, newly-appointed Director of Biola’s Office of Innovation, spoke at a Crowell Distinguished Speaker event this semester. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, she is a founding partner of , the Director of the at the University of San Diego, the founder and chair of , a member of the investment committee at , and an angel investor to over 120 startups.

Here, Mah shares five pieces of wisdom.

1. Let your curiosity feed your passion

“As an international student at Pepperdine, I really dove into science. I was so curious: I wanted to learn about the scientific process and to look at different problems out there in the world. I was trying to do as much research and figure out as many things and take all the opportunities that I could in this new country and this new university.

I learned from my father — he emigrated from Italy to Venezuela — that even if they take away everything from you, they cannot take your education, so after my biology degree, I decided to get a PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I did a lot of bioinformatics, I asked questions, I did data analyses. It became a theme in my life that continues today — analyzing data and trends in ecosystems, in the economy, in science.

That curiosity carried over to business development and innovation and commercialization, wanting to understand the science and the data and use it to make the world better. It wasn’t curiosity for curiosity's sake — as a dedicated Christian, the questions were always how can this all fit together and how can I make this world a better place?”

2. Build your career around your values

“Once we had children, I wanted to set up a career that would allow me to make family a p