About Dr. Jana Rieger
A life built in chapters.
I’ve spent most of my career going deep into whatever I was doing at the time. First as a clinician-scientist and professor, building a research program and working with patients. Then as an entrepreneur, creating technologies and leading a company through the uncertainties that come with that path. And along the way, as a writer, following a creative thread that eventually became a published novel.
None of those chapters were part of a grand plan. Each one grew out of the last, usually at the moment when something inside me started asking different questions.
Looking back, I can see a pattern. I go deep into things. I build, explore, and stay fully engaged. And then, at some point, the curiosity that once drove the work begins to quiet down and shift. When that happens, the real decision isn’t about what to start next. It’s about whether I’m willing to listen to that signal and follow it somewhere new.
That process of finishing one chapter and distilling what matters from it is what I now think of as the Second Draft.
Work at the intersection of mastery and change
My talks draw from science, entrepreneurship, and creative work, and focus on:
- knowing when it’s time to pivot
- navigating identity after credentials
- permission to create without formal training
- translating lived experience into meaningful next chapters
Writing as a second chapter
During a sabbatical from my scientific career, I started writing a novel. I had no formal training, no MFA, and plenty of reasons to believe I shouldn’t be doing it. But I followed the curiosity anyway.
That decision became one of the first real signals that my path was shifting.
Across science, business, and storytelling
- Former clinician-scientist and research leader
- Co-founder and CEO in health technology
- Published novelist
- International speaker