Our Team

We are students, post docs from different research areas, and young industry professionals who share the common goal of improving and facilitating communication between biotech industry and academia.

Our advisory board includes BCLA's co-founders and professionals from academia and industry, who help to direct BCLA towards better serving the biotech community and creating more possibilities for bioscience entrepreneurship in Los Angeles.

Biotech Connection Los Angeles Team

Jennifer Olivero

President

Jennifer is a Ph.D. candidate at USC studying drug discovery in the McKenna Lab. In her graduate work, she is interested in designing novel therapeutics for prostate cancer. She received her BS in chemistry from the University of San Francisco. In her free time she enjoys running, hiking and discovering local coffee shops.

Dana Franklin

Co-Director of Strategic Operations

Gabriella Rubert

Co-Director of Strategic Operations and Podcast Host

Michaela Jacobs

Media & Marketing Lead

Michaela is a Ph.D. candidate at USC working in the field of medicinal chemistry. Her graduate work has consisted of the development of novel anticancer therapeutics for castrate resistant prostate cancer as well as synthesis of nucleotide analogues for antibacterial implications.

William Fried

Consulting Lead

Pyone Myat Thwe

Events Lead

Yasaman Moradi

Outreach Lead

Mahsa is a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at USC and a research assistant at the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute, where she studies pancreatic cancer liver metastasis via developing 3D biomimetic models. She received her Master’s in Chemistry from San Diego State University, and BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. She likes singing, drawing, and spending time with her cat in her free time.

Mahsa Pahlavan

Development Lead

Mahsa is a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at USC and a research assistant at the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute, where she studies pancreatic cancer liver metastasis via developing 3D biomimetic models. She received her Master’s in Chemistry from San Diego State University, and BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. She likes singing, drawing, and spending time with her cat in her free time.

Karishma Chhugani

Media & Marketing Associate

Fakhar Singhera

Events Associate

Arati Naveen

Consulting Associate

Brian Lupish

Consulting Associate

Advisory Board

Stefanie Volland

BCLA Co-Founder

Stefanie is Senior Director of Medical Education Strategy at the Fundingsland Group where she is responsible for the inception and planning of strategic long-term medical education plans, as well as overseeing development and implementation.

She completed her postdoctoral training at UCLA’s Stein Eye Institute in 2019. She previously received a PhD in cell biology and a MS in ecology from Salzburg University in Austria.

Stefanie’s interest in the business side of science led her to co-found BCLA. Under her leadership the organization grew to become a point of reference to the expanding biotech community in Los Angeles.

Katrina Choe

BCLA Co-Founder

Katrina is a postdoctoral fellow at the Semel Neuropsychiatric Institute UCLA.

Her research is focused on identifying neuronal circuit abnormalities underlying impaired social behavior in autism.

She received her PhD in neuroscience from McGill University. Deeply interested in translating research discoveries into healthcare innovations,

Dr. Choe co-founded BCLA and served as the organization’s Event Lead for the its first two years, playing a key role in its rapid growth.

Carolina Amador

BCLA Advisory Board Chair

Carolina is the Associate Director of Corporate Intelligence at BioMarin, focusing on CNS and metabolic disorders. Prior to BioMarin, Carolina spent nearly 5 years at Amgen as the Global & US Competitive Intelligence Lead for the General Medicine portfolio, with experience in CV, metabolic, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology, and Inflammation. At her time at Amgen, Carolina also supported Strategic Special projects for Senior Leadership and conducted due diligence to assess digital health start-ups in support of Amgen’s VC arm. She holds a PhD in drug discovery and she is a big contributor to the Los Angeles biotech community through her contributions to the non-profits Biotech Connection LA and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Valentina Sanghez

Manager Flow Cytometry and OBMC Medical Lab at Q2 Solutions

Kathy Grotsch

Senior Copywriter

Kathy is a researcher and science communicator located in Los Angeles, CA. After pursuing professional soccer during her teens, Kathy started her scientific career at the Technical University of Munich, where she obtained a BSc in Chemistry. Intrigued by the prospect of advancing her understanding of life at the molecular level, she was inspired to pursue a PhD at the University of Southern California.

In addition, Kathy served as President of Biotech Connection Los Angeles (BCLA), a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring, educating, and connecting young scientists and entrepreneurs to grow and diversify the BioTech scene in LA. As President, Kathy led a team of over 25 staff and dozens of corporate partners, supporters, and stakeholders, to strengthen and expand the BioTech ecosystem across Southern California.

Kathy has cultivated a global perspective, by living in five different countries including the UAE, Syria, The Netherlands, Germany, and the US during her formative years. She speaks English, German, Dutch, and French. In her free time, Kathy practices yoga, cycling, lifting weights, and recently ran her first Marathon. She is passionate about the intersection between exercise and nutrition, and science and medicine, and applies several scientific concepts to her daily life.

Arthela Osorio

Manager, Technical Training Specialists

Arthela Osorio manages a Technical Training team dedicated to developing and delivering product technical training content programs for customers and colleagues within the Transplant Diagnostics business of Thermo Fisher Scientific. She has served the transplant community for almost a decade through various ways and functions which has been extremely rewarding. She received a MS in Biotechnology from California State University, Channel Islands and is currently working on her MBA at University of California Los Angeles. In her spare time, Arthela advocates for STEM education and for the growth of the biotechnology ecosystem in Los Angeles.

Llewellyn Cox

Executive Director of Corporate Relations at the University of Southern California, and part-time lecturer in the Dept. of Translational Genomics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Llewellyn Cox was previously General Partner at MarsBio VC, a Los Angeles venture firm where he was responsible for managing the $20M public-private “LA Bioscience Investment Fund” backed by the County of Los Angeles. Previously, Llewellyn was the founder of Lab Launch, the first coworking life science-focused incubator facility in Los Angeles, and advisor to Co-Laboratories, a UK-based network of biotech incubator labs. He has also served as a Llewellyn received his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, UK, before moving to the US to perform postdoctoral research in neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Subsequently, he worked in administrative roles at City of Hope and USC Mann School of Pharmacy.

Amit Rushi

Chief Marketing & Partnerships Officer at RhythmScience.

Amit Rushi is a distinguished leader in healthcare innovation with extensive experience and expertise in corporate strategy, digital health, and executive leadership. With a strong commitment to advancing healthcare through data and digital innovation, Amit has held key positions at major companies in the industry. He currently serves as the Chief Marketing & Partnerships Officer at RhythmScience, a comprehensive cardiac data platform company that enhances cardiology care.

Additionally, Amit held the position of Chief Commercial Officer at Bodyport, a company tackling heart failure management with its FDA-cleared Cardiac Scale solution. He has also been the Vice President, Commercial & Product at Alio, a startup focused on remote monitoring solutions for vulnerable populations of Dialysis patients. Amit's impressive career also includes roles at renowned companies like Medtronic where he spent a decade leading product development, marketing, and informatics innovation departments and at Science37, a virtual clinical trial startup where he spearheaded business strategy and operations. Amit began his career at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, and consulting for the Hospital, Health Systems, and Payer sectors.

Amit earned both his MBA and MSIS degrees from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University and BS in business administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Ken Funahashi

Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati LA

Kenji (Ken) Funahashi is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Ken works on a wide range of corporate finance matters, from start-up companies obtaining angel financing to multi-billion dollar transactions for multinational and Fortune 500 companies.

Ken's practice focuses on the representation of technology, life sciences, healthcare, and other growth companies throughout the United States and internationally.

He was previously a partner at one of the largest international law firms in the world and assists both U.S. technology companies engaging in business overseas, as well as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and European companies in financing, licensing, M&A, and joint venture activities in the U.S.

Alumni

Mahesh Arunachalam (Events Associate) 2023-2024

Sergio Parra (Consulting Associate) 2023-2024

Alex Hau(Media & Marketing Associate) 2023-2024

Nicoletta Bouzos (Development Lead) 2023-2024

Francesca-Zhoufan Li (Development Associate) 2023-2024

Amin Khudari (Development Associate) 2023-2024

Angela Sun (Strategic Operations Associate, Events Associate) 2022-2024

Hannah Ponce(Media & Marketing Associate) 2023-2024

Oskar Sundberg (Events Associate, Events Lead, President) 2021-2023

Sonia Maryam Setayesh (Development Lead, Vice President) 2022-2023

Patrick Nguyen (Consulting Intern) 2023

Seda Nohut (Development Associate, Media & Marketing Associate) 2022-2023

Helen McBride (Advisory Board Member) 2022-2023

Harry Yang (Events Associate) 2021-2023

Marina Broz (Consulting Associate) 2021-2023

Charles Bramlett (Consulting Associate) 2021-2023

Emily Peluso Smith (Outreach Lead) 2021-2023

Michael Coumans (Consulting Lead) 2020-2023

David Urtecho (Consulting Associate, Events Associate) 2021-2023

Rudra Persaud (Media & Marketing Lead) 2021-2023

Nicolette Pollack (Development Associate, Outreach Associate) 2022-2023

Helen Motanis (Development Associate, Consulting Associate) 2021-2023

Harry Yang (Media & Marketing, Outreach, Events Associate) 2020-2023

Harvey Perez (Outreach Associate) 2022-2023

Justin Overhulse (Events Lead, President) 2019-2022

Mahta Barekatain(Vice President, Events Associate, Consulting Associate, Development Associate) 2020-2022

Giuliano Cutolo (Events Lead, Consulting Lead) 2020-2022

Divij Gulati (Strategic Operations Lead) 2022-2022

Yewande Pearse (Podcast Host) 2020-2022

Ananta Wadhwa (Podcast Associate) 2020-2022

Vanessa Pataro (Media & Marketing Associate) 2021-2022

Sid Modha (Consulting Associate) 2021-2022

Cindy Tseng (Media & Marketing Associate) 2021-2022

Fleury Nsole Biteghe (Outreach Associate, Consulting Associate) 2020-2022

Carl Sedgeman (Consulting Associate) 2021-2022

Leslie Sedgeman (Outreach Lead, Podcast Associate) 2019-2022

Cally Xiao (Media & Marketing Lead) 2019-2022

Jessie Xiaoya Ma (Media & Marketing Associate) 2018-2022

Sean Burkitt (Consulting Lead) 2020-2022

Raquel Abreu (Development Lead, Consulting Associate) 2019-2021

Richard van Krieken (Development Associate, Consulting Associate) 2019-2021

Beheya Ahmed (Consulting Associate) 2020-2021

Eshani Nandi (Outreach Associate, Media & Marketing Associate) 2020-2021

Angel Gonzalez (Media & Marketing Associate) 2018-2021

Asumi Suguro (Outreach Lead) 2020-2021

Stephanie Yeganyan (Outreach Associate) 2019-2021

Sadhna Rao (Vice President) 2019-2021

Hammond Sun (Vice President, Director of Strategic Operations) 2017-2021

Adhirath Sikand (Events Lead, President) 2017-2020

Joseph Tsung (Consulting Associate) 2019-2020

Johnny Saldate (Events Lead) 2018-2020

Martin Egeland (External Affairs Lead) 2019-2020

Yi Liu (Events Associate) 2018-2020

Evgeny Bondarenko (Media & Marketing Lead, President) 2015-2019

Tom Allison (Media & Marketing Lead) 2018-2019

Manmeet Raval (Outreach Associate) 2018-2019

Lok Leung (Outreach Lead) 2017-2019

George Abe (Emeritus Advisory Board Member)

Arleen F. Brown (Emeritus Advisory Board Member)

Jonathon Low (Development Associate) 2018-2019

Marcos Otero (Media & Marketing Associate) 2018

Lining Zhu (Media & Marketing Associate) 2017-2018

Lindsey Sacco (Social Media Associate) 2017-2018

Lisa Walter (Outreach Associate, Marketing Associate) 2016-2018

Cathy Jin (Volunteer Coordinator) 2016-2018

Radhika Palkar (Event Lead) 2015-2018

Huixuan Liang (Event Associate) 2016-2018

Umesh Ahuja (Fundraising Lead) 2016-2018

Yari Fontebasso (Outreach Lead, President) 2015-2017

Jaqueline Sayyah (Writer, Industry Ambassador) 2015-2017

Mary Donhofner (Social Media Associate) 2016-2017

Charles Caldwell (Outreach Associate, Campus Ambassador) 2016-2017

Julia Zhao (Outreach Associate) 2016-2017

Matt Wong (Chapter Correspondent) 2015-2017

Michael Frantz (Outreach Associate) 2015-2016

Anna Parievsky (Events Associate) 2016

Julian Esteve-Rudd (Chapter Correspondent) 2014-2015

Ben S. Huang (Chapter Correspondent) 2015

Nathan Hutcheson (Chapter Correspondent) 2015