Karen Jackler, MPH, has oversight of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) patient engagement activities. Working with scientific and policy staff across the FDA, she identifies patient engagement opportunities and assures CBER’s coordinated participation in them. With a professional background in public health and strategic communications and expertise in project planning and mobilizing diverse teams, she is a leader in promoting the importance of the patient voice in FDA’s decisions about biologic medical products.

Jaye Bea joined Immunovant, Inc., a clinical stage biotech company, as Head of Patient Advocacy in June 2020. Her twenty-five-year career in health care includes extensive experience in the public and private sector focused on advancing the needs and interests of patients and caregivers. Prior to joining Immunovant, Jaye Bea was Celgene’s Global Director of Patient Advocacy and Life Cycle Management, Inflammation & Immunology. Prior to Celgene, Jaye Bea worked at Boehringer Ingelheim where she helped establish and implement a patient engagement strategy. Prior to Boehringer Ingelheim, she was an Engagement Officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute where she helped establish programs and processes to bolster patient and stakeholder engagement in research and monitor PCORI’s funded portfolio for innovative patient engagement methods and practices.

David Burkhart, PhD, is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Inimmune Corp and is also the Associate Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Both entities are leading immunotherapy discovery and development groups bringing new treatments into human clinical trials.

Dr Burkhart was an Investigator with GlaxoSmithKline for 8 years in the Immunotherapeutics and Vaccines R&D teams. Prior to his work with GSK, Dr Burkhart was a Senior Scientist with the CDMO Hollister-Stier labs in Spokane, Washington for two years where he gained invaluable experience in cGMP manufacturing. He has over 17 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with experience in project management, leadership, business development and licensing with over 20 years experience in medicinal and analytical chemistry, formulation and drug delivery. He has numerous papers and patents published in the drug delivery R&D field. Dr Burkhart earned his PhD in organic chemistry in 2002 from the University of Idaho and conducted targeted drug delivery research in oncology as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder until 2005.

As Head of Transactions, Business Development at AstraZeneca, Gayatri Varma, PhD, currently oversees transactional activity for Oncology R&D. During her time at AstraZeneca, Dr Varma has led and negotiated many transactions including the acquisition of Neogene Therapeutics and in-licensing of several oncology clinical-stage assets, and in-licensing activities for COVID-19. Previously, she held positions as Director of Partnerships & Collaborations at MedImmune, and Executive Director, University of Maryland, heading the technology transfer office with focus on out-licensing activities.

Dr Varma has a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology and is a registered patent agent. She recently served on the Board of AUTM and continues to serve on their Industry Advisory and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion committees.

She is also chair of the Licensing Executive Society’s Life Sciences Sector Leadership committee. Dr Varma is very engaged in the local life sciences community and has led ecosystem building in the Gaithersburg region.

Christopher Turner, M.D. is the CMO for Nuvalent and is an experienced oncology drug developer and executive with over 22 years of clinical and pharmaceutical experience in early and late-stage oncology drug development. Nuvalent is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating precisely targeted therapies for patients with cancer and is advancing a robust pipeline with parallel lead programs in ROS1-positive and ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, a program in HER2 Exon 20 insertion-positive cancers, and multiple discovery-stage research programs.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, Dr. Turner was Vice President of Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines where he led the clinical development of GAVRETO (pralsetinib) in RET altered lung and thyroid cancers.

Dr. Turner has also held oncology clinical development leadership positions at Celldex Therapeutics and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and was involved with the clinical development of the oncology drugs ICLUSIG(ponatinib) and ALUNBRIG (brigatinib).  Prior to that, Dr. Turner was Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Outcomes Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Children’s Hospital Boston and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Turner is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He completed fellowships in both Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. 

Dr. Dongxiao Feng, Vice President of GenoBioTX, got his PhD from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and has postdoctoral experiences at Oxford University and University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Feng has 30 years of experience in monoclonal antibody development using hydridoma, phage and yeast display methods. He also led the development of the second generation of Humab mice at BMS and a fully human antibody transgenic mouse platform in China, 2 antibody drugs developed by Dr. Feng's team has been approved in China and at phase III clinical stage in the US. He joined Genobiotx 2 years ago as the vice president of business development. 

Eucharia Borden, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSWis the Vice President of Programs and Health Equity at Family Reach. In this newly created role, Ms Borden oversees the organization’s program development and delivery. This includes the expansion of Family Reach’s Cancer Equity Initiative, focused on meeting the needs of the most under-resourced and financially vulnerable populations in the cancer community.

Ms Borden has dedicated the last 16 years of her career to the oncology field, working in patient advocacy and direct social work practice within acute inpatient and outpatient hospital settings. She is a past President of the Association of Oncology Social Work and a recognized AOSW Fellow.

