I help research teams, life-sciences companies, and professional organizations think clearly about high-stakes work—the proposals, applications, and technical documents where expert judgment and a well-reasoned case decide the outcome.
My work centers on proposal strategy and critique—PCORI and patient-centered outcomes research, comparative clinical effectiveness research, SBIR/STTR, and translational science proposals—and on the substantive judgment that complex scientific documents require: whether the logic holds, whether the structure earns the reader’s attention, whether the work makes its own case.
That judgment has a long root. I was trained as an editor at W. W. Norton, where I learned to read for structure and argument before anything else. I later worked in technology and finance, then moved into biomedical and medical research, building expertise across proposal development, biomedical informatics, community-engaged research, and medical communications. It was in that research work that I worked with machine learning and AI—applied to real biomedical problems years before generative AI reached the consumer market. Each move added a domain; none replaced the discipline underneath.
I serve as a PCORI reviewer, a commitment that started with service on a panel that established PCORnet and continues to this day. This experience shapes how I critique: I look past wording to responsiveness, review logic, patient-centeredness, engagement, feasibility, and the clarity of the case for funding—the things a review panel actually weighs.
My current work on responsible AI is a continuation of that foundation, not a departure from it. The tools have changed; the discipline has not. Through DCC Cyber, Duke City Consulting’s AI and cybersecurity arm that was established as a service to the freelance community, I help freelancers, small teams, and professionals use AI more defensibly and securely. The principle there is the one beneath everything I do: capable tools can accelerate expert practice, but they do not replace domain expertise, accountability, or human judgment.
I work best with people who value strategic thinking, senior-level expertise, and direct, candid assessment. Whether the project is a competitive proposal, a PCORI application, an AI workflow question, or a scientific document that has to hold up under scrutiny, my role is the same: help clarify what matters, strengthen the work, and prepare it for expert review.
— J. Kelly Byram, MS, MBA, ELS