WOMEN AT HLTH IMPACT PROGRAM: Women at HLTH Luncheon

Kate Ryder is the founder and CEO of Maven, the largest virtual clinic for women's and family health. Maven's mission is to change the health of the world — one woman, one family at a time. Prior to founding Maven in 2014, Kate worked in venture capital and as a journalist, writing for the Economist from Southeast Asia, New York and London and for The New Yorker. In 2009, she worked with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helping him write his memoirs about the financial crisis. Kate has been named to Fortune’s 40 under 40 and to Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” and has spoken on stage at industry events including the Forbes Healthcare Summit, Fortune Brainstorm Health, and the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit. Kate received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her MSc from the London School of Economics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.

Dr. Nicole (Fisher) Roberts is the Executive Director of Feed A Billion, an international nonprofit that feeds girls around the world to prevent exploitation, and the founder of Health & Human Rights Strategies, a health care and human rights-focused advising firm in Washington, D.C. Roberts is also the host of The Global Good Podcast. Roberts contributes to Forbes, contextualizing health, and highlighting ideas, companies and people that are changing the health landscape. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals and publications, and her talks can be found on the United Nations website and various news and sports outlets. Roberts holds a doctorate in public health from the University of North Carolina, a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri.

Kerith J. Conron, Sc.D., M.P.H., is the Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar and Research Director at the Williams Institute. She is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist whose work focuses on documenting and reducing inequities that impact sexual and gender minority populations. She is committed to altering the landscape of adversity and opportunity for LGBTQ communities, particularly through collaboration. Conron is Co-Principal Investigator of the NICHD/NIMHD-funded Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health across the Life Course study. She trained at the Harvard and Boston University Schools of Public Health. Her publications appear in the American Journal of Public Health, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and Psychological Medicine. Her expertise and commentary have been featured by the New York Times, the Associated Press, and National Public Radio.

Anne Heatherington, Ph.D., is the Head of the Data Sciences Institute (DSI) at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. and a member of the R&D Management Committee (RMC). Anne leads overall strategy and execution of all quantitative sciences post-close including biostatistics, global outcomes research, epidemiology and digital sciences. She will also enhance quantitative sciences capabilities through innovation and partnerships and expand digital presence and digital culture with an aim to accelerate new ways of thinking and working.

Throughout her 20+ year career, Anne has led organizations and programs in large pharma, mid-size biotechs and start-up organizations. As a leader, she promotes an empowered and accountable culture and believes in the power of collaboration. Prior to Takeda, Anne served as Head of Clinical Development at Summit Therapeutics, a small biotech company. In this role, she also served as Program Lead for a phase 2 asset for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) where she focused on patient engagement and use of external data sources.

Prior to Summit, Anne worked for 13 years at Pfizer where she initially focused on Clinical Pharmacology across a range of therapeutic areas; she then took on a much broader role when she was appointed as Vice President and Head of Clinical Research in Sandwich UK. Her last Pfizer role was as Vice President and Head of Quantitative Clinical Sciences where she oversaw Clinical Pharmacology and Biostatistics supporting research and development activities across several Research Units (Inflammation & Immunology, Rare Diseases and Cardiovascular/Metabolic disorders).

Anne received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and her Ph.D. in pharmacokinetics from the University of Manchester, England. She completed post-doctoral training in the Centre for Bioengineering at University of Washington, Seattle and spent her early career at Amgen Inc, Thousand Oaks, California.

Ivor Braden Horn, MD, MPH, FAAP is an angel investor with Pipeline Angels and an LP in Portfolia’s Rising America Fund. Dr. Horn has 20+ years of experience addressing inequities in healthcare and held senior and executive leadership positions across health systems, academic, and entrepreneurial environments. She is a nationally recognized leader in health equity, social determinants of health and healthcare innovation. Most recently, Dr. Horn served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Accolade. Before Accolade, she served as Medical Director of the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Principal Investigator on several studies investigating health equity in the under-represented communities.Dr. Horn is also a nationally recognized researcher with funding from government and non-profit organizations including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HRSA), AHRQ, and the Verizon Foundation to research the use of technology in under-represented populations. She has authored several peer-reviewed journal publications on health communication and health equity. Dr. Horn received her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. She has a master’s degree in public health from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Sciences. She earned her medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric internship and residency at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Dr. Horn did her fellowship training in general academic pediatrics and community-oriented primary care at the Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC.

Maria became the global head of ZS’s pharmaceutical and biotech business in July 2021, which comprises 85% of ZS’s work. She has been part of the firm’s life sciences leadership team for eight years, previously leading the global oncology and specialty vertical, working with over 20 companies a year and building a team that on average supports about 90% of all oncology launches. She founded and led core expertise verticals, including cell and gene therapy, and has sponsored the advancement of ZS’s work in areas such as rare diseases and biosimilars.

With more than 20 years in healthcare, Maria has advised many leading life sciences companies in marketing, sales, customer insights, analytics and digital, operations, value and access, medical affairs, pipeline development, global and local strategies and launch. Her unique ability to connect the dots helps organizations set strategies, build leading capabilities and drive performance.

In 2015, she was listed as one of Consulting magazine’s top 12 women consultants. Maria is a recognized leader in life sciences, passionate about advancing health. She is published in a clinical journal on the system challenges of programmable biology advancements, such as cell and gene therapies, and has contributed to content in The Wall Street Journal, Scrip, Pharmaceutical Executive, PharmaVOICE, Medical Marketing & Media and others. She frequently presents at public and private industry events.

Maria’s frequently in front of biopharma company leadership teams sharing perspective on the challenges of today and what’s around the corner tomorrow. Maria holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a focus in global healthcare management and a B.S. in business administration and marketing from La Salle University.

Sally John, PhD, is the Head of Translational Biology within Research and Development (R&D) at Biogen. She joined Biogen in 2014 as Vice President of the Genetics and Computational Biology groups, She is committed to increasing the probability of success in R&D through the use of human genetics combined with robust translational pre-clinical models and end-points. She has held roles of increasing responsibility within Research in AstraZeneca and Development in Pfizer. Sally has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester, UK and post-doctoral training in Genetic Epidemiology.  Prior to joining industry she was a Senior Lecturer in Genetic Epidemiology and Deputy Director Center for Integrated Genomic Medicine in Manchester.