Chandra Abbott Senior Director and Head, Scientific Communications and Operations- Medical Affairs

Biohaven Pharmaceuticals

Olle Bergman International Writing and Scientific Communications Expert

Bergmans Bokstäver AB

Olle Bergman is a writer, consultant and communications trainer, serving professionals in the fields of science, medicine and tech. Starting out in wet lab research, he soon chose to follow a communications career. Today he is a freelancing “pen for hire” and advisor based in Sweden, doing international assignments for different media as well as for organizations like The Swedish Cancer Society and Scania. On a daily basis, he is interacting and networking with a large number of people and organizations in academia, industry and the startup world. In addition, he is helping early career scientists to develop their communication skills.

Ana Bozas Director Medical Communications

Pear Therapeutics

Ana Bozas is currently Director of Medical Communications at Pear Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics company. Ana has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Utah and began her career as a research associate and medical writer before managing publications for therapeutics organizations.  During her time in the industry, Ana has led publication strategy from department inception to near-patent-expiry post-marketing, across the globe (including Emerging Markets). Ana is a Certified Medical Publication Professional (CMPP) and over her medical communications & research career has produced 50+ publications. Ana is passionate about career development and peer mentoring and has been active in the Greater Boston Area (MA) career mentoring scene. Ana has previously presented on topics related to medical writing, publication planning, and early career trajectory in medical communications for AMWA-NE, DGE, Q1, and TIPPA.

Dustin Chernick Director of Scientific Communications

Gilead Sciences

Dustin is a Director of Scientific Communications at Gilead Sciences. He is a Certified Medical Publication Professional (CMPP), and holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota. His past experience has been centered around Publications and Scientific Communications, including a past role as Senior Manager of Scientific Communications at Adamas Pharmaceuticals, and before that, running a freelance medical writing company that he founded during graduate school. Dustin has led Publication Planning & Strategy at Gilead since 2020, covering a wide range of Therapeutic Areas including Inflammation, Fibrosis, Antifungal, Viral Hepatitis, and Oncology.

Leslie Citrome Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Editor Emeritus

New York Medical College, International Journal of Clinical Practice

Dr. Citrome is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York and has a private practice in Pomona, New York. Dr. Citrome is the current president of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. He is on the board of directors for the World Association of Medical Editors. As an ISMPP member, Dr. Citrome has participated in the development of GPP3 and GPP4. Dr. Citrome is the author or co-author of over 500 research reports, reviews, and book chapters in the scientific literature, is on the editorial board of 11 different medical journals, Editor Emeritus at the International Journal of Clinical Practice where he served as Editor in Chief from 2013 through 2019, reviews for over 75 other journals, and has lectured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.

Lauren Deluca Executive Director & Founding President

Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group

Lauren Deluca is the Executive Director and Founding President of CIAAG. She graduated from Nichols College with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance. She earned several professional designations including, Charter Property Casualty Underwriter with a concentration on Commercial Insurance, an Associates in Personal Insurance and Associate in General Insurance. She spent her career working as a Commercial Insurance Account Executive & Risk Manager specializing in Large & Middle Market accounts.

After a life altering medical emergency she Founded Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group to raise awareness of the impact healthcare policy changes are having on individuals with chronic illnesses, disease and conditions.

Lisa DeTora Associate Professor and Director of STEM Writing

Hofstra University

Lisa DeTora is an Associate Professor and the Director of STEM Writing at Hofstra University where she teaches in various departments and programs including writing studies, rhetoric, disability studies, chemistry, biology, sports science, and narrative medicine.  A long-time member of ISMPP’s Ethics and Standards committee, Lisa has co-authored several papers on topics in publication ethics, including authorship, ghostwriting, and everyday tactics for publications management.  She has been a speaker at various TIPPA meetings since 2010, covering ethics beyond the ICMJE, authorship, plain language, and translating regulatory materials into publications.  Lisa serves as the editor of Regulatory Writing: An Overview, a publication of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, which provides guidance and advice for writers of regulatory documentation in CMC, nonclinical, and clinical areas.  Her scholarly work also includes studies in embodiment, graphic narrative, technical communication, and the rhetoric of health and medicine.

Laura Dormer Editorial Director

Future Science Group

Laura Dormer is Editorial Director at the Future Science Group (FSG). Laura began her career in publishing when she joined Expert Reviews as a Commissioning Editor in 2003. She has since worked in various roles at FSG, before taking on her current role in 2015. She has developed expertise in journal development and publication ethics and has been the Launch Editor of numerous journals. This includes the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, for which she is the current Managing Editor and which, over the past 10 years, has led to her particular interest in the fields of health policy, health economics and outcomes research. In her current role, Laura is responsible for managing FSG’s Editorial Department, overseeing the management and development of new and existing journals in the FSG portfolio. In recent years she has dedicated her time to projects relating to her key areas of interest, including publication ethics and patient engagement.

