Anna Crivici has been Executive Director and head of the Project Management Department at Amylin Pharmaceuticals since April 2003. Prior to joining Amylin, she served as Global Project Leader and Director, Global Project Management at Pfizer Global Research & Development, from 2001 to 2003. At Pfizer, Anna led several drug development projects and served on therapeutic area strategy teams in HIV and ophthalmology drug development. From 1998 to 2001, Anna held several positions in project management at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Director of Project Management, where she was as project manager and team leader for several development-stage projects in oncology and endocrinology. From 1994 to 1998, Anna held a number of positions at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals (now NPS Pharmaceuticals) in Mississauga, Canada, including team leader for ALX-0600 and Manager of the Drug Development department. Prior to her employment at Allelix, Anna was an MRC (Canada) post-doctoral research fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute / University of Toronto. She has also held research associate positions at the Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation / McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada), and at the Ontario Research Foundation (Mississauga, Canada). Anna holds a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Guelph (Canada) and a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of Waterloo (Canada).
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Lynne Friedmann is a journalist and biologist by training, has enjoyed a varied and successful 22-year career in the specialized field of science communications. She is currently a freelance writer, educator, and book author.

Friedmann’s early career spanned PR agency, university public information, and freelance reporter experience. For 15 years she was principal of the consulting firm Friedmann Communications with a national clientele that included science-based companies, non-profit research institutions, and scientific professional associations. Among her clients were the National Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Salk Institute for Biological Research, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and the Zoological Society of San Diego.

From 1998-2001, Friedmann served on a 12-member, blue-ribbon panel of journalists, scientists, and public relations professionals examining science communications issues for the 21st Century. Accomplishments of this group included recommendations to the National Science Board and a “Best Practices” conference whose proceedings continue to shape the profession.

Friedmann has assumed leadership positions in a number of professional organizations including the National Association of Science Writers, Athena Program for Women Executives in Technology (founding board member), Association for Women in Science, and the Public Relations Society of America. In 2003, Friedmann was elected an AAAS Fellow for her “leadership and significant contributions to the public communication of science and technology.”

Friedmann has a long and active association with AWIS. On behalf of AWIS San Diego she founded the chapter newsletter, created the chapter’s first PR committee, and served several terms on the chapter board. In 1993, Friedmann initiated the Women in Bioscience Conference series for the AWIS San Diego Chapter, serving as the first WIB conference chair. On behalf of AWIS National, Friedmann was responsible for national media outreach for more than 10 years, co-chaired several national leadership conferences, and was elected to the AWIS National Executive Board. In 1997, in recognition of her service to women in science, she was named an AWIS Fellow.

Friedmann is an avid backpacker whose travels have taken her throughout the United States, Canada, Arctic Circle, Swiss and Italian Alps, Nepal, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Tasmania. She and her husband celebrated the turn of the millennium by reaching the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft) on the continent of Africa.
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Caroline LaPlaca is currently Director of Clinical Research Operations for Vical Incorporated, a San Diego based company that researches and develops biopharmaceutical products based on its patented DNA delivery technologies for the prevention and treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases.

Caroline has over 27 years of experience in regulated industry with 16 years of experience in drug development working for both large pharmaceutical companies as well as small “start-up” operations. Over the course of her career she has held positions in Clinical Research Operations, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory Affairs with various companies including Elan Pharmaceuticals, Baxter BioScience, CoCensys, Vestar, and Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals. While at Baxter BioScience she developed and led a Global Clinical Quality and Training function providing a number of services to Clinical Operations including vendor qualification audits, clinical site audits, and ICH/GCP and therapeutic area training. In addition she has worked for several different CROs (Quintiles Pacific and Paragon Biomedical) in the areas of Clinical Trial Management and Regulatory Support. She is experienced in conducting clinical trials both in the U.S. and abroad.
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Erica Pascal is a Technology Specialist of Fish & Richardson P.C. The practice supports patent prosecution in the area of biochemistry, molecular biology, plant biology and gene regulation. She was previously with Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP (2003-2004) as a scientific advisor, and with Syngenta (1995-2003) as a biotechnology portfolio manager, patent liaison/patent agent, and scientist/research director. Erica received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, following a B.S. in Life Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. She has also worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the University of Illinois (1992-1995), and graduate research assistant for the University of California, Berkeley (1987-1992). She is currently studying towards her J.D. at the California Western School of Law J.D.

Erica is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and is a member of San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association. She is also a recipient of the Trustees Scholarship, California Western School of Law.
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Linda M. Smibert is Director, Business Development at Santarus in San Diego, responsible for Global Business Development, including partnerships, in-licensing of new products and out licensing of prescription and OTC rights. Most recently, she struck an agreement with Otsuka America for the co-promotion of Santarus Inc.’s first product. She has led and contributed to more than 30 deals at the Global Operations of Zeneca in the UK and Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, NJ and at the national operations in Canada at Janssen (Toronto), Zeneca (Toronto) and BMS (Montreal). Her experience includes company and product acquisitions and divestitures, co-promotions, distribution agreements and co-selling agreements, across prescription, OTC and generic drugs.

Linda’s pharmaceutical background includes sales and marketing, including the launch of 2 anaesthetics and J&J’s first cancer product. She has led the pre-launch commercialization of more than 15 drugs at Zeneca and BMS in Canada, established Zeneca Canada’s Health Economics Department, acted as one of 7 Team Members re-engineering Zeneca’s global business, and led several Global Marketing initiatives at Zeneca and BMS as well as strategic planning projects in Global Marketing at BMS.

Linda has a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and an MBA from the University of Toronto. She has also studied at the University of Nice, France and had the pleasure of an exchange program with the University of Tokyo. She now resides in San Diego, California.
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Kim Kamdar is a venture capitalist at Domain Associates, one of the oldest healthcare focused venture firms in the country. Prior to joining Domain Associates, she was a Kauffman Foundation Fellow in entrepreneurship and venture capital at MPM Capital (2003-2005). She was previously at the Torrey Mesa Research Institute/ Novartis (1995-2003) as a program leader for a drug discovery effort and led a research team that utilized the biology, genetics and genomics of model organisms to uncover signaling pathway networks. Kim holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from Emory University.
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