Hi, I'm Dr. Shelby Doyle, Founder of Modern Dogma.

I got my professional start in the Deep South at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In my time there, I played D1 sports, conducted LSU AgCenter research, completed the LSU Distinguished Communicator program, served in student government, coached reading in local primary schools, and spoke to donors in support of a $100M capital campaign. These multi-faceted efforts earned me multiple awards in both scholarship and community development. Most importantly, they taught me the power of communication to connect diverse people with new ideas.

I earned my Ph.D. in biological engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Dr. Angela Koehler at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. As graduate student #2, I led interdisciplinary teams that developed chemical tools for modulating transcription, resulting in multiple papers and patents, and contributed heavily to the external communications and fundraising efforts needed to support this research. This part of my journey gave me a first-person perspective on translation in the U.S. innovation system that has informed my tactical strategy for ensuring good ideas make it out into the world.

Throughout my wet-lab career, I simultaneously trained as a technical communication coach and educator with the MIT Communication Lab. As a senior fellow and advisor, I led projects to expand our curriculum offerings, led community outreach and strategic partnerships efforts that led to the dissemination of the Communication Lab model at peer institutions, and co-created new training programs to teach scientists how to advocate for science funding and scientific implications for policy on both sides of the aisle. Through nearly 1000 hours at the “Comm Lab,” I honed my coaching and mentoring style, as well as my craft as a communicator and educator.

When a new baby and a global pandemic required me to hang up my pipettes indefinitely, I was recruited by Dr. Eric Alm to help him lead the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics at MIT. There, I managed a $25M portfolio of basic research projects, investigator-led clinical trials, and STEM education programs in microbiome research. In this role, my efforts resulted in dramatic improvements to institutional alignment, revenue planning processes, program structure, patient stakeholder outreach, brand messaging, and fundraising strategy. I saw how my skills could power bigger engines than I had yet imagined.

That’s when I decided to take a huge swing to better align my professional self to the things I love most and scale my impact across fields.

In 2022, at 20 weeks pregnant with my second kiddo, I opened my own coaching and consulting practice.

As one of the first members of the Founder to Leader Collective, I have had the privilege to work with a broad range of incredible clients. I have coached scientists in the private sector stepping into C-suite roles for the first time; helped startup teams in health, ag and climate find their best stories for seed and series A fundraising; developed communication upskilling curriculum specifically for innovative, tough tech organizations; and developed professional development resources for translational scientists across Harvard University system hospitals.

As word got out about what I had to offer, I have diversified my portfolio to meet the needs of the nonprofit research community. Here at Modern Dogma, I have had the privilege to work deeply with several nonprofit organizations through a broad range of projects: helping to deepen audience engagement through web and email marketing campaigns, helping to build fundraising capacity through grant writing support; facilitating stakeholder workshops to co-create new initiatives; and even providing fractional leadership to help small nonprofits bring new concepts to life. I currently serve as a member of the founding team at Alliance for Rare Cancers — a direct result of stakeholder co-creation work with the founding partners.