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Cate Polacek is
a health writer for Resolution Health, based in Columbia, Maryland.
Resolution Health is a data analytics-driven health care intervention
company that works to reduce medical costs, improve the quality,
coordination, and safety of care, and enhance communications
between patients and their doctors. Resolution Health analyzes
health care claims and other member-centric data to create clinically
meaningful, member-specific patient and provider education materials.
As a health writer, Cate writes
patient and provider education messages and wellness/awareness
campaigns. She also collaborates with Harvard Medical School
to create Web-based patient education messages.
Cate received her Bachelor of
Science degree in Journalism from Texas Woman's University, and
she is pursuing a master's degree in Creative Writing from National
University. Before joining Resolution Health, Cate worked for
six years at Columbia MedCom Group as an editor, a medical writer,
and a medical information specialist for their subsidiaries,
Medicalliance and INNOVIA Education Institute. She researched
and created content for physician education materials, and she
also attended medical association meetings both to learn about
and to report on the latest advances in medicine. She has written
about many therapeutic areas including cardiology, oncology,
respiratory, infectious disease, neurology, women's health, complementary
and alternative medicine, and mental health, and she's worked
with many of the medical thought leaders in these fields.
Mary Spiro is
the science writer and media relations coordinator for The Johns
Hopkins University Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT). Her
duties include creating copy for the Web site, writing articles
for the INBT newsletter, working with internal and external media
outlets to promote INBT activities, and coordinating media relations
for INBT-affiliated faculty members.
Before coming to The Johns Hopkins
University, Mary was an editor in the Office of External Affairs
for the University of Maryland, Baltimore where she co-edited
the university's research and scholarship publication, Maryland
magazine, and the School of Pharmacy's alumni publication, Capsule.
She has several years experience
in health communication, including serving as public relations
specialist for Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster, Md. and
as writer-editor for Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Mary worked
as a newspaper reporter for The Manhattan Mercury, a daily paper
in Manhattan, KS, and as a radio announcer for a National Public
Radio affiliated station at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She also has published freelance articles in Carroll Magazine,
ForeWord Magazine, and Kansas City's alternative paper, Pitch
Weekly.
A native
of California, Mary grew up in Maryland. She earned a B.S. in
journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park and
an additional B.S. in agronomy, also from UMCP. In addition,
she worked as a research assistant in a soil microbiology lab
and has taken a variety of graduate level classes in agricultural
science and biotechnology. She currently is working toward a
master's in biotechnology through the JHU Krieger School of Arts
and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs.
Yanni
Wang dreamed to be a writer when she was a little girl,
but family influence drove her into the scientific kingdom.
However, her dream never died. After a Ph.D in chemistry and
more than six years postdoctoral training in the biomedical
field, Yanni finally decided to become a full-time science
and medical writer. She joined AMWA early this year.
After years of studying and training,
Yanni has gained deep and broad knowledge in chemistry, biology,
drug development, oncology, and clinical studies. Her research
experience includes four and a half years anti-cancer drug study
at NCI-Frederick and two years molecular modeling study in Uppsala
University, Sweden.
As a freelance medical writer,
she has written drug monographs and clinical research reviews
medical communication companies. She currently is preparing to
take writing and editing assignments related to clinical study
reports and regulatory documents.
To keep
her writing and communication skills sharp, Yanni frequently
takes writing courses and has earned several science and technical
writing certificates during the past years. With her solid scientific
knowledge and passion for writing, she hopes to do well in medical
writing field.
Rebecca
Saxer Benner is managing editor of Obstetrics & Gynecology,
a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists, Washington, DC.
Mike Cruse,
Fairfax County, VA, works with high school students with a range
of disabilities, including traumatic brain injuries and rare
genetic disorders. He writes, “My role is to help these
students plan for their transition to post-secondary life, in
light of their unique physical and mental needs. In addition,
I teach English as a second language at Northern Virginia Community
College.”
”My interest in joining
AMWA is to learn to communicate more effectively with students
and their families about their disabilities and how their medical
care may impact their post-secondary goals. I am also interested
in the field of assistive technology (AT), how these resources
are being used by different disability groups to overcome some
of their unique challenges and how Medicare and Medicaid funds
may aid in the purchase of these AT resources.
My writing expertise is in disabilities
and their impact on youth, under the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA). I also am also well-versed in the work-related
provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). My primary
interest in being part of the AMWA community is to learn more
about how instructional design is being used in different medical
communications environments.”
Ali Hassan,
PhD, a research scientist and an instructor of medicine
at Georgetown University Medical Center, studies the role that
regulation of G protein-coupled receptors plays in various
physiological processes. Specifically, he has worked with receptors
for CRH, vasopressin (both pituitary and kidney) and angiotensin
II. His writing experience includes manuscripts, grant proposals
and a past position as editor of New Zealand Natural Sciences,
which he found interesting and enjoyable.
Ali says, “I’ve been
thinking pretty seriously about making a transition from bench
science into the medical writing field—writing has always
been the part of my work that I have enjoyed the most—so
from that point of view joining AMWA seemed like an excellent
way to get a better handle on the profession. Also the training
programs that AMWA offers were attractive, as is the chance to
meet and get to know some established medical writers. I’m
looking forward to having the chance to get acquainted with some
of the members of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter in particular.”