Leadership & Clinical Research

The People Behind SeaKing Solace

SeaKing Solace brings together experience in entrepreneurship, clinical care, clinical research, finance, commercialization, and organizational development to investigate the potential of motion-rich interventions and translate that research into scalable clinical technology.

The team combines operational experience with scientific and clinical guidance to move SeaKing from hypothesis to rigorous human research.

Leadership

Stephen R. Smith

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Stephen R. Smith is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SeaKing Solace, where he leads the company's scientific vision, product strategy, technology development, and organizational growth. He developed the SeaKing research program to investigate how carefully characterized natural multidimensional motion may influence human physiology and ultimately support new approaches to neurological and autonomic rehabilitation.

His career combines entrepreneurial leadership, technology, product development, and commercialization. Stephen was selected as one of Apple's first eight Business Managers and participated in the company's early commercial business pilot program from 2010 to 2011 before leaving to co-found VaporSmiths.

As President of VaporSmiths and later Global eVapor Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong, he helped build an international business serving customers in 28 countries while overseeing manufacturing operations in Shenzhen, China. During his leadership, the company grew to approximately $10 million in annual revenue.

Following that venture, Stephen spent nearly a decade advising companies as a fractional product, growth, and go-to-market strategist across medtech, SaaS, and consumer businesses. His work has included product strategy, commercialization planning, customer acquisition systems, CRM architecture, business intelligence, and revenue operations using platforms including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Power BI.

Throughout his career he has focused on transforming complex, early-stage ideas into scalable products and operational systems. That experience now serves as the foundation for SeaKing Solace, where he combines scientific research, clinical collaboration, technology, and data-driven product development into a unified translational research program.

Stephen serves as lead author of the SeaKing Solace scientific white paper series and directs the company's long-term research strategy, technology roadmap, and institutional collaborations.

FocusResearch strategy, product architecture, commercialization, data systems

Tracie Smith, RN

Clinical Director

Tracie Smith, RN, serves as Clinical Director for SeaKing Solace, where she provides clinical leadership for participant safety, protocol implementation, and future clinical operations.

A graduate of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing, she brings more than twenty-four years of clinical nursing experience spanning multiple acute and specialty care environments.

Her clinical experience includes dialysis, organ transplant, medical-surgical nursing, and oncology.

Throughout her nursing career she has served as both a Charge Nurse and Clinical Preceptor, mentoring nursing staff while coordinating complex patient care within multidisciplinary healthcare teams.

At SeaKing Solace she contributes practical clinical expertise to study design, participant monitoring, operational safety planning, and the development of future clinical workflows as the research program advances into human studies.

FocusClinical operations, participant safety, protocol implementation

Clinical Research Leadership

David J. Whellan, MD

Principal Investigator

David J. Whellan, MD, serves as Principal Investigator for the SeaKing Solace clinical research program.

Dr. Whellan is Deputy Provost for Research, Senior Associate Provost for Clinical Research, Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, and Executive Director of the Jefferson Clinical Research Institute at Thomas Jefferson University.

In these roles, he oversees research administration, clinical research operations, research conduct, and compliance across Thomas Jefferson University.

His research focuses on clinical trial design and implementation strategies for improving the treatment and outcomes of patients with heart failure. He has served as Principal Investigator for numerous NIH- and industry-funded clinical trials and has published more than 250 manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters.

His expertise in clinical trial design and execution provides scientific leadership for the SeaKing Solace clinical research program.

FocusClinical trial design, research operations, scientific oversight

Strategic Advisors

Edward Willis, MBA

Interim Chief Financial Officer & Strategic Advisor

Edward Willis serves as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Strategic Advisor to SeaKing Solace.

With more than fifty years of executive leadership experience, Mr. Willis has built, financed, and advised companies across venture capital, corporate finance, management consulting, nonprofit leadership, and higher education.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Thomas Jefferson University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

His career has included executive leadership with Sun Oil Company, Arthur Andersen LLP, venture capital investment, international economic development, project finance, and private-sector capital formation.

He currently serves as a Trustee of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health and has served as an adjunct professor at both Jefferson University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also serves as a judge for the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition.

Mr. Willis has advised government, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations on finance, entrepreneurship, capital formation, governance, and organizational growth.

At SeaKing Solace he provides strategic financial leadership, capital formation guidance, institutional development, and long-term organizational planning.

FocusFinance, capital formation, governance, institutional strategy

Brian Odelli

Strategic Advisor

Brian Odelli serves as Strategic Advisor to SeaKing Solace.

With more than thirty years of experience advising entrepreneurs, executives, privately held companies, and affluent families, Brian specializes in strategic planning, business growth, capital strategy, and long-term value creation.

As a Vice President at Stifel, he works closely with business owners to connect them with the firm's broad capabilities in investment banking, business advisory services, and wealth management.

Brian played a pivotal role in the evolution of SeaKing Solace. During early discussions surrounding the company's original concept of providing therapeutic sailing experiences, he challenged the leadership team to think beyond a location-dependent service model.

His recommendation to build a scalable research and technology platform fundamentally reshaped the company's direction.

That strategic insight helped transform SeaKing Solace from an idea centered on therapeutic sailing into a research-driven organization focused on understanding, characterizing, and ultimately reproducing the beneficial aspects of natural multidimensional motion for broader clinical application.

FocusStrategic growth, scalability, commercialization, capital strategy

Building the network

Building the Future of Motion-Based Medicine

SeaKing Solace continues to expand its network of collaborators across clinical research, neuroscience, rehabilitation, engineering, data science, and translational medicine.

As the research program progresses, additional investigators, advisors, and institutional collaborators will be announced as formal relationships are established.

Explore the Science Explore the Research Program