Amy Cohen, MPH, is a patient access and engagement strategist and community engagement expert with over a decade of experience bridging the gap between life sciences companies and the patient communities they serve. She is the Founder and Principal Consultant of The Patient Room, a consultancy she established to help life sciences teams meaningfully strengthen their patient advocacy and patient engagement work, moving beyond transactional outreach toward relationships built on genuine trust.

Amy's career has been shaped by a deep understanding of what it takes to reach people who have historically been underserved by, and skeptical of, the medical research enterprise. She has worked across therapeutic areas including oncology, rare disease, sickle cell disease, HIV, diabetes, IBS, and osteoarthritis, and her success across such a diverse range of conditions speaks to a core belief that drives all of her work: trust and education are the common denominator when it comes to meaningfully involving patients. Regardless of the disease area, people participate when they feel informed, respected, and genuinely seen. Before founding The Patient Room, she served as a Site Recruitment and Community Engagement Project Manager at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYC Health + Hospitals, where she led community engagement efforts during the COVID-19 response.

Today, Amy chairs the AI and Technology breakout session at Patients as Partners in Clinical Research, bringing her commitment to access and human connection to one of the field's most rapidly evolving conversations.

Amy is also deeply passionate about what becomes possible when people have real access to care. This past November, she made history as the first marathon finisher with sickle cell disease at the New York City Marathon. It is a conviction she carries into her work every day: when the right support and access exist, people can exceed every expectation, including the ones they hold for themselves.

Amy is based in the Boston area and serves on the Massachusetts Health Council.

David Craig, MBA is a two-time cancer survivor, caregiver, and patient experience champion. After 10 years as a patient insights researcher supporting global healthcare organizations, he co-founded Gryt Health (“grit”) in 2016.

Gryt Health amplifies patient voices to improve health outcomes and is run by survivors and caregivers who are passionate about integrating lived experiences into healthcare systems.

David holds a BS in Communication and an MBA in Technology Management from Rochester Institute of Technology. He has also completed Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School (Building New Ventures & Healthcare Innovation) and MIT Sloan School of Management (Corporate Strategy). Dave leads cross-stakeholder initiatives focused on Patient-Centered AI in Drug Development.

Nalin Tikoo, M.S., is President & CEO of TrapezoidX, Inc., a clinical data analytics company serving early-stage biotech and pharmaceutical companies. TrapezoidX delivers CDISC-compliant programming solutions including SDTM/ADaM datasets, TFLs, eCTD packages, and AI-powered fit-for-purpose data products while providing strategic advisory services for board and investor meeting preparation with 24-48 hour turnaround capability. The company offers fractional leadership for real-time decision support, regulatory strategy guidance, and on-demand programming expertise, providing significant cost savings compared to full-time senior hires.

Nalin brings over 20 years of progressive leadership in clinical data science. Most recently, as Senior Director of Analytical Programming at Alector, he pioneered IDEAS (Interactive Data Exploration & Analysis System), a Spotfire-based visual data analytics platform deployed enterprise-wide. Prior to Alector, at Roche Diagnostics, he established Statistical Computing Environment across three global business units and led the organization's R programming adoption initiative. At Genentech, he served as Business Lead for the CDISC eSub Initiative, implementing industry-standard tools for all Roche/Genentech regulatory filings, and as BioMetrics Submission Team Lead for the Cobimetinib program.

Beyond executive leadership, Nalin maintains hands-on technical expertise, actively programming in SAS, R, and Python while leveraging modern AI tools including Claude-Code, Claude, and ChatGPT. His innovations include developing publication-ready outputs for conferences, patient profile visualizations with MRI data integrated for ARIA monitoring, and deploying R/Shiny applications in both AWS and Azure cloud environments.

A dedicated community contributor, Nalin has published research in Clinical Cancer Research and The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. He has been active in the Bay Area Biotech-Pharma Statistics Workshop (BBSW) since 2021 and was instrumental in establishing its Programming Track in 2023.

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Sarah Tuller has 25 years of experience in regulatory strategy and operations, spanning numerous clinical and commercial-stage products across a wide range of therapeutic indications, including multiple cell and gene therapies and orphan disease programs. She has led or been a part of numerous successful IND, NDA, MAA and BLA applications.  Prior to joining Opus, she was Chief Regulatory Officer and Head of Medical Writing at Tenpoint Therapeutics, as well as Vice President and Global Head, Regulatory, Medical Writing and Quality at Disc Medicine, and held regulatory leadership positions at Astellas Pharma, where she was Senior Director and Medical Specialties Therapeutic Team Leader and supported the ophthalmology gene therapy, mitochondrial diseases, and regenerative (cell) medicinal product franchises, as well as prior appointments of increasing regulatory responsibility at companies including Biogen, ImClone, Fresenius, and Baxter. She earned her Juris Doctorate (JD) in IP law from the University of Dayton School of Law, holds a B.S. in Chemistry, and is RAC certified in Regulatory as well as a member of RAPS in US and TOPRA in EU.

