly with university students and people at the beginning of their careers. Ultimately, I want to keep helping passionate people find one another and build fulfilling careers in a sector that needs them.”
What would you say to other students with a business idea and graduates starting out on their careers?
“I think you need to find a balance between a lot of delusion, tenacity and agility. You need delusion to dream really big, tenacity to consistently work towards your goal despite very little daily reward, and agility to recognise when you’re wrong or need to pivot.
“You don’t need to know everything before you start, but you do need to put your ego aside and admit what you don’t know. To fill those inevitable gaps in knowledge, show up in communities, give more than you get, embrace being mentored and build connections with people long before you need something from them.”
How would you sum up your experience at the University?
“The University gave me a safe and encouraging place to dig deeply into the sociology of emotions. My professors saw the value in what I was exploring and never shied away from topics that might be considered taboo. I arrived without any formal research experience and learned how to conduct interviews, bring different frameworks together and decentre my own perspective from my writing.
“Completing my dissertation was one of the most difficult and humbling things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most rewarding. I’m grateful that this academic work became the foundation of my career, and that Edinburgh Innovations helped me turn it into a business through Elsie. The University continues to connect me with Edinburgh’s wider entrepreneurial community, including organisations such as CodeBase, Creative Edinburgh and Interface.”
Photos by: Studio Gently
