President               Dorothy Sears
      Secretary               Monica Brown  
      Treasurer               Corine Lau   
      Member at Large   Diane Retallack
      Member at Large   Linda Manza
      Member at Large   Grace Nakayama
      Member at Large   Aparna Aiyer
      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: Monica Brown

Monica graduated with a B.S. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego. She currently crystallizes and solves the structures of membrane proteins as a postdoctoral researcher at The Scripps Research Institute, where she is also involved with the Scripps Society of Fellows postdoctoral association. When not in lab, she can be found playing in the mountains, practicing yoga, or exploring new cuisines in her kitchen. She has been active in AWIS and the Events Committee since 2009.

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

Treasurer: Corine Lau

Corine 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 University of California, San Diego focused on understanding the mechanism of nuclear pore complex assembly in vertebrates. She is currently a scientific curator at Biobase and a science writer at BioMed Bridge. Corine has been an active AWIS member since 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. When not working or caring for her two young daughters, Corine 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: 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 here

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: 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.

To contact Linda 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 R Nakayama, Ph.D., PMP is currently a Board member at large of AWIS SD and co-chair of WIST 2013. As a long-time active volunteer of AWIS SD, Grace has served as co-chair of Strategy Sessions committee, member of Gala committee, participant in Outreach events, etc. She received the AWIS SD Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2009.

Grace has over 15 years experience in biotech and pharmaceutical industries, spanning drug discovery through preclinical and clinical development of small molecules and biologics. She is currently Director, Project and Alliance Management at Abide Therapeutics, a start-up drug discovery company. Previous positions include Senior Program and Alliance Manager at Biogen Idec and Senior Principal Scientist at Pfizer.

Grace earned her B.S. in Applied Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and Ph.D. in Bio-organic Chemistry from UC Berkeley. She is a PMP (Project Management Professional). In addition, she is active with BIOCOM Institute as a member of the education subcommittee, developed the BIOCOM Institute website, and prepared lessons for the BioCollaborative certificate programs in Industrial Biotechnology and Life Sciences.
 

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