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Ryan Phelan
Company: DNA Direct
Home: Sausalito

In 2003, she founded DNA Direct, a revolutionary direct-to-consumer genetic testing company where she now serves as CEO. Phelan was a pioneer in marrying health care information with the Web back in 1995 when she created Direct Medical Knowledge, the first online medical library. In 1999, she sold to the company to WebMD, and the database became the consumer site’s backbone. Phelan has been a consumer health advocate for 25 years, and started the first medical library for consumers in 1978. She was also a founding director of Planetree, a nonprofit consumer health care organization, where she helped create the Planetree Resource Center. She’s co-founder of the ALL Species Foundation, a global science initiative to discover all life on Earth in the next 25 years. Phelan graduated from UC Berkeley and lives in the Bay Area with her husband Stuart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog. She enjoys riding her horse, hiking, and running the trails of the Marin Headlands.