DGL Philosophy

Taylor Reasoner brings three decades of emergency medical services experience combined with advanced academic training in public policy and administration to DGL, where he serves as both Founder and Chief Architect of the Digital Nutrition Intelligence (DNI) ecosystem.

Academic Foundation in Public Systems

 Taylor holds both a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration and a Master of Public Administration (MPA), and is actively pursuing a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) to deepen his expertise in health systems research and implementation science. 

 This academic foundation provides formal expertise in: 

• Policy implementation and program evaluation: Understanding why well-intentioned policies fail in practice and how to design interventions that work in real-world conditions
• Public sector resource management: Operating within fixed budgets, managing competing priorities, and optimizing outcomes under resource constraints
• Multi-stakeholder coordination: Managing programs across federal, state, and local agencies with varying protocols and incentives
• Health systems infrastructure: Designing solutions that function in constrained environments, not just controlled research settings
• Equity-centered development: Ensuring interventions serve populations with least resources, not just those with most

This formal training in public policy and systems design provided the analytical framework for understanding how infrastructure—not just individual knowledge—determines health outcomes.

Public Sector Operations Experience

As a fire paramedic for 30 years, Taylor provided emergency medical care across diverse communities, gaining direct exposure to the downstream consequences of diet-related chronic disease and systemic health infrastructure failures. This front-line experience revealed a critical gap: patients repeatedly experiencing preventable metabolic crises not from lack of knowledge, but from lack of accessible implementation infrastructure.

The combination of academic training in public administration and operational experience in emergency services created unique insight: health outcomes aren't determined primarily by clinical interventions or individual knowledge—they're determined by the infrastructure that enables or prevents healthy behavior.

From Emergency Response to System Architecture

Taylor recognized that emergency medical services treat symptoms of systemic failures. The same patients returned repeatedly—not because they lacked information about healthy eating, but because existing infrastructure didn't address economic constraints, access barriers, or individual health contexts.

This insight—informed by both formal policy training and front-line operational experience—drove the transition from public sector operations to building health infrastructure: founding Gatehouse Asset Management LLC to develop evidence-based health systems, then Digital Galactica Labs to create research-grade nutrition intelligence technology.

Building Research Infrastructure, Not Consumer Apps

At Digital Galactica Labs, Taylor designed and architected the complete DNI ecosystem—nine integrated systems spanning nutrition data standardization, multi-dimensional scoring, personalization, economic optimization, meal planning, shopping intelligence, and waste reduction.

Taylor's approach applies principles from both academic training and public sector operations to technology development:

• Deterministic systems over black-box AI: Just as emergency protocols must be standardized and reproducible, nutrition technology serving clinical and federal program applications requires 100% reproducibility for validation and compliance
• Economic constraints as design requirements: Academic training in public policy and operational experience managing fixed budgets translates to building nutrition optimization that works within economic reality, not aspirational conditions
• Multi-stakeholder coordination: Experience with federal, state, and local agency coordination applies directly to deploying nutrition technology across USDA programs, healthcare systems, and community organizations
• Evidence-based iteration: MPA training in program evaluation informs commitment to rigorous research validation and transparency about limitations
• Equity focus: Three decades serving diverse communities—combined with formal training in equity-centered policy design—informs requirement that solutions work for populations with least resources

Current Responsibilities

As Founder & CEO, Taylor oversees:

• System architecture: Technical design ensuring deterministic reproducibility, multi-dimensional evaluation, and budget optimization across nine integrated modules
• Research partnerships: Establishing academic collaborations for clinical validation and implementation research
• IP strategy: Managing nine provisional patent applications while maintaining research collaboration openness
• Federal program engagement: Working with USDA and HHS exploring nutrition intelligence integration with school meals, SNAP, and WIC
• Policy translation: Converting research insights into recommendations for nutrition access policy

Why This Background Matters for Health Technology

Taylor's combination of formal academic training and operational public sector experience provides critical perspective most technology founders lack:

Academic training in public administration taught that policy content matters less than implementation infrastructure. The best guidelines fail without adequate resources, coordinated systems, and multi-stakeholder alignment.

Emergency medical services operations revealed that health disparities are structural, not individual. People facing metabolic crises aren't lacking knowledge—they're navigating food deserts, budget constraints, and time poverty.

MPA training emphasized that solutions must work for populations with least resources, or they're not solutions—they're luxury products widening disparities.

These principles—from both formal education and operational experience—directly inform Digital Galactica Labs' approach: building deterministic, transparent, budget-aware nutrition intelligence designed for clinical validation, federal program deployment, and equitable access—not just commercial success.

