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Corporate Sponsorship Co-Chair: Supriya Gaitonde |
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Supriya received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Cancer Biology, on research focused on the tumor suppressor protein, p53. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship in 2008 at the Sanford-Burnham Research Institute, on projects involving Siah-2, a ubiquitin ligase, and AKT, a serene-threonine kinase. She followed her post-doc with a short stint at Life Technologies, in the Technical Support department. Wanting to get back to the bench, she left the position in 2009 and is actively looking for a research scientist position in the biotech beach area. Supriya has been a member of AWIS since 2008 and served on the corporate sponsorship committee since 2011.
Supriya keeps busy with her two boys, ages 11 and 8.
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Events Co-Chair: Marianna Tcherpakov |
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Marianna graduated with a B.S. from Tel-Aviv University , Israel and got her PhD from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel in 2004. She also holds MSc in Science Management from Polytechnic University of New York. Marianna joined Prof. Z.Ronai laboratory (Sanford-Burnham Institute) as a post doc fellow in 2004 working on Ubiquitin-Proteasome System. Currently, Marianna is working for local biotech company developing new assays and life science tools for epigenetic research. In her free time she enjoys reading, arts and traveling. She was a member of AWIS since 2009 and part of the WIST 2011 speaker committee. To contact this events committee co-chair please click
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Events Co-Chair: Barb Davids |
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Barbara Davids earned her B.S in Biology from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame in 1990, and her M.S. (1993) & Ph.D. in Veterinary Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. While in Wisconsin her research focused on the molecular mechanisms of intermediate host immune defense against parasitic infections. In 1999 she moved from the Midwest and joined the Department of Pathology at UCSD as a postdoctoral fellow to continue working the area of parasitic infectious disease studying differentiation and the cell biology of Giardia lamblia. In 2002 she was recruited as a faculty project scientist at UCSD, expanding her research until 2012 in the areas of giardial genomics, differentiation, cell biology, new drug discovery, and proteomics to identify candidate proteins for vaccine discovery. She now works at Quidel as a molecular development scientist investigating new diagnostic technology for infectious disease detection. Barbara joined AWIS in 2009 and has served on the Events committee since the same year and became co-chair of Events in November 2012. Since 2011 she also has served as the co-chair of the Open House committee. To contact this events committee co-chair please click
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2013 WIST Co-Chair: Dorothy Sears |
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Dorothy earned a B.S. at the University of Southern California in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology & Genetics from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1994. Dorothy has been conducting research in the fields of insulin resistance and diabetes since 1995 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dorothy also collaborates with and consults for several private research companies. She has been a San Diego AWIS member since 2001. Email her by clicking
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2013 WIST Co-Chair: Grace Nakayama |
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Grace R Nakayama, Ph.D., PMP is currently a Board member at large of AWIS SD and co-chair of WIST 2013. As a long-time active volunteer of AWIS SD, Grace has served as co-chair of Strategy Sessions committee, member of Gala committee, participant in Outreach events, etc. She received the AWIS SD Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2009.
Grace has over 15 years experience in biotech and pharmaceutical industries, spanning drug discovery through preclinical and clinical development of small molecules and biologics. She is currently Director, Project and Alliance Management at Abide Therapeutics, a start-up drug discovery company. Previous positions include Senior Program and Alliance Manager at Biogen Idec and Senior Principal Scientist at Pfizer.
Grace earned her B.S. in Applied Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and Ph.D. in Bio-organic Chemistry from UC Berkeley. She is a PMP (Project Management Professional). In addition, she is active with BIOCOM Institute as a member of the education subcommittee, developed the BIOCOM Institute website, and prepared lessons for the BioCollaborative certificate programs in Industrial Biotechnology and Life Sciences.
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Newsletter Co-Chair: Nurith Amitai |
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Nurith grew up in Germany and, after a semester-long stint in California during her junior year of high school, moved to the US permanently at 20 years of age. She received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, with a minor in Cultural and Social Anthropology. She then completed her Ph.D. in Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, with a dissertation on modeling cognitive deficits with relevance to schizophrenia in rodents. Further following her interest in the neurobiological bases of psychiatric disorders, she investigated the role of signaling enzymes in alcohol drinking and anxiety during a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center. She is also interested in scientific writing and editing as well as teaching, and has worked for several months as a scientific writer and co-taught an undergraduate Cellular Neurosciences course at San Francisco State University. At the moment, she is working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Her current work focuses on modeling deficits in sensory gating, cognition, and motivation in schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome.