Sissy Easo-Joseph Director, Scientific Communications, Migraine and Headache, Global Medical Affairs

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Sissy Easo-Joseph is a communications professional with 20 years of experience in the medical and scientific communications industry.  Sissy is Director, Scientific Communications - Migraine and Headache, Global Medical Affairs, for Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she demonstrates collaborative leadership to foster awareness and accountability of good publication planning practices, scientific communications/resources development, and practices ensuring that all stakeholders have a comprehensive understanding of strategic planning and how it fits into overall communications plan.  She has expertise in strategic publication and scientific communications planning, advocacy development, financial/program management, and operational experience in the execution of disease-state and product-related scientific communications, publications and educational programs.  She has an undergraduate degree in biology, a Master’s degree in Toxicology and a PhD in Health Administration. 

Caroline Halford Digital Publishing Manager

Adis

Caroline is the Digital Publishing Manager for Springer Healthcare (part of Springer Nature), based in Chester in the north west of England. Caroline represents the Adis portfolio of journals, including Advances in Therapy, Infectious Diseases and Therapy, CNS Drugs and Drug Safety. Since joining Springer in 2007 as an editor for Advances in Therapy, in recent years she has been involved in the launch and success of the Adis Rapid+ open access journals, and the roll out of new digital features designed to extend the reach of journal content, such as video abstracts, audioslides, animations, podcasts, and plain language summaries (PLS). Caroline started her career in medical communications at GCC (now part of Ashfield Healthcare Communications) in 1999, followed by a move to Prime Medica (now Prime Global) where she providing editorial support for their key publication planning accounts.

Kerri Hebard-Massey Associate Director, Medical Writing

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc

Kerri is an Associate Director in Medical Writing at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. In this role, she provides publication planning and medical writing support for scientific abstracts, presentations, and manuscripts across the rare disease space. She did her undergraduate research at the University of Oregon and received her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. After several years of taking pictures of neurons, she left the bench to take up medical writing, first with a non-profit research institute and later in industry. She has over 15 years of experience with publication writing and planning, spanning non-profit and industry, small companies and large, and many disease states. She sees one of the core roles of medical writing as being an advocate for authors- to capture their voice, to tell their stories as clearly and compellingly as possible, and to stand for diversity and equity throughout the publication process.

Hamish McDougall Publishing Solutions Manager

SAGE Publishing

Hamish is the Publishing Solutions Manager at SAGE Publishing. Acting as a first point of contact for publication professionals from pharmaceutical industry and med comms agencies, Hamish can assist with all publication-related queries and pre-submission enquiries. In particular, Hamish specialises in helping improve manuscript visibility. Hamish has over nine years experience working within pharmaceuticals and publishing. Prior to SAGE, Hamish worked as an investigative journalist covering clinical trials of CNS, rare disease and oncology drugs.

Payal Patel Senior Director, Medical Communications and Medical Information

Genmab

Monica Ramchandani Senior Director, Clinical Development, Medical Writing and Publications

Gilead Sciences

Shweta Rane Global Medical Director

Biogen

Shweta Rane, PhD, BCMAS, ISMPP CMPP^TM is the Global Medical Director at Biogen, with over 16 years of combined experience (academia and industry) in early-stage/preclinical research, new product innovation, investigator-initiated research, medical/scientific communications, and medical affairs. Prior to joining Biogen, she has held positions with increasing responsibilities at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, and GSK. She is experienced working on pre- and post-launch products from both regional and global perspectives, including working under a corporate integrity agreement.

Dr. Rane has an extensive experience across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular diseases, gastroenterology, hematology, immunology, neurogastroenterology, neurology, neuromuscular disorders, post-transplant medications, psychiatry, and respiratory disorders.

Dr. Rane received her Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical) degree from Mumbai University, her MS in Cell and Molecular Biology from Long Island University, and her PhD in Cell and Molecular Medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers New Jersey Medical School). She has also earned a mini-MBA from Rutgers University. She is an active member of ISMPP (with CMPP certification) and has served on the Data Transparency committee, CMPP Recertification and CMPP exam writing committees. Additionally, Dr. Rane is also a Board-Certified Medical Affairs Specialist (BCMAS). She is also a member of Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and is currently a Mentor and Regional Director for the New England Region.

