WIB-Seattle Steering Committee Announcement, September 19, 2024

WIB-Seattle is pleased to welcome Sadie Josephs and Andrea Knapp to our Steering Committee!

Sadie Josephs, Treasurer

We are pleased and excited to have Sadie Josephs join us as Treasurer! Sadie is passionate about bringing innovative science and technology to the world. She is a clinical affairs professional with over 12 years of experience and uses her tactical expertise to drive strategic initiatives for regulated medical device development and commercialization. She has overseen clinical programs in the class II/III medical device space with expertise in molecular in vitro diagnostics.

Sadie firmly believes that all our experiences, good and bad, shape who we are and that when it comes to opportunities and life, you will get out what you put into it. Sadie has been actively volunteering with her sorority since 2012 through various roles, mentoring college women through the formative years of their lives. She has also volunteered her time providing advice to early-stage life science startup founders related to devices and clinical research. She enjoys connecting and collaborating with others, offering perspective, and helping others find meaning by looking at the bigger picture.

Sadie’s interest in finance spans from her experience with operations through her recent MBA experience where she gained deeper insights into the close ties between finance and operations. Sadie also served as the board chair for her sorority’s local chapter at the University of Washington where she was responsible for a $1M+ operating budget. Sadie's interest in the WIB treasurer position stems from her desire to continue building her organizational finance skills, contribute to the mission of WIB, and support the greater Seattle life science ecosystem.   

Thank you, Sadie, for volunteering your precious time to support WIB-Seattle’s mission!

Andrea Knapp, Vice Chair, eMAPS

We are thrilled to have Andrea Knapp rejoin the WIB-Seattle steering committee as the new Vice Chair for the eMAPS (executive mentoring) program. Andrea is no stranger to WIB, having first joined our community after relocating to Seattle in late 2013. She immediately got involved with the steering committee as Communications Vice Chair, followed by Communications Chair, and then moved into Chapter leadership as Chapter Chair. While leading the chapter, she focused on creating policies and best practices to help develop an environment of clear expectations and a foundation for the chapter to continue to grow. From there she moved into the newly created Director-at-large role as a leadership and volunteer coordinator and has also served as an advisor to the steering committee. She served with WIB-National as the Membership Vice Chair followed by Chair from 2018-2019. Andrea's return to eMAPS is particularly special, as she was involved in the oversight of MAPS when the eMAPS program was first developed and later became a participant herself in 2019.  

Professionally, she started her career in preclinical contract research, initially in toxicology and then became specialized in drug metabolism and the Whole-Body Autoradiography (WBA) technique, moving from Covance (Madison, WI) to a competitor in Kalamazoo, MI and building a WBA lab from scratch. After eight years in the Midwest, it was time for a change, and she moved out to Seattle with her husband, Brian, and dog, Loki. She jungle gym’d her way into project management and has been in a PM role for the past nine years, obtaining her PMP certification in 2017. She has almost 20 years of experience in the drug development industry across lab, clinical, research protections, and PM roles with startups to large CROs and Pharma companies. She is currently an Associate Director of Project Management at Gilead.

Within and beyond science, Andrea has served and engaged with several organizations, often at the leadership and board level, including AWIS, Seattle Biopharma PM, PNW Biosciences Society, Society for Whole-Body Autoradiography, Junior League, Lean In, Lions and Kiwanis. Outside of volunteering, Andrea loves tackling home DIY projects, cut flower gardening, taking hobby classes (cooking, glass fusing, woodworking, and anything in between), going to Kraken Hockey games, discovering the wines of Washington state, and grabbing a beer with her husband on a sunny patio.

We are excited to have Andrea on board and look forward to the continued success of the eMAPS program under her leadership.

Submitted by Namita Hattangady