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| Book and Movie Club | Alice Budai & Amy Cullinan |
| Events | Cindy Atwell & Rosemary Cesario |
| Membership | Ursula Kessen, Ph.D. & Sylvia Armitano-Mah, Ph.D. |
| Newsletter | Hima Joshi, Ph.D. & Janice Payne |
| Outreach | Holly Heaslet, Alicia Bicknell, & Susy McKay |
| Public Relations | Laura Waggoner |
| Scholarship | Jenafer Evans, Ph.D. |
| Women in bioScience | Natalie Schiller & Janet White |
| Website | Barbara Armstrong |
You have reached an older AWIS San Diego page. Click here to be redirected to the new site. The website committee with San Diego web design company Transcend Solutions / Bio Web Design helped launch the new AWIS SD site.
Website Chair: Barbara Armstrong
An active AWIS member for sixteen years, Barbara has served on the AWIS San Diego Chapter board of directors (1987 to 1991), chaired the Science Fair Committee (1992 to 1994), chaired the Education Outreach Committee (1994 to 1999), has chaired the newsletter committee (1999 to 2004), was an organizing committee member for the 1993 Women in Bioscience Conference and was the Chair of the Publications Committee for the 2001, 2003, and 2005 Women in Bioscience Conference. E-mail her at: baawis@nethere.com
Outreach Co-Chair: Alicia Bicknell
Alicia received her Bachelor's in biochemistry from Rice University in Houston, TX. She is currently a 3rd year graduate student in the UCSD Biology Department, working on molecular signaling from the endoplasmic reticulum to the nucleus. She has been an AWIS member and involved in outreach since 2003. Alicia can be reached at: outreach_awissd@yahoo.com
Book and Movie Club Co-Chair: Alice Budai
Alice graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2003 with a B.S. in chemistry. She has been participating in AWIS activities ever since and has recently become co-chair of the San Diego chapter book and movie club. She is currently working at a pharmaceutical research company performing organic chemistry synthesis.
Events Co-Chair: Rosemary Cesario
Rosemary received Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in biology from Northern Illinois University. After a year as a research associate at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, she relocated to San Diego. Working as a cell biologist for the past 11 years, Rosemary currently is a Scientist at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, investigating the use of nuclear receptor ligands in treating human diseases such as cancer and metabolic disorders. She has been a member of the AWIS Events Committee since 2002.
Email her at: rcesario_awis@yahoo.com
Events Co-Chair: Cindy Atwell
Cindy Atwell is a Research Associate II at Favrille Inc. where she works on cancer vaccine production in the genetic profiling department. She is co-chair of the San Diego AWIS events committee, and teaches Kung Fu at White Dragon Schools. Previously, she was part of the structure-based drug design team at Quorex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Cindy earned her B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University in 1999. Contact Cindy at catwell@adelphia.net
Book and Movie Club Co-Chair: Amy Cullinan
Amy went to Oberlin College and graduated with a B.A. in biology. She spent two years doing cancer research at the National Institutes of Health before moving to Madison, WI for graduate school. Her thesis work was done in the lab of Curtis Brandt involving immune responses to herpes virus as a treatment for retinoblastoma. After getting her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 2002, Amy came to San Diego to join Mari Manchester’s lab at The Scripps Research Institute. Her postdoctoral work focused on using measles virus as a potential gene therapy vector for stem cells. Amy is currently employed at Invitrogen Corporation in Carlsbad as a Technical Writer, and enjoys a seemingly never-ending series of house renovation projects with her boyfriend in their spare time. Email her at amycullinan@hotmail.com
Scholarship Chair: Jenafer Evans
Jena received her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from the Physiology and Pharmacology program at the University of Florida where she studied angiotensin II modulation of calcium currents in neurons. In her postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins, she investigated G-protein and calmodulin regulation of voltage-gated calcium channels using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). Jena is currently working as a Technical Writer in the patent department at ISIS Pharmaceuticals. She joined AWIS in 2003 and served on the Scholarship Committee. Email her at: jenafer_evans@yahoo.com
Outreach Co- Chair: Holly Heaslet
Holly received her B.A. in vhemistry in 1995 from Hunter College in New York, NY and her M.A. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Clark University in Worcester, MA. Following graduate school, Holly worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Biochemistry department at Abbott Bioresearch Center in Worcester, MA. Currently, she is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Molecular Biology at the The Scripps Research Institute. An AWIS member since 2002, she served on the Outreach committee until becoming co-chair of that committee in 2004. Email her at: hheaslet@scripps.edu
Hima received her Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Hima conducted her dissertation research in the laboratory of Professor Yitzhak Tor in the area of bioorganic chemistry. Her work involved the development of analytical probes from fluorescent organic molecules and luminescent DNA. Hima currently holds a teaching post-doc position at the University of San Diego. When she is not teaching chemistry, Hima studies classical vocal performance. E-mail her at: hjoshi@sandiego.edu
Ursula received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology from the University of Constance, Germany in 2000. Her graduate research focused on biochemical and genetic studies on Calcineurin from Dictyostelium. In 2001 she joined the laboratory of Dr. Edward A. Dennis at the University of California, San Diego as a postdoctoral fellow. She is currently studying novel antisense approaches to eicosanoid inhibition to elucidate the role of phospholipases A2 in the arachidonic acid and eicosanoid mediated inflammatory response in a mouse macrophage-like cell line. Ursula joined AWIS in August 2002 and is part of the Website Committee. E-mail her at: ukessen@ucsd.edu
Outreach Co-Chair: Susy McKay
Susy is currently a second year doctoral student in Dr. Tracy Johnson’s laboratory at the University of California, San Diego. After earning a B.A. in biology from Rice University in Houston, Texas, Susy joined the Peace Corps. As a volunteer she taught math and science to high school-aged students in the Republic of Vanuatu. She has been a member of AWIS since 2004. Email her at susymckay@hotmail.com.