Andrew Ray Medical Writer

Biosplice Therapeutics

Kris Schuler, MS Pfizer Oncology

Senior Director, Global Scientific Communications, Publications Team Leader

 Kris is a strategic leader with 20 years pharmaceutical experience within global and US medical affairs headquarters and field-based medical and commercial roles. She has worked in large pharma, as well as mid-sized biotechnology firms. She has a decade of work experience at a medical communication vendor specializing in medical publications. She is a collaborative leader and relationship builder, who enjoys complex problems and unceasingly pursues effective and innovative solutions. For 7 years at Pfizer Oncology, she has had roles of increasing responsibility, including developing strategic medical communications activities for multi-billion dollar assets (Ibrance) during the pre- to post-launch periods, as well as several niche targeted oncology assets. Currently, she is the Oncology Publications Team Leader in the Global Scientific Communications Medical team, with the team goal of developing innovative medical communication offerings to expand healthcare professional and patient access to medical publications.

Donna Simcoe, MS, MS, MBA, CMPP Principal, Medical Publication Consultant

Simcoe Consultants

Donna is a Medical Publications consultant and principal at Simcoe Consultants, Inc., a biomedical company focusing on medical publication development and medical writing. Donna Simcoe has managed publications for 25+ years and held positions at Cadence, AstraZeneca, Wyeth, and Cephalon. Donna holds 3 Master degrees in Biomedical Writing, Biotechnology, and an MBA, and is a Certified Medical Publication Professional (CMPP). She is an active member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), the International Society of Medical Publication Professions (ISMPP) and The International Publication Planning Association (TIPPA). Donna has been a member of multiple ISMPP committees, is Past-President of the AMWA Pacific Southwest Chapter, and teaches in the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Extension Medical Writing Certificate program.

Charlotte Singh Director, Cardiovascular/Established Products Publications Lead

Sanofi US

A physician by training, Dr. Charlotte Singh is a Director/Publications Lead at Sanofi overseeing the publications for Cardiovascular and Established Products. Prior to joining Sanofi, she was a Senior Publications Manager at Novo Nordisk Inc and managed the US publications for Alzheimer’s disease, digital health, insulins, obesity, and NASH.

With over 20 years' experience in medical education on the agency side, Dr. Singh has extensive expertise in the development and execution of various medical communication plans. Her work includes several projects such as the development of strategic publication plans and execution of their tactics, healthcare provider and patient/caregiver medical education programs, and CME. She has also been instrumental in the launch of several products in global and domestic markets. Her roles have spanned scientific and client services, content development, and new business development. Her considerable knowledge in a wide variety of therapeutic areas and her background as a physician lend insights into the prescriber mindset.

She has participated in several TIPPA meetings as a speaker and has been involved with ISMPP as workshop faculty, round table lead, and as a parallel session presenter.

Dr. Singh earned her Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Biochemistry, cum laude, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her Doctorate of Medicine, cum laude, from the State University of New York, Health Science Center at Brooklyn, College of Medicine.

John Smith, PhD, FACSM Director, Scientific Communications, Solid Tumor Oncology

Janssen

During his 20+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, John A Smith has led the U.S. strategic publication plan for an emerging blockbuster diabetes therapy, been lead medical writer on multiple high-impact publications, contributed to various regulatory documents leading to approval, and participated in the design and risk mitigation of a major outcome study. In his role as Director, Scientific Communications (Solid Tumor Oncology) at Janssen, John is now leading the development of U.S. publications, proactive and reactive MSL materials for launches, new indications, and conference summaries as well as education strategy.

For this roundtable at TIPPA, John will share his experiences in developing publication plans as well as being a user of publications as source documents from a range of materials. Given that “pubs are the hub” for a variety of materials (Medical Information letters, MSL materials, training, education, etc.) the goal of this roundtable is share experiences and challenges of being the gatekeeper of publications and managing requests for these confidential materials from a broad range of stakeholders.

John has presented on various topics related to publication planning, medical writing, and optimizing the pharma-med comm partnership for ISMPP, AMWA, Q1, and TIPPA. Before joining industry, John worked with the 1996 Australian Olympic team in Atlanta and taught health and exercise science courses at various U.S colleges for 4 years; experiences that prepared him to excel in industry.

