Advisors

Guidance from people who understand the mission.

The XTD Pigeon Ecosystem is being shaped with insight from people who understand the technical, caregiving, and lived‑experience realities behind breathing‑related challenges. Each advisor brings a different perspective — medical, engineering, and caregiver‑centered — all aligned with safety, feasibility, and the needs of families.

Strategic & Messaging Advisor

Bethany Thacker

Beth brings instinct, clarity, and fierce loyalty to the mission. As Andrea’s sister, she has lived this journey from the inside — the caregiving, the advocacy, the fear, the humor, the resilience, and the daily reality of protecting someone medically fragile.

Jesus is my Rock, my Savior, and my Guide through all of this — Beth is the feisty little rudder who keeps me on course.

Her instincts guide messaging, advocacy, and the ecosystem’s emotional integrity. She helps ensure Pigeon’s story is told with honesty, strength, and purpose.

Technical Advisor

Melissa Ruth

Melissa Ruth is an enterprise AI strategist, author, and health‑tech advocate who translates lived experience into practical systems. By day, she works at Bentley Systems, where she helps major infrastructure organizations navigate complex digital transformations. She holds an MBA in Technical Management and is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner and Certified Reliability Leader.

Diagnosed with autism and ADHD as an adult, Melissa views her neurodivergent wiring as a “cosmic superpower” that lets her spot obscure patterns, reverse‑engineer tangled problems, and architect elegant systems. She is the founder of Vital Mosaic, a patient‑centered health technology initiative born from her own experiences as a cancer and radiation survivor managing chronic illness and hypermobility.

She approaches healthcare technology from the caregiver perspective, building tools that connect fragmented medical records, wearable data, and caregiver notifications into one coherent picture.

She lives in Spring, Texas with her husband David of 30 years, where they share a lively household including a few of their adult children, her mother‑in‑law, and her “Dog Squad.”

Clinical Advisors

Engineering Advisor

Founder’s Perspective

Lived Experience Advisory

As the inventor and caregiver, I provide the real‑world insight that drives every design decision — from comfort and usability to notification behavior and caregiver workflow. Pigeon exists because caregiving demanded it, and that perspective remains central to every stage of development.