About

Erika Bakker, PhD, Scientific Curator

Erikka is the senior director of gene discovery at Phylos. She earned her BS, MS and PhD in plant sciences from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and completed her post-doc at the University of Chicago. She worked for seven years as a project leader at Dow AgroSciences on gene discovery projects, and as an analyst for the State of Oregon.

Tanya Berardini, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer

Tanya has been with TAIR since 2002 and is one of the founders of Phoenix Bioinformatics. Her work spans data curation in plant biology and paleobiology, community engagement, user support, bridging the communications between scientists and software developers, and developing new project ideas as part of a team. She has a B.S. from the University of the Philippines and a PhD from Boston University.

Xingguo Chen, MS, Staff Software Engineer

Xingguo has experience in full life cycle of web application development. She enjoys building things from ground up and solving any problem she may encounter during the process. Xingguo earned her MS from Stanford University.

Eileen Conroy, Operations Assistant

Eileen brings over ten years of administrative, operations, and human resources experience in tech and biotech to her work at Phoenix. She earned her BS degree from Kent State University in biochemistry and public health.

Amina Khababa, MS, Director of Sales

Amina earned her BS in Physiology and Biomedical Master’s Degree from San Francisco State University. She has industry experience in assay development, asset management, and project management. Her love of interfacing with clients, digital marketing, and problem solving guided her career into Sales & Marketing. When she’s not working she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with friends and family.

Kartik Khosa, BS, Software Engineer

Kartik has earned his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University and is currently pursuing his Master’s in Computer and Information Technology at University of Pennsylvania. He has two years of experience as a solutions engineer in low code industry and is interested in making scalable and simple products.

Brooke Long-Fox, PhD, Data Curation Scientist

Brooke is a paleobiologist with experience in morphology and phylogenetics. She is passionate about data management, accessibility, and analysis. She has a BS from Texas Christian University and an MS and PhD from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Debbie Alexander, DPhil, Secretary

Debbie is the Director of Business Development at 23andMe, focusing on innovative healthcare and research partnerships. She has over 12 years of experience in business development roles spanning the nonprofit, academic, Digital Health, and BioPharma sectors (including Scientific Curator at TAIR). Debbie holds a DPhil in Plant Sciences from the University of Oxford and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institute for Science, Stanford University.

Liz Allen, Board Member

Liz is the Director of MarCom & Strategic Development at Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. She has a strong track record of measurable achievement in launching, building and maintaining brands in established environments (Annual Reviews, PLOS, Nature) and start-ups (ScienceOpen).

Susan Au, CPA, CGMA, Board Member

Susan is the Chief Financial Officer with the Zellerbach Family Foundation and former CFO of Purchaser Business Group on Health, a nonprofit dedicated to making health care high-quality, affordable and equitable. Susan’s experience spans various financial roles in both non-profit organizations like the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the larger corporate world of Sun Microsystems, Vodafone and Pacific Telesis (AT&T).

Rebecca Bryant, PhD, Board Chair

Rebecca is Senior Program Officer with OCLC Research, where she conducts research and develops programming to support 21st century libraries and their parent institutions, particularly as it relates to scholarly communications and research infrastructure. She previously worked as an administrator at the University of Illinois and community director at ORCID.

Laure Haak, PhD, Board Member

Laure (she/her/hers) is the Founding Executive Director of ORCID and is currently Founder of Mighty Red Barn, a firm specializing in fostering tech startups. She has experience in research policy – with a focus on workforce and diversity – at AAAS and the National Academies, and in tech startups and analytics at ORCID and Discovery Logic. Laure has a BS and MS in Biology from Stanford and a PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University Medical School, with postdoctoral work at NIH.