This founder went from designing Happy Meal toys to making prosthetic skulls for a living—and her company now rakes in $20 million a year

Happy Meal toys like Transformer figurines and Hot Wheels cars have sparked joy with little kids for decades—and now, one of the designers behind the miniatures is changing lives for thousands of people. Dallas-based entrepreneur Nancy Hairston founded MedCAD , a surgical solutions company, in 2007—and in the decades since, its 3D-printing innovations have helped patients recognize themselves in the mirror again.

But before Hairston was building skull implants, she spent most of her career in the design world. When she graduated art school with a sculpture MFA from Loyola University in 1991, she had a rude awakening: She couldn’t find any open jobs for what she wanted to pursue. Meanwhile, 3D animation was all the rage at the time, so Hairston pivoted and took on a litany of modeling an