September 2022

Erika Jefferson is the President and Founder of Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE), an organization focused on bridging the leadership gap for Black women in STEM. She received her MBA from Georgia Tech and her BS in Chemical Engineering from LSU. She has worked for top companies such as Amoco, BP, Chevron and Praxair in a myriad of leadership and executive roles ranging from sales/business development to supply chain and operations excellence. Her more than two decades of experience led    her across the nation from Chicago, to Greenville, Charlotte, Atlanta and...Read more

As Director of Operations for the Atlanta expansion, Suna is establishing and leading Portal Innovation’s platform in Atlanta at Science Square Labs. Previously, Suna held clinical R&D roles in pharma, across both early and late-stage biologics development. She grew her specialty in pharmacovigilance (safety & efficacy) and immunogenicity assay development—sourcing, developing, and integrating novel diagnostic technologies and robotics platforms—before moving into the early venture space. She has since served as a biomedical science consultant for early-stage startups, ultimately...Read more

Sadik Kassim is a scientist at Genomic Medicines for the Life Sciences Companies at Danaher and executive with extensive experience in the biotechnology industry with a specific focus on cell and gene therapy bioprocessing and translational research. Currently, he serves as Chief Technology Officer at Danaher, with a focus on Genomic Medicines. Most recently, he was Chief Technology Officer at Vor Bio where he built the technical operations team responsible for process development, analytical development, supply chain and manufacturing support of a CRISPR gene-edited HSPC product and...Read more