Jen Wheeler Hojnacki

I'm very interested in problems and I like to problem solve. That's one of my deep desires - doing it through innovation and forward-looking approaches. I've been taking a bunch of AI courses to figure out where the future is going because I like to stay in the present day and keep on learning as I get deeper into my career. What really drives me is helping get accurate information into the world instead of everyone just using ChatGPT for things like how many calories are in an egg. I think providing real, validated data that pharmaceutical companies can rely on is super important right now, because everyone's dipping their toes into AI - some of it's great, some of it's not so great, and some of it's quite scary. Pharmaceutical companies don't like risk and don't want to spend billions of dollars and then have a failed trial because of something little they didn't consider. I've always been interested, ever since I went to Indiana University, in trying to figure out where the friction is, where the gaps are, and how we can innovate and provide better rigor, better data, and better information for everyone.

The best career advice I ever received was 'Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.' That was from an old mentor of mine when I was a little bit shy about going out and talking to people. It taught me to just go get it, because people will support you, and that's the best way to move forward. Another important piece of advice I received was to watch who you trust. I'm a very trusting person by nature, so I've had one bad experience with someone I shouldn't have trusted. The lesson was to watch who you trust - not everyone is as kind as you are.

I would say to not be afraid. It's a male-dominated industry, but there's a lot of rising females that are coming up, and I'd tell them to just go out there and do their best and not get intimidated. Just keep on trying. Having a lot of grit helps you get through the software data world in 2025.

The biggest challenge is knowledge - there's so much information out there that no one knows quite what to believe. That's why I feel so great about Nutritionix, because it is validated data that we know is accurate. People just don't know what they're doing and need to be educated on how to provide an ecosystem of data for every clinical aspect. When you think about a clinical trial, you're talking about enrolling people, getting them to take their medication, reporting how many times a day they're doing that, reporting their nutrition, reporting how they feel, scheduling appointments - that is an entire ecosystem of data that pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on. A lot of times these trials fail and don't even get to market. The knowledge gap is in understanding how much of this they can consolidate by having just a nutrition component to their clinical studies. Right now, everyone's dipping their toes into AI - some of it's great, some of it's not so great, and some of it's quite scary. But pharmaceutical companies do not like risk and don't want to spend billions of dollars and then have a failed trial because of something little they didn't consider.

The values most important to me are integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness. And just kindness overall in this day and age - just be kind. I have a sweatshirt that says 'the person behind me is better' - the world is a better place with you in this world. That's something I really believe in.