Dr. Eeks: Not made in a lab nor a star of a scifi series (yet)
(Yes, it’s a nickname. It comes from my real name, ErinKate Stair…and here it is with the credentials I earned if you’re into that sorta thing: ErinKate Stair, MPH, MD. ;) )
If I’m not creating, I’m dead. My first love is storytelling. If it’s in the woods around a campfire, even better.
You can read my book Manic Kingdom here (fair warning: it’s fictionalized but based on a true story and it is not a comfortable read. It’s a very uncomfortable read, but I’m told it’s a page-turner.)
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Good Mantras to live by:
“When you can’t laugh, laugh.”
“The truth sits alone at lunch.”
“Never get in a tinkling contest with a skunk.”
“The art of war is winning without firing a shot.”
“It’s better to be alone than wish you were.”
“Never take for granted that people understand you.”
“What matters is who you are today. Not who you were in the past.”
“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea…but I’m someone’s 5AM shot of Apple Cider Vinegar.”
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(The writings & opinions on this website are my own (Dr. Eeks) and not reflective of anyone I work or consult for.)
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FYI: For the blog, I write the blogs that are NOT listed in the “Other-Ad” category. The “Other-Ad” category in the blog section is MOSTLY advertisement blogs written to promote specific links. They support my dog Barnaby’s treat habit and the Causes or Cures podcast. I do not scientifically review any of them and from the ones I have read, they are usually terrible. But the dog needs his treats.
Here is where I switch to 3rd Person for some reason:
Background: Eeks grew up in a small town called Trucksville, attending Catholic school and earning the title of high school valedictorian. Most of her days were filled with playing soccer, getting into trouble with strict nuns and priests, violin lessons, Krav Maga, and trespassing on adjacent farms to run and hide in the corn stalks. (Truly a child of the corn.) With a veterinarian father, animal rescue became second nature. Her childhood was peppered with memorable moments, from skunk, bird and squirrel rescues to transfusing the family’s hemophiliac dog on the dining room table to collecting roadkill for Nevermore, the family’s raven. Nevermore, grounded by a hunter’s bullet despite several surgeries, lived in a backyard flight pen and had a special love for groundhog—he’d lose his mind and hop across his perch with excitement whenever a run-over one was brought home. (You’re welcome for that mental image, but I was the one who had to pick up the groundhog.)
Somewhere between corn fields and Catholic guilt, she ended up graduating from a well-known military academy on the esteemed Hudson River (West Point), where she was recruited to play Division 1 soccer for the Lady Knights. There, she played soccery, majored in both chemistry and environmental engineering, ran on the marathon team (it beat drill and was before she developed asthma), and was commissioned an Army officer. Along the way, she taught bayonet and close-quarter combat to fellow cadets (yes, she got dropped on her head more than a few times) and painted the female latrine in Bradley Barracks a bold hot pink—though she suspects the Higher-Ups have since reverted it to regulation beige.
Health Stuff, Since this is a health website:
After earning degrees in chemistry and environmental engineering, Eeks headed to medical school in Philadelphia, fully intending to become a doctor in the traditional sense. That chapter did not go as planned. She had what she now calls an existential breakdown involving bulimia, hating school, losing her sense of meaning and faith in God, depression, and unresolved school trauma she tried to bulimia through. After two years, she shocked everyone by quitting medical school and, like many people who are one bad decision away from becoming a statistic, ended up in a dangerous situation with not-so-nice folks (Lifetime movie, check), luckily escaped, and slowly began putting her life back together. Once she had enough stability (and fight) to try again, she finished her medical degree (clinicals) at AUA so she could live in New York City, a place she was always drawn to and which felt far more like home than Philadelphia ever did.
Some of that chapter still lingers. She occasionally has nightmares, and there are parts of that experience words don’t quite reach. But there’s a huge silver lining: it reshaped how she sees resilience, risk, recovery, forgiveness, grace, and the very human side of health, in herself and in others.
What helped? Martial arts, long runs, being creative, writing a lot, rebuilding her faith in God, and when it came to bulimia, treating it like an addiction was the main thing that helped. Also fear. She’s a believer that fear isn’t the villian people make it out to be.
She shares this “not a straight line,” part of her story to give hope to others who are currently struggling, feel stuck, feel like they’ve blown up their lives or fallen too far behind. She understands those feelings, she’s been there. But just know that you can take an epic fall from grace and bounce back higher, often stronger than before. And you can simultaneously feel guilt, shame, anger, gratitude, relief, and pride–there is nothing out of place about that.
Some people will judge you, even people you once trusted. Human nature, folks. You’ll be fine.
Her book Manic Kingdom draws from this lived experience but is a work of fiction, with events, details, and names changed.
