People I (Mostly) Admire 19. Marina Nitze: “If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only Result.”
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Apr 25, 2026 
Marina Nitze, tech entrepreneur and former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs CTO now reforming foster care and advocating for Type 1 diabetes care. She recalls building websites at 12 and hacking education rules to accelerate her path. She explains streamlining VA bureaucracy, reimagining foster licensing to favor family placements, and experimenting with low-carb diabetes strategies that transformed her health.
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Simplify Licensing To Keep Kids With Family
- Simplify licensing to the essentials: background checks and a sinkhole (home safety) check first.
- Remove punitive, liability-driven requirements (e.g., recycling rules, obscure pet vaccinations) that block kin from providing care.
Poverty And Incentives Drive Unnecessary Removals
- Many children enter foster care due to poverty-driven contact with mandated reporters, not parental abuse.
- System incentives (removal leads to resources like daycare) perversely push families into stranger care instead of supporting kin placements.
Build Support Networks And Lean Into Resilience
- Foster youth should build supportive adult networks and focus on resilience.
- Marina stresses it's not their fault and urges reaching out to mentors to make it through and leverage hard-earned strengths later.