2024 Speakers for the Preparing for Science-Based Non-Traditional Careers Course

September 18 - Raed Samara, Ph.D.

Global Oncology Marketing, Precision Medicine NGS, Merck

Title: “Insights into global marketing function and hiring process in biotech and pharma”

Raed Samara is currently Director of Global Precision Medicine Marketing at Merck. In this role, he is responsible for the global launches of companion diagnostics for new Oncology drugs. Prior to this role, Raed held a number of positions with increasing responsibilities within the global product management function at QIAGEN serving the clinical testing and translational research markets. He started his private sector journey at QIAGEN as a scientist in the R&D Project Management department. Academically, Raed did his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) conducting research in the field of cancer immunology with emphasis on identifying strategies to boost the efficacy of cancer vaccines. Raed earned his PhD degree in Cancer Biology from Georgetown University.

Topics to be covered:

Career progression from postdoc to today
What is Global Marketing in biotech and pharma
Day-to-day responsibilities in Product Management and marketing
Culture and career options in industry
The hiring process: real life examples

September 25 – TJ Hu, Ph.D.

Partner, Boston Consulting Group

Title: “From PhD to Consulting: my journey to become a BCG Partner”

TJ is a Partner in the Philadelphia office of Boston Consulting Group. He is a core member of BCG’s Health Care and People & Organizations practices. During his time at BCG, TJ has focused on Healthcare across a number of topics including growth strategy, corporate strategy, pipeline assessment and buy-side due diligence.

Topics to be covered:

What is consulting?
How do Advanced Degree Candidates (e.g., PhDs) drive value in consulting?
How do you get started?

October 2 – Mark Kaplan, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Translational Oncology, Bristol Meyers Squibb

Title: “Being a Scientist in the Biopharma Industry”

Dr. Mark Kaplan is the Lymphoma Disease Head within Translational Medicine at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in Summit, NJ. Mark’s primary roles are to oversee biomarker analyses on BMS’ late-stage clinical trials, devise strategies to understand high-risk lymphoma and how BMS assets can address them and liaise with translational laboratory scientists. Mark first started in industry in 2001 at a range of small, medium and large biopharma companies, including Pfizer and Roche, first as a discovery scientist and subsequently as a translational scientist, before joining BMS in August 2020 (an interesting time to start!). Mark received his PhD in Biophysics from UCSF and was a Leukemia and Lymphoma postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison - coincidently presaging his current area of research. Mark is a scientific omnivore, but you will grab his attention with minimal residual disease.

Topics to be covered:

Decision to pursue a career in industry
My career journey
The good and the not-so-good about careers in industry
Advice for younger scientists interested in industry

October 9 – Jessica Calzola, Ph.D.

Branch Director, Innovate Program Branch, CRCHD NCI

Title: “Working for the NCI and Why I Love It”

Jessica M. Calzola is a Branch Director for the Innovative Programs Branch (IPB) of NCI’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD). The IPB accelerates innovative approaches toward eliminating health disparities by developing and implementing programs, including a focus on cancer research capacity through programs like the Intramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (iCURE) and NIH Common Fund Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST). Dr. Calzola commitment for training comes from the mentorship she received as part of the NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program (UGSP) in the summer of 2007.

Prior to joining CRCHD, Dr. Calzola was a Program Manager with Leidos, supporting the Army’s Medical Research Program in Systems Biology at Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD. Dr. Calzola also had a previous role providing project and program management support to the Congressionally Directed Research Program, specifically the Parkinson’s Research Program and the Joint Program Committee-6/Combat Casualty Care Research Program. In these roles she helped recruit, coordinate and execute programmatic review meetings and other program requirements.

Dr. Calzola earned her B.S. in biochemistry from Juniata College, Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate she was selected for the NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program. In this program she conducted basic research for a summer at NCI. Dr. Calzola then went on to get her Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics from Rutgers University, NJ. Her postdoctoral training was done in the Proteomic section of the Laboratory of Systems Biology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where she worked on modeling toll-like receptor 4 signaling.

Topics to be covered:

Getting value from informational interviews
The importance of self-awareness
Defining the (actual job) of a Program Director/Program Official

October 16 – Shana Hardy Thomas, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs, Kite Pharma

Title: “Safe to Proceed: A PhD Scientist’s Pathway to a Career in Regulatory Affairs”

Shana Hardy Thomas, PhD is a cell and gene therapy regulatory expert and strategist in oncology and the Associate Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company. In her role, she provides regulatory intelligence, strategy, and leadership to cross-functional development teams to support biotech drug development and clinical research. Her current focus includes the global late-stage clinical filing of Anitocabtagene autoleucel (Anti-BCMA CAR T cell product), a groundbreaking therapy co-developed with Arcellx. Additionally, she oversees the development, filing, and maintenance of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for early-stage clinical trials, generally first in human programs worldwide, ensuring compliance with regulatory agencies including the FDA.

