🔍 What You’ll Learn:
🧠About the Guest:
Dr. Melina Georgousakis is the founder of Franklin Women, a social enterprise and professional community working to keep women in health and medical research careers. Starting out as a vaccine scientist with a PhD, Melina transitioned into policy, then corporate healthcare—each move revealing more about the gaps in support and career progression for women in STEMM. With no business training but a clear mission, she built Franklin Women into a national initiative that offers mentoring, workshops, and ecosystem partnerships to support women’s long-term success in science.
đź“Ś Episode Highlights:
00:00 The spark moment on a plane—realizing the gap for women in health
03:00 Why she left academia—and what she learned in the lab
08:00 Translating science into public health impact
11:00 Moving to corporate: navigating fears of “going to the dark side”
14:00 Spotting the systemic issues pushing women out of research
17:00 Designing Franklin Women: vision, values, and sustainable funding
22:00 Why she named it after Rosalind Franklin—and what it means today
25:00 Choosing social enterprise over charity: making women’s issues profitable
29:00 Growing a business on the side of a full-time job (and raising kids)
33:00 The leap: going full-time without a salary and what made it possible
36:00 Funding the mission: balancing impact and income with boundaries
40:00 Mapping out business models, pitches, and social enterprise growth
44:00 Overcoming self-doubt, feedback loops, and founder fatigue
47:00 Building events for real accessibility—and learning from flops
50:00 Reflecting on privilege, bias, and the importance of allyship
53:00 Owning your hard work while acknowledging structural advantage
55:00 Final thoughts on joy, purpose, and trusting your own evolution
đź”— Resources Mentioned:
🤔 Reflection Time: