The Drifty Dreamers are Arleen Ma and Scott Collins, whose South 40 floating home is so named. Before moving into the community last spring, they often admired and paddled around the floating homes from their base, a 36’ trawler moored in Clipper Yacht Harbor.
Both have worked in the biotech industry for many years, mainly for small and medium-sized companies. They met about 7 years ago when their career paths crossed. Currently, Arleen is Director of Healthcare Compliance for a company that specializes in prostate cancer and women’s health drugs. Her entry into the industry started when she was completing her masters degree in counseling psychology. A classmate’s referral and a change in career interest led her to a temporary position at Genentech, and within a few months she was offered a job—from there she was launched into the industry. Prior to her career in biotech, Arleen had a reputation for being willing to try challenging and unfamiliar things, such as participating in the Miss Asian America pageant, serving as Public Relations representative for a SF independent film and running marathons in SF, Huntington Beach, Portland, Chicago and Hawaii. She credits these experiences with having prepared her for the dynamic and fast-paced corporate environment in which she now thrives.
Scott is the Head of Market Access for a company that specializes in orphan drugs, which are biotech/pharmaceutical agents designed to treat medical conditions that are very rare in the patient population of that particular disease state. His area of focus is pricing the drug, developing affordability programs for patients, and bringing clinical and economic treatment data to health plans in order to help them cover the cost of these ultra-rare drugs. Scott’s path into biotech started with architectural school, a degree in business, and a stint as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. At the same time, he played drums for a bay area band called Joaquina, who often played at local venues like Slims, Great American Music Hall and Bottom of the Hill in the late 1990s-2000s. He transitioned into biotech by doing extensive research on the industry and leveraging his diverse set of skills/experiences and professional and social networks.
Both Arleen and Scott love that their work involves bringing products to the world that help improve patients’ lives. They are the epitome of work hard/play hard people with hobbies that include frequent travel (pre COVID-19), kayaking, surfing, skating, paddle boarding, tennis, biking, etc. For them, living on the dock in Sausalito is like living in the most beautiful playground. In the past few months, they have been busy renovating and decorating Drifty Dreamers, a creative project that is quite a contrast to their work. Scott put his architectural knowledge to use and loves the hands-on work, while Arleen gets to flex her interior design skills with an eye for organization and practical use of small spaces. Their home is a reflection of their dreams and individual personalities—a cozy, modern home with touches of nautical charm.
They both have also volunteered to be on the Board of the FHA, handling Public Relations. As our PR representatives, they have already assisted two architectural students in Switzerland with their masters thesis on designing floating homes in Europe. Scott and Arleen shared their experiences about being new to the floating home community and helped arrange interviews with other individuals who have been living on the dock for some time. Scott and Arleen look forward to working on PR initiatives and continuing to share this colorful community with other parties interested in learning more about life on the docks.