To email Nurith click
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Newsletter Co-Chair: DeeAnn Visk |
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DeeAnn Visk obtained her doctorate from UCSD last year. Presently, she is honing her quantitative PCR technique as a volunteer in Christopher Woelk’s lab at the Center for Aids Research at the VA Hospital in La Jolla. She is interested in transitioning to clinical laboratory work to support the increasingly complex diagnostic work being done in sequencing.
DeeAnn became the Co-Chair for the Newsletter Committee in September 2012. She looks forward to becoming a better editor.
To email DeeAnn click
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Newsletter Co-Chair: Afshawn Chakamian |
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Afshawn is recent graduate from UC San Diego, graduating with a B.S. in Human Biology and a minor in Health Care-Social Issues in 2011. Her college experience culminated in delivering the commencement speech at her graduation ceremony in front of 10,000+ people. She currently works at PRA International, a contract research organization that helps pharmaceutical companies run their drug trials. She is interested in business as much as she is interested in science and hopes to go to business school in a few years in order to combine her two passions. In her free time, Afshawn loves to watch sports, cook for her friends, and further her tea obsession by buying and trying new tea.
To email Afshawn click
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Outreach Co-Chair: Julie Bordowitz |
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Julie received her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2003, from the University of Arizona. After a year off, during which she continued research as a technician in her undergraduate lab, she ventured to the mid-west to persue graduate school. In 2009, Julie received her Ph.D in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University. After 5 1/2 years of long, cold winter, Julie decided she missed the beautiful SoCal weather, and moved back across the country. Julie's research interests include understanding how organisms sense conditions in their environment and subsequently relay that information in order to adapt. Julie was a post-doctoral scholar the laboratory of Susan Golden at UCSD, working on circadian signaling mechanisms, and is currently working on gene regulatory networks in extremeophillic organisms in the laboratory of Ralph Greenspan, also at UCSD. Outside of lab work, Julie has always been enthusiastically involved in outreach organizations such as Girl Scouts of America, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Science Connection (UofAZ), and continues to serve on committees and groups dedicated to fostering interest in science, math, and engineering for youth. In her free time, Julie is an avid distance runner, and loves to spend time outside hiking, camping, or just enjoying the weather. Julie has been a member of AWIS-SD since 2010. Click
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Outreach Co-Chair: Vicki Hurless |
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Vicki received her B.S in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2005 from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. After graduating she explored other avenues and worked in the clinical research laboratory of Dr. Jerry Radich studying chronic myeloid leukemia at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Vicki is now a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology Joint Doctoral Program at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California, San Diego. She is interested in the evolution of development, specifically the evolution of gene regulatory networks in ascidian peripheral nervous system development. In addition to her graduate studies and research, Vicki teaches an undergraduate biochemistry and cell and molecular biology lab and an active volunteer and mentor in numerous organizations. As an undergraduate, she served as a pre-major program coordinator for the Women in Science and Engineering program at UW where she planned numerous events in addition to mentoring. As a graduate student, Vicki has volunteered and coordinated numerous AWIS events since becoming an AWIS member in 2011. She has also been an active mentor at the SDSU Minorities in Biomedical Research Support program by serving as a panelist, presenter, and judge for their events. Click
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Public Relations Co-Chair: Lisa Fong |
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Lisa Fong received her B.S. in Bioengineering from Syracuse University. After braving the cold weather in Upstate New York, she packed up and moved to warm and sunny San Diego. She just finished her M.S. in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego in 2010. Lisa has been a member of AWIS San Diego since 2009 and recently became co-chair of the Public Relations committee and is serving on the 2011 WIST Public Relations committee. In her free time, she loves spending time outdoors - swimming, biking, running, and hiking. To contact the Public Relations committee co-chairs, click
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Public Relations Co-Chair: Hoang Nhan |
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Hoang Nhan received her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego in 2010. Her doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Edward Callaway focused on using cutting-edge viral tracing techniques to study detailed morphologies of cortical neurons in the primary visual cortex. In 2004, she graduated from University of Washington, with a B.S. in Neurobiology and a B.A. in English Literature. When not in lab, she can be found at the beach, in the pottery shop, or in the wilderness. As an AWIS-SD member since 2008, she has served in the Public Relations and Strategy Committees, as well as co-founded the Early Career Coffee Club. Hoang is currently a co-chair of the Public Relations Committee. To contact the Public Relations committee co-chairs, click
