CPSA Charitable Foundation

Founding Members

Emily Ehrenfeld

Emily Ehrenfeld has been involved in the start up and executive management of technology companies for over 20 years. She is the president of Halocarbon Products Corporation, a worldwide leader in the manufacture of fluorine-based specialty chemicals including inhalation anesthetics approved by the Food & Drug Administration for human and veterinary use. She is also co-founder and vice-president of New Objective, Inc. She has lead several successful product launches in the fine chemicals and life sciences markets. She is the co-inventor of two patents in microfluidics. She holds a B.A. degree in Chemistry and a M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, both from Cornell University. .

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Robyn Rourick

Robyn A. Rourick is a Scientific Manager in Bioanalytical Sciences at Genentech, Inc. where she plays a key role in the evaluation of new analytical technologies, bioanalytical outsourcing strategies, biomarker collaborations and operations.  For 4 years prior, Robyn was a Sr. Manager in Nonclinical Study Operations where she oversaw GLP and non-GLP outsourced non-clinical studies in support of pre and post IND programs.  She served as a liaison between cross functional groups for study related requirements as well as developed strategies to address operational efficiencies and process gaps in study execution.  Prior to Genentech she held the position of Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences, at Kalypsys, Inc.  Her primary responsibilities involved analytical and pharmaceutical development activities in support of early phase clinical programs.  Prior to Kalypsys, Robyn was Associate Director of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Labs and previous to that was Group Leader, Analytical Technologies at CombiChem, Inc. where she was involved in building an ensemble of analytical assays to assess performance of discovery compounds against the development milestones faced by a pharmaceutical agent.  Prior to CombiChem, Robyn held positions of increasing responsibility over the course of 10 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb.  During this time she championed the integration of LC/MS in different phases of drug development.

Robyn A. Rourick received her B.S. in Chemistry from Fairfield University and her MS in Forensic Chemistry under the direction of Dr. Henry Lee at the University of New Haven.  Robyn is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.  She is also a Board Member of the CACO-Pharmaceutical & BioScience Society as well as the chair of the San Diego Chapter.

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Anthony Yeung, Ph.D.

Anthony Yeung, Ph.D in Biochemistry from VPI&SU, received postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University.  He is an Associate Professor of the Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC). He used mass spectrometry quantitative proteomics to discover about 60 biomarkers for the early detection and staging of pancreatic cancer, then formed OncoSpec LLC hoping to bring the assay to the clinic to benefit the patients.  While studying DNA repair, mutation detection, and colon cancer, he directed the FCCC core facilities including DNA synthesis, real-time PCR, fermentation, peptide synthesis, mass spectrometry and proteomics. He is active in the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) and served as its President in 2012.

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Joe Fox

Joe is passionate about finding the connection between innovative discovery and real-world application of technology, and leads businesses in the development and commercialization of solutions that bridge that divide.

With over 15 years of experience in the life science industry, beginning as a scientist and subsequent progressive roles in sales, marketing, and General Management, Joe’s drive towards working with outstanding teams is matched well with the CPSA Charitable Foundation.

Joe currently splits his time between San Francisco and Boston, and enjoys as much time as possible with great books, hikes, friends, and family.

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Board

Joanna Pols

Joanna Pols obtained her BA degree in Biology in 1996 at Thomas More College.   She obtained her Ph.D. in Natural Products Chemistry in 2002 at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.  During her doctoral studies, she mastered the science of isolating chemical compounds with antimicrobial activity from taxonomically unique plan extracts from the National Cancer Institute Natural Products Repository, and characterization of novel chemical compounds by various spectroscopic techniques like NMR and MS.  In 2003, she joined Schering-Plough Research Institute, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) Department, as a principal investigator for studies involving isolation and characterization of drug-metabolites in biological matrices from studies in animals and humans.  After nearly 10 years working in the drug metabolism field as a study director and a DMPK project manager on early and late development teams, in 2012 she joined Global Regulatory Affairs organization at Merck & Co. to further broaden her drug development experience.  She is currently a Director and Global Regulatory Liaison responsible for development of global regulatory strategy and direct interactions with the Food and Drug Administration on assigned products within the Infectious Diseases/Vaccines Therapy Area.  Joanna was the 2012 CPSA Program Chair.

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Eric Yang, Ph.D.

Eric is currently the global head of Bioanalytical Sciences and Toxicokinetics (BST) group at DMPK at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceutical.  The BST group, with scientists in US, UK and China, is responsible for the regulated quantitative clinical bioanalytical and non-clinical Toxicokinetics data required for regulatory filings. This occurs typically from candidate selection through to post-marketing support, and it includes both small and large molecules with LC/MS and immunoassay as its core technologies.  Eric was the head of DMPK and Pharmaceutical Science at GSK R&D China in Shanghai from January 2008 to July 2010.  He led the effort to build up a fully functional DMPK and preclinical operation in Shanghai.  Before moving to China, Eric was the director of worldwide bioanalysis in preclinical development DMPK at the GSK R&D site in King of Prussia, PA. He joined the heritage company SmithKline Beecham in 1997 following his postdoctoral work Professor Jack Henion at Cornell. Eric completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Science & Technology in China in 1990 and a PhD in analytical Chemistry with Professor Ron Orlando at the University of Georgia in 1996.

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Binodh DeSilva

Dr. Binodh DeSilva is the Executive Director of Immunochemistry and Biomarker Development at Bristol-Myer Squibb Company in Lawrenceville, NJ.  She is responsible for leading the Immunochemistry and Biomarker Development group supporting bioanalytical support for all biologics from discovery to life cycle management.  She received her Bachelor’s in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Bioanalytical) in 1994 from the University of Kansas. She was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department at the University of Kansas from 1994-1995. She was at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Norwich, New York, from 1995-2001 and at Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA leading the bioanalytical team from 2001-2010.  She joined BMS in November of 2010.

Dr. DeSilva’s various awards and honors include the Founder of the Ligand Binding Assay session award at the WRIB (2014), Platinum Award from Visakha Vidyalaya (High School Alumni) for Outstanding Scientific accomplishments for an Alumni living outside of Sri Lanka (2010), an AAPS Presidential Citation award in 2010, for promoting the National Biotechnology conference to University students in non-pharmacy related disciplines, Procter & Gamble Outstanding Science and Technology Award for Product Development Sector (1997),  Kansas Health Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (1994 and 1995), the Procter & Gamble Bioanalytical Fellowship (1992) and Outstanding First Year Student (1984, Sri Lanka).

Dr. DeSilva is in the Editorial Advisory Panel of Bioanalysis journal and a member of the scientific advisory board of BioAgilytix.  She also served as the President of the Visakha Alumni Association of Southern California (a non-profit alumni association) board of directors from 2008-2010.

She enjoys reading, hiking and outdoor activities to relax.