Today we’d like to introduce you to Cecilia Zapata-Harms
Hi Cecilia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I guess we should start by saying that I am from a military family. I’m an only child – my father was in the Navy and my mom started out as a homemaker but eventually worked as administrative support for some companies. Being a military family, we lived all over the world – Okinawa, Japan, Germany, Puerto Rico, Spain. My parents somehow (especially my Mom) wanted some stability for me, knowing how important it is for me to have a really good education and discipline, but also the interaction with other kids my own age. I guess they were really forward thinking. I don’t know how they did it, with very limited income, but they managed to enroll me to a private Catholic school for girls in Spain. I lived there during the school year and in the summers or holiday breaks, I hopped on a military flight with my Dad. It wasn’t a boarding school – not the posh kind anyway. The school was like a convent. We were surrounded by farmland, farm animals, gardens and all the instructors were nuns. Looking back, I really appreciate this experience. It taught me to be self-sufficient and the discipline I learned with my studies was priceless.
Fast forward to age 11, my Dad’s last station to be Washington State until he retired. That’s where I finished my Junior and High School years all the way through my graduate degrees at University of Washington in Social-Cultural Anthropology and Health Administration.
I have always been interested in medicine, health and life science – always passionate about education and learning about different cultures. Since I was exposed to traveling earlier on, I love traveling to foreign lands, meet new people and learn. I thrive in always learning and experiencing something different. In my view, gaining these experiences and continue to experience something different brought me to where I am today.
Creating something that brings about positive impact and change to the community (holistically) – whether in business, patient therapies, education – energizes me. When I see what I have brought together in action, makes my soul happy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My journey, like so many other women leaders, was never a straight road – life gets in the way, personal and professional struggles, barriers, hiccups were a part of the journey. It wasn’t until I reached my 50th birthday when I felt really knowing who I am and where my passion and purpose lies. It’s also right around the time when I realized how important it is to find one’s voice. Women often struggle with asking for what we want in life; stating our purpose. We fear what others think of us – A LOT! I have finally come into knowing and speaking my voice and now in my 50’s, I acknowledge and honor my voice.
Roxie Nafousi, author of Manifest said it best: ““We are unstoppably magnetic when we are unapologetically ourselves.”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Palmetto InnovaSphere, Inc.?
Palmetto InnovaSphere (aka InnovaSphere or just Sphere) is a non-profit comprehensive incubator/accelerator institute hub for early stage life science, biotechnology and digital health companies. The company is located in the Upstate of South Carolina, headquartered in the city of Spartanburg, SC.
InnovaSphere is an institute – a collective sphere of expertise that provides life science innovators access to the essential and targeted resources that adapt to the precise needs of a startup allowing them to scale and grow. Our vision is clear and simple : to transform inspiration into application, seamlessly bridging the gap between visionary solutions and tangible outcomes; ensuring their successful commercialization journey.
The executive team have extensive experience in executing and running early-stage life science companies all the way to a successful scale.. Our board consists of a diverse of set of business leadership and expertise. Our primary supporters, consisting of investors, health care system executives, manufacturing, scientific and medicine, and other community leaders, believe in the mission and are passionate to ensure the success of InnovaSphere in South Carolina and beyond.
South Carolina life science industry is growing and our role ,at InnovaSphere in this ecosystem, is to attract and for innovators to make South Carolina home.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Finding the right mentor for you is very important. It’s important that the potential has the expertise you need in the same industry or well-rounded leader/individual in all aspects of business. Just because someone is a key note speaker or considered expert doesn’t mean that they are the right mentor for you. A mentor/mentee relationship is a two-way street; meaning that both mentor and mentee have an equal exchange of energy and often the mentor also gains insight into the relationship.
When it comes to networking, I don’t think it’s necessary to go to a lot of them. I think you give yourself a target number of events per month and you attend. When attending a networking event, give yourself the opportunity to at least talk to someone you have never met – at least 1 person. We’re creatures of habit and often, we head directly to people we know. Try to at least meet 1 person not in your immediate circle.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
All photos were taken from my iPhone
