By Betsy Vereckey

Natalia Lumen T’14 was living in Singapore and traveling around the world in her dream job as a consultant for Bain when an unexpected health diagnosis brought her life to a standstill.

Despite no family history of cancer, Lumen was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer, a condition that required surgery to remove her thyroid. Lumen took a six-month medical leave and began the arduous process of managing her health care data. She wanted to be able to track her blood test results and medication dosages but couldn’t find an easy way to do so.

“I realized that maybe there was an opportunity for me to actually create the tools for myself,” says Lumen. “What I wanted was an app on my mobile phone at my fingertips—a daily
management tool—so that I could more easily monitor my health.” Not just her data, but her physical symptoms, too.

Lumen sent out some emails and found a friend of a friend who was an engineer and could help her build the app she wanted. Lumen eventually took the app to the market, and within two months, she had a thousand downloads.

“I don’t have an engineering background—I actually had no tech experience at all—but I knew there was a need, and I knew there could be a solution,” she says.

Lumen went on to become an award-winning entrepreneur. She is the founder & CEO of ThyForLife Health, a community of over 52,000 members. The company operates completely remotely, with team members located all around the world. Lumen says she gained experience working with people from different cultures while at Tuck, in addition to her prior work experiences at the European Bank in London and the World Bank in Singapore. She also attended Tuck Executive Education’s Building a Successful Diverse Business program in 2023.

“When I was at Tuck, I really appreciated having a diverse student body and trips with Tuck to Japan and China because I felt like I gained a much deeper understanding of the world outside of the United States,” says Lumen, who had classmates from India, China, Japan, Singapore, Latin America, and more. “I’ve had very fruitful business relationships that have emerged as a result of my experience at Tuck and the classmates I had.” In fact, one of her classmates from India even connected her with engineers in the country who she ended up hiring. “Tuck is a small school but still provides global exposure and relationships that have carried on for me through life.”

A native of Ukraine, Lumen currently lives in Vancouver, a place she likens to the Upper Valley for its natural beauty. This peacefulness was one of the reasons she chose Tuck for her MBA, along with the school’s rigorous curriculum.

“I remember a professor said once: ‘After your education at Tuck, you will be able to walk into any boardroom discussion and feel prepared to deal with whatever comes,” Lumen recalls. “It’s been 10 years since I graduated, and now looking back, I can say that’s true.”

Looking to the future, Lumen says there’s a huge opportunity to create more awareness of thyroid disease, and she hopes that her company will play a role in helping people diagnose themselves and get the care they need. She says that millions of people suffer from troublesome symptoms such as weight gain, brain fog, and exhaustion but don’t realize that these stem from problems related to their thyroid.

“My dream is to create more awareness for the condition so that people can get the right treatment and go on to live better lives,” she says.

Q+A

First Job After Tuck: Management consultant at Bain & Company in Singapore

Biggest Risk I’ve Taken in my Career: Starting a venture and consulting independently

Good leaders … celebrate small wins often and give their teams opportunities to shine.

This story originally appeared in print in the winter 2025 issue of Tuck Today magazine.