Social Impact Heroes: Why & How David A. Walsey Of Bay Area Lyme Foundation Is Helping To Change Our World
Progress in science, medicine, and society depends on our willingness to follow data rather than defend positions. When humility and curiosity replace ego and certainty, innovation accelerates and trust grows.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure to interview David A. Walsey.
David Walsey joined Bay Area Lyme Foundation as Executive Director in 2025. He is a strategic biotech executive with 25 years of experience supporting public companies through corporate strategy, communications, financing, ESG and investor engagement, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at MEI Pharma. He previously held senior roles at Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Sarepta Therapeutics (formerly AVI BioPharma), Arena Pharmaceuticals, and Maxim Pharmaceuticals; worked at agencies including Real Chemistry, The Ruth Group, and Noonan Russo; began his career as an attorney in New York City; and holds an LL.M. in Taxation from NYU School of Law, a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, and a B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College.
Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It was a series of events, some fortunate, some not. The fortunate is that I’ve had a 25-year career in biotech that I’m now able to apply to a challenge facing millions of Americans as I take on the role of as Executive Director of Bay Area Lyme Foundation: supporting research that can provide improved diagnostic and treatment options for patients affected by Lyme and tick-borne disease.
The unfortunate: around 2017, our son became very sick and had to drop out of high school. For nearly ten years, tick-borne disease upended our family’s life, including hospitalizations, delayed and wrong diagnoses, and exhausting trial-and-error in a system with no clear path forward. Siblings grow up in the shadow of illness. Marriage conversations become logistics, money, risk, and fear. Friends drift away because the story is too complicated, too long, and all-consuming. We lived this for nearly a decade. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, consulted dozens of doctors, and ran hundreds of tests while navigating a landscape with no widely accepted path forward. Every decision felt like a high-stakes gamble. We argued simply to be taken seriously, while living with the constant fear that the system’s gaps could cost us our child.
And then, fortunately for us, we had a friend who had been through Lyme (unfortunate for her) and became a patient advocate. She suggested Lyme testing early when our son’s symptoms were baffling. She became an advisor to Bay Area Lyme Foundation (fortunate) and connected us as Bay Area Lyme Foundation was looking for a new Executive Director.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
As Executive Director of Bay Area Lyme Foundation, I find it interesting how misunderstood Lyme and tick-borne disease is until it isn’t. That’s part of why so many clinicians who engage deeply in this area have personal experience with Lyme or another tick-borne infection. You often don’t fully grasp the potential severity until you’ve lived it.
For example, I was speaking with an oncologist the other day after he heard our family’s story. He assumed that because my son was so sick from infection, he must have had a primary immune deficiency. That wasn’t the case. What is true is that tick-borne infections can suppress or dysregulate immune responses, and that can be part of why they are often hard to identify and treat. The oncologist did not know that or realize how serious Lyme and tick-borne disease symptoms can be.
I also spoke with someone in the life sciences industry who was surprised that Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are present throughout the country, not just the Northeast, and that these infections can be debilitating and, in some cases, life-threatening, including through Lyme carditis.
Overall, it’s frustrating. The first verified outbreak of Lyme was in the mid-1970s, and 50 years later the standard of care is still largely unchanged. Think of how much progress we’ve made in other indications like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, cystic fibrosis, and many cancers.
This is sad, because Lyme and tick-borne disease is a solvable problem. So, the lack of progress is hard for me to accept because there is valid science to anchor better solutions. And, I do not understand why parts of the medical community favor dogma over an open-minded evaluation of the data, of which there is a significant amount from many credible, highly regarded sources.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early in my career I practiced law and did criminal defense. I represented two defendants who came to their first hearing in sweatpants. I told them that for the next hearing they needed to dress appropriately. One came back in sweats again. The other came back in a Hugo Boss suit that was too big and with pants that were not hemmed. I stopped giving fashion advice after that.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s social impact is grounded in the science we fund so patients can have better diagnostics and therapies. We’ve invested over $30M in research at leading academic and research institutions, generating over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications that help move the field forward and strengthen collaboration across top research centers. A big part of that impact is Lyme Disease Biobank, with more than 1,250 participants enrolled, support for 125 academic and industry projects, and more than 25,000 well-characterized samples distributed to researchers. That work has crossed an important line from research to real-world care: diagnostic tests supported by Biobank samples have reached patients, including through FDA-cleared tests.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
My wife. She has been relentless. She would not leave a stone unturned in trying to find solutions. She would not let doctors or clinicians slide without being as thorough as possible, especially given the learning curve we were all on. She went deep, over and over, trying to figure things out.
