Georgia Bio each year recognizes individuals, companies and
organizations for significant contributions to Georgia’s life sciences
industry with its Georgia Bio Community Awards. The recipients will be
honored at the Annual Awards Dinner January 22, 6 pm to 9 pm, at
Atlanta’s Fox Theater. Details available at www.gabio.org/awards.
The 2015 recipients are Robert E. Guldberg, Ph.D., Parker H.
Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience, Georgia Institute of
Technology; Jamie L. Graham, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP; Lynn
Hood, Crackerjack Marketing; Tiffany Wilson Karp, Global
Center for Medical Innovation; and Robert E. Powers, M.Div.,
Ph.D., Gwinnett Technical College.
Prof. Robert E. Guldberg
The Petit Director's Chair in Bioengineering and Bioscience
Executive Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and
Bioscience
Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Dr. Robert E. Guldberg holds the Parker H. Petit Chair in Bioengineering
and Bioscience. He is a Professor in the Georgia Institute of
Technology's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Georgia
Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Guldberg received
all of his degrees from the University of Michigan in mechanical
engineering and bioengineering. His research has been published in over
180 journal articles and book chapters and is focused on musculoskeletal
growth and development, regeneration of limb function following
traumatic injury, and degenerative diseases such as skeletal fragility
and osteoarthritis.
In 2009, he was appointed Executive Director of the Petit Institute for
Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB). Under his leadership, the Petit
Institute has expanded to support the research of over 160 faculty
members from a broad range of science, engineering, and clinical
disciplines, 17 interdisciplinary research centers, and two graduate
programs in bioengineering and bioinformatics. Dr. Guldberg also
co-directs the GT/Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Center for Pediatric
Innovation (CPI), co-chairs the Extremity Trauma Focus Area of the Armed
Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) and is a past
director of the GT/Emory/UGA Center for Regenerative Engineering and
Medicine (REM).
Dr. Guldberg is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and
Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and holds several national leadership
positions. He currently serves as President of the Americas Chapter of
the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society
(TERMIS-AM). He was conference chair of the 2013 TERMIS-AM conference
and co-chairs the annual Regenerative Medicine Workshop at Hilton Head.
Dr. Guldberg sits on numerous local and national advisory boards,
including the National Academies Roundtable on Biomedical Engineering
Materials and Applications (BEMA), the Metro Atlanta Chamber Bioscience
Leadership Council, the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) Research
Advisory Council, the MiMedx, Inc. Medical Advisory Board, the SciStem
Therapeutics, Inc. Scientific Advisory Board, the Georgia Bio Board of
Directors, the Tissue Engineering Executive Editorial Board, the
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR)/Orthopaedic
Research Society (ORS) Taskforce on Cell-Based Therapies, and several
academic external advisory boards.
Jamie L. Graham
Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
Jamie Graham focuses her practice on intellectual property issues
involving biological and chemical technologies. Ms. Graham conducts
domestic and foreign biological and chemical patent prosecution,
particularly in the areas of biotechnology, diagnostics, isolation and
purification methodology, immunology and pharmaceuticals. She renders
patentability, patent validity and freedom-to-operate opinions; performs
intellectual property due diligence; and provides advice to clients
regarding various aspects of intellectual property, including
inventorship determinations, licensing, transactions, pre-litigation and
litigation strategies. Ms. Graham has provided intellectual
property advice and services to universities, large corporations, small
start-up companies and government entities and has been awarded federal
and state contracts for patent legal services. Ms. Graham is the
Co-Chair of the firm's Health and Life Sciences team.
Ms. Graham has been a registered U.S. Patent Attorney since 1986. Prior
to joining the firm, she served as in-house patent counsel for a
pharmaceutical company. She has conducted enzyme isolation and
characterization research at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer
Research and cardiac and allergy drug dispositon/metabolism research at
Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd. Ms. Graham also performed graduate research in
neuroimmunology and virology (HIV research conducted at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention). She has been an adjunct professor of
Intellectual Property Law at Emory University.
Lynn Hood
President, Crackerjack Marketing
Lynn Hood runs Crackerjack Marketing, an integrated marketing and
communications firm focused on helping medical device, bioscience, high
tech and business‐to‐business companies strategically position
themselves and increase awareness and sales. She began her career as a
reporter for a daily newspaper and, her experience ranges from writing
about best practices at nuclear power plants, to advertising campaigns
for mobile phones, to creating internal communications programs that
empower and motivate employees. She holds an ABJ from the University of
Georgia.
An Atlanta native, Lynn is passionate about supporting the growth of the
city, the state and the region, particularly in bioscience and health
IT. She was an advisory board member of the Atlanta Biotech Network and
helped with its transition to the Emerging Leaders Network; was a
founding sponsor and 10-year board member of the Southeastern Medical
Device Association (SEMDA); and is a member of the Board of Directors
for the Technology Association of Georgia/Health. As a member of the
Board of Advisors for the Metro Atlanta Chamber, she has chaired and/or
co-chaired marketing committees for both health IT and medical devices,
helping formulate the messaging and proof points positioning Atlanta as
the nation’s health IT capital. She has led or supported the marketing
for eight SEMDA Conferences and five Health IT Leadership Summits, and
provides marketing and public relations services for a number of
bioscience and health IT companies. While she regularly works with
global companies, Lynn has a soft spot for start-ups and enjoys helping
them leverage limited resources to achieve outstanding results.
Tiffany Wilson Karp
Executive Director, Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI)
Tiffany Wilson Karp has spent over 12 years bringing innovative medical
technology from benchtop to bedside. She joined the Global Center for
Medical Innovation (GCMI) in 2011 to direct business development
activities, build strategic relationships and bring together core
members of the medical device ecosystem. She is working with
universities, clinicians, industry, investors and startups focused on
innovation, patient care and economic growth. She currently leads all
day-to-day operations of the Center.
Ms. Karp joined GCMI from Scientific Intake, where she served as the
Vice President of Business Development & Strategy, evaluating marketing
and distribution opportunities and driving product development projects
for the global obesity market. Prior to Scientific Intake, she was Vice
President of Corporate Strategy & Finance at ACell, Inc., a regenerative
medicine & tissue engineering company based in Columbia, Maryland. At
ACell, Ms. Karp led a broad range of initiatives including corporate
finance, investor relations, strategic & operational planning, business
development, regulatory, and reimbursement. She began her career in
management consulting and investment banking, and brings considerable US
and international experience in strategic planning, business
development, financial analysis, and market evaluation in technology
related industries.
Ms. Karp currently serves as President of the Southeast Medical Device
Association (SEMDA) and is the Chair of the T3 Labs Advisory Board. She
is a Member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (NACIE) at the US Department of Commerce. She led the
Sponsorship Committee of the 2013 SEMDA Conference and has served as the
Co-Chair of the Medical Device Subcommittee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber
Bioscience Leadership Council. Ms. Karp earned a BBA in International
Business from Loyola University and an MBA from Georgetown University
McDonough School of Business.
Robert E. Powers, M.Div., Ph.D.
Program Director for Bioscience and Clinical Research, Gwinnett
Technical College
After growing up in north Florida, Dr. Powers attended Wofford College
in Spartanburg, South Carolina, majoring in Chemistry. He earned his
Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Medical University of South Carolina in
Charleston, studying prostaglandins and male reproduction in human and
animal models. After postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School in
Boston, he stayed on faculty at Harvard and Beth Israel Hospital
researching the role of intracellular calcium in pancreatic acinar cell
function.
Moving to the University of South Carolina School Of Medicine in
Columbia, he was awarded a five year National Institutes of Health grant
to continue study on experimental models of acute pancreatitis. At this
time he also served as director of a number of human clinical research
trials. Moving to Yale College of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut,
Dr. Powers continued his work on acute pancreatitis and was involved in
studies of genotoxicity in gastric cancer.
Dr. Powers has served on faculty at Gwinnett Technical College since
2002. He started the Clinical Research Professional Certificate and
Bioscience Associate Degree programs at Gwinnett Tech in 2005. In his
career, he has served on numerous human Institutional Review Boards
(IRBs) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs),
including the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Northeast Georgia
Medical Center IRBs. He served as subject area consultant to several
pharmaceutical companies including Glaxo, Merck, and Astra.
Dr. Powers worked with Georgia Bio for years. He assisted the Governor’s
Office on recruitment efforts for bioscience companies to Georgia with
Projects Aardvark, Bamboo and Cactus. He served on the Life Sciences
team of the Governor’s Commission for a New Georgia. He has presented to
the State Legislature in favor of greater involvement of the State in
Bioscience economic development. He has worked with the Metro Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce in a number of capacities, including serving as
Program Chair and Logistics Chair for the first two Clinical Research in
Georgia Conferences in 2012 and 2013.
In 1993, Dr. Powers moved to Georgia to attend seminary at the Candler
School of Theology at Emory University and is ordained in the United
Methodist Church. He served as pastor for several churches in North
Georgia, and is now retired from the Church. He holds the rank of Major
and is an active chaplain for Georgia Wing of the Civil Air Patrol,
United States Air Force Auxiliary. He is a golfer, Harley-Davidson
rider, sometime bass player, and lover of barbecue. He and his family
live in Lawrenceville.
For a list of past Georgia Bio Award recipients, click
here. All 2015 Award Recipients are listed at www.gabio.org/awards.
Georgia Bio (www.gabio.org)
is the private, non-profit association whose members include
pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, medical
centers, universities and research institutes, government groups and
other business organizations involved in the development of life
sciences related products and services.
Note to Editors: Credentialed
members of the news media are invited to attend. Registration is
complimentary. Please contact Maria Thacker (404-920-2042; maria.thacker@gabio.org).
Copyright Business Wire 2015