From the moment her pudgy two-year-old hands could swipe her older brother’s Sesame Street books and she discovered Cookie Monster’s Famous Cookie Dough recipe, Karla was “helping” in the kitchen. Afterall, as Cookie Monster told us, “Home is where heart is. Heart where cookie is. Math clear: Home is cookie.” And her family embraced that logic with delicious Sunday tradition of cake and ice cream dinners. Today Karla’s stunning confections skew to cookies (Cookie Monster dough included – check out her Artifct below!) less because she’s a cookie monster and more for the joy of the process and because “Home is cookie.” Karla loves sharing her creations with friends, including contactless cookie deliveries during COVID to unsuspecting friends’ homes.
Despite her wow’ing cookie skills, Karla is not some TikTok how-to baking guru or Instagram influencer. Instead, you could ask her, “Why is this petunia white instead of purple?” Karla started her professional career as a computational biologist, using computer modeling to understand things like gene mutations that change a flower’s color and yield new delightful varieties in flower shops. But that same discovery in that plant can reach well-beyond the plant world to aid, for example, our understanding of RNA-interface and cancer.
Karla never dreamed at age 10 or even 20 of becoming a lab scientist. She was always going to be a doctor. But then one night during her junior year of undergrad a math theorem nearly stumped her. Karla knew what the theorem was telling her - math was her truest passion. She took her biology and math smarts and steered them into a master’s degree in applied biosciences where she was a bit of a unicorn. She was a human bridge between hardcore biologists in the wet labs who spoke in As, Gs, Cs, and Ts and the computer scientists locked in the languages of 1s and 0s.
Karla is a bridge in another world as well – cycling. During her years-long metamorphosis from hobbyist tandem-bike rider to national-level competitive road cyclist she identified twin truths she’s intent on harmonizing: Cycling is about community, but certain stigmas keep people from cycling. Community on a bike means, “Riders show up, conversations are had or not. You are free to work out your stress and frustration on your bike, with company.” You challenge and push each other in races but meet up irrespective of team affiliation for a sociable drink or dinner later. And maybe the allure of cycling cuts another way to create a barrier. Cycling is after all one of few sports in the world in which you find world-class riders, at the pinnacle of the sport, coming out to race with the average Joe, as they say. Your hard work and dedication put you on the same starting line in cycling.
Today, Karla works with existing community cycling organizations, like Austin’s beloved Driveway and its Thursday night races and mentoring program. In 2021, she also spearheaded The LeadOut Foundation, which is committed to breaking down barriers to help expand the community of cyclists and supporting new and emerging racers. The Foundation Team knows that it starts small, with a friendly, knowledgeable face in the group, and grows from there, with resources, human and financial, at the community level. With efforts of The LeadOut Foundation and similar organizations worldwide, maybe we will all have the chance to learn that, sure, road cyclists may be a bit type A when it comes to their sport—specialized kits, fancy water bottles, components crafted to spec—but they sure do also have a lot of fun! Why not give it a try?
###
To learn more about The LeadOut Foundation and its work in the Austin community and beyond, visit: www.theleadoutfoundation.org/mission.
© 2022 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.