Board Members

Katie Sullivan received her Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, and a Masters in Translational Medicine from UC Berkeley & UC San Francisco. She started her career at Merck in the Philadelphia area, working in vaccine and biologics manufacturing process development and operations. Katie currently works at 4D Molecular Therapeutics in Emeryville as an Associate Director of Clinical Manufacturing, applying skills learned at Merck to the growing gene therapy space. She first got involved with AWIS East Bay by tagging along with coworkers to monthly happy hours, and has been volunteering with the chapter since 2018.

Prajita Pandey Ph.D. is presently serving as an Assistant Director, Chemistry at Emery Pharma. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington and completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of North Texas. Her professional expertise spans small molecules and biologics analysis. Supporting women in science has always been her passion and she is eager to make valuable contributions to East Bay AWIS.

Jenessa is the Director of Process Development at Arsenal Biosciences- a biotech company in South San Francisco creating novel engineered T-cell therapies for cancer. Jenessa received her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.S. in Biochemistry from Penn State in 2011. Jenessa is very excited to be a part of AWIS!

Özden is a senior data scientist at Lineage, a leading warehousing and logistics provider in the food supply chain. In her role as a senior data scientist, she leads analyses of customer datasets to deliver end-to-end supply chain solutions, from supply chain network design to inventory management. Prior to Lineage, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. She was a part of the MIT Supply Chain Management program and the MIT Digital Supply Chain Transformation research team. Her primary research interests involve digital twins, digital supply chain transformation, and environmental supply chain network design. Özden holds a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and a Ph.D. in Technology Management. Thrilled to be part of East Bay AWIS, Özden is excited to support women in science.

Dani Ushizima PhD. is a Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab (LBNL), and Faculty affiliated to UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley. After 16 years at LBNL, her research in computer vision has impacted a broad array of projects that depend on experimental data, particularly images. She received the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research award (2015) to focus on machine learning applied to scientific image. In 2021, Dani was honored by 3M as one of "25 Women in Science in Latin America" for cancer cell research. In 2023, she received the PMWC Pioneer Award for deep learning algorithms that detect abnormal proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease. She's joined East Bay AWIS with a keen interest in promoting and supporting women in STEM fields, fostering a friendly and inclusive community.Science and Engineering (WiSE) during her graduate and post graduate studies and participated in many outreach programs introducing young women to the power of stem cell biology and promoting women empowerment. Her background is in retinal and lung biology, focusing on cellular therapies to treat disease. Since 2016, she has worked for 4D Molecular Therapeutics in the Human Cell and Disease Modelling group, continuing her work with stem cells and helping create effective treatments for those affected by genetic diseases.

Shreya Mardia is a current undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at UC Berkeley. As an engineer and a huge car enthusiast, her interests are in artificial intelligence / machine learning and she endeavors to work in the autonomous vehicles industry after graduating. In her free time, she enjoys trying new foods, modifying and detailing her car, and going on new adventures with her two dogs.

Sarah (she/her) is an undergraduate transfer student from Berkeley City College who is now at UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry studying chemical biology. Since joining in April 2023 at the recommendation of her research PI at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, she has volunteered in various communication roles for East Bay AWIS. She is passionate about empowering community college students to pursue STEM and is working towards her current career goal of becoming a physician. A fun fact about her is that she has traveled around the world to compete for Team USA figure skating. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, roller skating, and completing complicated coloring books.

 Baila Hall works for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. She received her PhD in Neuroscience from Weill Cornell Medicine and her BA in Neuroscience and Behavior from Barnard College. She recently moved to the East Bay from Los Angeles where she was doing her postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA and is excited to volunteer for the East Bay Chapter and get to better know the East Bay AWIS community. 

Danielle received her Ph.D. from the University of Leeds U.K. and has been a volunteer with a number of AWIS chapters since moving to the US in 2010. She has held various board positions in that time including being Vice President of the Sacramento Valley chapter and has served on the Board of AWIS-East Bay since 2018. Her goal is to increase active participation in chapter activities by finding innovative ways of adding value to chapter membership. Her background is in neuroscience and in understanding how events and illnesses during pregnancy shape developing brains. Making the switch from academia to industry in 2018, Danielle is now a Technical Scientist at BioMarin, a world leader in developing and commercializing innovative biopharmaceuticals for rare diseases driven by genetic causes.

Sandhya received her Bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from U.C. Berkeley and MBA from Santa Clara University. She has been involved with leading and organizing resource groups at Santa Clara University and in her professional career over the last several years. She has over 20 years of pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry experience in progressing roles of responsibility at LifeScan (a J&J company), Abgenix, Amgen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Abbvie-Stemcentrx, Dermira, Omniox, and now at Revance Therapeutics as Director of Program and Project Management for drug development. 

During her time at Boehringer-Ingelheim, Sandhya became passionate founded the site chapter of the Women's Leadership Initiative and started working with AWIS-East Bay as a partner. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion efforts and enjoys mentoring and coaching the next generation of leaders. Sandhya also enjoys hiking, biking, reading, and spending time with family.

Atefeh received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis. In 2017, she started her first industry position as a product developer for Clorox, the professional product division. She then joined Chevron corporation in 2019. She has held various roles in Chevron. Currently, Atefeh is the reliability and maintenance team lead for all the US plants and terminals at the West Coast for America Fuel and Lubricants products.

Atefeh is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion. She is one of the leaders of Chevron PRIDE, an employee resource group aimed to provide an impactful and inclusive environment for all LGBTQA+ employees. She is the chair-elect of the American Chemical Society, California section. Additionally, she has been an AWIS member since 2019 and has organized multiple joint events between the ACS California section and our section. Atefeh is an avid skier and a runner.