|
WEST Staff & Board of Directors Staff
  Jaime Luna joined WEST in 2012 and serves as Senior Director of Operations. She comes to WEST with extensive experience in nonprofit organizations, specifically in program operations and project management. Jaime served as Director of Program Operations for Illumination Foundation working with homeless families and individuals. As a key member, she helped the grassroots nonprofit grow from its infancy to a $2,000,000 organization in three short years. Previous to Illumination Foundation, Jaime worked at the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, Camping Services. She filled in the roles of Senior Director and Operations Executive Director. She oversaw the operation of many YMCA camps and developed, monitored, and managed related annual operating budgets of over $2,000,000, including human resources, office administration, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and procurement. Jaime completed her Master's degree in Education.  Anastasie Duffaut joined WEST in June 2019. She is the Onsite Event Coordinator. She is also Trade Partner Diversity Manager at Suffolk Construction. Prior to that, she was the EEO/Diversity/Community & Citizenship Coordinator at Turner Construction Company. Before that, she spent several years as a Branch Manager at Citizens Bank. She earned an MBA from Suffolk University.  Courtney Cyron joined WEST in August of 2022 as the Business Operations Specialist. She has 5 years experience in real estate transaction management in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as experience with HUD Project Management. During her time with Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, Courtney was part of the team that worked with the state to receive a $9M grant to completely renovate a subsidized housing unit that provides affordable housing to people in her neighborhood. Courtney brings great experience in graphic design, content creation, and social media management to help grow WEST’s digital influence. She has earned certification in Social Media Marketing. Courtney completed her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2016. Board of Directors
 President: Karin von Hodenberg is the Vice President of Quality at Monte Rosa Therapeutics (molecular glue degraders) based in Boston. She has held a variety of quality roles across the pharmaceutical landscape - from bluebird bio (advanced gene therapy) to Akebia (chronic kidney disease) to Forma Therapeutics (sickle cell and beta thalassemia) driving growth, expansion and change. Prior to the pharmaceutical life, Karin has been a part of key medical device quality organizations such as GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare. At bluebird bio, Karin co-led the bWILD employee-led organization (Women Influencing Leadership and Development), focused on development and leadership skills for the bluebird bio organization. She has an MBA from Marquette University and a BBA (International Business) from St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Karin's passion for encouraging, supporting and elevating women and women leadership has been a key driver for her involvement at WEST and the desire to make a big impact.  Vice President: Dr. Jyothsna Visweswaraiah is a scientist with drug development experience in small biotech and a track record of advancing new therapies into the clinic. She currently heads the Antibody Discovery group under the Drug Creation department at Seismic Therapeutic. Previously, she was head of the antibody discovery and engineering efforts at a Flagship Pioneering new co, developing a modular, multi-specific biologics platform to address the complexities of biology. Prior to this, Jyothsna was at Pandion Therapeutics where she developed novel therapeutics designed to address the unmet needs of patients living with autoimmune diseases. Jyothsna has trained at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health. She has been an advocate for women in science and workplace inclusiveness. She mentors students interested in STEM careers and early career women scientists. Jyothsna also volunteers with The Antibody Society as a part of the communications and membership committee.  Clerk: Jennifer Reilly is the President & COO at Safety Partners, Inc. As President and Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer manages the daily business operations of the company and sets the future strategy. Leveraging over 20 years of experience in health and safety and lab operations, Jennifer has developed, managed, and implemented client programs while taking on increasing operational responsibilities at Safety Partners. Under Jennifer’s leadership, Safety Partners employs 50+ employees and works with approximately 300 clients each year.Prior to joining Safety Partners in 2007, Jennifer spent five years at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Senior Laboratory and Safety Manager for the laboratory facility. Prior to Alnylam, Jennifer held research positions at Biogen, Inc., Curis, Inc. (formerly Ontogeny, Inc.), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Jennifer received a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Biology from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Saint Anselm College.  Treasurer: Kristen Lorentz is an entrepreneur with executive and operator experience, who is passionate about leveraging science and technology to develop solutions to intractable challenges. Kristen has a diverse background in life science R&D and leadership, as well as in company creation, operations, and strategy. She has served as Chief Operating Officer for Deciduous Therapeutics, and has led Search and Evaluation for multiple disease areas within Takeda’s Center for External Innovation. Prior to joining Takeda, Kristen co-founded two biotech companies, Anokion and Kanyos Bio, with the aim of developing advanced therapies for autoimmune diseases. As part of their founding Executive Leadership teams, she played a leading role in company creation and in the successful translation of innovative platform technologies from concept to clinic. Kristen earned her B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).   Past President: Elena Spencer is Director of Technology Platforms & Outreach, Pfizer Kendall Square. Prior to that, she was Chief of Staff to the Chief Scientific Officer for the Inflammation & Immunology Research Unit at Pfizer in Cambridge, MA. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Cellular & Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After 15 years as a bench scientist she made the pivot to R&D Strategy & Operations in 2016 where she has pursued roles of increasing responsibility culminating in her present role as Chief of Staff. Elena is also co-founder, President and CEO of Kendall Square Orchestra, a community organization that seeks to connect science and technology professionals through music to spark innovation and support causes related to healthcare, education & inclusivity. In 2020, Elena was awarded the WEST (Women in Enterprise of Science at Technology) “Making a Difference in the Community” award. Board Members:  Laurie Bohn Laurie is a trusted coach and facilitator with nearly two decades of experience partnering with people to enhance their self-awareness, build skills, develop higher levels of confidence, and achieve meaningful goals. She works closely with clients to deliver impactful leadership development programs, helping participants navigate complex challenges and lead more effectively. In addition to her extensive work in life sciences, Laurie has successfully coached and facilitated in the tech, financial services, and non-profit sectors, bringing a well-rounded perspective to her practice. Known for her down-to-earth and relatable approach, Laurie’s engaging and flexible facilitation style resonates with both introverts and extroverts alike. She creates welcoming environments that drive business impact through her ability to connect deeply and quickly with participants, enhancing the learning experience and expanding perspectives. Laurie’s holistic approach to growth combines deep expertise in leadership development with a commitment to continuous learning. Having navigated her own journey through pivotal career decisions, Laurie coaches with empathy and insight, helping clients gain clarity and confidently make empowered choices. Her clients often walk away with a clear plan of action, a stronger alignment with their core values, and a renewed sense of control and confidence in their careers. Beyond her professional work, Laurie serves on the Board of WEST where she continues to contribute to the advancement of women in science and technology fields. Laurie holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from McGill University and an MBA from Boston University Questrom School of Management. She is an ICF Certified Coach (ACC), a graduate of Coach U, and a Licensed Practitioner of Insights Discovery®. Outside of coaching and facilitation, you’ll find Laurie spending time with her two kids and husband – often on the sidelines of a field, or in the gallery section of a pool. Laurie loves to travel and experience new cultures and has recently picked up exploring the world with her family. Katie Brandt is the Director of Caregiver Support Services and Public Relations for the Massachusetts General Hospital Frontotemporal Disorders Unit where she provides leadership for research, education and community events aimed at supporting the caregiver experience for families impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontotemporal Disorders and young-onset dementias. With 15 years of experience, Katie is a dementia care expert and holds certifications as a Dementia Care Manager and as a trainer in Powerful Tools for Caregiving, Habilitation Therapy and the DICE Approach for dementia care. Katie is a dynamic speaker and advocate in the healthcare and research space, illuminating the power of the authentic voice to promote health equity, person-centered care planning and clinically meaningful outcomes. Previously, Katie called upon her personal experience caring for her husband and father while representing the caregiver perspective as Co-Chair of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services. This federally appointed position provided the opportunity to collaborate with national experts to advance research, care and services for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Katie has shared her family’s story of love and loss through print, television, podcasts, academic publications and her short film, Love Is Out There. She holds a BA in Psychology from Saint Anselm College and a Master of Non-Profit Management from the Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University.  Ken Brewer Ken Brewer is a Senior Developer Advocate at Seqera, where he supports the open-source scientific community in adopting modern software tooling and best practices. Prior to joining Seqera, he was one of the first computational biologists to join the early-stage startup ProFound Therapeutics, where he helped build out a computational platform for exploring the unannotated human proteome. He then joined GeneDx where he provided technical leadership in building a bioinformatics platform designed to meet the data-intensive needs of the future of genetic medicine. Ken has a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, where he developed computational methods for discovering structured noncoding RNA families in bacteria. He is passionate about open-source science and is a member of the Cytomining and nf-core organizations, which are dedicated to providing high-quality software for analyzing microscopy images using machine learning and building bioinformatics pipelines, respectively. Alissa Brown is the Head of Organizational Capability and Transformation for the Specialty Care business at Sanofi, based in Cambridge. In this role Alissa is responsible for strategic workforce planning, identifying the future capabilities, skills and talent to ensure a healthy organization aligned with the business strategy and mission; leveraging deep, strong business acumen built across experience in country, region and global roles in pharmaceutical and consulting roles. Prior to this Alissa held a number of roles across access, health economics and outcomes research, policy and transformative strategic initiatives in numerous geographies across therapy and disease areas. Throughout her career Alissa has sought opportunities, including volunteering with WEST, that align with her passion to create a positive impact on outcomes for people and society.  Leah Cole is a Director of Immunology at Sanofi Pasteur. She leads a group of research scientists working in the preclinical space. As her work is located within the first step of the product development pipeline, Leah’s goal is to identify prophylactic vaccine candidates for infectious disease pathogens. Leah has had a variety of roles with WEST and has been a member of the grant writing as well as the programming/events committee. She is a previous WEST Making a Difference Awardee.