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Dr. Florencia Segal is an infectious diseases physician‑scientist with over 20 years of experience spanning research and clinical academic medicine, drug development, and biotech investing. She joined Lilly in May 2025 as the Chief Medical Officer for ExploR&D (ERD), where she leads Translational Medicine, Development Sciences (PK, toxicology, clinical pharmacology, biomarkers), and Biostatistics.

Previously, she was an Investor Partner at MPM BioImpact and spent more than eight years at Novartis leading Translational Medicine for the Global Health unit, supporting early‑ and late‑stage anti‑infective programs and contributing to gene therapy efforts. She is also a practicing physician at Mass General Brigham and on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

Silvia Cerolini is the founder of Eyes on the Future, a patient-led organisation pioneering a new model of drug development for rare diseases. Moved by her daughter’s diagnosis with RDH12-related childhood blindness, she has built a global community across more than 20 countries, raising millions to fund research and advancing gene therapy programs now moving toward clinical trials. Through this work, Silvia is shaping a new approach to medicine that is both patient-driven and AI-enabled to address the systemic industry challenges with rare diseases and small patient populations.

Alongside this work, Silvia is Head of Transformation at Sanofi UK & Ireland, where she focuses on integrating AI and digital innovation to accelerate patient care and healthcare transformation.

She is a frequent speaker on patient-driven innovation, rare diseases and the future of personalized medicine. Her work has been featured in global outlets including Forbes, BBC, and Vanity Fair.

Gary Nolan is the Founder and CEO of Colab Health, a patient-interest organization dedicated to helping healthcare companies embed the patient voice meaningfully across research, development, and commercial strategy.

For more than two decades, Gary has worked at the intersection of industry and the patient advocacy community, designing collaborative models that enable patients to participate earlier, more consistently, and more effectively in drug development. His work focuses on moving beyond traditional “patient centricity” toward practical models of patient inclusion that deliver measurable improvements in clinical research, education, and health outcomes.

Through Colab Health, Gary partners with pharmaceutical companies, non-profit organizations, and global advocacy networks to co-create initiatives that strengthen collaboration between industry and the communities it serves. His work often involves establishing patient advisory structures, supporting advocacy networks, and developing education and engagement programmes that help ensure patient insights meaningfully inform research and development.

Gary’s work spans multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare diseases, and paediatric conditions, and frequently involves building multi-stakeholder collaborations between patient organisations, clinicians, researchers, and industry partners.

A frequent speaker on patient partnership and engagement, Gary advocates for a shift from aspirational language toward operational change; ensuring that patients are not simply consulted, but recognised as essential partners in shaping better research, better medicines, and better outcomes.

Gail Long is Head of Centralized Patient Recruitment and Enablement, where she leads global patient recruitment efforts across Marketing Operations, Patient Enablement Technologies, and Patient Communities. Throughout her work, Gail focuses on ensuring that patient needs, preferences, and real-world experiences are understood first—and reflected meaningfully in how clinical trial recruitment is designed and communicated.

With more than 30 years of marketing experience and over a decade dedicated to patient recruitment, Gail has led recruitment strategies for more than 1,000 clinical trials across 75+ therapeutic indications and over 30 countries. Her teams begin by listening to patients—understanding barriers, motivations, and unmet needs—and then apply precision targeting, innovative technologies, and multi-channel outreach to help patients identify trials that are right for them.

Prior to joining IQVIA, Gail spent seven years at AES, where she led marketing and call center operations for patient recruitment. Earlier in her career, she held senior marketing roles at Fortune 500 companies including Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, and Consumer Reports. Gail holds an MBA in Marketing from Temple University and is passionate about advancing more inclusive, patient-centered approaches that treat patients as true partners in clinical research.

Anne-Marie Bisson began her career in the life sciences industry, working across commercial and strategic functions. After witnessing the accelerating influence of patient advocacy and the difficulty industry faces in keeping up, she founded and now leads Zebricks, a patient advocacy intelligence platform designed to bring structure, clarity, and real-time insight to patient engagement strategy. She’s also known for bringing maple candies to conferences, a Canadian treat - they will be waiting for you at the booth!