Moving on… ;)
She later earned a Global Health Leadership Scholarship to NYU, where she completed her MPH in global health epi. By then, it had become clear that traditional hospital medicine wasn’t where she thrived. She felt soul-crushed in hospitals. Too many people were showing up with illnesses that could have been prevented years earlier. Maybe it was her inner cynic, but it felt like patching holes in a ship that kept sailing toward the iceberg.
Public health, on the other hand, felt like getting upstream.
It offered a way to focus on prevention, systems, and the bigger forces shaping health long before people ever landed in hospital beds. So despite the debt, raised eyebrows, and “you’ll end up on the street” phone calls from family, she chose the pathos less traveled (she meant path, but also maybe pathos).
Her advice? Don’t let anyone, your ego, a shallow definition of success or piles of debt bully you into a version of yourself that feels counterfeit and crushes your soul. It’s worth reminding yourself that life is ridiculously short, strange, and unrepeatable.
During her time in public health school, she worked on a fascinating research project with an organization focused on modeling and predicting emerging infectious diseases worldwide. Her curiosity around how human interaction with other species and the environment can spark new health challenges continues to drive her work. Today, she works as a public health contractor and consultant, thriving in the creativity and variety of rapid response projects, translating epidemiologic insights into clear communication and more effective public health action.
Public Health Response Stuff:
What’s her day job? Eeks is a public health expert specializing in applied epidemiology, outbreak response, and creative, evidence-based health communication across national and global initiatives. She has an MPH and an MD, but does not practice medicine at all (instead, a full-time, happy public health nerd.)
As a federal contractor, she has supported multiple CDC programs focused on infectious disease preparedness and response, overdose prevention, cancer prevention and surveillance, and data modernization. Her work has included designing and evaluating public health communication interventions, conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis, developing outbreak-response frameworks, and translating complex research into real-world public health action.
She has served as scientific technical and communications lead on large-scale public health projects, partnered with state and local health departments to implement person-centered interventions for marginalized communities, and contributed to national campaigns and systems designed to improve prevention, surveillance, and rapid response.
Across her work, Eeks brings together applied epidemiology, strategic communication, and creative storytelling to help organizations respond effectively to public health threats and communicate science clearly, responsibly, and in ways that make it stick.
In 2025, she was inducted as an alumni into NYU’s School of Global Health’s Delta Beta chapter of the national Delta Omega Honorary Society for her work in the field of public health.
Public Health & Digital Health
Before diving into her current work, Dr. Eeks managed the evidence base and scientific communications for a global digital health startup headquartered in the UK, focused on scalable, population-level interventions for chronic disease and long-term health conditions. Her role spanned randomized controlled trials, epidemiological studies, and public-facing communication for innovative programs using tools such as gaming and digital cognitive behavioral therapy.
These interventions targeted chronic conditions and related drivers including addiction, obesity, poor sleep, anxiety, depression, and other long-term health challenges, reaching populations across the US, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and Israel, with strong outcomes.
While she values the scalability and creativity of digital health solutions, Dr. Eeks believes effective public health responses must balance technology with real-world, human-centered connection and human intimacy. (But if you are in a relationship with an AI dude/dudette, you do you.)
The Causes or Cures Podcast
She hosts the independent Causes or Cures Public Health Podcast, where she interviews top researchers, doctors, scientists, health and wellness leaders, and sometimes just “characters” from around the globe about the world’s biggest health concerns. It is now ranked in the top 2.5% of podcasts by ListenNotes, and was listed as a top public health podcast by millions podcasts here. She funds it herself, finds the guests, schedules, studies the topic, records, edits and produces each episode. It is a lot of work, but she enjoys learning new things with all the interesting people and straight-up characters she gets to chat with. While she started accepting sponsorships and underwriting opportunities in 2024, Causes or Cures is NOT owned or affiliated with any school, health journal, not-for-profit, pharmaceutical, biootech or wellness company. She does not endorse any of her guests views. Anything she says on the podcast is her personal opinion and not affiliated in any way, shape or form with organizations she works for or consults for. (Sponsorships per episode are possible, if she digs the company and the message.)
She also hosts the TrialSite News Farrago Podcast and is always open to guest ideas! She also lends epidemiological insight and editorial feedback to health stories behind the scenes. TrialSite is an independent health media platform that does not take any pharmaceutical advertisement money.
Work Together?
For creative science storytelling, public health consulting, applied epidemiology, evidence-based health communication, and data analysis services, please email ms directly at: erin@bloomingwellness.com.
If you are interested in underwriting or sponsoring the Causes or Cures Podcast, email me directly: erin@bloomingwellness.com
If you are interested in being a guest on the Causes or Cures Podcast, email me at: erin@bloomingwellness.com.
Rando Tidbits*
*Subject to Change
Her favorite place to be is the woods.
Dr. Eeks laughs a lot, often when it’s inappropriate, and writes health jokes just ‘cuz. If you’re unsure, ask before you take her seriously.
