What I Offer
Different rooms. Different problems. Same work: helping people understand what matters to one another.
How to work with me
Consulting
Build stronger partnerships around better science.
I work with biotech companies, patient advocacy organizations, investors, and others across rare disease to understand the human dynamics shaping drug development—and turn that understanding into better strategy.
Working across stakeholders, I help organizations uncover what they may be missing, translate insights across communities, identify opportunities for stronger collaboration, and understand where relationships may be getting stuck, so they can make better decisions about the programs they want to see advance.
Speaking
Change the way people think about patients, science, and the stories we tell about both.
I speak about what happens where science, medicine, lived experience, and story collide—drawing on nearly fifteen years working across rare disease advocacy and drug development, and my experience raising a daughter whose life has required me to understand all of these worlds at once.
Through keynotes, panels, workshops, and moderated conversations, I challenge assumptions, make complicated ideas human, and leave audiences thinking differently about the work they do—and the people they do it for.
Coaching
Lead your organization with someone in your corner.
Patient advocacy leaders are expected to understand science, build community, raise money, work with industry, navigate competing priorities—and somehow know what everyone else is thinking.
I offer one-on-one coaching for advocacy leaders who want an experienced sounding board as they navigate strategy, organizational growth, industry partnerships, and drug development. Together, we can think through difficult decisions, anticipate how partners may respond, and figure out what comes next.
When passion, intelligence, pragmatism, and energy come together, you get something extraordinary. And that's exactly what Hillary brings to the table. What sets her apart is her rare ability to translate what's really happening--the politics, the priorities, the fine print--into something advocates can actually use. That kind of insight doesn't come from a playbook. It comes from having done the work on both sides."
Vanessa Vogel-Farley, Rare Epilepsy Network
01.
Speaking that changes how people think:
Helping audiences see familiar problems from unexpected angles.
Whether I’m speaking to scientists, patient advocates, executives, or clinicians, my goal in keynotes remains the same: to challenge assumptions, create unexpected connections, and leave audiences with practical ways to build stronger partnerships.
02.
Building partnerships that actually work:
Turning shared goals into shared language.
Whether you’re a patient advocacy organization preparing to engage industry or a biotechnology company seeking authentic partnerships, I can work with you to translate priorities, expectations, and lived experience to your partners
03.
Bringing patients into development:
Making the lived experience impossible to ignore.
From early strategy through clinical development and beyond, I help teams strategize on how to integrate patient perspectives in ways that are meaningful, actionable, and aligned with both scientific and community priorities.
04.
Teaching the language of collaboration:
Helping people understand one another before asking them to work together.
Interactive workshops that help scientists, executives, advocates, and patient leaders better understand one another’s goals, constraints, and ways of working—creating the conditions for better communication, stronger partnerships, and ultimately, better science.
05.
Translating your organization:
Understand how your company is experienced by the people you serve.
If you’re preparing for a first clinical program, checking the health of an established advocacy strategy, or navigating a difficult relationship with a community, I provide gap analyses to help your team understand where and how to improve patient experience and communication.