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Scholarship Co-Chair: Laura Cerviño |
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Laura received her B.S. from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, in 1999, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from UC San Diego in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2005. After a visiting professorship in the University of Seville, she did a postdoc in the Department of Radiation Oncology, UC San Diego, followed by another postdoc in the Department of Radiation Oncology. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, UC San Diego, where she specializes in image-guided radiation therapy, surface imaging, breast cancer, and tumor motion management. She has held funding from the American Cancer Society. She has been a member of AWIS since 2011. Click
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Scholarship Co-Chair: Erna van Niekerk |
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Erna received her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in 2008 where she focused on molecular neuroscience in spinal cord injury. After completing her degree, she moved to San Diego to pursue a post doctoral fellowship in systems neuroscience at UCSD. Erna joined AWIS in 2011 where she served under the scholarship committee and gala committee and in 2012, she became co-chair of the scholarship committee. Click
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Strategy Sessions Co-Chair: Kaumudi Joshi |
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Kaumudi Joshi is a post-doctoral research associate at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA) since 2010. Her research combines genomics with neuroscience to study the genomic basis of the evolution of the human brain. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX), for her work on the transcriptional control of the development of spinal motor circuits. Prior to coming to the US for her graduate work, Kaumudi earned a Master of Science degree in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay, India). As a member of AWIS since November 2011, she has served on the Strategy Sessions committee and has been a co-chair of this committee since February 2013. She has a deep interest in keeping up with scientific and technological advances and their impact on the world. In her spare time, Kaumudi enjoys outdoor activities such as running, hiking and traveling. Click here for information about Strategy Sessions. Or, to email, click
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Strategy Sessions Co-Chair: Beth Cisar |
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Beth earned her Ph.D. in chemical biology from The Rockefeller University in 2009. Her thesis work focused on the study of quorum sensing mechanisms in S. aureus. She then completed a post-doc at The Scripps Research Institute, where she created a GTP affinity probe for proteomics in order to characterize GTP signaling pathways. Currently, Beth is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of San Diego in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry where she teaches General Chemistry. Beth has been an AWIS member and Strategy Sessions committee member since 2011 and has been co-chair of the Strategy Sessions committee since December, 2012. Click here for information about Strategy Sessions. Or, to email, click
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Co-chair of Website Committee and Chair of 2012 Gala Committee: Kristina Schimmelpfeng Henthorn |
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Kristina Schimmelpfeng Henthorn received her Ph.D. in developmental biology and neuroscience from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany in 2000. She then moved to San Diego to pursue her postdoctoral training in Dr. Lawrence Goldstein's laboratory at UCSD where she focused on understanding the role of axonal transport in maintaining neuronal polarity using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. She also collaborated in a study of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) function in axonal transport and APP transcriptional target identification in the fly and tissue culture systems using RNA interference.
In 2008 Kristina became Principal Scientist at RGo Bioscience where she is investigating siRNA/peptide nanoparticle delivery technologies in vitro and in vivo until the company was acquired by Pfizer in late 2011. Since 2012 Kristina is working as Principal Scientist at RetroVirox Inc, developing anti-viral assays.
Kristina has been an AWIS-San Diego member since 2008 and joined the website committee the same year. She was member of the Gala committee in 2010 and became chair of the committee in 2012. Click
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Website Co-Chair: Lawrence Fourgeaud |
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After completing her PhD in neuroscience and pharmacology at the University ‘Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2’(France), Lawrence moved to San Diego in 2004 to pursue her postdoctoral training. After finishing her first postdoc at UCSD, she joined Dr. Greg Lemke’s lab at the Salk institute in 2009 where she is currently investigating the role of a family of immune molecules in synaptic plasticity and nervous system disorders. Lawrence has been a member of the Website Committee since she joined AWIS-SD in 2007. She also served as a member of the website committee for the AWIS-SD Women in Science and Technology conference in 2009.
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Monica Brown
