MassBioEd

Ligia Del Bianco is a multilingual corporate affairs and advocacy leader with two decades of global, U.S. and international healthcare experience.

Ligia is the Executive Director of the Biogen Foundation and Global Head of Patient Advocacy, Corporate Responsibility and Community Engagement. Her remit includes leadership over patient advocacy group engagement, Biogen’s philanthropic efforts, community outreach and partnering with high-impact groups that prioritize health equity programs for the benefit of local communities.

Previously at Biogen, Ligia was the Head of External Communications & Patient Advocacy, leading a global team responsible for internal and external-facing communications as well as patient advocacy group engagements across neurology, rare diseases, Alzheimer’s and mental health. During her decade long tenure in the company, Ligia has helped launch a half-dozen new medicines to help those living with devastating diseases.

Prior to joining Biogen, Ligia worked as a PR consultant in the U.S. and Europe to healthcare companies such as J&J, Sanofi, and Merk. She was responsible for integrated communications including media relations, scientific data reporting, leadership messaging, brand and reputation management.

Ligia was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and International Relations from Boston University and a masters in marketing from London’s Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Monique S. Cooper is an equity-minded higher education professional who is passionate about creating and sustaining inclusive campus climates where students from diverse backgrounds can thrive. Her extensive professional experiences include teaching, counseling, advising, and administration at a variety of institutions. Her multicultural and equity-minded philosophy focuses on optimizing holistic development, cultural empowerment and empathy, and career readiness and satisfaction for all students. She possesses a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut, a master’s degree in School Counseling from Cambridge College, and a PhD degree in Learning, Leadership, and Educational Policy from the University of Connecticut. Her dissertation focused on examining perceptions and enactment of equity-minded, culturally sustaining career services. She has delivered trainings, keynotes, and workshops nationally on a variety of topics including anti-racist career services, building and sustaining culturally responsive teams, and enhancing DEI efforts in higher education.

Currently, Dr. Cooper is the Executive Director of the Career & Connections Institute at Gordon College.

As head of employee and community engagement at MilliporeSigma, Melissa Hackmeier leads the development and implementation of employee and community engagement strategy, programs and nonprofit partnerships, as well as communications to raise awareness about the company’s initiatives. She launched the company’s first-ever SPARK™ global volunteer program focused on science education, with employees volunteering more than 112,000 hours to engage 310,000 students in 41 countries to date. She is also responsible for leading MilliporeSigma’s flagship science education programming, including the Curiosity Labs™ program, which educates and inspires students around the globe through hands-on, interactive science lessons led by employees, and the Curiosity Cube, a retrofitted shipping container turned mobile science lab that travels across North America and Europe to spark curiosity in visitors of all ages through hands-on learning.

Hackmeier has extensive experience working on sustainability and social business innovation consulting projects with a variety of companies and organizations, including State Street, Dunkin’ Brands, Praxair, Western Union and Eli Lilly. Prior to her work in sustainability and social business innovation, Hackmeier was an account supervisor at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Text 100 Public Relations. 

Hackmeier holds a B.A. in English from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Boston University (BU) Questrom School of Business. She has appeared as guest lecturer in the MBA Social Enterprise and Environmental Sustainability class at BU and at a Marketing Social Change Class at Harvard University Extension School.

She has been involved with Net Impact in some capacity since 2009, and she currently serves on the advisory council of the Net Impact Boston professional chapter. Hackmeier served as president of the Boston chapter in 2013 and 2014, during which time it was named Professional Chapter of the Year.

Johanna C. Jobin is a corporate responsibility leader with deep expertise at the forefront of complex issues that define our time – most notably climate, health and equity.

With global experience that spans all aspects of environmental, social and governance issues, Jobin leads Takeda’s environment and sustainability efforts and ensures the company is making real progress on its ambitious net-zero targets and Planet imperative goals.