Kelly Soldavin Senior Editor

Taylor & Francis

Kelly Soldavin is a Senior Editor for Taylor & Francis Group, managing a portfolio of medicine and health original research journals, including Current Medical Research & Opinion, Journal of Medical Economics, and Postgraduate Medicine. She is co-lead of the T&F Plain Language Summary (PLS) Working Group, which developed PLS guidelines for authors last year and continues to pursue key PLS initiatives. Kelly’s special interests include open science, ethical and transparent publishing, patient advocacy and engagement, and publication enhancements. She has presented on these topics for the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), International Publication Planning Meeting (TIPPA), and NetworkPharma MedComms webinars. Kelly is a member of ISMPP’s Social Media & Web-based Metrics Working Group and Annual Meeting Program Committee. Prior to joining T&F in 2017, Kelly spent 14 years in the veterinary medicine publishing industry. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Delaware Valley University, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Beth Tohill Clinical Science Liaison

WL Gore & Associates

Beth received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University in Communication and Health.  She then went to the University of Alabama, Birmingham to obtain her Masters in Public Health. As a part of her Masters program, she spent over 2 years in Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Following her Masters, she went on to pursue a PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology from the University of California, Davis. Upon completion of her PhD, she went to work as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There she worked on women’s health, mother to child HIV transmission, obesity and fruit and vegetable consumption. She left her career in Public Health to come to W.L. Gore & Associates to work in research of medical devices. Beth has been at W.L. Gore & Associates for 11 years. In her role as CSL, she has worked with data from both thoracic and abdominal endovascular devices from a range of clinical trails from EFS to IDE.  

Joanne Walker Head of Publishing Solutions

Future Science Group

Joanne Walker is Head of Publishing Solutions at the Future Science Group (FSG), having been with the company since its conception. Joanne began her career at FSG as a Commissioning Editor working on the Expert Opinion journal collection. Subsequent roles have included more broader functions within Editorial and Business, working on new initiatives and publishing solutions for all stakeholders, including author and funders. In her current role, Joanne works across FSG’s journal and digital platforms to help medical publication/education planners identify the right publishing solutions for their content. Joanne has also spearheaded FSG’s plain language summaries of publications initiative.

Megan Weigel Publication Advisor Specialist

Bristol Myers Squibb

Jamie L Weiss Senior Director, Scientific Programs

Prilenia

Jamie L Weiss is Senior Director, Scientific Programs at Prilenia, where she leads scientific initiatives for scientific/medical affairs publications and other engagements.

Prior to joining Prilenia, Jamie was Director Global Medical Affairs and Head of Global Publications at LEO Pharma, where she established their Global Publications Department. She was previously Associate Director, Neuroscience Publications, at Novartis leading US publications for the multiple sclerosis and migraine therapeutic areas, driving publication innovation. Preceding her role at Novartis, Jamie was a senior medical writer at Allergan (now AbbVie) for preclinical and clinical ophthalmology publications. She has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 11 years; Hoffmann-La Roche (oncology, immunology) and Pfizer (Wyeth; CNS) as a lab researcher and in the medical affairs space (Allegan, Novartis, LEO Pharma). Jamie was previously a professor of biomedical science, teaching courses in pharmacology, neuroscience, cell biology and anatomy/physiology, and a principal investigator (PI) running cellular/ molecular neuroscience and physiology research laboratories in the areas of synaptic plasticity, neuroprotection, and translational research for cognitive and movement disorders.

Jamie has been writing and driving publications in the biomedical science field for over 25 years. She is excited about patient voice, tailored innovation, data visualization, and patient friendly content for scientific/clinical publications. She has been developing both digital and lay person scientific content for the past 12 years. Jamie is an experienced workshop leader and course facilitator having delivered training programs and teaching at all levels from kindergarten to high school students, and undergraduate/graduate students to experienced physicians and PIs. She has a bachelor’s degree in biological science (genetics-cellular and molecular biology) from Rutgers College, Rutgers University, and a PhD in neuroscience (cellular and molecular) from Iowa State University. For more details please see: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamielweiss.

Doug Wicks Publication Lead, Specialty & Primary Care (S&PC) Publications

GlaxoSmithKline

For more than 25 years, Doug has been involved in Strategic Publication Planning, Scientific Platform development and has held various Medical Affairs, Publication and Product Marketing and Pharamceutical Sales Roles with Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline ( at present) and Wyeth (now Pfizer) Pharma organizations as well as lead strategic publication plans executed by Adis/Wolters Kluwer and Discovery International MedCom organizations for a variety of pharmaceutical organizations. Doug holds a dual Bachelors degree from Lafayette College in Biology and Business Administration, a Masters of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the University of South Florida College of Public Health and currently is pursing a Masters of Jurisprudence at Seton Hall School of Law.