Neriman Botas serves as executive vice president of Human Resources at Eisai Inc. Since joining the company in 2004, she has led the Human Resources organization in the design and deployment of progressive talent management practices that promote growth, accountability and empowerment. She is a member of the company’s Executive Committee and works with its business leaders to identify priorities, align resources and cultivate a culture that enables all employees to thrive and get the very best from their Eisai Experience. She also serves as a trustee of the Eisai USA Foundation, Inc., the company’s philanthropic arm. Prior to joining Eisai, Ms. Botas spent 19 years at Schering-Plough Corporation where she developed her human resources career in roles spanning across all business segments, including both U.S. and global responsibilities. Specializing in the field of compensation and benefits, Ms. Botas led the function for the global pharmaceutical business. She spent several years as director of Human Resources for the Europe, Middle East and Canada division, working from the company’s European headquarters in Lucerne, Switzerland. In 2000, she was appointed vice president of Human Resources for Schering-Plough International with responsibility for growing global talent and developing general managers to run the company’s businesses around the globe. Ms. Botas received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Douglass College of Rutgers University in New Jersey, and completed the Executive Human Resources Development Program at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She has served on the HR Committee to the Arthritis Foundation and as a member of the Advisory Board for the HealthCare Businesswomen’s Association.

As President and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Bob’s mission is to advance Massachusetts' leadership in the life sciences to grow the industry, add value to the healthcare system and improve patient lives. Over the last decade, Bob has truly become a champion for patients by ensuring innovative companies have the best environment possible to research, develop, and commercialize breakthrough therapies and cures for people around the world who need and deserve them. Bob has spent his career in both the public and private sectors. Before joining MassBio, he served as the Undersecretary of Economic Development within Governor Deval Patrick's administration, where he prioritized both healthcare and economic development issues and was a strong advocate for the life sciences industry in Massachusetts. Prior to that, he was elected as State Representative to the 11th Norfolk district for three terms. Bob has also held senior executive positions in the environmental services, capital management and venture capital industries. He brings passion and energy to all of his endeavors.

Andrew Dobos (he/him) is head of Organization and Talent Development at Moderna. In his role, he leads Moderna’s Diversity & Inclusion efforts, which are integral to the organization’s talent management strategy and agenda. Andrew has more than 15 years’ experience as a human resources professional, with a particular passion for developing people and building culture. Andrew has previously held roles at Boston Consulting Group, Willis Towers Watson, and Mercer. Andrew is a native Midwesterner, passionate about looking at the world through his camera lens, and now lives in Somerville, Mass., with his husband Brian.

Sarah EchoHawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, has been working on behalf of Native people for over 20 years. She has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) since 2013. Prior to joining in AISES, Ms. EchoHawk spent six years with First Nations Development Institute, a national American Indian economic development organization. During her initial tenure, she served as the Director of Development and Communications; and as Executive Vice President in her last four years with the organization. Ms. EchoHawk also served as the interim CEO for the organization’s subsidiary, First Nations Oweesta Corporation, during its management transition in 2010. Previously, she spent several years working for the American Indian College Fund raising support for tribal colleges and universities. During her tenure, she served in many areas including operations, program management, communications, foundation relations, and individual giving. Ms. EchoHawk was an adjunct professor of Native American Studies at Metro State University of Denver for nine years where in addition to teaching introductory Native American studies courses, she also taught Native American Politics and co-taught Native Americans and Law with her father, John Echohawk, who co-founded the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in 1970. Ms. EchoHawk currently serves on multiple boards. She is currently the Vice Chair for Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Chair for the Native Ways Federation, and the Chair for Red Feather Development Group. She also serves on the advisory board of the American Indian Policy Institute at the University of Arizona, Champions Board for the National Girls Collaborative, Collaborative Advisory Board for Women of Color in Computing Research, and is a former board member for the Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network (ONABEN).