Prior to joining Takeda, Jobin led the conceptualization and launch of Biogen’s Healthy Climate, Healthy Lives initiative, which made Biogen the first U.S. pharmaceutical company to join the Business Ambition for 1.5C, with a Science Based Targets initiative-approved net-zero goal. From efforts to advance sustainable drug development to supplier engagement, Jobin helped create actionable roadmaps for environmental progress deeply linked to human health, with a focus on vulnerable communities. She also advanced the company’s commitment to transparency, expanding reporting in line with standards such as the SASB, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the UN SDGs and the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, published by the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. Jobin also led Biogen’s global community engagement strategy and served as Executive Director of the Biogen Foundation, with a focus on health equity and inclusive science education through Biogen’s Community Lab, the longest-running hands-on science program in the U.S.

Jobin marries deep sustainability expertise with the distinctive ability to engage internal and external stakeholders to advance corporate goals and communicate impact. Her leadership resulted in Biogen being recognized with the prestigious U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation award for the Best Sustainability Program, honored as one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas and setting an industry record for leadership on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for ten consecutive years.

Previously, Jobin established the corporate responsibility function in MilliporeSigma, serving 60+ global sites and garnering the Greenest Life Science Company Award from the Life Science Industry Awards (LSIA). There, she developed first-in-industry product take-back and recycling programs for lab and biopharma customers and a Design for Sustainability program driving sustainability across a portfolio of 60,000 products.

Jobin plays an active role advancing sustainability in the industry and broader community, serving on the boards of MassBioEd, Project Green Schools and “e” Inc. Environment & Science Learning. She is also a Corporate Council Member of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, part of the ESG & CSR Board, and an advisor to Duke University’s Business and Environment Council. A frequent speaker at industry events and top universities such as Harvard, MIT, BU, and Duke, Jobin lives in Massachusetts (U.S.) with her husband and two children, who inspire her to help create a healthier, more inclusive and sustainable world.

Tom Snow is currently General Manager, US Oncology at Sanofi. He joined the organization in 2012 as Vice President of Global Commercial Strategy for MS, where he oversaw global marketing, market access, and market intelligence to support the successful global launches of Aubagio and Lemtrada. From 2014-2017, he served as regional Commercial Head for MS in Europe.

Before joining Sanofi, Tom spent 9 years with Merck Serono, both with the US commercial organization in Rockland, MA and global in Geneva, where he was the head of global strategic marketing for Merck Serono’s MS franchise. Tom spent the first half of his career at several marketing and communications agencies, working for both consumer and health care clients, including Schering, Novartis, and Bayer.

Tom received his BA in English and Economics from Amherst College, and his MBA from Babson College, both in the US. In his “spare time,” Tom enjoys tennis, running, listening to music, playing the drums, and reading books. He also publishes a blog about spirituality and business travel (theabsoluteceiling.blogspot.com) which receives tens of unique visitors per month.

Jay Mettetal is a Director in Early Oncology Bioscience at AstraZeneca, leading the preclinical drug combination strategy, and coordinating AZ preclinical efforts on late-stage programs. He initially joined AstraZeneca in 2013 to build a Modelling and Simulation group focusing on translational safety and ADME. The team heavily supported the oncology portfolio with an emphasis on Quantitative and Systems approaches to common adverse events for single agent and combination therapies. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he worked at CombinatoRx developing algorithms for identification of optimal combinations, and subsequently held positions at Pfizer in the biologics unit as well as Millennium/Takeda where he was modelling and simulation team leader in DMPK. He earned his PhD in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology applying quantitative approaches to problems in population heterogeneity and cellular signaling.

As President and CEO, Kendalle leads the strategic direction, global expansion, and business operations of the organization ensuring that MassBio offers the greatest value to its members and that Massachusetts life sciences companies have the best environment possible to research, develop, and commercialize breakthrough therapies and cures for people around the world who need and deserve them.