John Hallinan John’s career in the life sciences spans more than 30 years and includes broad range of strategic and operational disciplines. John currently serves as Chief Development Officer at Danforth Advisors. Before Danforth he served as Chief Business Officer at Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), representing the world’s premier life sciences hub. He previously served as CFO for companies including Cytel, Signet Laboratories, Cambium Learning, AnVil and CambridgeSoft Corporation, accumulating considerable experience in the areas of venture financings, corporate development, technology licensing and mergers and acquisitions. He currently serves as an advisor to the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Massachusetts, the CharitéBIH Entrepreneurship Summit, the German American Business Council of Boston, and Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology (WEST). Elissa Hobert is a director at a stealth stage biotech company. She has a passion for developing platform technologies, particularly around nucleic acids. Previously, she worked at Sail and Moderna, where she helped to develop the RNA platforms at both companies. Prior to joining Moderna, Elissa was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Elissa received her BS in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and her PhD in chemistry from Yale University. She has volunteered with WEST since 2015 and was the recipient of the WEST Giving Back Award in 2016. Shannon Moesaa is  Jennifer Nelson is currently Senior Vice President at Omega Therapeutics and clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines. Previously, she was Vice President, Research at Flagship Pioneering where she helped launch and develop bioplatform companies, overseeing platform- related strategy, research, and build throughout the ProtoCo and early NewCo stages. Prior to that, Jennifer was Head of Vaccines at Laronde, where she led a team of scientists exploring novel applications for circular RNA. In addition to overseeing in vivo Proof of Concept work for various infectious disease indications, she also contributed to portfolio and IP strategy, as well as early build-out of platform and manufacturing capabilities. Prior to this role, Jennifer took on roles of increasing responsibility at Moderna Therapeutics for over 6 years. Ultimately, she led a team responsible for developing novel ways of making and modifying mRNA therapeutics to tune biological performance. Jennifer began her industry career working on aptamers at both Archemix Therapeutics and later GSK. Jennifer is an author on numerous articles and patents focused on various nucleic acid technologies including ribozymes, aptamers, mRNA, and circular RNA. Jennifer holds a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Extension Studies, field: Management from Harvard Extension School and a BA from Northwestern University. Jennifer has been a long-time WEST Member as well as serving on the AD Board for 2 years..  Dr. Clive Patience is currently Chief Technical Operations Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals. He joined Agios in 2017, where he has led Technical Operations through late stage clinical development and ultimately launch of Agios’ first solely owned commercial product TIBSOVO. Prior to joining Agios, Clive held several positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen, where he spent 13 years, His scope included Quality, CMC, as well as asset development and program management. While at Biogen, Clive had the opportunity to work on many and varied programs including those in the early phase, late phase and commercial spaces, which also spanned the small molecule, biologics, gene therapy modalities as well as combination products. Prior to joining Biogen, Clive worked in the field of xenotransplantation in both an industry and academic capacity and has an extensive publication history with the field of Virology.  Pallavi Srivastava's diverse 18+ years of career journey includes closely collaborating with executives in multifaceted roles. In her professional stint 1.0 as business journalist she worked with CEOs and other c-suite leaders asking tough questions. Her personal experience with burnout inspired her to pivot to stint 2.0 as a workplace well-being therapist. In her present role as CEO of The Wellbeing Ways LLC and a Leadership Coach, Pallavi partners with leaders, scientists and start-up founders on topics life self-leadership, presence, resilience, conflict management, problem solving, emotional intelligence, etc. She has guided leaders towards their highest potential and sustainable high performance. Her book 'Relationship with the Self,' underscores her commitment and expertise in fostering self-leadership and thriving. It shows us how we can lean into 'who we are' and leverage our values and strengths to create success and fulfillment. Pallavi has coached leaders across the world and industries for over 1000 coaching hours and with results that have earned consistent re-engagement of her services. Pallavi is credentialed by the International Coaching Federation as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and is certified by the Co-Active Training Institute as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), and holds an MBA degree. Full Bio.  