The idea for dignified drug testing started with a personal experience from Liz Read, a 2024 Woman of Impact. As she observed her own family member navigate their options for accountability, the two pathways were to either go into a lab or purchase from a store. Thus, forcing a struggling person into an environment that could be uncomfortable, expensive, unreliable, or embarrassing.
Read came up with an idea for a supplemental testing tool that harnessed the market of mandated testing and expanded it out to homes for families who desire a way to maintain and rebuild trust.
Clearlee was designed to utilize technology to create empowering accountability for the 46% of U.S. adults who have a family member or close friend who struggles with or has struggled with drug use. It is a remote drug monitoring solution that is normalizing conversation surrounding substance use, testing and treatment. Through the app, Clearlee sends a notification to its member when it’s time to take a test.
Completion of the test is required within a set amount of hours chosen by the family member or case manager. The test takes less than 20 minutes, is recorded, verified through facial recognition, and can be completed in the comfort of one’s own home. Results are shared within an hour to the entire Support Network. Clearlee underwent multiple rounds of testing to ensure accuracy and has not been able to be cheated.
One of the most meaningful additions to the test is the Care Team who reviews each test and is on call 24-hours. This verified team of humans carefully reviews the footage to ensure there is no foul play and then provides a straightforward result after analyzing the panel.
The Clearlee the mission is personal, “to provide the most dignified and dependable drug testing experience possible.”
Read’s impact is not only advancing technology and transforming the recovery community, but also creating meaningful opportunity to generational cycles of drug abuse and broken trust to be healed.
Read shared her insights with us as a successful woman in business who relies on a passionate and dedicated team. Like many of our Women of Impact, she credits her success to the efforts of many hard-working individuals all working toward a common goal of serving others.
“For a small, intimate team we are all equals. Everyone’s voice and opinion matters. No one is too big for a job. In start-up world I might be the Founder but there’s days I’m also taking the trash out of the office.”
Read also notes that she is always focused on “growing and optimizing.” Thinking through how to constantly make their product better, Read is focused on creating partnerships to scale and expand accessibility to the first ever “trauma informed test.”
Read is quick to expresses her gratefulness for the momentum of Clearlee’s success to partnerships in Alabama including, The Foundry, the Lovelady Center, Changed Lives Christian Center, Birmingham Recovery Center and Impact Recovery Center.
Her career journey didn’t start in tech but in the entrepreneurial environment of a family-owned business, alongside her mother Allison L. Morgan. For 8 years, Read was head designer for their fine jewelry line, Charlotte Allison.
“I watched my mom daily refuse to take no for an answer. She taught me how to overcome challenges which was critical for me founding my own business.”
Read also held positions including Sales for Prepaid Technologies, Inc. (now DASH) and Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
In addition to being named a 2024 Woman of Impact, Liz Read has also been the recipient of various awards:
- 2020: Alabama Launchpad Concept Award
- 2022: Birmingham Business Journal: 22 Companies to Watch in 22
- 2022: Alabama Inno Fire Award
- 2023: Served as a Mentor, The Foundry, named Women in Tech: 23 for ’23
- 2024: Judge: The Auburn University Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition
Her story and mission has been featured in Southern Living, Mountain Brook Magazine, Village Living, Birmingham Medical News, Harbert Magazine, Auburn University Harbert College of Business, Bham NOW.
Read thanks two mentors who have also passed along wisdom and encouraged her to set goals even she thought were impossible. “Liz Pharo and Delphine Carter were both proven women in business.” Both women pushed her to raise her fundraising goals and enter competitions for grants that were catalysts to the launch of Clearlee.
“Alabama has an incredibly supportive business and innovation community.”
In conversation about being a woman in Alabama business, Read doesn’t see this as a disadvantage at all.
“It’s not about seeing myself as a woman but just a person. I’m thankful to work with great people who don’t treat me any differently.”
She notes that one advantage has been the dynamic capacity of women to enter a room with high emotional intelligence. As a mother and tech founder, her ability to lead with empathy in a mission-driven business is especially helpful.
Leaning into who she is as an individual keeps her growing professionally and personally.
Through “ongoing curiosity and a willingness to learn,” Read is at the helm of innovation not only in Alabama, but across the nation. Taking a chance on herself and becoming a solo female founder building tech in Alabama, is just a small part of what makes Liz Read a quintessential “woman of impact.”
