Meet Tamara StClaire: Building the Future of Healthcare Innovation in Maine

As Chief Strategy and Business Transformation Officer at MaineHealth, President of Trellis Health, and an advisory board member for the Maine Life Sciences Center (MLSC), Tamara StClaire brings experience spanning healthcare strategy, technology, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship. Having worked in major healthcare markets such as San Francisco and Seattle before building and innovating in Maine, she offers a unique perspective on the state’s opportunities within healthcare and life sciences.

At MLSC, her focus is on helping strengthen the connections between research, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and investment so innovative ideas can move from discovery to real-world impact.

Seeing Opportunity in Maine

Throughout her career, Tamara has learned that innovation isn’t determined by geography.

“One thing I’ve learned is that innovation doesn’t happen because you’re in a big market. It happens when talented people come together around meaningful problems.”

While larger healthcare hubs often receive the most attention, she sees many of the same ingredients for success in Maine: strong healthcare institutions, research organizations, entrepreneurs, and collaborators working toward common goals.

She believes Maine’s challenges—including an aging population, workforce shortages, rural geography, and rising healthcare costs—are actually opportunities. These are the same issues healthcare systems across the country are trying to solve, making Maine an ideal place to develop and test new approaches to care.

“We’re small enough to collaborate and move quickly, but large enough to create solutions that can have national relevance.”

Why MLSC Matters

Tamara was drawn to MLSC because of its focus on building an ecosystem rather than supporting innovation in isolation.

Having spent much of her career working at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and innovation, she recognizes that successful life sciences ecosystems require more than great research. They need pathways that help ideas move from discovery to commercialization and ultimately improve people’s lives.

She sees this moment as particularly important for Maine.

Healthcare is undergoing rapid transformation as artificial intelligence, precision medicine, digital health, clinical research, and new care models continue to converge. Through MLSC, Maine has an opportunity to bring together health systems, universities, entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers around a shared vision for growth.

Building the Foundation for Growth

One recent example of that progress is the creation of Maine’s first Clinical Research Unit (CRU) at MaineHealth, supported by an investment from Maine Technology Institute.

For patients, the impact is immediate: increased access to clinical trials and cutting-edge treatments closer to home.

Historically, many Mainers have needed to travel to larger markets such as Boston to participate in advanced clinical research. The CRU helps bring those opportunities to Maine.

For innovators, the unit creates critical infrastructure by providing a stronger pathway to test, validate, and scale new ideas. And for the state, it helps attract talent, partnerships, investment, and industry relationships that can strengthen Maine’s position within the life sciences sector.

“The CRU is not only a research asset, it’s also an economic development asset.”

What People Underestimate About Maine

When discussing Maine’s innovation ecosystem, Tamara believes one of the state’s greatest strengths often goes unnoticed.

She points to the concentration of institutions that exist within a relatively small geography: an academic medical center, a growing research base, university partners, laboratory infrastructure, and world-class research organizations such as The Jackson Laboratory, MDI Biological Laboratory and Bigelow Laboratory.

Equally important is the state’s collaborative culture.

“In bigger markets, coordination is the bottleneck. Here you can get the right people in a room in a week.”

She also sees Maine’s demographic realities as a competitive advantage. Developing solutions that work for an aging, rural population creates opportunities to address challenges that many other states will soon face as well.

At the same time, she acknowledges that Maine still has important gaps to address, including access to growth capital, commercialization resources, and workforce development that supports both scientific talent and experienced business operators.

Advice for Founders

As someone actively building Trellis Health while leading strategy initiatives at MaineHealth, Tamara understands the realities of launching new ventures.

Her biggest lesson?

“The biggest lesson is that solving a real problem matters more than having a clever idea.”

She encourages founders to stay focused on customer needs rather than becoming attached to a particular solution.

Her advice includes:

• Start with a painful problem.
• Get close to customers early.
• Validate assumptions before investing heavily.
• Build partnerships.
• Be patient and persistent.

She also notes that Maine’s relationship-driven culture can become a significant advantage for entrepreneurs willing to invest in trust and long-term relationships.

Connecting the Ecosystem

Looking ahead, Tamara believes MLSC’s greatest opportunity is serving as connective tissue across Maine’s life sciences ecosystem.

Strong organizations already exist throughout the state. The next step is helping them connect more effectively.

By linking entrepreneurs with partners, researchers with commercialization opportunities, investors with emerging companies, and healthcare organizations with innovators, MLSC can help strengthen Maine’s innovation economy and accelerate growth across the sector.

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When she’s not focused on healthcare transformation and company building, Tamara enjoys spending time on the water.

“Maine’s coastline is one of the state’s greatest assets, and it provides a perspective that’s hard to find anywhere else.”

Music also plays an important role in her life. Her husband is a jazz musician, and lately she’s had “Cantaloupe Island” on repeat.

She sees an interesting connection between jazz and innovation.

“Jazz is equal parts structure and improvisation. Which, come to think of it, isn’t all that different from building new things in life sciences and healthcare.”