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.

Samantha (Sam) Guild, JD, left a successful career as a litigation attorney in 2008 to become the Director of Education, Public Policy and Advocacy for AIM at Melanoma, the foundation her mother, Valerie, founded after Sam’s sister Charlie died of melanoma in 2003.

As President of AIM at Melanoma, Ms Guild works closely with grantors and the AIM team on future goals for the foundation. A large part of her role at AIM includes the oversight of the creation of resources for patients, caregivers and health care providers—resources such as patient treatment decision-making tools, AIM’s melanoma oncology nursing website, IO Essentials website and the AIM at Skin Cancer website.

In her public policy work, Ms Guild led the effort in California that resulted in the passage of the first bill to ban minors under 18 from using tanning devices. She also oversees AIM’s effort to support oral parity and step therapy legislation on the state and federal levels.

In her advocacy role at AIM, Ms Guild sits on a variety of governmental and non-profit working groups and committees where she advocates for the skin cancer community, including NCCN, SWOG and ECOG, and the ASCO’s systemic therapy melanoma working group. She is frequently asked by researchers and industry to share the patient perspective on topics of importance to their research.

Ms Guild received a bachelor’s degree from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She earned her law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, in Sacramento, California.

David Leung, MD, PhD, joined Daiichi-Sankyo in April 2023 as Head of Imaging. Dr Leung is a dual board-certified radiologist and nuclear medicine physician.

Before Daiichi-Sankyo, Dr Leung served as Vice President, Discovery and Translational Medicine at RefleXion Medical since December 2021. Prior to that, Dr Leung headed oncology imaging at Bristol-Myers Squibb since 2015, during which he also led novel PET tracer development and imaging biomarkers into clinical trials. Prior to industry, Dr Leung was a practicing academic radiologist and the modality chief in nuclear medicine at Columbia University Medical center, where he maintains an adjunct professorship. Dr Leung also serves as a member of the New York State Board for Medical Physics.

Dr Leung earned his medical degree as part of the NIH medical scientist training program from College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, along with a PhD in chemistry. Dr Leung’s research interests include developing novel imaging biomarkers and PET radiotracers for oncology and other therapeutic areas to improve health care outcomes.

Trish Davidson, MPA, has extensive experience -- most recently developing an international Biomarkers and Outcome Measures Consortium for a rare disease patient advocacy group and 13+ years at the Lupus Foundation of America -- developing and directing patient and professional educational programs, research symposia and consortia involving diverse stakeholder communities in clinical care and clinical research. Ms Davidson collaborates with Tufts CSDD Executive Director, Ken Getz on a variety of initiatives involving building and sustaining relationships with professionals in government, advocacy, academia and industry. Ms Davidson received her BA and Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of South Carolina.

Jeffrey Bockman, PhD, leads the Oncology and Virology Practices at Lumanity. Dr Bockman has extensive commercial and strategic perspective on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He has directed hundreds of in-depth licensing opportunities and valuation assessments during his tenure at Cello Health BioConsulting, now Lumanity. He often speaks at conferences on scientific and commercial issues in cancer, especially immuno-oncology.

Before joining Cello Health BioConsulting, Dr Bockman was a Senior Research Scientist and Research Project Leader in the commercial development of oligonucleotide therapeutics for viral diseases and cancer at Innovir Laboratories; and an Assistant Research Professor at The George Washington University School of Medicine. He has worked closely with two Nobel Prize recipients – Dr Sidney Altman on ribozymes, and Dr Stanley Prusiner on prions – and holds four patents in the use of ribozymes.

He received a BA from University of California at San Diego, a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in English/Creative Writing from New York University.

Dr Bockman is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).

Dr Bockman is a mentor for the NCI Innovation Conference, a judge for the Citeline Awards, an advisor to the JPM Biotech Showcase and a member of the Advisory "Group" to Skipper Bio Med (a preclinical research consultancy that provides pro bono services to academic and industry groups, developing promising lung and/or pancreatic cancer therapeutics/device. Skipper is fully supported by a private US family that has been personally impacted by these cancers and is committed to bridging the research “valley of death”).

Dr Bockman is also part of the Clinical Advisory Board of ImmunOS (an immunotherapy company based in Zurich) and the Scientific Advisory Board of hC Bioscience (a novel RNA-based platform company in Cambridge, MA).

Mai-Britt Zocca, PhD, brings more than 18 years of experience in the biotechnology field and has participated in the founding and co-founding of several biotech spinouts. Her focus on translational and clinical immune oncology has led to the development of important immunotherapies for a variety of cancer types. She is a member of the board of directors of DANSK BIOTEK and has held several executive positions in the industry. Dr Zocca holds a PhD in tumor immunology and a Master of Science in biochemistry. She received her PhD from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Copenhagen and the NIH, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Jing Li, MD, PhD, MBA, is the founder and CEO of VelaVigo. Prior to founding VelaVigo, he served as Senior Vice President, head of Discovery at WuXi Biologics. Before joining WuXi Biologics, he worked in Novartis Biologics Center as Senior Manager of Portfolio & Alliance Management, and Novartis Oncology as Lab Head and Program Team Head. Prior to Novartis, he worked in Wyeth (now Pfizer) as Senior Scientist and Project Leader.

Dr Li received his MD and PhD degree in molecular immunology and oncology from Peking University Health Science Center (the former Beijing Medical University), and MBA degree from Yale University School of Management. He obtained his post-doctorate training in Tufts University. He has 25+ years of professional experience in antibody engineering and 20+ years of industry experience in the drug discovery and development field. He is a member of AACR (American Association for Cancer Research), ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) and FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies). He has filed 70+ patent applications and authored 20+ publications. He was awarded the Jiang Su Innovation Talent title in 2015.