Career Workshop

Aerotek is a global recruiting and staffing agency with locations near each MIKI school. They recruit at all experience levels for a variety of industries, including Pharma and Biotech. Representatives from Aerotek will  discuss transitioning from academia to industry, from resume building to interview skills.

Amanda Youker, PhD, Chemistry

Dr. Youker is a chemist and section manager in the Nuclear Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Her research focuses on accelerating the domestic production of Mo-99, a radioisotope whose daughter decay product, Tc-99m, is used in >80% of all diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures. Work related to production, separation, purification, and chelation of other radioisotopes, such as Cu-67, Sc-47, and Ac-225 is also being pursued in her research group.

Crystalann Jones, PhD, Organic Chemistry

Dr. Jones is a proud alumnus of UIC having earned her doctorate in Organic Chemistry here in 2014 for electronics and natural products research. She was then awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Research Council to conduct materials research within the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base. Dr. Jones then moved into industry and is currently a formulations chemist at Damping Technologies Inc. developing products for aerospace.

Stephanie McNeil, PhD, Biology

Dr. McNeil received her PhD from Johns Hopkins and now works at the US Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner. She primarily works on stem cell related applications, but also gets applications in other scientific areas. Based on applications’ novelty and other eligibility criteria, Dr. McNeil determines whether to reject the application or issue a patent.

Jim Audia, PhD, Chemistry

Dr. Audia is currently the Executive Director at the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), with vast experience in drug discovery, pharma, biotech, and biotech investment. His academic background involves a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of South Carolina followed by a postdoctoral research at Yale University. Prior to the CBC, he enjoyed 23 years in drug discovery at Eli Lilly and Company, being named the Distinguished Lilly Scholar and moved to become the chief scientific office at Constellation Pharmaceuticals.

Kathleen Marauski, PhD, Chemistry

Dr. Marauski joined AbbVie as a Senior Scientist in the Centralized Medicinal Chemistry Department in 2017 after completing her postdoctoral work at Northwestern University after her graduate work at New York University. She will provide insight on career progression as a young scientist in pharmaceutical industry.

Cierra Hall, PhD, Bioengineering

Dr. Cierra Hall recently graduated from UIC with her PhD in Bioengineering and is currently a Global Regulatory Affairs Associate at Pfizer. Her work as an undergraduate in pharmacokinetics and graduate work in vision science helps inform her as an engineer and her regulatory work with medical devices. Her passion is in translational work that brings elements of science and engineering to medicine.

Lisa Jarvis, BA Chemistry
Lisa is a senior editor at the weekly news magazine run by the American Chemistry Society, C&EN. She has over 15 years of experience reporting on pharmaceutical and biotech industries and has an active Twitter @lisajarvis. Check it out! Her particular interests cover rare diseases and innovative models for drug discovery.

Ben Marcus, PhD, Neurobiology
Dr. Marcus recently graduated from the University of Chicago, receiving a doctorate in neurobiology in 2016. He is a public relations specialist at CG Life and runs a SciReach, a global directory of science communication and outreach organizations. He is passionate about spreading his love of science and is a current editor at the Illinois Science Council Blog.

Teresa McNally, PhD, Biochemistry
Dr. McNally was educated in her native Scotland, then moved to the Chicago area to work in biomedical research for over 20 years She has extensive experience in the Drug Discovery both in the diagnostic and the pharmaceutic realm and is currently transitioning to the a Medical Communications position.