José Estabil brings 20+ years of translating technology -from industry or academia- into high growth businesses with cumulative $1B+ market impact. José led international innovation and entrepreneurship projects at MIT. Before moving to Boston, José spent 15+ years developing technologies and running $100M+ semiconductor businesses in Silicon Valley. José invests his time to help younger entrepreneurs achieve their dream through Latinos in Bio (co-founder) and programs at Brown (Brown Angel Group, IE.Brown MBA), MIT (Deshpande Center, MIT Innovation Teams, and IMES LinQ), Harvard Business School (Field X and Field Y), Atria University, the MacArthur Foundation ($100M 100&Change program), and as a founding member of AccelHUB Venture Partners (focused on funding Latinx tech and digital health ventures). feedzAI (fintech unicorn), Veniam (pervasive IoT), ArcticSand (power conversion, acq: Murata), tau-Metrix (contactless testing, acq: Tokyo Electron), and Schlumberger YES (electron beam inspection, acq: Applied Materials) are companies he’s helped launch or grow. José is a Trustee emeritus at Brown University, where he earned an Sc. B. and Sc. M. in Physics. He is currently Chief Business Officer at Cipherome, Inc, an AI/ML genomic diagnostics company, and is co-founder of ADN Genomix, a biotech company that works to translate biologic compounds to treat spinal cerebellar ataxia and non-small cell lung cancer.

Chris is the Founder and Lead Consultant for True Change Associates (TCA) which they established in 2015 after 20 years of experience working with academic institutions, corporations, and nonprofit organizations focusing on diversity and inclusion, equity and social justice, leadership development, and team building. TCA’s mission is to work in community with people and organizations to move through personal growth to creating lasting institutional and systemic change around equity and inclusion. In addition to TCA, Chris is a part-time faculty member for the Federal Executive Institute within the Federal Government and for Merrimack College in their Higher Education Graduate program. Chris also serves as a Co-Lead Facilitator for the LeaderShape Institute, a national organization committed to creating “a just, caring, and thriving world where all lead with integrity and a healthy disregard for the impossible”, and as a Facilitator for Outward Bound Professional, the division of OB that focuses on transformative leadership development with corporate clients using experiential education in the outdoors. Prior to TCA, Chris’ experience includes professional roles at Wentworth Institute of Technology, The University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Brown University, Rhode Island College, SpeakOut Boston (the nation’s oldest LGBTQ speakers’ bureau), City Year, and Exploration Schools. Additionally, Chris has presented at national conferences such as SXSW, the Racial Justice Institute at Creating Change, and The White Privilege Conference. Chris is a skilled relationship builder, strategic planner, and team energizer, and loves helping people and organizations be their best selves while contributing to a socially just world. Chris holds a M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in Social Justice Education, and a BA from Colby College in American Studies. Chris is a Rhode Island native but calls Boston home, where Chris lives with their wife Vanessa.

Adrian Hawkins is a successful corporate professional who began his Novartis career 32 years ago in Marketing Systems as an intern. He recently obtained an Account Manager role after completing the Novartis Sales Management Development Program. During his tenure in 3 previous divisions as a sales representative he has won over 10 national sales awards along with Cornerstone Sales Club status for sustained sales excellence. His passion for Diversity & Inclusion has enabled attainment of 2 CEO awards along with recognition at 2018 National Sales Meeting for his 20 years of dedication for his focus on improving Novartis culture and healthcare disparities nationally. He is Board Chair of NSN NJ/NY Chapter and past President for this chapter and Summit Lions Club enabling continuous community activity for urban and underserved areas. He is CapABLE ERG Co-Chair heightening understanding of disability inclusion at Novartis and also currently leads the effort to Re-Launch Disability:IN New Jersey Affiliate Chapter assisting to increase disability inclusion awareness statewide. Adrian has also served on several other boards (YMCA, SAGE, MS Society). He is founder of the Novartis Corporate Teen Mentoring Program (formerly Black & Latino Achievers Corporate Mentoring Program) positively impacting nearly 2000 kids since 1994 inception providing college and career guidance. He was recognized as "Alumni of the Year" in April 2014 by Newark Boys Chorus School for his positive spirit and passion for community giving. Lastly, Adrian was humbled to be honored as a 2018 Achievers Most Dedicated Mentor at the 20th Anniversary Gala in June 2018.