 Taylor Reasoner, MPA
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Digital Galactica Labs 

 Applying formal training in public policy, health systems research, and implementation science—combined with three decades of public sector operational experience—to building research-grade nutrition intelligence infrastructure for clinical validation, federal program integration, and equitable access. 

Steve Harkness brings nearly three decades of operational leadership in California's public sector, specializing in large-scale emergency response, multi-agency coordination, and mission-critical systems management.

Emergency Management & Public Safety Leadership

Steve's career has been defined by managing complex public sector operations where reliability, compliance, and coordinated execution are non-negotiable. His extensive work with California's fire camp programs and Incident Command System (ICS) operations provided leadership experience across:

• Multi-jurisdictional emergency response: Coordinating state, federal, and local agency teams under unified command during wildfire suppression, disaster response, and large-scale emergency operations
• Personnel management at scale: Leading teams of 100+ individuals from diverse agencies with varying protocols, ensuring seamless integration and consistent operational standards
• Resource optimization under pressure: Allocating personnel, equipment, and supplies across dynamic, resource-constrained environments where decisions directly impact public safety outcomes
• Regulatory compliance in high-stakes environments: Maintaining operational protocols that meet state and federal standards while adapting to rapidly changing field conditions

ICS & Standardized Operations

Steve's deep expertise in the Incident Command System—the gold standard for emergency management coordination—translates directly to technology operations requiring:

• Clear command structures and accountability frameworks
• Standardized protocols producing consistent outcomes across diverse teams
• Real-time decision-making based on accurate information flows
• Scalable systems that function reliably whether managing 10 or 1,000 stakeholder

From Public Sector Operations to Research Infrastructure

Steve recognized that the operational challenges facing California's public sector—multi-stakeholder coordination, regulatory compliance, scaling implementations across diverse populations, and maintaining system reliability when failure isn't acceptable—are identical to the challenges of deploying nutrition intelligence infrastructure for federal programs, healthcare systems, and vulnerable populations.

At Digital Galactica Labs, Steve applies public sector operational discipline to research technology:

Systems Integration & Deployment
Ensuring the nine-module DNI ecosystem operates with the same reliability standards required in emergency response—100% uptime, deterministic outputs, and complete audit trails.

Regulatory & Compliance Framework
Establishing protocols for data security, privacy protection, and regulatory alignment that meet government and healthcare standards.

Multi-Stakeholder Coordination
Managing partnerships with academic institutions, healthcare systems, federal agencies, and community organizations—applying the same multi-jurisdictional coordination skills used in ICS operations.

Implementation at Scale
Translating research-grade technology into operationally deployable solutions for real-world environments serving thousands to millions of users.

Field-Tested Leadership in Resource-Constrained Environments

Steve's public sector background provides critical insight for nutrition technology deployment:

Many nutrition apps are built by engineers who've never operated in resource-constrained, high-accountability environments. Steve brings operational experience where:

• Budgets are fixed and non-negotiable
• Compliance failures have serious consequences
• Systems must work for diverse populations with varying needs
• Stakeholder coordination requires balancing competing priorities
• Implementation happens in real-world conditions, not ideal lab settings

This experience is essential for deploying nutrition intelligence within federal feeding programs (school meals, WIC, SNAP), healthcare systems serving low-income populations, and public health initiatives where operational failures affect vulnerable communities.

Why Public Sector Experience Matters for Health Technology

Building deterministic nutrition intelligence systems requires operational discipline equivalent to emergency management:

• Reliability: When providing nutrition guidance for diabetics or school children, system failures aren't acceptable—just like emergency response systems
• Reproducibility: Federal programs require auditable, consistent outputs across millions of users—the same standardization required in ICS operations
• Multi-agency coordination: Deploying within USDA, HHS, healthcare systems, and state agencies requires navigating bureaucracy Steve managed for decades
• Equity focus: Public sector experience means understanding how to serve all populations, not just those with resources—essential for nutrition access

Philosophy

"In emergency response, we have a principle: standardized operations produce predictable outcomes. You don't improvise during a wildfire—you follow proven protocols that work every time. The same principle applies to nutrition technology. When systems are deterministic, auditable, and operationally disciplined, you can deploy them with confidence—whether coordinating a multi-agency fire response or implementing nutrition guidance for millions of school children. Both require the same thing: reliability when it matters most."

Steve Harkness, President & COO
Digital Galactica Labs

 30 years of public sector operational leadership ensuring research-grade nutrition intelligence systems meet real-world deployment standards for government programs, healthcare systems, and vulnerable populations.