Julie Martin, MSc, Lean Certified - President & CEO is a 17-year industry veteran who has led Scimega as CEO for 5 years. Her passion for Scimega’s business and team stems from knowing its expert oncology clinical development services add distinct value to industry stakeholders at a time when it’s needed most. As CEO, Ms Martin's vision is to secure the company’s long-term success by leveraging her in-depth industry expertise and business acumen. She equates that success with setting a clear vision for the organization’s continued sense of purpose. Her leadership, and collaboration with the managing Board of Directors, combined ensure the business excellence upon which Scimega has built its reputation. Ms Martin plays a vital role in promoting Scimega’s expertise and showcasing Canada’s attributes as a formidable partner in global oncology drug development with an evolving Lean methodology.

Heidi Green, PhD, MSci, has spent her professional career dedicated to practicing creative research methods that identify barriers and enablers to facilitating inclusive clinical research. Dr Green has a PhD in Applied Health Sciences, specializing in patient recruitment to trials, and before joining COUCH spent eight years working within an academic research environment at the University of Aberdeen’s Health Services Research Unit which won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2018. Her work aims to increase the level of high-quality inclusive clinical research, with the goal of one day ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in clinical research.

Diagnosed in her teens, Sabina Kineen is passionate about educating others how the diagnosis of an inherited, rare disease can impact an entire family and sharing the unique perspective of living as both a patient and a caregiver. Ms Kineen strives to use her own life experiences, including her involvement and participation in clinical trials, to support patients and industry in order to build bridges and encourage health equity and patient engagement.

Christine McLennan joined BioNTech during the global pandemic, as she was impressed with BioNTech’s passion and commitment to improving the health of people worldwide with innovative immunotherapies. In her current role, she partners with patient advocacy groups to create awareness of clinical trials designed for patient populations with unmet medical needs.

Ms McLennan began her career as a clinical nutritionist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, where compassionate, patient-centered care and evidenced-based medicine were fundamental to clinical practice. She has been involved with patient support groups for over 30 years. Early on in her career, Ms McLennan helped to establish a local chapter of the Canadian Diabetes Association and also served as the nutrition advisor for local support groups for people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Celiac Disease. She then moved to the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University, where she managed NIH-funded research studies in heart disease, arthritis and osteoporosis. Since 2008, she has directed clinical trials for a wide range of therapeutic indications for various CROs and small biotechs in the Boston area. She has great passion for preventive medicine and endorses advocacy work that promotes surveillance and early intervention among high-risk populations. Her goal as a healthcare professional is to engage in efforts that create access to effective and affordable health care for people across the globe.

Barry Liden, JD is the Director of Public Policy. He works with the Schaeffer Center leadership to amplify the Center’s impact on public policy through the development and implementation of high-impact strategies; research translation through the strengthening of existing and new methods for maximizing dissemination and uptake of our initiatives; and liaising with key stakeholders through the creation and cultivation of relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Mr Liden was with Edwards Lifesciences from 2002-2022, where he served in various roles, including patient engagement, government affairs and communication. Most recently, he served as the Vice President of Patient Engagement, where he pioneered the advancement of the patient engagement function in the medical device industry. Mr Liden was formerly an Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies from 2018-2022 and Adjunct Faculty at USC Annenberg from 2002-2007. He is also the former Chair of MDIC’s Science of Patient Input Working Group.

Mr Liden is a USC Sol Price School of Public Policy alumnus and received his JD from Loyola Law School.

Jessica Brescher, MPH, has almost 20 years of clinical trial experience in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. At Bristol Myers Squibb, in addition to being a Sr Clinical Scientist, she co-leads an initiative to allow patients to self-identify their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status in their clinical trials. Ms Brescher is also a Doctoral Candidate at Drexel University, where her research focus is the ethical inclusion of sexual and gender diverse patients in clinical research. Her commitment to diversity and representation as a moral imperative underlies the passion she brings to all her work.

