What I Know Now: Ellen Davis
I’m the owner of Precision Medical Media, a company that creates medical visuals to explain complex topics in healthcare. My clients are doctors, educators, and healthcare workers of all kinds.
name: Ellen Davis
age: 29
hometown: Montgomery, AL
career: I’m the owner of Precision Medical Media, a company that creates medical visuals to explain complex topics in healthcare. My clients are doctors, educators, and healthcare workers of all kinds. If they’re faced with the challenge of describing a medical topic, and words alone aren’t doing the job, I develop visuals to aid understanding. The rare days when I get to scrub in and illustrate surgeries from life in the OR are really fun!
education: When I enrolled at The University of Georgia, I was on the pre-vet track. It wasn’t until late in my freshman year that I decided to switch my major to scientific illustration. Because scientific illustration wasn’t offered at any state schools in Alabama, I was eligible for in-state tuition my junior and senior years through the Academic Common Market.
secret to success: I approach most every situation or obstacle with the assumption that I can figure it out. There are a million skills I don’t have, but someone in my network probably does. If you go through life assuming that others want to collaborate or help you out, life is a lot easier (and a lot more fun)!
parental impact: Both of my parents (Mark and Catherine Davis) attended the University of Alabama. My dad went on to earn a law degree, and then enlisted as a JAG officer in the Army. He now works in a private practice in Montgomery. My mother owns a real estate abstracting business, Providence Exchange Services. While I didn’t want to follow their career paths, I did learn a great deal from my parents about the value of hard work. Most importantly though, they placed a tremendous value on my education.
advice for teens: As I’ve settled into my career, really cool opportunities have come my way that I wouldn’t have been qualified for if I’d let my other passions die out. My advice would be to stay focused on your goals and have a plan, but don’t discard your passions. Your particular talents may come together in ways you can’t foresee right now.
looking back: When I started my illustration business, I was surprised by a lot of the commentary I received about how “brave” it was to go out on my own. And that’s when I realized how much I owed my parents for raising me in an environment where I believed I could do anything (or at least try). You don’t have to know it all, you just have to take the first steps.
can’t live without:
1. Nala (my chocolate lab)
2. Oil Paint
3. My Camera
downtime: When I’m not illustrating anatomy, I am usually illustrating children’s books or recipe testing for my food blog, Fridge to Fork.