However, there were times when maybe we overturned a stone that was better left alone. We eventually developed a system of partnership, though it involved a lot of stress. She would surface questions and potential paths, then I would do the research to determine whether a question was worth pursuing, and whether a potential solution, whether medication, therapy, supplement, or procedure, had a reasonable basis and appeared safe for our situation. We would discuss and debate all angles together and then with physicians.
Some physicians were more insightful or helpful than others, but no matter who the physician was, we learned you had to be your own advocate and an active participant in Lyme and tick-borne disease treatment decisions. And, we are grateful to be able to couple her relentlessness with my more analytical background to push forward and find answers.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Yes.
First, and most important, patients can no longer be gaslighted. This was a major point made during the HHS roundtable on 12/15/25 by the Secretary and staff. Whatever your views on the administration, it was notable to hear the Federal government acknowledge the issue for patients. And, it was also notable that the roundtable included researchers from leading academic institutions, physicians trained at Ivy League schools, and patients from everyday families who were living normal lives until they were hit by Lyme. The first step is compassion and basic understanding.
Second, there needs to be more funding at two levels. First, for organizations like Bay Area Lyme that can fund basic research to validate new approaches to diagnosing and treating tick-borne disease. But translating that research to patients, generally through clinical trials, often requires more funding, the type that government or the private sector can provide. Based on the HHS roundtable, I’m hopeful the government will step up. On the private industry side, I think there is a clear business rationale given the number of tick-borne disease cases each year in the U.S. The latest CDC estimates from a few years ago suggest around 500,000 new Lyme cases annually, not including other tick-borne diseases, and in my opinion that is an underestimation. Other data suggest as many as 2 million people in the U.S. are living with chronic Lyme symptoms, and that data is also a few years old. Many people, especially those with known tick exposure, would value a reliable diagnostic to detect Lyme early, and those already suffering would value tests that help confirm (or not) what is driving their illness.
Third, we need better education for physicians and other caregivers about tick-borne diseases. These diseases are common. The CDC’s estimate of around 500,000 new annual Lyme cases in the U.S. exceeds the annual number of cases of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, West Nile virus, and malaria combined. Too many patients take years to get a correct diagnosis, and by then treatment is more complicated and expensive. There are even cases where physicians believe a patient has Lyme, but for systemic, insurance, or political reasons do not feel able to diagnose or treat it properly.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
To me leadership is service. It’s about helping others do their best work in pursuit of the mission.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I’m thinking of this as what I would have wanted to be told when starting my career:
1. Work in a place where the people are nice.
Office politics are stressful and hinder good work.
2. Don’t be afraid of what people think.
Be mindful of it, but sometimes you need to speak up or just get something done.
3. Protect your integrity in everything you do.
It is hard to rebuild once it’s damaged.
4. Don’t procrastinate.
It’s better to get it done, because once it’s done, the stress is gone.
5. Build a network.
People are everything, at least until AI takes over.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There’s a quote attributed to Michael Dell, something like: “If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” I have a personal variation on that that I like: “If you think you are the smartest person in the room, you’re not.” This way of thinking has been important to me so that you don’t overestimate yourself or underestimate others.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
While I’m not generally impressed by celebrity, I have a high degree of respect for business leaders who are not only successful, but also principled, intellectually rigorous, and values driven. As such, given what I know about Ken Frazier during his tenure as CEO of Merck, I think that it would be a breakfast worth paying for.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d inspire a movement that makes intellectual humility and disciplined listening the default, rewarding people for saying “I don’t know,” updating their views with evidence, and regularly seeking out perspectives beyond their usual circles.
Progress in science, medicine, and society depends on our willingness to follow data rather than defend positions. When humility and curiosity replace ego and certainty, innovation accelerates and trust grows.
In the Lyme and tick-borne disease community, this mindset could transform outcomes. It would mean clinicians listening carefully to patients, researchers collaborating across disciplines, and institutions being open to new evidence that challenges long-held assumptions. That kind of environment does not just advance science. It restores dignity to patients and creates space for real breakthroughs.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Subscribe to Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.
Thank you for sharing these insights!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How David A Walsey Of Bay Area Lyme Foundation Is Helping To Change Our was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.