As President and CEO of Disability:IN, Jill Houghton and her team are working to build an inclusive global economy where people with disabilities can participate fully and meaningfully. Disability:IN has empowered over 190 leading brands to advance disability inclusion and equality. Jill’s passionate approach to the inclusion of people with disabilities comes from her core. Her challenges associated with having a learning disability ignited her career at the federal, state and local levels to drive disability inclusion in business. Jill has grown Disability:IN offerings to nationally recognized programs, including the Disability Equality Index (in partnership with the American Association of People with Disabilities), Supplier Diversity program, NextGen Leaders Initiatives, and Inclusion Works which has resulted in over 40,000 people with disabilities being hired. Jill has more than 25 years of diverse leadership experience at the federal, state and local levels working with business on disability inclusion. Prior to Disability:IN, Jill served as the Executive Director of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel until its legislative sunset in January 2008. The bi-partisan panel was housed independently within the Social Security Administration and provided advice to the President, Congress and the Commissioner of Social Security on issues related to the Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare work incentives programs for individuals with disabilities. Ms. Houghton has testified before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on issues related to business commitment to recruit, hire and retain employees with disabilities. She currently serves on the board of the US International Council on Disabilities and the New York City Comptrollers Advisory Board Council on Economic Growth through Diversity and Inclusion.

For over 20 years, Amri Johnson has been instrumental in helping organizations and their people create extraordinary business outcomes. He is a social capitalist, epidemiologist, entrepreneur, executive coach, and inclusion strategist. Amri's dialogic approach to engaging all people as leaders and change agents (most recently at the research division of Novartis, as Global Head of Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion) has fostered the opening of minds and deepening of skillsets with organizational stakeholder, at all levels, enabling them to thrive and optimally contribute to one another and their respective organizations. Amri is currently writing a manuscript for change makers with the intention of systemically embedding inclusion in a manner that is accessible (for all), actionable (in daily business practice), and sustainable (organizationally normative). Born in Topeka, Kansas (USA), Amri has worked and lived in the U.S., Brazil, and currently lives in Basel, Switzerland, with his wife Martina and their three kids.

Dr. Charlotte Jones-Burton is dedicated to creating healthier communities globally through drug development, patient advocacy and people engagement/empowerment. Her three-pronged approach reflect her personal values of community, service and health and wellness. Charlotte combines her leadership in research/drug and people development with her clinical acumen in order to positively impact the lives of patients and communities who suffer with chronic diseases. Charlotte is a pharmaceutical executive who has spent over a decade in the pharmaceutical industry leading clinical trial development for multiple medicines across various disease areas including cardiovascular and renal diseases. She is currently VP, Global Clinical Development, Nephrology at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. She earned a medical degree and Master of Science degree in Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, with a concentration in Clinical Research, from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Charlotte’s postgraduate training included an internal medicine residency and a nephrology fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical Systems. Charlotte is active in numerous professional associations and organizations and co-founded Women of Color in Pharma, a non-profit professional society focused on transforming the pharmaceutical landscape with women of color. As its President, Charlotte is leading the growth of the organization in the US and EU. Charlotte is the recipient of the 2020 NJ BIZ Best 50 Women in Business and was inducted in the MM&M 2020 Hall of Femme.

Aman is the Global Head of Regulatory Strategy at Worldwide Clinical Trials, a mid-size CRO. She is an accomplished leader and expert in regulatory affairs with a 23-year track record of success within the CRO environment in providing global strategic direction in regulatory affairs. She has led a wide variety of regulatory projects providing regulatory strategy and development services for a variety of client sponsor companies ranging from virtual companies to large companies in many therapeutic indications. Aman is passionate about helping clients develop comprehensive regulatory strategies. Her career is built on helping clients achieve their end to end regulatory strategies from study submission to commercialization. Aman joined Worldwide from a large global CRO, where during her 17 year tenure, she led and developed many functions and services within Regulatory, ranging from regulatory intelligence function to business development and streamlining the many initiatives to develop regulatory services, most recently holding the position of Head of Americas for the Regulatory Strategy and Agency Liaison team. She is an active volunteer in regulatory associations; she served on the editorial panel of the peer reviewed journal, the Regulatory Rapporteur as well as currently serving as Chair of the North American Chapter for The Organization for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA). Aman is also a member of the TOPRA Diversity Committee and has taken a special interest in diversity and inclusion within industry. In 2017, Aman was shortlisted for an industry-wide Regulatory Excellence award in the Inspiration category. Last year she joined the panel of judges for the Excellence Awards.