Her dog Barnaby is the best. He is the Chief Everything Officer (CEO) of Blooming Wellness.
She’s a fatalist. The good news about being a fatalist is that you know it will end soon.
Every guy she’s dated will nod after reading this, but she’s been told that she’s on the spectrum. Hmmm..aren’t we all???? (Like if you aren’t on the spectrum, where are you?)
She has asthma that developed in her early twenties after a weird virus. It sucks but she makes the best of it using a combination of conventional medicine and quackery.
She loves to write.
Dr. Eeks practices minimalism. (Furniture…what?) She wishes minimalism was cool when she was poor. Then she could have said she was a minimalist, not poor.
As a hobby, she likes to study the medicinal nature of plants & herbs.
Her favorite hobbies include: adventuring, running, soccer, krav maga, coffee-fueled conversations, swimming, yoga (including face yoga and laughter yoga!), playing the violin, podcasting, meditation, reading, soccer, finding the humor in life, interval training, writing, animal rescue, gardening and bird-watching.
She is a BIG live theatre fan and will almost always go to a play. Also, a huge Grateful Dead fan.
She’s known for turning pathos into humor and mastering the mundane. It’s a shit, short world, have some fun.
She’s played the violin for years and started when she was 6 in the Catholic choir. Lately she’s only into pizzicato and fiddling techniques. Everyone in her family plays a musical instrument, except mom. She yells a lot though, and sometimes it’s even in tune. Her father, a Marine vet, is a professional trombonist when he’s not at the animal practice.
Her father is a wildly popular veterinarian & consistently wins Best Veterinarian in the area!
She is mostly plant-based, likes to cook simple, healthy meals, and is a regular at the Farmers Market. The best thing about the Farmers Market is hearing the farmers’ stories.
She gets up really early and goes to bed early.
She is famous for her Irish exits. #sorrynotsorry
She follows a very strict wellness routine. It annoys her too. She doesn’t promote any supplements, because at the end of the day, the field is too unregulated for an endorsement. It’s like the “EAT ME” scene in Alice in Wonderland.
She dislikes censorship, because she thinks it ultimately does more harm than good in a democracy, and we are better off teaching people how to think critically about any and all information. In the digital age, it’s impossible to try to control everything a person reads or sees. Plus, critical thinking is very vintage these days, as is listening. Make vintage great again?
She doesn’t like loud noises or loud conversations. Noise pollution is legit.
She thinks Big Pharma has way too much power & influence over health policy, public health & healthcare and strongly feels that research agendas need to focus more on prevention.
She’s left-handed, and as all of the soccer coaches she’s played against know, very left-footed on the field as well.
She loves the game of soccer & was a Division 1 soccer recruit in college. Her travel team, the Dragons, was one of the best in the state of PA. Talk about great memories. :)
She despises factory farms. My God, they are horrid. They are the worst of humanity.
Most of Dr. Eeks’ charitable causes involve animals, mainly because they are better than humans. #justsayin
She thinks we take life and ourselves too seriously. I mean, when the sun melts and kills Earth (or a nuke does it first), who gives a shit about your trophies, looks, salary or credentials? Plus, think about all the life in space…yet to be discovered by us…that probably flies by Earth and thinks, “What idiots.”
Intellectual humility goes a long way.
She doesn’t really believe in time or age, and if those are delusional beliefs, she’s cool with’em.
She believes in a higher power or at least is very, very hopeful.
Love is everything.
PHILOSOPHY STUFF:
Dr. Eeks is deeply passionate about promoting common-sense health and wellness, driven by a fire to empower people from all walks of life to take control of their health, make positive lifestyle changes, and live happier, more fulfilling lives. She firmly believes that anyone (no matter their budget) can lead a healthier life. That’s why she gets frustrated when wellness is often marketed as a luxury brand filled with expensive products, supplements, detoxes, cleanses, and retreats. For her, wellness needs to be more inclusive. After all, research shows that people with lower incomes often face more health challenges than those with higher incomes. Making wellness accessible and affordable is one of her core public health goals with this website.
Healing can be approached in many ways: some focus on the body, others on the mind or spirit, and some emphasize the mind-body connection. Dr. Eeks prefers to take a holistic approach, focusing on the connection between mind, body, and spirit. And while it may not be the trendiest viewpoint, she does believe in a Higher Power guiding that connection.
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Dr. Eeks has a fondness for making quirky wellness videos for her Instagram feed and blogging about her health adventures, while having a natural love for irreverent, blue-collar comedy. She curses, sorry. She’s very interested in how health information is relayed to people and how it is interpreted. She thinks effective, positive, honest, creative communication is Public Health 101, because getting through is 90% of the battle, right?
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Feel free to follow her on Twitter too. She tries to stay away from politics, but, you know, sometimes it’s hard. And she has a bad habit of posting pictures on Twitter and trying to turn it into Instagram.
