How Ballet Inspired This Entrepreneur to Reinvent Her Career Old pointe shoes remind this biomaterials founder to embrace her creative side.

I always assumed I'd work in academia, but then I took a ballet course in my 30s. I did it on a whim while getting my Ph.D. in English, thinking it might be fun. Instead, it was transformative. It empowered me to identify as an artist and to redirect my professional path.

This shouldn't have been a surprise. I've always been drawn to both science and art, a tension rooted in my childhood. My parents were research scientists in molecular cell biology and microbiology, and I grew up in their labs, gaining an appreciation for how things are made. But outside the lab, our free time as a family was spent exploring New York City's art scene, and I was constantly painting, drawing, and sculpting at home and in school.