President                Dorothy Sears
      Secretary                Linda Manza    
      Treasurer                Aparna Aiyer    
      Member at Large   Diane Retallack
      Member at Large   Anita Iyer
      Member at Large   Grace Nakayama
      Member at Large   Corine Lau
      Member at Large   Tamera Weisser

President: Dorothy Sears

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. Contact her by clicking This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Secretary: Linda Manza

Linda received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, a M.S. in Toxicology from San Diego State University, Graduate School of Public Health, and a B.A. in Biological Sciences and Chemistry from the University of California Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies. Linda started out in the nursing field and once she finished her masters worked as a toxicologist in small pharma and a contract research organization. She then returned to school for her Ph.D. and is now working as the Associate Director of Quality Assurance for a mid sized pharmaceutical company. During that time she was in the Army reserve and was in charge of a 440 member hospital unit during peace time and was the Company Commander of a 40 person Medical Support unit deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Linda has been an active member of the Strategy Session Committee of AWIS, SD since 2007 and became the Secretary of the AWIS San Diego Chapter in Jan 2011.

Email her by clicking This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Treasurer: Aparna Aiyer

Aparna obtained her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center before joining Gen-Probe, Inc. in 2007 where she is a Senior Scientist (Product Development).

Aparna has been an active member of AWIS-SD since 2006. She served on the WiB 2007 organizing committee and as Co-Chair of the Publications Committee for WIST 2009. Most recently Aparna served on the 2009 AWIS-SD Open House organizing committee. Aparna can be contacted by clicking This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Member at Large: Diane Retallack

Diane has been a member of AWIS San Diego chapter and involved in outreach since 2002. She is also active in outreach events through Biocom. Diane graduated from Widener University in 1990 with a B.S. in biology, then went on to the University of Michigan where she earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology studying gene regulation in E. coli. During her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Diane investigated genes involved in the pathogenesis of the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. Diane is currently Director of Molecular Biology at Pfenex Inc.,a leading biotechnology company focused on recombinant protein expression for a broad range of applications including therapeutic proteins, vaccines, research, reagents and biosimilars. Click This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Diane.

Member at Large: Anita Iyer

Anita received her B.A. in Biology and Music (piano performance) from Scripps College, Claremont, CA in 2001, and her Ph.D. in Human Genetics from UCLA in 2006. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher studying molecular neuroendocrinology, and epigenetics of hormone gene regulation in Dr. Pamela Mellon’s lab at UCSD. She was awarded an NIH National Research Service Award from the NICHD to fund her research, and won the 2008 Women in Endocrinology Young Investigator Award. She hopes to pursue a career in biotech after her postdoc. Anita has been an active member of AWIS-SD since 2007 and has held many leadership roles. She served on the 2008 AWIS-SD Gala Committee, and was co-chair of the WIST 2009 Speaker’s Committee. In 2009, she received the AWIS-SD Leadership Service Award. Most recently she was co-chair of the Scholarship Committee from 2009-2010 and was chair of the 2010 Gala Committee. She has also served on the AWIS-SD Open House Committee from 2008-2009 and is co- chairing the 2010 committee. To contact Anita click here To email, click This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 

Member at Large: Grace Nakayama

Grace Nakayama, Ph.D. has over 12 years R&D experience in the life sciences industry. Currently, she is managing two oncology programs in clinical development stages as a Program Manager at Biogen Idec. Previously, she led and contributed to early stage drug discovery projects as a Senior Principal Scientist at Pfizer La Jolla. She has also held a variety of positions at: BIOCOM, Kalypsys, Biofocus DPI (formerly IRORI), and Applied Molecular Evolution (formerly Ixsys). Grace received a B.S. in Applied Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College, Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry under Peter G. Schultz at UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral training at SRI International. She has been a member of AWIS for over 10 years.
 

Member at Large: Corine Lau

Corine Lau received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle, and her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her postdoctoral research at UCSD focused on understanding the mechanism of nuclear pore complex assembly in vertebrates. Corine joined AWIS in November 2006. She served as the Co-Chair on the Website Committee from 2009 to 2012, and she was on the 2008 Gala and 2009 WIST website committees. She works part-time as a science writer and a recruiter in the biotech/pharma sector while caring for her two young daughters. She enjoys singing with a local womens' chorus, rock climbing, and yoga. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Member at Large: Tamera Weisser

Tamera is an Intellectual Property attorney at the international law firm of Jones Day and earned her law degree from Georgetown University. Her legal practice includes domestic and foreign patent portfolio development, management and enforcement in all areas of biotechnology. She also performs patent validity, non-infringement and freedom-to-operate analyses, and conducts due diligence of patent portfolios for potential investors, acquirers and licensees. Before pursuing her legal career, Tamera received a Ph.D. in Immunology and Virology from the UMass Medical School. In addition, she was formerly a research scientist studying DNA-based vaccine technology at Agracetus, Inc. in Madison, WI and the Emory University Vaccine Research Center in Atlanta, GA. Tamera received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tamera has been actively involved in AWIS-SD over the past several years, both by serving as a speaker for a number of AWIS-SD events, as well as serving on the Strategy Sessions Committee, and she received the Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2011. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it