COVID-19 is one of the most challenging events in our lives – from the fear of a rapidly-spreading virus, to constantly-evolving news, to leading our teams from home, to changing work expectations and the new normal of wearing face masks in public.
With all of the confusion, we are happy to have Mara Aspinall join us as a voice of clarity. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Mara has been working with leading healthcare institutions, universities and researchers, to gather and analyze the most current and accurate information about how to stay safe and best use COVID related tests.
During this presentation, you will learn about the facts and myths about COVID-19 including testing, contact tracing and best practices for bringing our teams back to offices. This won’t be the typical one-way conversation about COVID that we’ve gotten used to on television but Mara will interact with participants, answering your questions, and helping you interpret this information so that you can make good decisions for yourself and your organization.
About Our Presenter:
Mara G. Aspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer committed to active civic involvement. She is Managing Director and Co-Founder of BlueStone Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in life sciences technology companies in the US Southwest. She is also CEO of the Health Catalysts Group, a consulting firm dedicated to the growth of health information technology and diagnostics firms, publishing the popular Health Catalysts Diagnostics Year in Review. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Abcam plc (ABC), Allscripts (MDRX), Castle Biosciences (CSTL), Orasure (OSUR), and Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona. Most recently, Aspinall was certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University.
As President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a billion-dollar division of The Roche Group, (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics) Aspinall led her world-class team to new financial success, more than two dozen major instrument and assay launches as well as global leadership in companion diagnostics.
Previously, Aspinall spent 13 years at Genzyme Corporation where she served as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics, was a leading provider of diagnostic testing and genetic counseling in the oncology and reproductive markets. Aspinall transformed the business from a small specialized player to one of the top five laboratories in the country while setting the industry standard for quality testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for almost $1billion. Previously, she led Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and its transformation to an international leader in specialized pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.
A leader in educating payers and policymakers on personalized medicine, she served on the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Council on Genetics, Health & Society (SACGHS) in the Obama and Bush administrations. With a passion for education about the importance of diagnostics in healthcare, Aspinall co-founded the School of Biomedical Diagnostics at Arizona State University, the first and only program dedicated to Diagnostics as an independent discipline. ASU awarded their first Master degrees in Diagnostics in 2015 and has 100 students matriculating this year.
Aspinall was named Arizona Biosciences Leader of the Year by the Arizona Biotechnology Association and one of “100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences” by PharmaVOICE magazine and one of Women Inc’s Most Influential Corporate Board Directors. She started her business career at the strategic consulting firm Bain & Company. Aspinall holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Tufts University.