If it was what she wanted, Erika Dillard wouldn’t struggle to find work as a physician. She has an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and spent four years as a neurosurgery resident at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia.
Yet after growing up in Huntsville, Alabama — where NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is located — she also has a strong appreciation for engineering, and for years, has been intrigued by the possibility of creating her own product.