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.

Maria Lalioti is a human molecular geneticist with a strong interest in personalized medicine and ethical use of genomic information. She is scientific consultant specializing in portfolio strategy and new opportunity evaluation in therapeutic areas of expertise (kidney, metabolic, neuroscience, reproductive, and orphan diseases). She held positions spanning from target discovery to clinical trials, and currently focuses on drug development using novel modalities such as gene therapy and gene editing, and leveraging human genomics discoveries. She was previously a VP of New Opportunities at Beam Tx, where she initiated the expansion of base editing to new therapeutic areas. Before that, she was Head of Biology at Goldfinch Bio and Director of Translational/Clinical Genomics at Biogen. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Athens, Greece and her PhD in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She did her postdoctoral training at the University of Birmingham, UK and at Yale School of Medicine. She has been a member of West for more than 10 years. She serves as a mentor with other organizations where she helps women and girls reach their full potential. In her free time she enjoys cooking, fishing, skiing, and traveling with her husband and 3 kids. She is an expert cake decorator and her kids have the most unique birthday cakes!  

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.

Jessica Louie is a Visiting Scientist at MIT Synthetic Biology Center and Boston University Robotics Laboratory, where she is working on translation and impact at the convergence of synthetic biology, AI, and control of biological networks.  Previously she served as CTO of Norfolk Healthy Produce where she helped lead efforts to bring the Purple Tomato from the research lab to the commercial market.  Prior to this, Jessica built and led teams in data strategy, data science, and software engineering at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Joyn Bio, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, and helped early-stage sustainability portfolio companies with Flagship Venturelabs’ Cibo Technologies.

Gauri Nair is a Senior Director in AbCellera’s Business Development team and is based in Boston, leading efforts to form strategic partnerships around AbCellera's therapeutic antibody platforms and programs. Prior to joining AbCellera, as the VP of Innovation at MassBio, Gauri oversaw the MassBio function serving the evolving needs of the early-stage innovation community via programming and relationship building with thought leaders, key stakeholders and constituents of the Massachusetts life sciences innovation ecosystem. She led MassBio’s efforts as a connector for innovators to enable the development, distribution and delivery of innovative technologies in life sciences. Gauri has also been an Associate Director in Academic Partnerships and External Innovation at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Inc. (now, Novartis BioMedical Research) in Cambridge, MA driving external innovation via research partnerships and strategic collaborations with key partners in the academic innovation ecosystem. Prior to Novartis, Gauri served as a business development associate at Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development where she supported OTD’s mission to build strategic relationships with industry to enable effective development and commercialization of Harvard technologies. Gauri holds a Ph.D. in Biology from University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), an MS (Innovation) from D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University (Boston), a B.Sc in Microbiology and Biochemistry from St. Xavier’s College (Mumbai, India) and an M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Pune University (India). 

 

Caroline Ngaara-Woodward is currently an Associate Director at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Clinical Pharmacology Group. She works with clinical development program teams and leverages clinical pharmacology principles and years of experience in clinical development, regulatory and drug discovery to bring life changing therapies to patients. She has worked on several approved products including Iclusig (ARIAD/Takeda), Tecfidera, Vumerity, Fampridine (Biogen). She holds a BSc. Chemistry, MSc. Regulatory and MSc. Pharmacometrics from University of Maryland. She was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and speaks three languages fluently Kikuyu, Kiswahili, and English. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling with her family, running, getting together with friends, reading, and listening to various podcasts for fun or personal growth. She also enjoys mentoring and has been actively volunteering at WEST since May 2020 a role she greatly enjoys.

 

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.

Heather Schwoebel is the Chief Business Officer (CBO) of Antibodies and Strategic Collaboration at Alloy Therapeutics, the biotechnology ecosystem company that empowers the global scientific community to make better medicines together. With over 20 years of experience in biotech company formation, operations, alliance management, and business development, she leads the sales, partnerships and strategy functions for Alloy's work in antibody and T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics. Prior to joining Alloy in 2018, Heather served in business development and alliance management roles at Verseau Therapeutics and Harbour Antibodies’ U.S. division. Previously, she was a member of the life science investment support team at Atlas Venture. Heather is passionate about increasing representation in the life sciences. She enjoys gardening and spending time with her family.

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.

Aldona Szostek-Pontchek is a Director in the Stability & Statistics department at Sanofi Genzyme. Her career in biotechnology began in 1993 when she joined Human Genome Sciences Inc. She led a sequencing team contributing to one of the most exciting projects of the time with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA and identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome. This effort resulted in the first-in-decades treatment for systemic lupus.Aldona moved from research to Quality Control as a Senior Manager. In this role she was responsible for release and stability testing as well as the development of immunoassays for testing new drug candidates. At Sanofi, Aldona continues to be a part of Quality and she is responsible for oversight of the stability program for biologics and devices. Aldona holds a Masters of Science in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and she is currently enrolled in the JHU Alumni Career Design Fellowship. Other affiliations include the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) and the Women Inspiring Sanofi Excellence (WISE). Aldona participates in mentoring programs for biotechnology professionals at work.

Anne Thessen worked as a research oceanographer and phycologist until 2013, when she decided to start her own data science company, The Data Detektiv. Anne is well known for her work on data infrastructure and the application of semantic technologies and machine learning in biodiversity and earth science. Her work has supported institutions and companies like Google, the Smithsonian, and NASA. She is an active member of the Research Data Alliance, a global effort to support data infrastructure, as the RDA US Data Share Ambassador. She was an invited speaker on infrastructure sustainability at the EarthCube All-Hands-Meeting in 2016 and on data infrastructures for coastal science at the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society in 2014. Anne has a BS in Biology and a PhD in oceanography from the University of Maryland, where she was a US EPA STAR Fellow. Her thesis work caused the state of Maryland to change the way it monitored harmful algae in the Chesapeake Bay. Anne made the shift from academia to industry in 2013 and is pioneering an alternative career as an independent scientist through her company and her affiliation with the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship. She has volunteered at WEST events for many years and was the recipient of the WEST Giving Back Award in 2017.

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.