Jodi Ettenberg, the founder of the influential travel and resource platform Legal Nomads, has concluded a landmark year in 2025, characterized by a unique paradox: achieving significant professional and medical milestones while remaining largely bedbound due to a chronic health condition. A former corporate attorney who transitioned into a world-renowned travel writer and entrepreneur, Ettenberg’s career took a drastic turn eight years ago following a debilitating spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak. Despite a physical existence restricted by what she describes as "standing increments," the past twelve months have seen Ettenberg ascend to the presidency of a major medical foundation, co-author a peer-reviewed research paper, and expand a global business that serves the celiac community.
The Evolution of Legal Nomads and the Onset of Chronic Illness
To understand the magnitude of Ettenberg’s 2025 achievements, it is necessary to examine the trajectory of Legal Nomads. Founded in 2008 after Ettenberg resigned from a "lock-step" legal career to travel the world, the site initially served as a digital journal of her global adventures. Over the subsequent decade, it evolved into a multifaceted business focused on food, travel safety for celiacs, and career transitions for legal professionals.
However, in 2017, Ettenberg sustained a spinal CSF leak—a condition where the dura mater, the tough membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, develops a hole or tear. This allows CSF to escape, resulting in a loss of intracranial pressure. The primary symptom is a profound "orthostatic" headache that worsens when upright and improves when lying flat. For Ettenberg, this meant a transition from a life of decadent global exploration to a "teeny tiny sliver" of physical activity, measured not in billable hours, but in the seconds she can remain standing before neurological symptoms become unbearable.
Chronology of 2025: A Year of Resilience and Setbacks
The 2025 calendar year began under significant duress. On December 25, 2024, Ettenberg suffered a physical accident in her shower that severely exacerbated her condition, unspooling years of marginal progress in her "leak baseline." This setback forced her into a period of near-total bed rest during the first quarter of the year.
Compounding these personal health challenges were significant family crises. Throughout much of 2025, Ettenberg managed the hospitalizations and care of both her father and stepmother. Despite these pressures, she maintained her role as a volunteer leader for the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation, illustrating a high level of cognitive resilience. By mid-year, she had successfully spearheaded "Leakweek," an annual awareness campaign that raised $4,217 for research and patient support, placing her at the top of the community leaderboard.
Medical Innovation and the SIH-RADS Standardized Reporting System
Perhaps the most significant professional milestone of the year was Ettenberg’s foray into formal medical literature. She served as a patient co-author on a research paper titled “Enhancing Clarity in Dynamic Myelography Reporting: Results of a Survey of Patients and Referring Providers Evaluating a Standardized Reporting System in the Myelographic Work-Up of Patients with Suspected Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension.”
The paper, published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR), proposes a new reporting measure known as SIH-RADS. This system aims to standardize how radiologists report the results of dynamic myelograms—specialized imaging tests used to locate dural defects. In the current medical landscape, the lack of standardized language in imaging reports often leads to diagnostic delays or misinterpretations. According to the study, both patients and referring physicians expressed a strong preference for the SIH-RADS system over traditional narrative reporting. Ettenberg’s involvement as a patient author reflects a growing trend in medical research toward "patient-centric" outcomes, ensuring that the people living with the condition have a voice in how it is diagnosed and documented.
Leadership at the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation
In an unexpected career development, Ettenberg was voted in as the Board President of the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation in 2025. This 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is the leading body dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from intracranial hypotension.
Her presidency involved a rigorous administrative workload, most notably the orchestration of a global search for a new Executive Director. Ettenberg managed a process that reviewed over 130 applications, coordinated multi-stage interviews, and collaborated with pro bono employment counsel to navigate the legal complexities of the hiring process. Furthermore, she oversaw the launch of the first international patient registry for spinal CSF leaks, a critical tool for future epidemiological research. Her ability to execute these high-level executive functions from a supine position highlights the transformative power of digital communication and remote leadership.
Global Business Milestones and Celiac Advocacy
While her advocacy work took center stage, Ettenberg’s original business, Legal Nomads, continued to reach new heights. In 2025, she celebrated the sale of her 25,000th celiac translation card. These cards, developed initially as a solution to her own travel challenges in Japan, are now available in 21 languages, with Croatian, Korean, and Khmer being added this year.
The demand for these resources remains high, as an estimated 1% of the global population suffers from celiac disease, an autoimmune condition where the ingestion of gluten leads to small intestinal damage. For travelers, cross-contamination is a constant risk. Ettenberg’s cards are unique because they focus on local food culture and specific regional ingredients rather than generic "gluten-free" phrases. This year also saw the publication of comprehensive, free "Essential Gluten-Free Guides" for Cambodia and South Korea, which provide 3,000 to 5,000 words of researched data on safe local cuisines.
Public Speaking and Digital Presence
In a rare public appearance, Ettenberg participated in a medical conference as the sole patient speaker. Conducted as a "fireside chat" with Dr. Andrew Callen, a prominent neuroradiologist from the University of Colorado, the session addressed the "barriers to care" in the field of spinal CSF leaks. Ettenberg notably delivered portions of this presentation while standing, a feat that required significant physical preparation and recovery.
Her digital engagement remained robust through her "Curious About Everything" (CAE) newsletter and her Patreon community. Now in its fifth year, the CAE newsletter serves as a curated digest of science, art, and long-form journalism, maintaining a monthly cadence despite Ettenberg’s health fluctuations. Her Patreon, which operates on a "support-only" model, provides a platform for more personal and experimental writing, including reflections on the "legal brain" and the integration of her disparate life stages—as a lawyer, a traveler, and an advocate.
Broader Impact and Informative Analysis
The achievements of Jodi Ettenberg in 2025 offer a compelling case study in the "gig economy" and the potential for high-impact professional life despite severe physical disability. Her trajectory suggests several broader implications for the legal and medical fields:
- The "Patient-Expert" Paradigm: Ettenberg’s role in the SIH-RADS paper demonstrates that patients with professional backgrounds (such as law) can bridge the communication gap between clinical researchers and the patient community, leading to more practical medical innovations.
- Remote Executive Leadership: Her successful tenure as Board President of a national foundation, conducted almost entirely from bed, challenges traditional notions of "presence" in leadership roles.
- Sustainable Digital Entrepreneurship: By diversifying her income through celiac resources, newsletters, and community support, Ettenberg has created a business model that can survive—and even thrive—during periods of acute physical crisis.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As 2025 draws to a close, Ettenberg has expressed a desire to rebalance her "uptime," shifting more administrative responsibilities to the Foundation’s new Executive Director to focus on her own business and health. Plans for 2026 include the development of additional translation cards and the continuation of her efforts to advocate for standardized care in the treatment of spontaneous intracranial hypotension.
While the "panic of the not-knowing" that she felt upon leaving the law in 2008 has been replaced by the physiological uncertainty of a chronic leak, Ettenberg’s 2025 record serves as a testament to the fact that physical limitations do not necessarily equate to a limitation of influence or intellect. Her year-end summary is not merely a list of tasks completed, but a blueprint for finding "infinite" life within a "teeny tiny" physical space.