Dr. Ann-Marie La Ronde-Richard is Director and Patient Engagement Lead in the Internal Medicine Research Unit at Pfizer. Formerly Principal Scientist in the Metabolic Disease Unit and with over 16 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, Dr. La Ronde-Richard is in a unique position to bridge the gap between researchers and patients, ensuring that researchers better understand the experiences and unmet medical needs of diverse patient populations living with chronic metabolic diseases. Her role entails partnering with Patient Advocacy Groups, patients and their families to ensure that patients’ perspectives and needs are incorporated into the drug development strategy from beginning to end to ultimately improve health outcomes for all. Throughout her 16+ years at Pfizer, Dr. La Ronde-Richard has been actively involved in driving DEI initiatives aligned with Pfizer’s business remit. She served as Chair of the Global Blacks Community (GBC) – Greater Boston branch (a Pfizer Colleague Resource Group, CRGs) for 8 yrs, working to create a diverse and inclusive workplace and one where everyone has equal opportunities to meet their full potential. During her tenure as Chair, Pfizer’s GBC Greater Boston was an instrumental founding member of the Color of Biotech, Massachusetts, a partnership amongst CRGs across Pharma/Biotech in Massachusetts that created a community for collaboration, networking, support and innovation amongst professionals of color in Greater Boston’s growing Biotechnology sector. Dr. La Ronde-Richard was born and raised on the beautiful island of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean and migrated to the United States in 1991 to further her education. She obtained her B.S. degree from Suffolk University in Boston and then completed her Doctorate in Pathology at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. La Ronde-Richard is the cofounder of the Dominican Health and Education Initiative (DAHEI), a 501c3 organization founded in 2013, focused on improving the quality of life for individuals, families and communities, including in her native island, Dominica, through enhancing education, healthcare and training.

Melinda Ng has been at bluebird bio since February 2018 and is the founder and co-lead of bUNITED (est. June 2018), an employee resource group for the Pan-Asian employees and friends at bluebird bio. bUNITED focuses on 5 pillars: Career, Commerce, Community, Cuisine, and Culture. In her day-to-day role, she supports the Clinical Development and Commercial team to support the experience, engagement, and development of every employee. Outside of bluebird bio, Melinda heads up the programming for Ascend New England, a non-profit Pan-Asian organization focused on providing professional development for Pan-Asian’s in the New England area.

I have over 10 years experience improving products, services, research projects and processes for research and development entities by using advanced analytics, quality management systems, big-data analytical tools, creating and maintaining models, and on-boarding compelling new data sets. Currently, I am working full-time as a Commercial Medical Device & Combination Products Engineer at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Lexington, Massachusetts (formerly Shire). My work is mainly focused on market qualification expansion of commercial medical devices, design history file (DHF) management of our medical device catalog and end-of-life ancillary component product life-cycle management of our products. I have also worked with the Boston Children's Hospital as a Biomedical Engineering Fellow with Harvard University. I used CRISPR/Cas9 technology and iPSCs/hESCs to study congenital tissue orders that resulted in premature cartilage failure, leveraging my knowledge of cartilage mechanics to support research in the clinical translational science lab of Dr. April Craft. Additionally, I have worked with Blackhawk Manufacturing as a Quality Control Associate, a role in which I supported production assembly manufacturing, quality control, and continuous improvement for almost 5 years.

Edie drives strategy and manage the day-to-day implementation of MassBio’s on-going initiative to improve diversity and inclusion throughout the life sciences industry. She serves as a resource and liaise with members, partners and all stakeholders within our community who share in the purpose of advancing an inclusive workplace environment. She also assists members with shifting mindset and “reframing the narrative” of diversity through education, outreach, and advocacy. Prior to joining MassBio, Edie was the Marketing Director for We Are Allies, a nonprofit organization focused on fighting the stigma of opioid addiction, driving policy, and increasing Narcan bystander access and training. At ClinEdge, a clinical research agency, she was the Director of Patient Recruitment & Retention Strategies. Edie started her professional career in sports and entertainment with positions at US99 FM Radio, Gatorade and ESPN. This journey took her on assignments and projects across the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and South Africa. Transitioning to the business sector, she has also worked in communication, marketing and business development roles at Philip Morris, Lawyers Weekly, Nutter LLP and the Boston Business Journal. As a former Adjunct Professor at Emerson College, she taught Marketing Research. Edie has served as a Marketing Advisor for the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and as an appointed Board Member on the Belmont Human Rights Commission. She is currently on the J1 Advisory Board at the Irish International Immigrant Center and supports awareness campaigns for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois. Edie earned a B.S. in Communications from Illinois State University and a M.S. in International Relations from Boston College.