History of the Palo Alto Chapter

    In 1971, a small group of women academics met in a discussion at the FASEB meeting in Chicago about how few women were in science. From these discussions, the organization AWIS was born. Judith Poole and Neena Schwartz were elected the first co-Presidents of National AWIS. This was shortly before Title IX, which among other things led to the introduction of coeducation at several of the Ivy League schools. The original goals of AWIS were focused on: sharing information through a newsletter, keeping track of professional women through a national registry, and forming a legislative "watchdog" committee to monitor bills for non-compliance with affirmative action. These are goals which National AWIS continues to this day.
    In 1983, the Palo Alto chapter of AWIS was established by Rivka Sherman-Gold, who served as AWIS PA's first president. Rivka is still active in the Bay Area, working in business development at Abgenix and continuing her volunteer efforts with AWIS PA as a mentor in the AWIS Palo Alto Mentoring Program at Stanford University. Rivka was also instrumental in founding the mentoring program in 1991. In these past 14 years, this first northern California chapter of AWIS has grown to membership of ~300 individuals and is now one of five northern California chapters (East Bay 1992, Sacramento Valley 1994, Monterey Bay 1998, San Francisco 2003).
    In 1992, Ellen Weaver, Professor Emeritis of Biology at San Jose State University and member of AWIS Palo Alto, was selected to serve as President of National AWIS. After her two year term, Ellen was honored by the Palo Alto Chapter as the recipient of the first Judith Pool Award, which honors senior level women who have been successful academic researchers and mentors. A second award, the Ellen Weaver Award, was created in her name to recognize young women early in their scientific careers who are also active in their community. These two awards are among the honors presented at the annual NCC-AWIS Awards Banquet held in April at Genentech.
    In 1999, AWIS Palo Alto is one of over 70 AWIS chapters nationwide and represents close to 5% of the total AWIS National membership. In recalling the creation of AWIS, I would like to leave you with the thought that it only takes the concerted efforts of a small group of individuals working together to successfully initiate a desired change.

View the By-laws of the Palo Alto Chapter

Past Presidents of the Palo Alto Chapter

Founders

Founder and First President of Palo Alto Chapter

EDUCATION
B.Sc. cum laude in Chemistry Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel M.Sc. in Physiology & Biophysics Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Ph.D. in Life Sciences The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
M.B.A. SJSU (California State University in San Jose), San Jose, California,

USA WORK EXPERIENCE
Rivka Sherman-Gold is presently (since 1996) Director of Business Development at Abgenix, Inc. (Fremont, CA), a biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics. Prior to joining Abgenix Rivka was at Elan Pharmaceuticals (formerly Athena Neurosciences in South San Francisco) from 1993 until 1996. Previous positions included Director of Marketing and Scientific Applications at Axon Instruments, Inc. (Foster City, CA), Senior Scientist at Biogrowth, Inc. (Richmond, CA), and Senior Research Chemist at Syva - Syntex Corporation (Palo Alto, CA). Prior to joining the industry Rivka was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University Medical Center.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Founder and First President (1985-1987) of AWIS Palo Alto, the Bay Area chapter of the Association for Women in Science (120 members in the first year; currently over 200 members). Serves as a career mentor for science students and scientists. AWARDS AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS Recipient of The Graduate Honors Award of The Feinberg Graduate School The Weizmann Institute of Science); The Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship; The National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (NALS) Postdoctoral Fellowship (fellowship was awarded but not activated due to taking a position at Syntex); The Syntex Community Service Award for founding the Bay Area chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS Palo Alto). Finalist in the best comprehensive strategic project (business plan) at the College of Business,

SJSU EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
In October 1999 published the book "The Ohs and Ahs of Torah Reading: A Guide to the Kamatz Katan in the Torah, the Haftarot, and the Megillot" (YODAN Publishing). The book, which is a language analysis focusing on certain vowels in the Hebrew language, was purchased by the libraries of Stanford University, UCLA, Brandeis Univeristy, Yeshiva University, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Hebrew Union College, and other institutions in the USA, Canada, Chile, Israel, and South Africa.

Palo Alto Chapter President, Mentoring Program

Beth Hutchins was an active member of the Palo Alto Chapter of AWIS, joining the chapter at its inception and actively serving on the board in positions ranging from Chapter President to Newsletter Editor over an eight year period. "Originally I got involved by attending meetings, and then volunteering to write a few articles for the newsletter (meeting summaries, etc.). I eventually became Newsletter Editor, and then, with a few other key women, swapped board chairs until I was President of the chapter. During my tenure in the chapter, the chapter size grew tremendously, an active monthly chapter program was established along with semi-annual conferences focusing on career development, the newsletter matured as a communication tool, and the mentoring program was born." Since leaving the bay area, Dr. Hutchins has focused on her career and family. She is a member of AWIS-San Diego and continues to promote AWIS to others. Dr. Hutchins received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology/Protein Biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University. She spent five years at Syva Company developing medical diagnostic assays, followed by five years at Genentech, Inc. as a Group Leader/Scientist. Beth is currently Director for Process Sciences at Canji, Inc. of San Diego. Dr.Hutchins has responsibility for process and assay development to support clinical development of gene therapy product candidates, and provision of research materials and analytical support for gene therapy research. Her current focus is on obtaining a California state license for Canji's virus production facility. She is also a member of the U.S. Pharmacopeia Subcommittee on Cell and Gene Therapy, involved in writing a chapter introducing pharmacists to these new fields of medicine.

