New Member Profiles

We know there are lots of new members out there! If you would like to submit a profile, please send it to Karen Harrop.

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.”