Diversity Week-Gender Compensation Gap, President's Council of Cornell Women

Gender Compensation Gap, President's Council of Cornell Women Maria Fernandez (Moderator) Former lawyer at IBM Maria Fernandez has extensive experience in legal, compliance, and diversity leadership roles. Most recently, Maria was Vice President, Head of Ethics and Compliance, Direct Energy. She led ethics and regulatory compliance, including corporate compliance, investigations, risk assessments, and retail and wholesale regulatory compliance. As of the start of the Fall semester, Maria will be an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, teaching a risk assessment course in Fordham's LLM in Corporate Compliance.Before her position at Direct Energy, Maria worked at IBM for 20+ years, where she held various leadership positions. She supported their hardware, software, services, research, and microelectronics divisions. Maria was also responsible for the design and implementation of IBM's global compliance program. In addition, she supported IBM Latin America as their General Counsel for seven years, managing all legal and compliance matters in the region. Maria received her B.A. in Psychology from Lehman College (City University of New York) and her J.D. from Cornell Law School. She is admitted to the bars of the States of New York and California and the United States Supreme Court. Maria is currently Chair of the Membership Committee, President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), a member of the Houston Integrated School District (HISD) District Advisory Committee and the Legislative Committee, and a founder and past President of the Latino Lawyers of Cornell (LLoC). She resides in Houston with her two sons. Dr. Susan Klugman - CALS ’84 Director of the Division of Reproductive Genetics, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dr Susan Klugman is the Director of the Division of Reproductive Genetics at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also the Program Director for the Clinical Genetics Residency. She is a Professor of both Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health and Pediatrics, and is Board Certified in both Clinical Genetics and Obstetrics/Gynecology. She graduated from Cornell University and from NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Klugman divides her time between her clinical practice (primarily related to prenatal and cancer genetics) and teaching and administrative duties. She has participated in multiple local and national clinical trials and coauthored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and national guidelines. She is a mentor for many high school, college and medical students and helped many of them publish peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Klugman is a known community lecturer/educator and has appeared on several national television news programs, on topics relating to prenatal and cancer genetics. Dr. Klugman is currently the President-elect for the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), where she previously served as VP for Clinical Genetics. She is also active in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists(ACOG) and was the recipient of ACOG’s Dr John McCain Advocacy Fellowship, which allowed her to spend several weeks in DC in 2018 working with the governmental affairs team. She serves as ACMG’s representative to the AMA, and on ACOG’s NY district legislative committee. Jennifer Leeds - CALS ‘91 Executive Director at Novartis Head, Search and Evaluation, West Coast and Canada, Novartis Business Development and Licensing Dr. Leeds is responsible for identifying new technology from organizations in the western US and across Canada for potential partnering with Novartis, and potential partners for out-licensing NVS assets. Jennifer joined Novartis in 2003, co-invented and co-led the project team for the novel antibacterial LFF571 through Ph2, and became Head of Antibacterial Discovery in 2010. In 2018, Jennifer joined Novartis BD&L, supporting out-licensing and in-licensing deal flow across all Novartis disease areas. Jennifer is on the Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund SSB, is an Expert Reviewer for Innosuisse, a member of imYEG Council of Founders, a mentor for California Life Sciences Institute start-ups and for Nex Cubed, Y Combinator, and IndieBio portfolio companies. Jennifer received her BSc in Microbiology from Cornell University in 1991, her PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did her postdoc in Jon Beckwith’s lab at Harvard Medical School. Jennifer has two sons (Cornell alum, class of 2020 and Purdue class of 2024) and lives in Walnut Creek with her husband Rob Hess ‘91. Jessica Baker Fletchner - CALS ’93, PhD CALS 2000 Chief Scientific Officer, Genocea Biosciences Dr. Flechtner joined Genocea in 2007, soon after the company was founded, and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. She has more than 20 years of experience in immunology, cancer, infectious disease, vaccine and cell therapy development. She leads Genocea’s efforts to develop personalized T cell-directed immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer using the company’s proprietary ATLAS™ platform. Prior to joining Genocea, Dr. Flechtner served in a variety of roles developing vaccines and immunotherapies for cancer, infectious disease and other indications. She earned a B.S. in Animal Science and a Ph.D. in Cellular Immunology from Cornell University and performed her post-doctoral work at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flechtner is an inventor on many pending and issued patents and is an author of multiple peer-reviewed scientific publications. She is also an advocate for STEM education for girls. Dr. Geetanjali Akerkar - ALS ’88, WCM ’93, Gastroenterologist Dr. Akerkar attended Cornell Medical College and then completed a residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston in Internal Medicine. She finished a gastroenterology fellowship at University of California in San Francisco. She returned to the Boston Area and has been in practice at Digestive Health Specialists and Circle Health /Lowell General Hospital for over 15 years. She is an attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center- Harvard Medical School . She has been listed in Boston Magazine as Top Doc for for 5 consecutive years, most recently in January 2022. In addition to her dedication to clinical medicine, she serves on the board of Northeast Endoscopy and Massachusetts Gastroenterology Association. She is the Vice President of API , a group of medical- surgical specialists working closely with BIDMC. She volunteers and serves as a member of Cornell University Council and President’s Council of Cornell Women. She is a member of the WCM Dean’s circle. She is married and has three sons. Elizabeth Forminard - A&S ‘92 Worldwide VP, General Counsel Liz Forminard is General Counsel for the Pharmaceuticals Group and leads the legal function globally for the sector and for Johnson & Johnson Global External Innovation and Global Public Health. In addition, Liz has responsibility for the legal team providing support to the Asia Pacific region. Prior to assuming her current position in 2019, Liz has held many executive roles within Johnson & Johnson including most recently Worldwide Vice President, Corporate Governance in which she led the Office of the Corporate Secretary and established and led the Enterprise Governance and Policy Group. Liz also led the work to transform Johnson & Johnson’s external sustainability reporting with our Health for Humanity Report. Known for consensus-building and ethical leadership, Liz has championed initiatives and streamlined processes to improve how we work to drive compliant growth for the Enterprise. She believes deeply in the importance of listening to diverse views and engaging both internally and externally to build understanding, and to inspire positive business and social outcomes. Liz previously served as a Board Member of the United Nations Global Compact Network USA and internally on the leadership of the Law Department Women’s Leadership & Inclusion WLI chapters. Liz holds a B.A. degree from Cornell University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.