About Us

Lanty Smith is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Scion. He is a serial entrepreneur who has had a broad range of successful business experiences. He was an attorney for the Navy in SE Asia, a partner in an international law firm and then chief legal officer and president of a large public company. He was a lead partner for a boutique investment and merchant banking firm and served on the boards of several public companies, including as lead independent director, chairman and interim CEO of a large financial institution. He has been active in numerous not-for-profits including serving on the Board of Trustees of Duke University, the Duke Management Company and The Duke Endowment. For the last fifteen years, Lanty has devoted his time and resources to medical research.

Bob Black oversees operations, product development and research initiatives at Scion. He has worked as a scientist at the General Electric R&D Center, was an assistant professor of radiology at Duke University, and an executive/co-founder of three other medical device companies. He has been an adjunct professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Bob received undergraduate degrees in physics, mathematics, and English from Miami University, Oxford, OH, an M.S. in physics and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana. Bob is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Lesco Rogers is a co-founder and chief medical officer at Scion. Lesco served as a clinician at the nationally renowned Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor. He was also a former faculty member of the Duke University Department of Anesthesia, division of Pain and Palliative Care. He was a consultant to Advanced Bionics, Emerging Indications Division. Lesco helped design the implant technique for the Bion migraine device, a percutaneous microsimulator, and has continued his consulting role with Boston Scientific after their acquisition of Advanced Bionics. He received his M.D. from Dartmouth College and underwent an interventional pain fellowship at Georgetown University.

Nat Bowditch leads Scion’s commercialization and business development activities. Most recently he served as CEO of OrthoHub which received FDA clearance for an orthopedic software platform which was sold to Stryker. Prior to that, Nat launched a number of innovative medical devices in the United States, Europe, Japan and emerging markets. He has secured favorable coding and insurance coverage for several cardiology devices. Nat holds a B.A. in genetics from Cornell, an M.S. in biology from Stanford, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

In her role as Chief Scientific Officer, Kristen Ade works with key opinion leaders serving to steer Scion's clinical trials, and is responsible for the protocol design, study oversight, and direction of data analysis for Scion-sponsored clinical and pre-clinical trials. She also directs data dissemination of study results and supports regulatory submission efforts related to Scion’s pivotal trials in Parkinson’s and episodic migraine. Kristen holds a B.A. in psychology from Indiana University and a PhD in neuroscience from Georgetown University. She completed research fellowships at both the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience) and Duke University (Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology). She was a research associate at Duke University prior to joining Scion in 2016.

In managing the clinical affairs department, Kara Richardson oversees the preparation, execution and close-out of all clinical studies at Scion and supports regulatory submissions. Kara previously held research positions at Duke University, followed by management appointments at Stanford University, Science37, and RapidAI, all focused on neurologic research. She has worked on more than 100 clinical trials with over fifty principal investigators in the fields of neurology, neurosurgery and neuroradiology. Kara holds a B.A. from New York University and is a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.

Jemica Warren serves as director of clinical affairs. She previously worked as a clinical operational manager for an international clinical research organization leading, managing, planning, scheduling, and delivering all clinical operations aspects of global clinical projects. Jemica received her M.S. in clinical research from Walden University and her B.S. in biology from North Carolina State University. She is also a current member and Certified Clinical Research Professional through the Society of Clinical Research Associates, and a member and Certified Clinical Research Associate through ACRP.

As Director of Engineering, Amanda Tucker manages and oversees the design, development, testing, and manufacturing of Scion’s medical devices, and monitors device performance during Scion’s clinical trials. Amanda has more than ten years of experience in medical device design and development working on over thirty NPI projects, with an additional 5 years spent focused in quality management and supplier controls. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University where she was also a Caldwell Fellow.