Meet Hannah Love | Team Scientist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Love and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, how does your business help the community?
The world is facing an unprecedented number of complex global challenges ranging from climate change, global pandemics, poverty, water shortages, and more.  I believe that science can solve many of these problems; however, none of these problems can be solved by one scientific discipline.  To solve complex global problems, we need teams of scientists from different disciplines working together. Divergent Science collaborates with scientific teams to help them create new knowledge to solve complex global challenges.

Philosophical Approach: The 21st century world faces enormous global challenges like climate change, the rampant spread of infectious diseases, species loss, and increasing health crisis. To address these challenges in meaningful ways, transdisciplinary teams must come together to cohesively innovate and create new knowledge. Divergent Science helps transdiciplinary teams realize their goals by giving them the tools they need to succeed.

Mission Statement: Empowering teams to create new knowledge and build solutions to solve complex global challenges.

Meet the Team

What should our readers know about your business?
Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about.

Ellen and I are a little bit like a yin-yang. She’s a laboratory scientist and I’m a social scientist. Ellen’s day job is, Vice President for Research at the University of New Mexico, and I’m not at that level – yet. Ellen identifies as an introvert, and I’m an extrovert. Ellen has a dog, and I have cat. We hope that when we walk into a room there is something every participant can identify with. Further, we like to think that our partnership demonstrates to the teams we work with that it’s possible to be productive and successful even when you are a yin-yang.

How did you get to where you are today professionally? Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

After 5-years of laboring away to complete a Ph.D., I finally graduated. I always thought I’d stay and work at the university. The university offered me a $0.30 per hour raise and no health benefits. I remember thinking to myself that I didn’t spend 5-years doing my Ph.D. to not have health insurance. Ellen, Divergent Science Co-Founder, and I had been chatting about forming an LLC, and we officially formed in July 2019.

Almost immediately, the path grew darker. On October 19th, 2019, I was 33 years old and diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. It was a long year full of surgeries, chemo, radiation, and recovery. During cancer, someone close to me was, unfortunately, telling people not to work with me because I would never be the same after cancer. At the time, I was furious. In some ways, she was right. After cancer, nothing is scary to me: I can facilitate in front of a huge crowd, talk to the most curmudgeonly person, or enter a room with a team in conflict and not even break a sweat. I am not the same. I’m a cancer thriver and I’m not afraid.

During cancer treatment, I spent days thinking about and journaling about how I wanted my life to be after cancer. I thought about what an ideal day would look like, how to infuse creativity into every work product, how to improve trainings, facilitations, and so much more. October 20th, 2020, one year and one day after my diagnosis, we officially launched Divergent Science LLC!

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Ellen and I know and understand that our different ideas and identities could lead to a conflict, but we choose a different path. We choose to use our conflicts as a source of inspiration, creativity, and the opportunity to advance our knowledge.

Ellen and I have seasoned conflict norms. Anyone who has worked with Divergent Science, has probably seen us disagree on something. Ellen and I come from different scientific backgrounds, and we are at different career stages. We are destined to have disagreements. We have conflict norms that we live by:
1. We are genuinely invested in the best outcome. We don’t care whose idea it is. To reinforce this concept, we have lines that we frequently use including:
– “How about we switch that up a little bit”
– “Let’s put that in the parking lot”
– “That gave me an idea”
– “Ohhhhh!! I know!” How about_____?”
2. We want a final product with BOTH our ideas. In our opinion, the best products have BOTH of our voices
3. It’s “we” and not “I.” Ellen and I decided when we formed Divergent Science that everything was “we.” WE created Divergent Science, and WE are responsible for the output of the company. We even created business cards with BOTH are names on it – not individual cards for each of us.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
I believe that team science can change the world.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love a good travel plan! If I had a friend visit for seven days (5 days of fun) these are my must-see activities Day 1: Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road and maybe a quick hike
Day 2: Hang out in Fort Collins, ride bikes, explore Old Town, and visit campus
Day 3: Day trip to Cheyenne to get a feel for the “Old West” and eat at Destination Taiwan
Day 4: Pearl Street in Boulder and the Dushanbe Tea House
Day 5: Check out a park or a hike close to Fort Collins and eat at the Mishawaka

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My business partner, Ellen Fisher, and I have worked together since 2015. I’ve learned so much from her about professional and personal relationships, negotiation, creating a business, and more. She has believed in me in my lowest moments, stood by me through cancer treatment, and I am forever grateful for her.

Website: www.teamdivergentscience.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/divergent-science/

Twitter: @dsteamscience

Facebook: Facebook.com/divergentscience