What is your role at JB Ashtin?
As Vice President of Scientific Services, I work closely with our team to ensure our services and deliverables meet the highest standards of scientific rigor, quality, and accuracy. I help to ensure that our company adheres to best practices for outcomes dissemination. I work closely with our leadership team to set our department objectives and policies to ensure that they’re aligned strategically with our corporate vision.
Why is the work at JB Ashtin meaningful to you?
My work is deeply meaningful because I have the privilege of working alongside a team of highly qualified and dedicated medical communicators, both scientists and clinicians. JB Ashtin’s commitment to fostering trusting partnerships and compelling narratives aligns with my passion for advancing scientific storytelling to educate clinicians and improve patient lives.
How has your role evolved over the years?
I started with JB Ashtin in 2020, almost four and a half years ago, right before the pandemic hit full force. I was a senior scientific director, managing three therapy area pillars for one large account. When I started, my focus was developing content and providing content direction and strategy at the project and client level.
My role has evolved to being increasingly innovative and strategic at the corporate level. I’m now a part of the leadership team. I’ve grown into the role of vice president, and that’s enabled me to develop my own leadership style as an adaptive leader.
You have a master’s degree in public health and are currently a doctoral candidate with an emphasis on translational epidemiology. What does that mean? How does that connect with your work at JB Ashtin?
It means I understand the epidemiological factors that influence health at the population and individual patient level, including environmental, social, behavioral, and biological factors. My education equips me with the skills to design and conduct research, to critically appraise scientific literature, and to analyze health data. Paired with my 20 years of experience in medical communications, it connects with my work at JB Ashtin in many ways. For example, I understand the significance and nuances of clinical research and how to construct a scientific story that’s compelling to the reader. Having worked as a medical writer and scientific director, I understand the complexity of developing evidence-based deliverables. And I look for opportunities to pass along my knowledge to ensure that our team is working efficiently and at the highest quality level that they can.
Tell us about your leadership style
Our CEO, Joni, is a huge proponent of growing leaders and often asks us what kind of leader we want to be. When she asked me that question, I thought, what are my options?
I’ve had the chance to take a class in executive leadership and was introduced to many leadership theories. I really like the adaptive leadership style where you’re able to adapt to different cadences of work. It builds in a lot of change management plus cross-functional collaboration; all the things that speak to my heart and my soul. I really like being adaptive. I also try to be an effective transformational leader, to provide a path forward for our team and the people reporting to me when change or growth is needed.
What were you like as a child? How does that connect with your role today?
As a child, I was very curious about everything. From early observational research on the mosquito larvae on the cover of our pool at the age of eight. Much to my mother’s surprise and chagrin, my best friend and I decided to collect specimens and conduct research. My mother still tells people that she was shocked to find we were accidentally breeding mosquitoes!
I also had an opportunity to do a lot of traveling as a child. I was always interested in different cultures, food, tastes, and artwork. I feel like I’ve brought that curiosity to my role at JB Ashtin. I’m always interested in new therapeutic areas, new and exciting science, and looking at different ways to solve problems when we encounter them. That curiosity has followed me throughout my life.
What hobbies or activities do you enjoy?
I enjoy gardening and hiking. I play tennis, swim, and bike. My oldest daughter lives in California, so when I visit, we love to have family beach walks. And I do love to spend time with my 1-year-old granddaughter.
What’s your favorite thing about working with JB Ashtin?
The size of the company. It’s a small company and I get to wear many hats.
It’s nice to have a small company where I feel like I can connect with everybody at some level. And when we get together at our annual summits, it’s a little more personal. We’re able to have more of a personal touch. And that’s something we bring to storytelling for clients, too: the human touch.