Newsletter Co-Chair: Janice Payne
Janice Payne earned her B.S. in zoology from the University of Georgia and her M.S. in biology from Georgia State University. She spent 9 years in academic research at Emory University working primarily in the field of Immunology. Janice moved to San Diego in 1991 to accept a position in the Therapeutics Division of Hybritech. Hybritech has since become a subsidiary of Beckman Coulter and Janice is currently a senior scientist in the Cell Biology research group. Janice joined AWIS in 1999 and has been a member of the Newsletter Committee since then. She worked on Publicity for both the 2000 gala and the 2001 Women In Bioscience conference. She is a past co-chair of the Events committee and is now chairing Registration for the 2005 Women In Bioscience conference as well as co-chairing the Newsletter Committee.
Women in bioScience Co-chair: Natalie Schiller
Natalie is a Scientific Advisor in the Patent practice group at Fish & Richardson P.C. where her focus is biotechnology patent prosecution. Natalie has worked with Fish & Richardson since February 2004; before she was with Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. Natalie did her graduate work in cardiovascular pharmacology at Tulane University and then worked for four years at The Scripps Research Institute with Dr. Linda Curtiss in the Department of Immunology. Natalie has been an AWIS member since January 2002. In addition to co-chairing the 2005 Women in bioScience organizing committee, she was co-chair of the 2004 Scholarship Gala and currently acts as the AWIS Career Center Job Board liaison. Natalie is married to Jon Hinkin and they have a Chow-brador named Kodi. Her other passion is tennis - she is a member of the Balboa Tennis Club where she plays regularly.
E-mail her at: nschill@cox.net
Strategy Sessions Chair: Swanie Schmidt
Swanie is Director of Career and Market Development at the UCSD Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies. Swanie joined AWIS San Diego in 2002 after returning to the United States from living abroad for 7 years. She was exploring career opportunities in San Diego and realized the value of being an active member of the Strategy Sessions and Membership committees. She has facilitated Networking and Mentoring workshops for our local chapter, served as Chair of the 2003 WIB speaker committee and was named Mentor of the year in 2003. Prior to moving to San Diego, she had a successful international career working for European and Asian universities, a U.S. nonprofit career center, and a global outplacement firm.
Public Relations Chair: Laura Waggoner
Laura received her B.S. in biology in 1995 from Duke University and her Ph.D. in biology in 1999 from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her thesis research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. William Schafer, where she studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms of behavioral regulation in an invertebrate nematode. For her postdoctoral work, she combined her experience in invertebrate and molecular biology with her long-standing interest in marine biology and is now studying the bacterial symbionts of marine invertebrates in the laboratory of Dr. Margo Haygood at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Laura is interested in an academic career path with an emphasis on teaching and has taught courses at both UCSD and the University of San Diego. Currently, in addition to her research, she is an associate faculty member at MiraCosta College. In her free time, she continues to pursue all things marine and can be found surfing, diving, and snorkeling.
Updated 3/06/05
Women in bioScience Conference Co-chair:Janet White
Janet received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Cambridge University in the UK. She then worked for almost ten years as a chemist in SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals R&D before completing her MBA degree and switching to a career in management consulting within the pharmaceutical industry. She is currently Senior Director of Business Operations at Pfizer's R&D Center in La Jolla. Janet co-chairs the WIB Organizing Committee and is also current President of AWIS San Diego chapter. She is a member of the Newsletter committee, Website committee, Corporate Sponsorship Committee, and also enjoys participating in Outreach activities for AWIS. Janet has worked with both AWIS San Diego and National AWIS Boards in 2004 to develop strategic plans.
E-mail her at: janetwhite99@hotmail.com