In her previous role as Vice President, Health Equity, at Cancer Support Community, Ms Borden was responsible for ensuring that CSC headquarters’ research, program, policy, and operations integrated relevant components of health equity, inclusion, and social determinants of health across all activities. Her steadfast commitment to ensuring all patients — regardless of race or socioeconomic status — have access to life-saving care has positioned her as a sought-after thought leader within the healthcare community. She has earned national media attention for her work and expertise in this space, including a Survivorship Today interview with award-winning actor and advocate Sterling K Brown and a leading spot in the “In Her Shoes” campaign hosted by Bristol Myers Squibb.

As Vice President, Programs and Health Equity, at Family Reach, Ms Borden is responsible for strategic growth, innovation, and program implementation. Working alongside Famly Reach's internal team and external partners, Ms Borden will ensure Family Reach deepens and broadens its impact on families facing cancer nationwide.

Dr. Randall Kaye has over 30 years of experience in the medical field and has served as Chief Medical Officer since March 2022. Prior to joining Longboard, Dr. Kaye was Chief Medical Officer of Neurana Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on the treatment of neuromuscular conditions.  He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Click Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in digital healthcare innovation, where he was involved in the development of software as a prescription medical treatment for a number of chronic debilitating conditions. Prior to Click, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of SSI Strategy Holdings LLC, where he oversaw clinical development, medical affairs and pharmacovigilance. In conjunction with his role at SSI Strategy, he was Chief Medical Officer of Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kaye held the positions of Chief Medical Officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co.) and Vice President, Medical Affairs of Scios Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and InterMune, Inc. (acquired by Roche Holding AG). He also held clinical development and medical affairs positions at Pfizer Inc. Dr. Kaye earned an M.D., M.P.H. and B.S. at George Washington University, completed his pediatric training at UMASS Medical Center and finished his academic training as a postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Maggie Kuhl is Vice President of Patient Engagement at The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the largest non-profit funder of Parkinson's research. She leads a team engaging community partners and gathering patient experience data toward patient-focused drug development, as well as practicing and piloting recruitment and retention methods to enable faster trials.

Jarrod Longcor is the Chief Operating Officer at Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. bringing with him more than 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience. Previously, he was the Chief Business Officer for Avillion LLP. In this role, he was responsible for executing the company’s unique co-development partnership strategy. Prior to Avillion, he held a number of key positions in multiple biotech companies, including Vice President of Corporate Development for Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Melinta Therapeutics) where he was responsible for identifying and concluding several critical collaborations for the company, including a major discovery collaboration with Sanofi Aventis valued over $700M. In these roles, Mr Longcor has been responsible for clinical development, including 2 FDA approved drugs, research and discovery, business and corporate development, alliance management and strategic planning. Based upon his extensive experience with clinical development, he has encouraged Cellectar Biosciences to take a patient-centric approach to execution of clinical trials.

Mark Frattini, MD, PhD, is Cellectis' Chief Medical Officer. Dr Frattini has over 20 years of experience in the field of hematological malignancies and joined Cellectis in August 2020 as Senior Vice President of Clinical Sciences where he has been responsible for Cellectis’ clinical leadership including the clinical development strategy of the Company’s current immune-oncology UCART product candidates. He has also been serving as a core member of the senior clinical team. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frattini oversees clinical research and development for Cellectis’ UCART clinical trial programs.

Prior to joining Cellectis, Dr Frattini was Executive Medical Director, Program Lead, Global Clinical Research & Development at Celgene/Bristol Myer Squibb and was responsible for the oversight and management of several of Celgene’s sponsored programs in the hematology therapeutic area. Before joining Celgene, Dr Frattini spent over 16 years as a physician-scientist specializing in hematologic malignancies in academia at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Columbia University where he was a member of the adult leukemia service and the Experimental Therapeutics center at both institutions. At Columbia University from 2013-2018 Mark also served as the Director of Research for Hematologic Malignancies.

Dr Frattini holds a MD and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The University of Chicago and received his Internal Medicine residency and Medical Oncology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Rebecca Vermeulen, RPh, brings a variety of experiences and capabilities to her role as Head of Patient Partnership for Global Medical Affairs at Roche. She has spent over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry and has served in a variety of functions including Medical Affairs, Clinical Research, Sales, Medical Communications, Medical Science Liaisons, Patient Partnership, Digital Health and Six Sigma. Ms Vermeulen has led teams spanning multiple organizational units and has been responsible for creating global standards for engaging with healthcare professionals and patients. Having served as a senior leader for a number of years, she knows how to demonstrate value in bringing new medicines to patients. Ms Vermeulen is currently a board member for Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD), Champion for the Roche International Women’s Network, Past Chair Board of Directors for the Drug Information Association (DIA), Chair Emeritus Corporate Board of Directors for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Ms Vermeulen was also recognized as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Life Science Industry by PharmaVOICE 2020.