WOMEN IN STEM FAIR: SCHEDULE
7:00 PM
INTRODUCTION
The event organizers will start with a welcome and opening remarks.
7:05 PM
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Francesca Dominici will kick off the event with her keynote address. There will be an opportunity for questions from event attendees.
7:20 PM
PANELIST INTRODUCTION
Each panelist will introduce themself and give a brief description of their career.
7:45 PM
INTERMISSION
A five minute intermission from programming will be given while the different virtual tables are set up with each panelist. Event organizers will explain to participants how to select and join a table.
7:50 PM
BREAKOUT ROOMS
There will be 6 rounds of breakout rooms, each round lasting for 8 minutes. One of our panelists is at each one of our "tables" or breakout rooms. Participants will be able to cycle through the tables of their choice to learn about the careers of the different panelists. There will be open table discussions with the panelists, and participants are welcome to ask the panelists questions.
8:38 PM
CLOSING REMARKS
The event organizers will wrap up the event with closing remarks.
8:45 PM
EVENT CONCLUSION
Thank you for attending our Women in STEM conference!
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
DR. FRANCESCA DOMINICI
Health Policy and Climate Change Statistician
Harvard Data Science Initiative
Francesca Dominici, PhD is the Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, at the Harvard University and the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the International Society of Mathematical Statistics. She leads an interdisciplinary groups of scientists with the ultimate goal of addressing important questions in environmental health science, climate change, and health policy. Her productivity and contributions to the field have been remarkable. Dominici has provided the scientific community and policy makers with robust evidence on the adverse health effects of air pollution, noise pollution, and climate change. Her studies have directly and routinely impacted air quality policy. Dominici has published more than 220 peer-reviewed publications and was recognized in Thomson Reuter’s 2019 list of the most highly cited researchers–ranking in the top 1% of cited scientists in her field. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC, the Guardian, CNN, and NPR. In April 2020 she has been awarded the Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society by the American Statistical Association. Dominici is an advocate for the career advancement of women faculty. Her work on the Johns Hopkins University Committee on the Status of Women earned her the campus Diversity Recognition Award in 2009. At the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she has led the Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty.
OUR PANELISTS
DR. ELISABETH BATTINELLI
Specializes in Hematology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Elisabeth Battinelli holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, a MSc. From Oxford University and an MD/PhD from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Boston Medical Center and was a Chief Medical Resident. She pursued a Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Since joining the Division of Hematology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she has focused on both clinical care and research with expertise in thrombosis/hemostasis and platelet disorders. Her clinical responsibilities are centered within the Division of Hematology and the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Clinic. She also is the Medical Director of the Special Coagulation Laboratory at BWH in conjunction with the Pathology Department and is the Director of Hematology Research at BWH. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Battinelli also has a research laboratory that focuses on Platelet Biology. She is interested in understanding the essential role of platelets in malignancy and aims to understand the interaction of platelets and tumor cells. Dr. Battinelli is an active member of the American Society of Hematology and was the Co-Chair for the 2019 Educational Meeting. In addition, she serves on the Northeastern Board of the American Cancer Society and Co-Chair of the ResearcHERS campaign. When not in the lab, Beth enjoys time with her family and cooking recipes from around the world.
MITHU BHARGAVA
Senior Vice President
NCR Global Professional Services Organization
Mithu Bhargava serves as the Senior Vice President & GM for NCR’s Global Professional Services Organization. Prior to joining NCR, Mithu led the Commercial Global Technical Presales Organization for Dell-EMC. Even earlier, Mithu spent over a decade at Akamai Technologies, where she held several senior leadership positions including professional services, presales, account management, customer experience, corporate finance and business operations. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India, a Masters in Computer Networking from North Carolina State University, and a MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Business. Ms. Bhargava is a diversity advocate for women in STEM and a board member at Girls Inc. of Worcester MA.
DR. PREETHA CHALLY
Dentist
Congress Dental Group
Dr. Preetha Chally graduated from Tufts University of Dental Medicine in 1998. She then served at Tufts as a faculty instructor. Dr. Chally is a member of the American Dental Association and Massachusetts Dental Society. She has been working at Congress Dental Group since 2005. Dr Chally specializes in providing comprehensive dental care to all her patients. This requires spending considerable time listening to patient concerns and addressing every problem the patient may have, with regards to his or her dental needs. In her spare time, Dr. Chally enjoys spending quality time with her husband and her hobbies are yoga, reading and travel.
