16: Finding a Path to Public Health in the Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Industry with Dr. Wenny Lin, PhD, MPH

Interview with Dr. Wenny Lin, PhD, MPH

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Highlights from this episode:

1. Intersection of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and public health
2. Blogging under Women in Pharma to share unique insights
3. Navigating a Cancer Prevention Fellowship and Research Fellow

Episode 16 of Public Health Careers

In this episode I chat with Dr. Wenny Lin, PhD, MPH about her public health journey. Wenny explains her journey to public health as a “meandering path.” As an immigrant, from an early age Wenny has had experiences as a recipient of public health programs such as WIC which she was so important for her personally.

Wenny did her Bachelors in Biochemistry at the University of Delaware. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to pursue and graduated into a slow economy in 2003 and thus pursued a fully funded PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. During her PhD she got interested in her public health courses and by chance found out about the National Cancer Institute (NCI) post-doctoral Cancer Prevention Fellowship. She applied and was accepted for this prestigious fellowship and as a requirement she had to have public health experience. She got an accelerated MPH at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health before continuing onto her fellowship.

During her Master of Public Health she gravitated towards the quantitative courses – biostatistics and epidemiology – as she found similarities to her Doctoral work, but just with something that she was more interested in. Wenny worked in her Cancer Prevention Fellowship with NCI for three years before continuing on in a Research Fellow position for a couple more months.

She then transitioned to the Bay area to be closer to her then long distance boyfriend and began working at Genentech as an Epidemiologist. In this role she worked in a team to that supported drug trials for on market drugs. During an organization shift, her role transitioned to become a Real World Data Scientist. She then went on to get promoted to a Senior Real World Data Scientist – Oncology for around 2 years before making a lateral move into the Senior Real World Data Scientist – Collaborations.

Wenny currently works as a Principal Real World Data Scientist – Affiliate Partnerships in Genentech. She shares lots of thoughtful advice for those trying to navigate a large industry job. Additionally, Wenny also blogs at WomenInPharmaCareers.com sharing useful information for women in the pharmaceutical industry.