Center Stage: Science and Leadership from Bench to Boardroom
RFS year-end event highlights success and spotlights scientific changemakers

Day 1
November 30, 2022

Rita Colwell, PhD
President, Rosalind Franklin Society

Mary Ann Liebert
Founder, Rosalind Franklin Society

Lost Women of Science: Found
Katie Hafner
Host/Executive Producer

Amy Scharf
Executive Producer

Julianna LeMieux, PhD
Senior Science Writer, GEN, Moderator

Awards - A Window or Just Window Dressing?
Leslie Mitchell, PhD
Rosalind Franklin Society, Genome Writers Guild; Co-founder
and CEO, Neochromosome, Inc.

Maria Antonietta Tosches, PhD 
Rita Allen Scholar; Assistant Professor, Columbia University

Huda Yahya Zoghbi, MD
Kavli Prize, Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Rosalind Franklin Society Board member

Julianna LeMieux, PhD
Senior Science Writer, GEN, Moderator

From PhD to CEO

Iris Grossman, PhD
Chief Therapeutics Officer, Eleven Therapeutics

Daisy Robinton, PhD
CEO, and Co-Founder, Oviva Therapeutics

Fay Lin, PhD
Senior Editor, GEN Biotechnology, Moderator

NYT Reporter Takes on MIT, and we all benefit
Kate Zernike, “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science.”
Published by Scribner Book Company

Julianna LeMieux, PhD, Senior Science Writer, GEN, Moderator

Welcome/Recap 
Karla Shepard Rubinger, PhD
Executive Director, Rosalind Franklin Society

Whole Brain Living (and How I Got Here)
Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD
Author, “Whole Brain Living – the Anatomy of Choice
and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life.” Published by Hay House Inc.

Karla Shepard Rubinger, PhD
Executive Director, Rosalind Franklin Society, Moderator

Room at the Top: Leadership at the Federal Level
Monica Bertagnolli, MD
Director of the National Cancer Institute

Namandje Bumpus, MD
Chief Scientist, FDA

Renee Wegrzyn, PhD
Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Karla Shepard Rubinger, PhD
Executive Director, Rosalind Franklin Society, Moderator

Inspiration or Impediment in Industry?
Rita Colwell, PhD
Chairman & Founder CosmosID, President, Rosalind Franklin Society

Akiko Otani,
Senior Director, Public-Private Partnerships & Global Science Policy, Takeda

Brandye Michaels, PhD
Senior Director, Analytical R&D, Microbiology Strategy
& Testing, Pfizer

Dorothea Verbrugge, PhD
Vice President of Clinical Quality,  Aetna 

Kevin Davies, PhD
Executive Editor, The CRISPR Journal, GEN, Moderator

Closing Remarks
Karla Shepard Rubinger, PhD
Executive Director, Rosalind Franklin Society, Moderator