Joanne Kamens | Chief Executive Officer
Women in Bio

Dr. Joanne Kamens is an accomplished executive leader, mentor, and scientist with extensive experience across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as the CEO of Women in Bio, where she is dedicated to empowering women leaders in the life sciences. With deep roots in laboratory research, Dr. Kamens spent her early career as a Senior Scientist at BASF Bioresearch Corporation, where she isolated over 150 genes and led the implementation of company-wide database systems for storing compound and assay results. At Abbott Bioresearch Center she was a Group Leader, directing core laboratory facilities in DNA Sequencing, Cloning, and RNAi while managing exploratory research teams. She continued her leadership in discovery as the Director of Discovery Research at RXi Pharmaceuticals. Later, as the Executive Director of Addgene, she oversaw a five-fold revenue growth and scaled their international reagent distribution systems across bench science operations. She also spent time working with PharmStars, the premier pharma focused digital health accelerator.  An active advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM, Dr. Kamens is the Founding President Emeritus of the Association for Women in Science Massachusetts Chapter (MASS-AWIS) and serves on the boards of OpenBiome and Cohort Sistas. She holds a PhD in Genetics from Harvard University and a BA in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania.