Heather Mallory

I've been in biotech for over 23-24 years now. I got my undergraduate degree starting at Hudson Valley Community College and then transferred to SUNY Albany where I got my bachelor's degree in biochemistry. After that, I took 2 years and worked at Albany Medical Center as a research associate under Terry Smith, who was an endocrinologist. Then I went to get into the PhD program at Boston College in Biochemistry, which was actually in the chemistry department. The industry has gone through a little bit of a blip recently, and layoffs have impacted the place where I worked, so they haven't had as many clients, which translates into less job stability. Although I survived the layoff, it's just a lonely place now, and I wanted to move on. I just accepted a new job at Genezen, which is a viral vector CDMO that's growing, and I'll be starting there on the 18th of May. What inspired me to get into the field was just trying to improve the health for everybody, especially those from backgrounds like mine. I grew up in a poor town in upstate New York, a very rural pocket, and I did see a lot of people who lacked the educational resources. I had to really struggle to catch up when I went to college because there were a lot of things that these other kids had already learned that I had not. I've always felt very sensitive to these disparities in health outreach and educational outreach. Now I'm 53 and I have a daughter, and I don't want this to happen to her. I really want to effect some sort of change, and I know every person, little by little, can make a difference.