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"How has your journey with CF shaped the problems you want to solve and the impact you hope to have on others?"

In 2008, I read "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann. It terrified me, but it taught me a lot about how and why climate change is a problem, and a bit about what can be done about it. A year later, I spent three months in Denmark on a documentary film shoot learning about how the Danish deal with sustainability. Our team interviewed a range of people: residents of the famous off-grid community Freetown Christiania; organizers of the upcoming COP15 summit; leaders of multi-national companies; and residents of the fully wind-powered island of Samsø. Notably, the Danes don't disagree about sustainability like we do in the United States. To them it's a no-brainer, and they think of it holistically, tackling renewable energy, waste recycling, green transportation, and water management together. We brought back a lot of hope from that shoot. This may not be what you'd expect a Cystic Fibrosis patient to talk about first, but a healthy Earth is the big version of what I've been focused on my whole life: radiant health, even when it seems impossible. Most of my career has been in entertainment and media, but my perspective changed drastically on July 4, 2013, when I received a life-saving double lung transplant. After six months on the verge of an early end, I didn't need a reminder of how fragile life can be, but I got one anyway. In statements like this, I usually point to that night as an indicator of my grit, leadership, and perseverance. What I don't often talk about is the impact of needing so many physical and financial resources to keep me alive. It's staggering how much electricity, plastic, and paper are spent on my behalf. I recognize that sometimes advanced medicine requires this, but I worry when I get the same 50-page booklet every month with my diabetes supplies, or when meds get mailed to me in double packaging. I have come to realize that these things are not immutable. They are the very things that people like me change. And while the medical world isn't the first area I'd tackle, it is where I'm constantly reminded of how badly we need to revolutionize how we do things. That's why I'm interested in environmental law; and it's why I came to law school in the Fall of 2025. I think a large part of what stops us from implementing solutions are legal and financial barriers; and I'd like to be directly involved in removing those obstacles. It's only recently that I've realized that this is where CF has brought me. CF made me value health and want to help other people achieve it. I was a certified personal trainer for a while and that was amazing, but I also want to make sure people have a healthy place to exercise for a long time. I think that's the more pressing problem, and maybe the best way I can pay my good fortune forward.