DR. DIALA EZZEDDINE
Biotech CEO
Airbase Breathing Company
Diala Ezzeddine is a biotechnology entrepreneur and company builder. Diala has a passion for scientific innovation, and for translating it into technologies and products that can transform the lives of patients for the better. She was trained as a biologist and holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard Medical School. Following graduate school, she joined the biotech industry and specialized in business development. In 2010 she helped start X-Chem Pharmaceuticals, became its Chief Business Officer, and successfully established it as the leading biotech in the new field of DNA-encoded library technology. In 2016, she founded Xios Therapeutics to apply X-Chem’s technology to the discovery of novel cancer immunotherapy treatments.
Diala is currently CEO of Airbase Breathing Company, founded in 2020. Her team is developing a novel therapeutic to treat COVID-19 patients in the earliest stage of the infection and prevent progression to the severe form of the disease.
EVA GÓMEZ
Nurse & PhD Student
Boston Children's Hospital
Eva Gómez, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, CPN is a Senior Professional Development Specialist in the Clinical Education and Informatics Department at Boston Children’s Hospital. She serves in multiple roles such as learning facilitator, change agent, mentor, partner for practice transitions and leader within the Department of Nursing and Patient Services.
She is co-chair of the Spanish Team Collaborative, and is an active member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Nursing Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity Forum, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Council and Hospital Culture Council. This year she was appointed as Assistant Director for Inclusion for the Academy for Teaching and Educational Innovation and Scholarship at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Eva is a PhD student at UMass Boston in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Her research interest is centered in exploring how low health literacy and limited English proficiency impacts health care delivery to vulnerable populations. She continues to develop her dissertation around this topic and is committed to improving health care delivery for underserved and vulnerable populations locally and nationwide.
KATE HARDOCK
Geologist Pursuing a Master's Degree
Roux Associates
Kate Hardock graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in Geology and Geography in 2016. She then started her career as an environmental consultant at Roux Associates. Ms. Hardock specializes in assisting with environmental risk assessments and providing remediation guidance to a variety of commercial, industrial, and municipal clients. This work has led Ms. Hardock to pursue her Master's Degree in Environmental Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health this coming fall. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Club for Girls and mentors 2nd and 3rd graders with Science Club for Girls each week. Ms. Hardock's hobbies include: hiking, cooking, and doing the crossword.
DR. GRACIA KWETE
Pediatric Primary Care Physician
Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Kwete is a pediatric primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children Revere Healthcare Center. She also serves as the associate director of diversity and equity within the pediatrics department at MGHfC. She is the assistant medical editor of CARMA (Child and Adolescent Resource Materials), a pediatric intranet site for general pediatricians. Dr. Kwete is interested in early childhood development and health literacy, particularly for patients with limited English proficiency. Outside of medicine, Dr. Kwete enjoys playing tennis, dancing and trying new recipes in the kitchen.
DR. CHRYSTAL LEWIS
Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs
CRISPR Therapeutics
Chrystal Louis, MD, MPH is the Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs at CRISPR Therapeutics and is responsible for building and leading our new Medical Affairs organization across all therapeutic areas.
Prior to CRISPR, she was an Executive Director in US Medical Affairs and the Medical Disease Lead for the Myeloid Franchise and the Oncology Franchise at Celgene/BMS and a Medical Director in the Discovery group at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals.
She is a board-certified Pediatric Oncologist who completed her fellowship training and was an attending physician at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) before moving into the pharmaceutical industry. While at BCM, she also worked in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy as the principal investigator for a number of first-in-man and first-in-pediatrics studies using virus-specific T cell as well as CAR-T cell immunotherapeutics.
Dr. Louis has a BS in Chemistry and BA in Political Science from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. She obtained her Medical and Master of Public Health degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, and completed her Pediatric Residency training at the University of California at Davis.
KATY O’BRIEN
Senior Manager of Footwear
New Balance
Katy O’Brien is a Senior Manager of Footwear Innovation at New Balance. Her background is in mechanical engineering with a focus on engineering management and innovation. Her career started in the power industry, moved into the defense industry, and led her to consumer products, where she helps to drive sustainable material and process innovation.
MORGAN SORBARO
Software Engineer
Facebook
My name is Morgan and I knew I liked to code ever since joining the GAINS network and taking AP Computer Science in high school. I attended Dartmouth College where I was a computer science major and I was involved in activities such as HackDartmouth (our school Hackathon), the DALI Lab (a coding lab on campus), and the Computer Science Department as a TA. In college I also interned at a small Fintech startup, an investment bank, and Facebook. Currently, I am a software engineer at Facebook working on the Connectivity Team.