Before joining Kite Pharma, Dr. Thomas served as a Pharmacology/Toxicology Regulatory Review Scientist at the FDA. In this role, she reviewed the safety and efficacy of cell and gene therapies. Notably, she was a primary reviewer for the Biologics License Application (BLA) of ABECMA, the first CAR T cell therapy approved for multiple myeloma. Her work at the FDA was marked by her specialization in engineered cell-based gene therapies and genome editing technologies for oncological diseases, earning her several awards for her comprehensive reviews and regulatory insights on complex products.

Before her FDA tenure, Dr. Thomas was a National Academies of Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST, where she focused on developing measurement standards for genome editing technologies like CRISPR. She holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from Purdue University, specializing in cancer biology, and earned her BS and MS in biology from Tuskegee University.

Topics to be covered:

What’s regulatory affairs?
Health authority reviewer vs pharma/ biotech industry reg affairs
Classic Pharma vs Biotech / Big Pharma vs Start-up?
What skills are valuable for success in this role? (Why are more and more PhDs being selected for this role?)
Salary expectations
Applying/ Career progression

October 23 – Jessica Rowell, Ph.D.

Deloitte Consulting LLP

Additional Speakers

Kim Del Guercio, M.P.H
Kyle O’Connell, Ph.D.
Yasvanth Kulasekarapandian, M.S.
Rocco Casagrande, Ph.D.

Title: “Consulting as a Career Path for Scientists: Exploring Science-Based Non-Traditional Careers”

Speakers will discuss what consulting in life sciences looks like and what the Deloitte recruitment process is like.

October 30 – Amy Funk, Ph.D.

Pharmaceutical Scientist, FDA

Title:” Regulatory Science Careers- Protecting and Promoting Public Health”

Amy Funk grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL. She attended the University of Minnesota for her undergraduate B.S. degree in Genetics, Cell Biology and Development with a minor in Biochemistry. For her graduate studies, she joined the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Program at Purdue University where she completed her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 2017. After graduate school, Amy completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the laboratory of Dr. John Brognard focusing on developing novel therapeutics for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients. During her first year at the NCI, Amy was a Sallie Rosen Kaplan (SRK) fellow. After her postdoc, Amy transitioned to a one-year fellowship position at the NCI in the Office of Training and Education (OTE) to learn more about project management and careers outside of academic research.

In April 2022, Amy joined the FDA as a Pharmaceutical Scientist in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Amy works on reviewing new oncology drug products for use in clinical trials under Investigational New Drug (IND) applications and for final public approval under New Drug Applications (NDAs). She is also the Life Enhancement Chair of the Women of CDER and part of numerous committees including OPQAI Education Committee, Spirit Committee, and CDER Nanotechnology Reviewer’s Network.

Topics to be covered:

Career path
Finding FDA positions and the hiring timeline
Regulatory science job details, day to day activities, pros and cons

November 6 – Marijke Koppenol-Raab, Ph.D.

Senior Pharmaceutical Scientist, CDER, FDA

Title: “Navigating the Transition from Bench Science to Regulatory Review”

Dr. Koppenol-Raab is a Senior Pharmaceutical Scientist in the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the FDA. She received her degree in Life Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, and her Ph.D. in Biology from Johns Hopkins University. Her research during her undergraduate and graduate studies focused on understanding various aspects of microbial metabolic pathways using bacterial and yeast model systems. After her doctoral work, Dr. Koppenol-Raab took a postdoc position at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH where she studied host-pathogen immune signaling networks. In 2016, she transitioned to a grants management position as a contractor for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. She joined FDA in 2018 as a review microbiologist for liquid drug products and currently serves as a drug product manufacturing and sterility assurance reviewer for small molecule drug products.

Topic to be covered:

My job and the role of pharmaceutical quality in public health
My career path from academic research to regulatory science
Tips for transitioning away from the bench

November 13 – Gorden Cohen, M.D., M.P.H.

Global Clinical Head, AstraZeneca

Title: “Pharma and Finance – Careers that Put Your Training to Good Use”

Dr. Gordon Cohen currently serves as Executive Director and Global Clinical Head in Late-Stage Development at AstraZeneca. He leads the clinical development of Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for all indications globally, excluding breast and gynecological cancers.

Over the past six years at AstraZeneca, Dr. Cohen has worked in late-stage oncology drug development, designing and managing global Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for various oncology treatments.

His educational and professional journey began with a degree in economics from Cornell University. After graduation, he worked as an Equity Research Analyst on Wall Street, covering the biotechnology sector. Dr. Cohen spent six years in finance at three different investment banks, culminating in his role as Vice President of Equity Research at Merrill Lynch. Following his finance career, he pursued medical school and a public health degree at Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed his pediatrics residency and pediatric oncology fellowship. After one year as a pediatric oncologist on the Johns Hopkins faculty, Dr. Cohen transitioned to AstraZeneca.

Topics to be covered:

My Career Path
Biotech/Pharma Careers in Clinical Development
Finance Careers Utilizing Science/Medical Training