Building Resilience to Thrive in a Changing World
#WESTthrive

Our lives are challenging whether we work in the lab or in the office: we may face demanding assignments, difficult colleagues, insufficient time, perfectionism, resources constraints and conflicting demands. In our personal lives we may wrestle with concern for our families, a difficult job search, poor health, or money trouble. Most of us cope – but what does it take to move past mere coping, and actually thrive alongside our challenges? Resilience is the key: it is both a characteristic and a buildable skill. This interactive workshop will examine how we experience stress and offer strategies for thinking and acting with resilience. Science and technology panelists will share examples of how resilience has improved their research, careers, and personal wellness.

Participants will leave the workshop:

With a better understanding of their own challenges, triggers, and most resilient responses
With tested tools for managing their experience and improving using positive responses
With greater confidence in their ability to build resilience
With an expanded network of connections

Workshop Leader and Panelists:

Gabriele Ganswindt is an executive coach and leadership consultant located near Boston, MA. As a German native, she partners with leaders of both European and US organizations to support results oriented, life-affirming leadership and sustainable organizational transformation. Gabriele serves her clients as an executive coach, designer and facilitator of a wide range of leadership development programs as well as large-scale organizational change efforts. For over 20 years she has worked nationally and internationally and regularly leads workshops and retreats addressing the strategic- and organizational leadership needs of the client system. She is trained in several large systems change technologies (i.e. Open Space, Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry, World Café Conversations) as well as the art and science of generative thinking (dialogue). Facilitating the transformation of new leaders into savvy leaders producing sustainable results is one of her greatest joys. Gabriele founded Shared Learning International (SLI) www.sharedlearingint.net in 1996. Prior to that, Gabriele was director of the leadership practice at ODI, an international TQM and change management firm. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in the Executive Coaching Program, in which she supervises graduate students and offers continuing development workshops. She enjoys balancing executive coaching with leadership development and large systems change interventions. She is a frequent keynote speaker on topics related to leadership resiliency, resiliency and reinvention and executive coaching in a turbulent world. Full Bio

Alexandra (Sandra) Glucksmann, Ph.D., is Chief Operating Officer at Editas Medicine Inc., a gene editing company whose mission is to translate its genome editing technology into a novel class of human therapeutics that enable precise and corrective molecular modification to treat the underlying cause of a broad range of genetic diseases. Alexandra was most recently Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Cerulean Pharma, which she joined at its founding. Cerulean Pharma is a clinical-stage company developing innovative nanopharmaceutical tumor-targeting products. Prior to joining Cerulean in 2006, she spent 13 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which she joined in 1993 as one of its first scientists. At Millennium, she held a series of positions with increasing responsibility, ultimately becoming Vice President of all platform technology groups before moving into a senior role in strategic program management and operations. During her tenure at Millennium, Alexandra was critical in helping Millennium evolve from a genomics research-focused organization to a fully integrated and commercial pharmaceuticals company. She serves on the Board of Directors of Taconic Farms and is the Chair of the Board of Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology (WEST). She is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Harvard Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine. Alexandra was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. with honors from the University of Chicago.

Heather Bell is VP Program Management in IT/Operations at AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company. Based in Boston, she works on IT strategy and transformation, organisational culture, and digital health. Previously, she was AZ’s VP Corporate Strategy in London, working with the company’s leadership to develop AZ’s corporate and business strategy, including its business acquisition and divestment strategy. She joined AZ in April 2011 after four years as the first Director of International Strategy at the University of Oxford, creating and implementing strategies on postgraduate funding, international research funding, and international students. Heather is a former partner at McKinsey & Company in London. As a member of McKinsey’s healthcare practice, she advised clients on strategy and organisation, working with pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies as well as public sector healthcare organizations. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and did her doctorate and post-doc at Oxford.

Date and Time:
June 25, 2014
6:00 - 9:00 PM

Agenda:

6:00-6:10pm: Registration and light dinner
6:10-6:40pm: Facilitated networking
6:40-7:40pm: Training on resiliency
7:40-7:50pm: Break
7:50-8:45pm: Senior panelist discussion
8:45-9:00pm: Networking

Location:

University of Massachusetts, 333 South Street, 4th Floor, Amphitheater, Shrewsbury, MA 01545

We appreciate University of Massachusetts Medical School donating the use of their event space.