Advisory Board

 

Amy Baker Mandragouras is a partner at Foley Hoag LLP.  For more than 30 years, she provides strategic counseling to life sciences companies in developing and implementing intellectual property strategies and building strong global patent portfolios to protect and facilitate commercialization of biopharmaceuticals. She has extensive IP due diligence experience and regularly advises on the patent and intellectual property aspects of biotechnology and pharmaceutical collaborations, acquisitions, licensing deals, financing transactions and securities offerings. Amy has experience in a wide range of life sciences subjects with a particular focus on biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, and immunology. She earned her JD from Northeastern University School of Law and a B.S. in chemistry from Bates College.  Throughout her career, Amy has championed gender diversity in patent law through proactive hiring, training, and mentoring of women.

  

Isabella Cardona Barber is a Process Engineer II at Be Biopharma, a biotech pioneering Engineered B Cell Medicines (BCMs) to improve the lives of patients living with Hemophilia B and other serious conditions. She has been at Be Bio since graduating from her BS/MS in Chemical Engineering/Engineering Management from Northeastern University. She also serves as an advisor for Beyond Celiac Investments, a venture philanthropy fund that invests in promising treatments and research to accelerate the development of treatments and a cure for celiac disease. As a patient of celiac disease herself, she is deeply interested in supporting patient-centric drug development. Isabella is part of the Harvard Business School 2+2 Deferred Program and will attend HBS for her MBA in 2026. She is looking forward to pairing her technical and management backgrounds with her patient perspective to make an impact in celiac and beyond. She plays an active role in helping other aspiring biotech leaders pursue their own dream careers, including her volunteer efforts with organizations like WEST and Nucleate.

  

Tatiana Demidova-Rice is a Director of Business Development at Evotec, a global drug discovery and development company. Previously, Tatiana worked as a Contracts and Collaborations Manager at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that Tatiana was building and managing relationships between academic investigators and industry partners as a Project Manager at Boston Children's Technology Development Fund and as a Business Development Manager at Harvard’s Office of Technology Development. Earlier in her career, Tatiana was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Tufts University and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School conducting research in the fields on wound healing, angiogenesis and oncology. Tatiana earned her PhD from Tufts University and her undergraduate degree in biology from Yaroslavl State University in Russia.

  

Dr. Aditi Dubey is a Senior Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. She earned her PhD from Rutgers University in 2016 in Cell and Developmental Biology and undergraduate degree from Drexel University. In her current role, Dr. Dubey leads target discovery and validation efforts to grow Alnylam's pipeline of innovative therapies. She has over 15 years of experience in molecular and cell biology, developmental biology, and most recently, target validation in drug discovery. She has published widely and won numerous accolades, including the prestigious NIH National Research Service Award. She has also mentored aspiring scientists and contributed to several academic and industry collaborations. As an advisory board member of WEST, her goal is to promote mentorship and leadership for women in STEM to enable their success.




 

Ilana Gotlib is the Senior Director of Strategy and Business at Stryker, where she leads key initiatives including strategic planning, and business development activity. Her expertise spans strategic growth, multimillion-dollar partnership management, and complex stakeholder negotiations, gained through her previous roles at Philips Health Systems and Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Synthes division.  Ilana began her career as a litigation attorney specializing in medical malpractice and product liability cases, providing her with a unique perspective at the intersection of law and healthcare. She holds an MBA from Boston University, a JD from Temple University, and a BA in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about mentorship, in particular working with startups, and works with entrepreneurs looking for funding or strategic partnerships. In her spare time, she is cooking, traveling, or planning her next family adventure.




Etta Jacobs is the Founder and Principal of Power in the Middle, an executive coaching and training organization that specifically focuses on empowering mid-level managers and their teams. Prior to becoming an executive coach, Etta gained her corporate expertise as an award-winning design executive at two Fortune 500 companies, where she coached cohorts of managers and directed teams of creative professionals on innovative, multi-media projects. She shepherded her teams through continuous technological transitions and multiple corporate reorganizations—helping them thrive through increasingly aggressive deadlines, uncertainty, and industry-wide disruption. Etta draws upon this 20+ years of corporate experience when coaching. Her passion is helping her clients reach their highest potential—by guiding them to look at events through different lenses, question their assumptions, find creative and unexpected solutions to their career challenges, and to build a career that is aligned with their strengths, talents, and values. Etta holds a Master of Organizational Psychology and is a Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation (ICF). Etta earned her MA and her Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching from William James College. She has a BFA from Syracuse University. Etta is a past President of the WEST Board of Directors.

 

Ashley Jefferson is the Director of Early Talent and Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging at Beam Therapeutics, where he leads the company’s strategy to build a strong, diverse, and future-ready workforce. With more than thirteen years of experience in human resources, Ashley oversees Beam’s intern, co-op, and fellowship programs and partners across the organization to cultivate an inclusive culture where people from all backgrounds can thrive. His work spans early career development, organizational culture, strategic partnerships, and programs that broaden access to careers in the life sciences. Before joining Beam, Ashley worked at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he managed early talent programs including the intern, co-op, MBA, fellowship, and extern programs and collaborated closely with diversity-focused organizations to expand Vertex’s engagement with underrepresented communities. Across his career, he has championed equitable access to scientific and corporate career pathways, serving as a connector between industry, academia, and community-based workforce initiatives. Ashley holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science from Boston College and is committed to mentoring emerging professionals and advancing initiatives that strengthen representation and belonging across the biotechnology ecosystem.

