About Us - Women in Pharma Careers

Our Mission: to build and nurture a community of women in pharma who are helping each other advance their careers

Women in Pharma Careers is a community of women in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. While we highlight the experiences and perspectives of women, we hope that both men and women will find something valuable on this site.

Meet Us

We are two women who are passionate about career development.
And we often act as each other's sounding board and cheerleader as we ourselves navigate our career journeys.

We met while volunteering for the American Association for Cancer (AACR), an international cancer research nonprofit. Both of us were members of the Associate Member Council, which planned career development sessions for members early in their scientific careers (graduate or postgraduate training).

Years later, we remained engaged with the AACR by serving as speakers on career panels. Early-career scientists often reach out to us for mentoring and career advice. Advancing from planners/mentees to speakers/mentors sparked our idea to start this website dedicated to career development in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry.

About Michelle

Michelle is an immunologist working in cancer research at a pharmaceutical company in the Philadelphia area. She has worked in different departments and capacities, beginning as a postdoctoral scientist in biologics research to immuno-oncology discovery and most recently in translational and biomarker research. As a postdoctoral fellow, Michelle was a founding member of the BALSA group- a nonprofit consulting company focused on creating career development opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists while supporting the biotech industry in St. Louis. She served on the AACR Associate Member Council for five years, including one year as its President. Michelle has been a speaker in career development sessions for scientists interested in pharma/biotech at the local, regional and international levels.

About Wenny

Wenny is a cancer epidemiologist who currently works for a California-based pharmaceutical company while living in Philadelphia. She is passionate about public health and helping to get the right medicines to the right patients. Her educational background is in molecular biology and vaccines, and her postdoctoral work focused on the genetic, nutritional, and behavioral risk factors of cancer. In graduate school, Wenny founded PGWISE -a student organization that focused on community outreach and advancing the career development of women in science and engineering. In addition to serving on the AACR Associate Member Council, Wenny has been invited to speak about transitioning to pharma/biotech with early-career scientists training in academia and government.