WIB-Seattle Leadership Spotlight: Victoria Chinnell

Victoria Chinnell
Associate Clinical Trial Manager at Omeros
WIB-Seattle 2019–2021 Membership Chair, 2021–2023 Programs Chair

Victoria’s original plan was to pursue science via medical school, but she learned that there’s more to biology than just becoming a doctor. “I was that little kid who just loved biology. The more I learned, the more fascinated I was, especially molecular biology. It’s a whole world that we can’t see, but it makes us,” she said. While she was a premedical student at the University of Washington, Victoria also worked at Seattle Children’s Hospital in an administrative role in the Emergency Room. As she worked with physicians and learned from interns, Victoria realized that she didn’t necessarily need to attend medical school in order to engage with biology-related professions. “As a student, I didn’t know that clinical trials were an option for a career. Seattle Children’s had a small clinical research unit, and some of the physicians showed me what they were doing with their clinical trials,” Victoria said. “After I graduated from UW, I decided not to pursue medical school. Working 12-hour night shifts in the ER and limited sleep had an impact on my health. My health and sanity are important to me.”

The University of Washington offers a 9-month program that is an introduction to clinical research, which Victoria ended up taking in order to master the fundamentals of clinical research. From there, her career in biotech spanned several companies in the Seattle area. “I started looking for jobs and was recruited by Life Technologies, providing anything you need for a wet lab research, including all the Invitrogen products. They were looking for someone to take the UW account as a sales role, and at first, I dismissed it because I didn’t think I was a ‘sales person,’” she said. “They interviewed me, and I decided to give it a shot and had a great time developing new skills for two years, but then they laid off hundreds of people in 2011. I just took my severance pay and went back to clinical research.” 

While navigating her way through the Seattle biotech scene, Victoria took a variety of contract roles and worked for smaller companies to get her foot in the door. “When I got to Juno Therapeutics, I was ready to transition to full-time and ended up in a role with the drug safety/pharmacovigilance department. The following year, Celgene came in and acquired Juno, and a year later BMS acquired Celgene; unfortunately, then they outsourced all drug safety positions,” she said. “I saw positions at Omeros, and a friend of mine gave me a good reference. Three years later, I’m still here! Clinical operations is where I want to stay. Omeros has been challenging but rewarding.” Victoria’s work in clinical trials means that she gets to see first-hand how her day-to-day role impacts patients. “The most fulfilling moment is when a patient comes in to tell us about how the study has changed their life. It’s amazing knowing that clinical trials contribute to the longevity and long-term solutions for the health of populations that don't have a current treatment,” she said. 

It was when Victoria worked at Juno Therapeutics that she first heard about Women In Bio. “Juno was a sponsor of WIB at the time, so I was invited to attend an event. It was the first time that I heard of this type of group,” she said. “Then, I came to the winter social in 2016, and Stephanie, the Membership Chair at the time, was super helpful and welcoming. I felt right at home, even though there were 150 people there. I got pulled into volunteering pretty quickly, and I joined the Membership Committee and then took on the Vice Chair and later the Chair role.”

After serving as the Membership Chair, Victoria changed gears and put her time in as the Programs Chair. “Joining a board sounds intimidating, but you just need some skills, willingness, and commitment. You’re really just volunteering your time, and everyone has something to contribute,” she said. Despite the challenge of creating virtual events during COVID, Victoria pushed herself to think outside of the box and propose creative topics that the chapter hadn’t covered before. “During COVID, Zoom was our only option. It gave us the chance to reach out beyond Seattle; we collaborated with the California chapter for an event on invisible disabilities. We invited Ijeoma Oluo to speak about her book, So You Want to Talk about Race and had so many opportunities for other people outside of Washington to be speakers,” she said. “We'd been talking about diversity before COVID, and I took it upon myself to go outside of the norm of what WIB usually does and explore different topics. For example, one event was about psychedelics in clinical trials since there’s a lot of research about psilocybin for major depression. There’s a lot of potential there, and biotech is jumping on it. It’s still kind of a taboo topic, and I thought we should educate people and the potential in Seattle. It took a little work to get that topic approved,” she recalled.

Victoria’s experience with taking risks and branching out to try new things has shaped her perspective when it comes to careers in biotech and pharmaceutical companies. “What I’ve discovered from talking to many women, especially the ones who complete their PhD and then try to get into the industry, it’s a really hard transition. We don’t want to hire someone without experience, yet you can’t get experience without getting hired,” she said. “I think it’s hard to build that confidence to show that you’re capable of the job. Often, when women see a job description, we question, ‘Do I qualify for this? I need 90% of these skills before I apply.’ Meanwhile, men meet maybe 60% of the responsibilities and qualifications, and they apply anyway. Figuring out how to transition from school and get a corporate pharmaceutical job is what I’ve witnessed most with my work and talking to other women. I’ve encouraged a lot of women to apply, regardless.”

Without Victoria’s determination to always try and push the boundaries, we would not have been nearly as successful putting on events throughout COVID. Thank you, Victoria, for all of the work that you’ve done on the WIB-Seattle board and for always championing women in the community!

Submitted by Mariana Huben