Kendalle first came to MassBio in 2008 as Director of Purchasing and Strategic Alliance. She was promoted to Vice President of Member Services and General Counsel in 2012, then promoted to the organization’s first-ever Chief Operating Officer in February 2019. Throughout her tenure at MassBio, Kendalle has played a critical role in the growth of MassBio’s membership supporting its expansion to become the largest life sciences trade association in the world with over 1,400 members. Kendalle has overseen the rebrand of a number of MassBio’s core programs and services, including the MassBio Edge, MassBio’s savings and rewards program, and its expansion into other New England states by building valuable partnerships with the supplier community and creating MassBio’s highly-rated Employee Rewards program. She also led the development of the MassBioHub, MassBio’s conference and business center, and the creation of MassBio’s 2025 State of Possible Report. In 2019, Kendalle commenced a multi-year digital health initiative to support the convergence of digital tech and the life sciences in Massachusetts. And in 2021, Kendalle was instrumental in the launch of MassBio’s Partnering Week, a new initiative to bring together established biopharma companies with early-stage startups and academic institutions.

Kendalle has reached extraordinary heights in her growing career. She was named a 2019 Boston Business Journal 40 under 40 honoree which recognizes a leader’s impact on Massachusetts’ industries. Currently, Kendalle serves as a Board of Director for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation (MassBioEd) and the New England Chapter of the March of Dimes. She also served as the Event Chair of the Black Tie for Babies Gala from 2016-2018.

Prior to joining MassBio, Kendalle practiced law in the areas of Estate and Medicaid Planning, Probate and Asset Protection. She graduated cum laude from Sacred Heart University with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science and received her Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School. She resides in Haverhill, Massachusetts with her husband and two children.

Shelley is an educator at Hampshire Regional High School in Westhampton, MA, where she has taught biology and the school’s life science electives since 2005.

She works with high school students of all levels, and she aims to make biology accessible and significant to all. She especially enjoys revealing students’ sense of wonder and curiosity for the world around them and giving them a place to develop and explore with purpose. An important core value Shelley holds as an educator is to put teaching people above teaching material and to always consider how students will go out and interact with the world around them using what they have experienced in her classroom.

Prior to working at Hampshire, Shelley started her teaching career in the Springfield, MA public schools, where she spent four years teaching middle school science. Shelley holds a B.A. in Biology from Connecticut College and an M.Ed. in Secondary Science Education from UMass, Amherst.

Wynter earned her B.S.E. in Bioengineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon completion of her Ph.D. at Boston University in Biomedical engineering, she began a post-doc in Applied Physics at the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering. After her post-doc, she participated in developing a Western-style education and research system in a three-year-old University, Nazarbayev University (NU), in Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

Through research and teaching at NU, she was able to provide unprecedented access to a research-based engineering curriculum. She worked with a few students to found the first International Affiliate Student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in Central Asia. In her time as a lecturer at Boston University, she has been engaged in supporting students as the faculty advisor for the National Society of Black Engineers and building the graduate student pipeline through recruiting at National Affinity conferences. As the Assistant Dean of Outreach and Diversity, she is leading the College of Engineering at Boston University towards becoming a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive college for all, particularly those from traditionally underrepresented groups.

She has been actively increasing the graduate student pipeline by amplifying the College’s presence at conferences serving URG students, and creating a prospective student database from these conferences and through databases. In addition, she has been building our faculty pipeline through hosting research symposia in which post-docs and late stage graduate students are invited. To expand our impact and truly reach underrepresented populations worldwide, she has been developing partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions and other organizations worldwide. She has been developing partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions and other organizations to identify barriers inhibiting progress in inclusion.

Wynter has become the leader of the 9-year-old, Boston University (BU), College of Engineering undergraduate facilitated engineering outreach program, the Technology Innovation Scholars Program (TISP). Historically, BU’s undergraduates, “Inspiration Ambassadors” went into middle and high school classrooms educating and inspiring students about engineering and helping them complete mini-engineering activities, known as “Innovations in a Box”. In our new post-COVID world without physical classrooms, we have expanded and refined our reach by working with elementary schools and using a blended modality of remote and in-person learning. She has been working to increase access for engineering outreach for underserved populations in the greater Boston area.