Cynthia Cheatham

Managing Director, Industry Programs and DEI Initiatives at Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)

Speaker

Cynthia Cheatham is Managing Director, Industry Programs and DEI Initiatives at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. She co-leads the content strategy for BIO Events focused on business development and investor relations for audiences of up to 20,000 attendees. Her team also contributes to health equity, patient advocacy, agriculture and environment, and intellectual property events. She collaborates with C-Suite leaders, senior executives, and investors in the industry to highlight trends in therapeutic development, financial markets, and the regulatory landscape. She also leads external strategy with the Board of Directors focused on underrepresentation in the biotechnology workforce, addressing funding and healthcare disparities, identifying new partnerships, and publishing research to support inclusion and equity in the industry.

She began her career working with researchers of the brain and nervous system at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) where she coordinated scientific content at the Annual Meeting, managed the Continuing Medical Education program, and was the program manager for two grant-funded career development programs. As program manager of the Neuroscience Scholars Program funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Latin American Training Program funded by a private foundation, she worked with underrepresented graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across the United States and organized courses in Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, and Chile for trainees in Latin America. During and after her graduate studies, she was a fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and in the Civil and Human Rights Department of the AFL-CIO focusing on policy and advocacy and identifying opportunities for public and private sector collaboration.

She received a B.A. in Politics and Spanish and participated in the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability at Washington and Lee University where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees. After graduation, she returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C., and continued her studies at Georgetown University, receiving an M.A. from the School of Foreign Service, focusing on Latin American Studies and Government. She also holds certificates in project management from the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.