Amy Fesmire-Baus has spent over 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently working to break down patient barriers to clinical trial participation by incorporating the Patient Voice into clinical research protocols and building clinical trial awareness with Patient Advocacy Groups, all while making sure both efforts were inclusive of diverse populations. In addition, Ms Fesmire-Baus has managed the Engagement and Diversity Strategy across the Multiple Myeloma portfolio. What sets Ms Fesmire-Baus apart is her personal connection to the patient perspective. As a congenital heart disease patient and advocate, she has volunteered with a Patient Advocacy Group for over 10 years. Her contributions include serving as a Peer Mentor, as a contributing team member on several initiatives, and as Chair for fundraising events. Ms Fesmire-Baus’s commitment extends beyond organizational roles, as she has actively participated in Conference Scholarship Committees, leading the way in providing opportunities for others. Ms Fesmire-Baus’s passion for empowering patients is evident in her leadership role in developing an Education Strategy and creating a book specifically tailored to patients undergoing open-heart surgery as adults. Her dedication to sharing knowledge and empowering others is further exemplified by her role as a speaker at national and regional CHD conferences.

Lorena Kuri is currently serving as Head of Diversity Strategy for R&D, where she is responsible for driving the Diversity in Clinical Trials enterprise strategy, with the objective of recruiting a Patient population that is more reflective of the real world and aligned with the epidemiology of the disease studied.

She holds a BA in International Business from Tec de Monterrey, a Masters in Strategic Management and Human Capital from Universidad Anahuac and a D&I Certificate from Cornell.

She is a founder and board member of SGM Alliance, a non profit that looks into improving Health Equity for Sexual and Gender Minorities. She is an active Red Shoe Movement Ambassador and member of WOCIP (Women of Color in Pharma) where she previously held a board role.

Donna Sattler is a Diversity and Inclusion advocate, leading internal and external industry initiatives to improve health equity by implementing inclusive standard data collection and analysis strategies to engage marginalized populations. Ms Sattler has supported Data Management and Statistical Programming roles for over 22 years. As a clinical data standards specialist, she has demonstrated an understanding of clinical trial tools and processes, gaps in those processes, and created opportunities to make improvements for better data standards harmonization and compliance across the enterprise.

Core Competencies: CDISC/CDASH & SDTM Standards implementation, data integration, compliance tools, project management, mentor, coach and line management. PROUD LGBTQIA+ ally. Disability Advancement Working Group lead team member, driving patient and communities’ initiatives. Industry partnerships: CDISC, Pharma SUG, PhUSE, DIA: Planning and Academic Committees & working groups. Currently an active member of CDISC: CAC Member, CDASH Co-Lead and SOGI working group member.

Attilio Bondanza, MD, PhD, is Head of Cell Therapy Clinical Development and Operations, Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, Cambridge (UK). He trained in Internal Medicine/Clinical Immunology in Milano (IT) and in Hematology/Bone Marrow Transplantation in Leiden (NL). After leaving his tenure as Associate Professor, he joined Novartis, where he worked as clinical program head of approved and new first-in-human CAR-T therapies. Dr Bondanza has published extensively around T-cell engineering, preclinical modeling and clinical development of cellular therapies (H-index: 43). He’s the inventor of numerous patents licensed to biotechs and pharmas.

Rosamund Round has devoted her career to simplifying the patient journey in clinical trials, with a focus on reducing geographic, financial and practical barriers to study participation.  Patient recruitment roles in both the pharmaceutical and CRO environments have allowed her to explore better ways to communicate with patients. Before joining Parexel in 2013, her tenure included roles in patient recruitment with Roche and IQVIA.  At Parexel, Ms Round addresses health literacy gaps and technological advancements, and generates new ideas to make clinical trial participation more accessible and convenient for patients.

Erica Mercado brings more than 15 years of patient recruitment and engagement experience to her role at BBK Worldwide, where she serves as Director of Growth Strategy and oversees the development of strategic programs to support successful study enrollment. Ms Mercado creates and deploys innovative and successful strategies that generate awareness and engagement surrounding clinical research for study sponsors, advocacy organizations and patient thought-leaders. Prior to her current role, Ms Mercado served as Senior Account Supervisor, ensuring patient recruitment and engagement efforts achieved performance goals. She has also served as BBK’s Director of Innovation, playing an integral role in product development – anticipating, developing and delivering innovative patient recruitment and engagement technologies to improve the clinical trial experience. In 2018, Ms Mercado was selected as one of the top 100 most inspiring people in the life sciences industry by PharmaVOICE magazine, in recognition of how she inspires and motivates those around her, her influence as a corporate leader and her positive impact on the industry through her actions.