 

Anna Li is a senior organism engineer at Gingko Bioworks. She has more than 15 years of research and teaching experience in molecular biology, microbiology and plant pathology, she has served a series of roles on a scientific team with responsibility for technical development, research supervision, program management and operations throughout her career. She has been a key player in developing the genome mining platform, initially at Warp Drive Bio and recently acquired by Ginkgo. This platform is currently being used, in collaboration with Roche, to develop new classes of antibiotics to fight the rise of antibiotic-resistant diseases. Previously Anna worked as a visiting scholar in the Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Department at Harvard University and conducted research on mutational pathways of bacterial drug resistance. She received her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology in 2007 and held a position as an associate professor at Shandong Agricultural University in China before moving to the US. Anna is passionate about advocating for women in the science community, enabling them to connect and support each other. She has volunteered at WEST events and book clubs for many years and was the recipient of the WEST Giving Back Award in 2017. She served as a WEST Advisory Board member in 2018.

 

  

Tatiana Novobrantseva is the Chief Scientific Officer of NextPoint Therapeutics. Before this, she co-founded Verseau, consulted for multiple companies on immunological aspects of drug development across different stages and therapeutic modalities in a variety of autoimmune, cancer and rare disease indications. At her prior position as Director of Tumor Immunology at Jounce Therapeutics, Tatiana defined research plans for several programs at the company’s inception, as well as led a portfolio of programs on (re)activating the immune system against cancer. Previously, Tatiana served as Associate Director at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Scientist II at Biogen. Tatiana’s scientific accomplishments include discovering the critical role for B cells in liver fibrosis, developing mechanistic insights for multiple therapeutic programs, pushing the envelope on siRNA delivery and championing a dendritic cell cancer vaccine clinical program. Tatiana completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne in Germany, focusing on B cell development and function. She holds a diploma of engineer-physicist and an M.S. in molecular biology from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

 

Lauren Perna is the CEO and Head Writer of Lauren Perna Communications, a mental health advocate, and an award-winning community leader. Her New England-based firm helps life sciences companies tell their stories through content strategy, copywriting, and LinkedIn. Her clients are united by their passion for improving lives. Bringing over 20 years of experience in writing, marketing, and relationship-building to her business, Lauren is an accomplished entrepreneur and writer known for turning even the most complex text into a compelling story. Before starting her company in 2020, Lauren spent nine years at MassBio, where she led initiatives to help life sciences companies raise their visibility. She is also a published mental health writer and fierce advocate for mental health awareness and care. Lauren received her Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University and a certificate in Digital Marketing from Columbia University/Emeritus. She serves as Chief Community Officer with the Chronic Boss Collective, an elected Dedham Town Meeting Representative, and a Founding Member of the Women's Business League Neponset Valley Chapter.

 

Jennifer Shire has extensive experience building talent acquisition and development programs and processes for a variety of industries and individuals as well as coaching individuals at all experience levels through their job search journey.  She is currently consulting at Khoury College of Computer Sciences as a member of the cooperative education faculty where she advises and teaches students.  She was previously Director Strategic Partnerships where she managed a team of individuals responsible for engaging corporate partners in recruitment, research and philanthropic endeavors. Before joining Northeastern University Jennifer spent over 30 years in industry as an HR professional at companies such as Mathworks, Cisco, Charles River Development and Fidelity Investments. Jennifer received her B.A. in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.  She is married to Dale Lemke, retired CFO/COO of an educational non-profit, and has four children (depending upon how you count).

 

Brendan St. Amant is General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Seismic Therapeutic, aclinical-stage biotechnology company making a major shift in how immunology therapies are discovered and developed, enabled by machine learning. Prior to joining Seismic, Brendan was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Synlogic, Inc., a publicly-traded synthetic biology company. Previously, he was Vice President, Legal, and member of the leadership team at Ohana Biosciences and was senior counsel at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Brendan was a partner at the law firm of Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar, LLP, in Boston where he focused on complex commercial controversies and government enforcement. Earlier in his legal career, Brendan served as a clerk for the Hon. Alvin W. Thompson, Chief, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and was an associate at the law firm of Goodwin Procter. Brendan is co-chair of the MassBio General Counsel Roundtable, a member of the Board of Advisors of Life Science Cares, and has served on several practice-related bar committees and on the executive committee of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education corporation. He received his BA from Cornell University, JD from Harvard Law School, and his MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School.



 

Dr. Aliyah Weinstein is the Marketing Programs Manager at Fortis Life Sciences. Prior to that, she was Marketing and Communications Manager at Addgene, the nonprofit plasmid repository. In her 6+ years of experience in science communications, Aliyah has honed her experience in a variety of areas including science writing, digital advertising, marketing analytics, and web accessibility. At Addgene, Aliyah leads Addgene's data-driven marketing strategy, paid digital advertising, and surveys. Previously, she led branding and social media at the science education nonprofit, Letters to a Pre-Scientist, where she is currently a member of the Advisory Board. Aliyah is also a volunteer with WEST, co-chairing the Marketing and Membership Committee and serving on the Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach Committee this year. Aliyah has a PhD in immunology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a B.A. in molecular biology, biochemistry, and French literature from Rutgers University.