Karen Weisinger, PhD. has formal training in developmental neurobiology and stem cell biology, specializing in iPSC-based therapeutics. With over 15 years of experience in both therapeutic and tool development, she has worked across R&D, process development, and scale-up optimization. Currently, Karen serves as the VP of Science and Technology at Cell X Technologies, where she provides both strategic and technical guidance to advance cell therapies, focusing on automation and deep learning to optimize workflow processes and improve efficiency in cell therapy manufacturing. She also leads Trebuchet Bio, a consulting firm that helps companies refine their therapeutic development strategies and optimize processes. Having collaborated with over 20 companies, from nimble startups to large organizations, she understands both the agility and urgency required in smaller companies as well as the complexities faced by larger enterprises. Karen is deeply committed to advancing cell therapies and bridging scientific expertise with strategic execution to accelerate the development of transformative treatments. Karen has been an active member of WEST for the past 7 years, transitioning from a member to serving on the advisory board and now as a board member. She is passionate about mentoring early-career professionals, finds joy in celebrating their successes, and is deeply committed to empowering women to achieve leadership roles in the life sciences industry. Past Presidents of the Board
2023-2024 - Elena Spencer Chair Emeritus
 Sandra Glucksmann- is currently the CEO of Sensorium Therapeutics. A veteran biopharma executive and experienced scientist with over 30 years in biotech, Glucksmann most recently served as founding CEO and President of Cedilla Therapeutics and previously was founding Chief Operating Officer of Editas Medicine, Inc. She serves on the boards of directors of gene therapy company REGENXBIO and and genetic modifiers company Scenic Biotech. Alexandra holds a Ph.D. with honors in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago. Janice Bourque is former Senior Vice President and Group Head-Life Sciences for Comerica Bank where she was responsible for leading Comerica’s national strategy for the life sciences. Prior to that, Ms. Bourque was President/CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) where she led the organization for 12 years. In 2004, she was awarded the Woman of Valor Award by the American Diabetes Association and the 2004 Distinguished Leadership Award by the Huntington Disease Society for her work in public policy and public health. In 2003, Boston Magazine named her one of Boston’s 100 most influential women and the Cambridge Chamber Commerce awarded her Business Person of the Year. Ms. Bourque received her MBA degree in finance and accounting and her BS degree in veterinary science from the University of New Hampshire. Board Emeritus
Abigail Barrow is the Managing Partner of Cambridge Innovation Partners – a consulting firm that helps start-ups find global and local resources for success. Previously, she was the Interim Executive Director, Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures (OTCV) at the University of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2018. She joined the UMass President’s Office in 2004 as the Founding Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC) which was hosted in OTCV. At MTTC she was responsible for the overall management of the MTTC and the development of its programs. Prior to joining UMass, Dr. Barrow served as managing director of William J. von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Barrow worked in a variety of roles at UCSD CONNECT from 1990 to 2001. Dr. Barrow is on the board and is Chair of VentureWell. Dr. Barrow received her Ph.D. from the Science Studies Unit and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh. Joel MacAuslan, Ph.D., is Chief Executive and Chief Science Officer of STAR Analytical Services, which provides mathematical and analytical capability for clients' innovation projects that require expertise in system modeling, signal processing, and nonlinear dynamics - from brain surgery to rocket science. He founded STAR on an NIH grant to apply techniques of chaos theory to the dynamics of the larynx. Joel has participated actively in WEST since early 2000. Joel holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Cornell and has spent over twenty-five years in mathematical speech, signal, and image-processing analysis.
|
Our Sponsors
WEST Events