DR. JESSICA TYTELL
Chief Scientific Officer
Qtection
Dr. Jessica Tytell is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Science Officer of Qtection, a company building a new testing platform for detecting viral infections, including COVID-19.
In both the biotechnology industry and in academia, she has focused on improving the successful transition of academic discoveries into commercial technologies. At the Kendall Square-based startup company, Firefly BioWorks, she led commercial strategy and business development efforts, helping the company grow, and leading to an acquisition by the reagents company, Abcam. At Boston University she was the founding executive director of the Biological Design Center, where she worked to improve industry connections to earlier stage research and broaden training opportunities for graduate students, and then moved to the Industry Engagement office where she supported academic-industry partnerships.
She has served as an Innovation Consultant for the Center for Engineering MechanoBiology a multi-institutional Science and Technology Center funded by the National Science Foundation. She was also faculty for the IMPACT Program (www.impact-program.org), which brings together scientists and business professionals from a broad range of backgrounds to help participants identify and better communicate the potential real-world impacts of their research.
Dr. Tytell holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, San Diego in molecular biology and a Ph.D. from MIT in biology.
MARY-MARGARET ZABLOCKI
Organic Chemist
Constellation Pharmaceuticals
Mary-Margaret O'Donnell Zablocki (BB&N '94) is a medicinal and organic chemist with more than 20 years of experience in discovery and early development at various Boston/Cambridge based biotech companies.
She received her B.S. from Fairfield University, and M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Brandeis University. Currently, she is a Scientist at Constellation Pharmaceuticals where her research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel small molecules and drugs to treat cancer. As a member of the American Chemical Society, she has presented and participated at both the local and national levels. She has contributed to more than 15 peer reviewed articles, 12 additional presentations and posters, and is co-inventor on 18 patents.
Away from work, she is a proud mom to MaryKatherine and active with volunteer organizations such as Live Science Cares, Building Bridges, and Charles River Conservancy.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS
DR. JENNIFER GATTI
GAINS Club Advisor and Science Teacher
Hello! I have always known that I was interested in science and wanted a career that would let me learn something new every day. I went to Wellesley College, where I majored in Biological Sciences and after college, I spent five years teaching high school biology. When I returned to school to earn my Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Yale University, I was able to combine my interested in education and science through teaching assistant and adjust professor positions. Following a postdoc at Harvard Medical School studying nervous system development in fruit flies, I realized that I was really inspired by working with high school students who are just figuring out what they are passionate about. I came to BB&N and have loved every day since. I started the GAINS Club during my second year at BB&N with the goal of providing young women a platform through which to learn about possible STEM careers, to share their passion for learning and STEM with each other, and to become part of the larger GAINS Network across the country.
Outside of BB&N, I relish the time I get to spend with my two year old daughter and my husband and exploring all that the Boston area has to offer!
SAFFRON PATEL
Conference Organizer & Student
Hi! I'm Saffron and I'm a junior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School.
I am passionate about STEM, and I am particularly fascinated by cell biology. I enjoy sharing my love of STEM through empowering other young women, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, to pursue their interests in STEM. For the past five years, I have mentored girls in STEM through a local organization called Science Club for Girls, and I am a member of my school's Girls Advancement in STEM (GAINS) Club and the co-founder and president of my school's Math Club.
I enjoy volunteering in my community, and I am interested in the correlation between loneliness and health in senior citizens. I have been working to combat this issue through an organization I co-founded called Letters Against Isolation.
In my free time, I enjoy baking, capturing history through the lens of my camera, and sewing quilts.
SOFIA CHEN
Conference Organizer & Student
Hi! I’m Sofia and I’m a junior at BB&N. My interests are in Computer Science and art. I especially love learning about the intersection of the two and how design and technology can go hand in hand. I am a big advocate for girls in STEM and as a GAINS Co-President I hope this mixer inspires others. I’ve also helped to create a mentorship program that pairs girls in high schools with STEM professionals. My favorite subjects are computer science, math, and woodworking. In my free time, I enjoy reading, baking, and building forts!
SANYA GOENKA
Conference Organizer & Student
Hello! I'm Sanya and I'm currently a junior at BB&N. One of my interests is public health and how we can alter our healthcare system and its foundation to be more equitable. My favorite classes I've taken during highschool are Biology and a course on Epidemics, Pandemics, and Outbreaks. I love pushing for girls to pursue their passions in STEM as a GAINS Club Co-President and am looking forward to our career mixer! In my free time I enjoy reading and playing the piano.