Marvin J. Slepian, M.D.Co-Founder, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer,
Science Advisory Board Chairman

Bill Burkoth is currently an Executive Director of Pfizer Ventures, the venture capital arm of Pfizer Inc. Since joining Pfizer in early 2004, Bill has played an instrumental role in numerous new venture capital investments, including Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly), Clovis Oncology (Nasdaq: CLVS), DVS Sciences (acquired by Fluidigm), Evolution Benefits (acquired by Genstar Capital), HandyLab (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and HD Biosciences (acquired by Wuxi AppTec).  Bill currently serves on the board of directors of AMRA, Biodesy, DIR Technologies, G-Con Manufacturing, NeuMoDx Molecular, Novocure (Nasdaq: NVCR), Palleon Pharma, RefleXion Medical, and Strata Oncology.  He is also a member of the investment committee of the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA) and FinHealth Gestão de Recursos S.A. (Rio, Brazil).  Prior to joining Pfizer, Bill worked in Business Development at Galileo Pharmaceuticals and at IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his roles in business development, Bill was an analyst at Bay City Capital. Mr. Burkoth received a BA in chemistry from Whitman College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Tammy Crawford is the Founder and Executive Director of Focus on Lyme and leads the team in achieving its mission to improve diagnostics, treatment, prevention, and advocacy for patients suffering from Lyme and associated tick-borne disease.  Tammy was inspired to create Focus on Lyme by her daughter Jessica’s journey and is motivated every day to try to ensure no one has to experience what she did.

How will we create sustainable health?  What innovations can make a difference? What is the role of education? Lee Hartwell, PhD, is the Virginia G. Piper Chair in Personalized Medicine at the Center for Sustainable Health, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. At the Center his work focuses on creating effective learning environments. The first is a course required for all K-8 teachers, Sustainability Science for Teachers and the second is Project Honey Bee, an interdisciplinary research project to validate wearable devices for ambulatory patient management. He also oversees a project to develop biomarkers for the clinical management of many diseases at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and University in Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Hartwell was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for identifying genes that control cell division in yeast.

As AZBio celebrates its 10th anniversary as Arizona's statewide bioindustry association, AZBio President and CEO Joan Koerber-Walker calls on the community to do what it does best -  embrace possibilities and come together to build something amazing.

AZBio CEO, Joan Koerber-Walker shares highlights from  the 2011 AZBio Awards.  Meet some of this year's award winners.