Short bio (50 words)
Heather Florio is the second-generation CEO of Desert Harvest, a women's-health company her family founded in 1993. She sits on the board of Take The Lead and BELLA's Medical Advisory Board, co-founded Mithras Health, and writes BELLA's monthly Dear HER-Health column. Forbes Leading Woman in Business (2022). Late-diagnosed autistic.
Long bio (≈270 words)
Heather Florio is the second-generation owner and CEO of Desert Harvest, a women's-health and wellness company her parents founded in 1993. She has been with the company since its founding and officially stepped into the CEO role in 2012; under her leadership, Desert Harvest has grown by more than 1,500% and served over 100,000 women in pelvic, sexual, urological, and menopausal health.
Heather studied leadership and organizational management at the University of Denver before a first career in the entertainment industry, running venues and coordinating global events for top-tier musicians. She is a monthly women's-health columnist for BELLA Magazine (Dear HER-Health), a member of BELLA's Medical Advisory Board, and a board member at both Take The Lead — Gloria Feldt's women's-leadership non-profit — and the Northern Light Health Center for Healthy Brain Aging. Desert Harvest is a leading sponsor of Take The Lead's Power Up conference, held August 25–26, 2026 at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., with Margaret Atwood headlining.
In 2026 she co-founded Mithras Health, a patient-mediated health-research platform built on a single principle: patients own their records, choose which studies may use them, and are paid when approved research does. It is pre-launch.
She contributed to The Musculoskeletal Mystery: How to Solve Your Pelvic Floor Symptoms (Ingrid Harm-Ernandes, 2021), a patient guide to pelvic-floor pain.
She was recognized as a Forbes Leading Woman in Business (2022), named to Authority Magazine's Top 50 Women in Wellness (2021), and profiled by Enterprising Women (Fall 2025). Heather lives with interstitial cystitis and endometriosis, the conditions Desert Harvest was founded to address, and was diagnosed with autism at 41. She writes and speaks openly on late-diagnosed neurodivergence, pelvic health, and menopause in the workplace. She lives with her husband, three sons, and three dogs.