Palo Alto Chapter President, NCC-AWIS Founder, Mentoring Program, Recognition Awards

Palo Alto Chapter President, Mentoring Program, Organizing Committee for first two career conferences, February Workshop founder

In 1992, Ellen Weaver, Professor Emeritis of Biology at San Jose State University and member of AWIS Palo Alto, was selected to serve as President of National AWIS. After her two year term, Ellen was honored by the Palo Alto Chapter as the recipient of the first Judith Pool Award, which honors senior level women who have been successful academic researchers and mentors. A second award, the Ellen Weaver Award, was created in her name to recognize young women early in their scientific careers who are also active in their community. These two awards are among the honors presented at the annual NCC-AWIS Awards Banquet held in April at Genentech.

During 1945-6, Ellen worked as a chemist on the Manhatten Project in Oak Ridge, TN. She supported her husband through grad school with jobs as a chemist with Standard Oil of Ohio Research Labs, and at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. After earning an MA at Stanford (on photosynthetic mutants in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) and a Ph. D. in Genetics at UC Berkeley (Somatic crossing-over in Drosophila melanogaster), she pursued initial observations on light-induced paramagnetism in photosynthetic systems, eventually establishing the fact that these signals were indicative of electron flow through the photosynthetic reaction center, P700. Later, she participated in seminal studies on the remote sensing of ocean color as an indicator of chlorophyll concentration in bodies of water, the basis for the satellite-based sensor, the Coastal Zone Color Scanner. She started as a part-time instructor at San Jose State College (later SJSU) in 1969 eventually becoming a full professor, and Director of the university's foundation for five years. She was Interim Executive Vice President of the University for 1978-9.

Renee Willard was active in reviving the SF-AWIS chapter in the early to mid 90's as a graduate student. Those involved were mostly UCSF-based and their efforts also incorporated UCSF's Women in Life Sciences organization. One of their first activities was to establish a mentoring program. Along with the mentoring program, they sponsored other career development activities including workshops and panel discussions on "alternative" careers. Renee continued this work around career development during her postdoc by co-founding the UCSF Postdoctoral Scholars Association and working with UCSF administration to develop a Career Center. Renee received a BS in Pharmacy from Purdue University and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from UCSF. Renee currently works part time for the Department of Public Health in San Francisco as a clinical psychiatric pharmacist and part-time with BioIntelligence as a medical/scientific writer and consultant. She is also an assistant Clinical Professor teaching drug information and literature evaluation to UCSF pharmacy students.

Shauna Farr-Jones was one of the founders of NCC-AWIS and has been involved in fund raising, organizing several February Workshops and the first annual recognition awards. She also was president of the San Francisco AWIS chapter for two years, where she organized career talks and panel discussions. The San Francisco AWIS chapter held meetings at UCSF, the main employer of scientists in the city. Prior to becoming active in AWIS she was involved with WILS, (Women in Life Sciences), an organization founded by three UCSF graduate students. Her current volunteer roles are as program chair of the Northern California Pharmaceutical Discussion Group and secretary of the UCSF Alumni Association, Graduate division. She also mentors graduate students and post-docs on an informal basis. Shauna has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tufts University, and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Southampton University. She currently works as a free-lance biotechnology consultant, a science writer, and editor of a the news section of the Journal of Molecular Graphics & Modelling, in addition to doing part-time research in the Computer Graphics Lab at UCSF.

Tina Settineri was one of the founders of NCC-AWIS and has been involved in obtaining fundraising money to support programs, helping to organize food for the February Workshops and communicating with awardees of the annual recognition awards. Tina also was a founder of an AWIS chapter in San Francisco (which no longer exists) where she was treasurer for several years. Tina has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, specializing in biological mass spectrometry. While there, she was one of the founders of the current Women in Life Sciences group which is a support and networking group for graduate students and post doctoral fellows. She also worked with the graduate student government to institute an official maternity leave policy for graduate students in the department. As a result of her contributions at UCSF, she received the UCSF Chancellors Award for the Advancement of Women in 1995. Tina currently works as a technical product specialist in the LC/MS group at PE Biosystems in Foster City, CA. This work supports the sales and marketing groups in a number of ways including analyzing samples and performing instrument demonstrations for potential customers, traveling to conferences to present data and research, and post-sales customer support and training on applications and instrumentation. She is married and has two small children, so she definitely understands the issues of balancing career and family!

