MAP in Action: The Power of Collaboration
MAP Fellow Kathy Zheng and mentor, Jen Chin pose together at the MAP Fellowship Kick-Off event.
Through the 2026 MAP Fellowship, Kathy Zheng was paired with Jen Chin to grow SIRUM’s fertility medication donation program, helping more people learn how to donate unused medication to patients who need it.
What began as a project to expand the program became an opportunity to learn from one another, challenge assumptions, and see familiar work in a new light. From conversations with donors to time spent inside SIRUM’s pharmacy, their partnership showed how fresh perspectives, shared curiosity, and dedicated time can drive meaningful change.
Looking back on your time together through the MAP Fellowship, what stands out most to each of you about the experience?
K: Truly, there were so many aspects about the MAP Fellowship program that it is hard to pick just one! The Fellowship Kick-Off and Culmination events were well organized, with thoughtful interactive sessions (shoutout to Ash and the team for creating the experience), intentional networking, and the chance to work on real-world problems and solutions for SIRUM was rewarding in itself. The cherry on top was that my mentor and I are both based in Seattle, so we would meet up at new coffee places around the city, which made the experience extra special.
J: I'd echo Kathy that the overall experience was intentional. There was a clear arc between the Kick-Off and Culmination events, and holding them offsite with the whole MAP community made it easy to be fully present instead of dividing my attention elsewhere. It was a great chance to build connections with current fellows and mentors, as well as leaders beyond the program, and Kathy and I carried that energy into our own meetups.
What felt easy about the experience, and what was harder than you expected?
J: At SIRUM, we take donated, unexpired medicine that would otherwise be thrown away and get it to people who can't afford it. One of our newer programs redistributes unused fertility medication, which is expensive and often left over when someone finishes an egg freezing or IVF cycle. Growing that program mattered to us, but our small team hadn't had the capacity to take it on.
The MAP structure gave Kathy dedicated time to build a strategy to help more people learn they can donate. Finding time during a busy season was challenging, but Kathy owned the process. She drove the work while I brought context and connections within SIRUM and the field. We became sounding boards for each other, and the work was stronger as a result.
K: The project matched my background, so it felt natural to utilize my marketing and program management skills to provide frameworks and develop a strategy to drive awareness of SIRUM’s fertility medication donation program. At the same time, having worked primarily in full-time roles throughout my career, I had to learn how to add value without feeling like I needed to have all the answers or own the entire outcome. The experience reminded me that creating value can also mean offering perspective, structure, and creative thinking.
What did you learn from each other that you didn’t expect?
J: Kathy brought templates and frameworks from her product marketing background that I learned from. What I didn't expect was how much she'd teach me about our own medicine donors through intentional interviews. She approached every conversation with genuine curiosity and a learning posture, drawing out, in donors' own words, what it meant to give their medication to someone else on the same path. Some of what she heard contradicted what our internal team thought or assumed, like an unexpected emphasis on the safety of our process. Even as someone who works on this mission every day, Kathy and her work helped me see our donor journey with fresh eyes.
K: Jen shared a breadth of industry knowledge about the social impact and nonprofit space, and helped me better understand medication donations and the fertility industry. She helped me better understand how a nonprofit approaches growth and impact. With real-world problems such as changing regulations, industry constraints, and limited resources, I had to think more creatively.
How did having dedicated time and a partner affect the way you approached the challenge?
K: Through the fellowship, we get one site visit to our organization’s office or another location. Visiting SIRUM’s pharmacy was invaluable because I saw firsthand how donated medication moves from point A to point B, with checks in place throughout the process to ensure medications are safe and unexpired. It was both eye-opening and empowering to see medication that otherwise could have ended up in a landfill sorted and prepared for someone else in need.
I also interviewed five fertility medication donors to understand where we could loop folks into the patient funnel, which helped me map the patient journey and identify opportunities to educate people about the medication donation program. Seeing the work firsthand and connecting with people who had gone through the donation journey gave me a much deeper perspective on SIRUM’s larger impact and helped me shape more thoughtful recommendations.
J: Kathy's dedicated time and expertise produced a roadmap and playbook we're now putting into action. We're adding capacity to build partnerships with local fertility clinics (one of her top recommendations) and testing the paid advertising ideas she identified. She also gave us a go-to-market template we can reuse when launching new programs. Just as important, our whole team trusts the strategy because it's grounded in real donor interviews and Kathy's market research experience.
Was there a moment during the fellowship when your perspective shifted?
K: Touring the pharmacy and interviewing fertility donors helped me see and understand why people wanted to donate their medication through SIRUM. The donors felt aligned with SIRUM’s mission of paying it forward to help someone else on a similar journey, and they also wanted to do it safely and legally. SIRUM is the only organization today that can take unexpired medication and redistribute it to someone who can’t afford it or access it as easily.
This moment connected me to something I’ve been discovering through my own personal work in life coaching and tarot. One of the things I love most about these practices is helping someone recognize their own strengths, make connections they may not have seen before, and see themselves or their path in a new way. I realized a common thread between my professional and personal work: helping people and organizations make connections that let them see and become their brightest selves.
J: Watching Kathy weave together her life coaching and tarot practice with her professional work was an influential moment for me, too. Early on, she saw them as separate pursuits, but later saw their shared purpose. It reminded me that people do their best work when they bring their whole selves to the table, and that as a leader, I need to make room for that on my own team.
What will you carry with you from this experience—and how do you hope it influences the way you lead, work or support others?
K: I got to stretch both my personal and professional skills through this experience. At the Culmination event, I even had the opportunity to offer tarot readings, offering people in the MAP network a time to connect and reflect. Bringing another part of myself into a professional setting helped me connect the dots across my work. Creating space for reflection, asking thoughtful questions, and helping people make connections are all strengths I plan to carry forward as a leader and a collaborator.
J: I’ll also carry forward the importance of community. I met many talented MAP fellows, alumni, mentors, and community leaders, few of whom work directly in healthcare, but all committed to positive social impact. It reminded me to look for insight and connections beyond the usual people and beyond my own field. Some of the most useful perspectives come from people who know little about your issue, but whose life and work experience helps you see it differently. I want to keep seeking out those connections for SIRUM, and I'm looking forward to staying in touch with Kathy as she starts a new chapter in her career.
Read more about the MAP Fellowship and how to apply here.
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