Hi folks! My name is Bran LeFae (they/them). Thank you for taking time to learn a bit about me today. I’ve described some of my career path below. If you’d like a more traditional overview of my background, here is my LinkedIn profile.

I’ve worked in research for much of my career. And I learned early on that few people understood research or why it matters. That inspired me to learn to communicate about science in a way that everyone can understand. But I wasn’t sure how to do that effectively.

But then I found plain language, a writing style that uses specific techniques to create clear communication about complicated topics. At the time I was working at an Institutional Review Board. I learned everything I could about plain language and started coaching study staff on writing clear ICFs.

Eventually I took a role that included writing ICFs for a clinical research team studying cancer treatment. It was an exciting, challenging job! I found that clinical trial staff were very interested in plain language. But I also learned that they were extremely busy. They didn’t have the time to learn a new skill to write in plain language. It usually takes a new writer about 6 months of plain language writing to get comfortable with the new writing style. And time is in short order at the clinic!

My interest in communication and research brought me to Medical Writing. All clinical trials need documents to guide the study. Medical Writers help prepare these documents. I thought it would be more effective to train Medical Writers to write in plain language. Then the ICF from the study sponsor would already be in plain language by the time it got to the study site. I decided to pursue Medical Writing positions and found a role at Seagen Inc. I began a plain language initiative a couple of weeks after starting my new role.

That initiative grew and evolved into a small in-house team of plain language writers. We managed the ICFs for most of the clinical trials. My role focused on plain language, ICFs, and health literacy communication. My small but mighty team produced hundreds of plain language documents annually. I also worked with other departments on a wide variety of plain language projects. I helped write educational materials for staff and for external use. I worked with our labeling team on the language used in several drug labels. And I advocated across the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for the use of plain language in all patient-facing materials.

Now my primary focus is plain language writing and health literacy education. We started this business to help make healthcare easier. We believe that we all deserve research and healthcare information that is clear and easy to read. Our projects have one goal in mind – creating content that everyone will understand. And I’m excited to put my 20+ years of experience in research, health literacy, and plain language to work for you!