 

Leslie Sunell was a founder and first president of the Sacramento Valley AWIS chapter. She has been pleased to follow the development of the chapter and its relationship to NCC and national over the years. She was a co-organizer and local sponsor for the First Leadership Development for Women in Science two-day conference held in Davis in 1994. This was an exciting collaboration for AWIS and Graduate Women in Science (GWIS). Much of the energy and enthusiasm for bringing the Sacramento Valley chapter to reality was generated at this conference. Leslie was also a co-founder of NCC-AWIS, and participated in fund raising, and organization of the February workshop and the Annual Recognition Awards. Leslie got her doctorate in Cell & Developmental Biology at UC Irvine and did her postdoctoral work at Stanford University. She moved to UC Santa Cruz in 1996, from a position as Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at UCDavis. Her current position is Assistant Chancellor at UCSC, where it is her great privilege and pleasure to work with Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood, who has also had an active role in AWIS over the years. Leslie's work involves institutional planning, organizational management, and a diverse host of responsibilities related to the running of a growing public research university.

Reyna Simon's first exposure to AWIS was when she attended the East Bay AWIS introductory group meeting. At that meeting she volunteered to be on the starting board and helped launch the EB-AWIS chapter. Her responsibilities revolved around the newsletter. "During the first two years of EB-AWIS, we had a wonderful set of speakers and a good turnout from the whole community. I think the strength of EB-AWIS was our commitment to the whole community of people who supported women in science. We had every education level represented, academic and industrial women, and people from the vendors which help us do our work." Reyna moved out of the east bay after about two years and unfortunately could no longer attend EB-AWIS functions. Reyna now mentors women individually and continues to be a resource to women in science. Reyna is currently working at IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals. She obtained a PhD in organic chemistry at Cornell University, and followed it with a post-doc at the Rockefeller University in NY. She joined Chiron Corporation in their "Protos" group working on technology now known as combinatorial chemistry.

Beverly Blatt has been a member of National AWIS since its inception in the early 1970's. In 1995, she was nominated for the position of National Councilor. She participated as an active member when she moved to California in 1988 and joined AWIS-PA. In 1995 she transferred her membership to ebAWIS.
Several of Beverly's prominent roles in Bay Area AWIS are listed below:
Co-chair and Fund Raiser, Women in Bioscience conference, Stanford, 1993
Planning Committee and Fund Raiser, Leadership Development for Women in Science conference, UC Davis, 1994 Organizing Committee, AWIS-Northern CA chapters Program co-ordinator, Legislative Assistance, AWIS-Northern CA chapters; she designed this program and acted as liaison between legislators and membership.
AWIS Palo Alto: VP, Community Outreach, 1993-95

Professional Career:
1969, Ph.D., Developmental Biology, Case-Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
NSF Graduate Fellow
1969-70, Post-doctoral Fellow, New York University Medical Center. American Cancer Society and NIH Post-doctoral fellowships.
1970-1980, Asst. Prof. Pathology, New York University Medical Center
1980-1988, Asst Prof. Medicine, SUNY Stoney Brook and Downstate and Section Head, Research, Clinical Immunology Division, Department of Medicine, Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
1988-1998, Consultant to legal and financial communities clarifying biomedical technology.
1998 retired professionally but active in community affairs.

Susan Bernhard – Currently, Susan is a contractor for Baxter Bioscience in the Hayward facility.  She has more than 15 years experience in the biotech industry, in protein purification, characterization and development of therapeutic protein products. Susan joined AWIS Palo Alto in 1995, has held several Board positions including co-Chair of Programs ('95-'97), President ('97-'99) and is currently a volunteer on the Program committee. Susan has been co-chair of mentoring since 2000.

Lisa Wang is a synthetic organic chemist who is presently involved in a career transition out of laboratory research. Ironically, her chemical interests over the years have gravitated towards transition metal-mediated catalysis. Her formal scientific training includes graduate and postdoctoral studies in chemistry at MIT and Caltech, respectively. Outside of the sciences, her interests include foreign films, hiking, photography, and stock market investing. Lisa first became involved with AWIS Palo Alto in 1996 when she was recruited to the mentoring committee (Mentoring Committee Chair, 1997-1999). Most recently (1999-2000), Lisa has served as President of the Palo Alto chapter during a phase of new growth. "I joined AWIS out of a simple desire to become acquainted with other women Ph.D scientists and to learn how each successfully managed her own scientific career. The AWIS Palo Alto mentoring program, which pairs working professionals with women graduate students at Stanford University, seemed like an ideal place to start. In my four years of involvement with AWIS, it has been inspiring to see how the concerted efforts of a few committed individuals towards a common vision can positively impact individual lives."

Annette Lewis was a post-doc at Stanford in developmental neurobiology 4 years ago when she joined AWIS Palo Alto. Annette said, "I realized the importance of being involved in a dynamic, empowering group like AWIS". Annette is now at Entelos, working with a team of life scientists and engineers doing biological systems modeling of asthma and other diseases. She enjoys hiking, skiing, cycling, travel, and music. Annette has worked on the Programs Committee for two years. She was responsible for two wildly successful programs: on Bioinformatics and on 'Happy Bench Scientists'.

Michelle Boytim got involved with the Palo Alto Chapter of AWIS while working on her Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University. In addition to serving as president, she served as webmistress for 5 years. She is currently working in clinical trials in the biotechnology industry.