Speaker Biographies

Halima Aquino, Industry Initiative Coordinator at the Maryland Governor’s Workforce Investment Board (GWIB), works to convene, coordinate and guide the GWIB’s 14 Industry Cluster groups through a process of developing specific workforce initiatives. She has worked in human services and program evaluation for the past ten years. Prior to coming to GWIB, she worked for three and a half years with the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board at the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, presenting labor market information, developing employer surveys, helping to write their targeted industry initiative, conceptualizing and developing a website for businesses to learn more about public and non-profit workforce services and helping to convene a Baltimore Bioscience Coalition. She worked as the Marketing Director for a medium sized food manufacturing company with national distribution. Ms. Aquino has her Master’s degree and is ABD in Human Services Psychology. Her undergraduate training is in International Relations and French.

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Martin Briley has 20 years of experience in national and international business development and management. Since April 1997, he has been the Executive Director of the Prince William County Department of Economic Development and responsible to attract investment from technology companies which has risen from an annual average of $20 million per year to $2.5 billion during the past six years.

The Department ‘s success has been recognized as one of the top ten most successful economic development programs in North America. Washington Business Journal called the industrial deal for Eli Lilly and Company one of the top ten deals nationwide.

During the preceding seven years, Mr. Briley worked for the Office of the Governor, Virginia Department of Economic Development, subsequently the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and served as international marketing director. He worked as Director of Finance and Administration at Honeywell’s Tetra Tech International and worked with large-scale infrastructure development projects in the Sultanate of Oman. He was an assistant professor at the Macau Institute in Southeast Asia, and worked for the Office of the Governor in Alaska.

Mr. Briley has a B. S. degree and a Master of Public Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves on Virginia Governor Mark Warner’s Biotechnology Advisory Board, and as a member of Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s Task Force on Regulatory Reform and Economic Development.
He is a member of the International Economic Development Council and a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), and an associate member of CoreNet Global, Northern Virginia Economic Development Coalition, and a member of the Virginia Economic Developers Association and recipient of the VEDA 2003 Cardinal Award.

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John M. Greene, Ph.D., is a Principal and Director of Bioinformatics for SRA International of Fairfax, Virginia. He is currently Principal Investigator on a five-year, $13.65M contract to develop the Enteropathogen Resource Integration Center (ERIC), an NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Center for Biodefense. He has been a bioinformatics scientist for nearly nine years, as a Senior Staff Scientist at Gene Logic, and as the first Bioinformatics Scientist at Human Genome Sciences. Dr. Greene is also Adjunct Faculty at The Johns Hopkins University. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of MIT, and received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University. Dr. Greene was an NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate at NIH.

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Jason Kinser has been an associate professor with George Mason University since 1997. Currently, he is with the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology group within the School of Computational Sciences. Previous to GMU Dr Kinser was a research associate professor at Alabama A&M University. Areas of research have included a variety of topics based on fields of computer science, physics, optics, and bioinformatics. Recent research areas include signal analysis as applied to metabolic signaling, content based image recognition, identification of cerion via photographic images, and infrasound signal analysis. The second edition of the his book "Image Processing Using Pulse-Coupled Neural Networks" is due out later this year.

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Steve A. Mandell, a partner in Pepper Hamilton LLP's DC office, represents entrepreneur owned and managed companies in formation and governance, funding, protecting and transferring IP, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances, incentive compensation and succession planning, contract negotiation and dispute resolution. He was in senior management at MCI and Carterfone Communications Corporation, and in mid management at Xerox Corporation. An entrepreneur, Mr. Mandell has built four successful enterprises. He has a BS from Drexel University, an MBA from Temple University and a JD from Southern Methodist University, with a concentration in business law. He chairs the BIO IT Coalition, and since 1996 has hosted a weekly radio program entitled Tomorrow's Business, on which he interviews leaders in various industries about important business issues. The show can be heard online at www.WGMS.com. He leads the effort to create the Center for Entrepreneur Development at George Mason University; and conducts business seminars for Tomorrow's Business Enterprise Forum. Mr. Mandell writes and speaks about the BIO IT industry frequently.

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John Russell is the Executive Editor of Bio-IT World, and one of its founding editors. He is also the acting editor for Health-IT World. Russell holds degrees in both journalism and biology and has held editorial management positions at IDG and Reed Business Information Systems. He has 20 years of experience covering science and technology and is a past Jesse H. Neal Award winner.

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The Sequence
A Synopsis

Renegade researcher Craig Venter develops a controversial "shotgun" technique for sequencing DNA, then quits the National Institute of Health in frustration over an institutional lack of imagination.   He quickly makes a fortune in the private sector, and becomes simultaneously the most loved and hated figure of contemporary science.   A folksy doctor named Francis Collins inherits the U.S. government's colossal Human Genome Project from no less a giant in the field than James Watson.   When his victory in the sequencing race is threatened by Venter, he quickly makes the transition from apparent bumpkin to fierce competitor.   A Pulitzer Prize-winning author learns she is dying of a type of breast cancer triggered by a genetic mutation especially prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews.   Her daughter, an eager young journalist, cuts her teeth on the biggest science story of all time, the race to decipher the dynamic code of life hidden within the human genome.   In the competition to sequence the human genome, will the grand prize be the public good or private profit?   And how will four people, amid the frenzied race to determine what makes a human being, discover their humanity?

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Meet The Artists

Rick Davis (Director) has served as Artistic Director of Theater of the First Amendment since 1991, during which time the company has originated a substantial body of work that has entered the American repertory through subsequent production, broadcast, and publication, and has won twelve Helen Hayes awards and more than thirty nominations. Rick came to TFA from Center Stage in Baltimore, where over six seasons he served as dramaturg and Associate Artistic Director. He has directed plays and operas regionally and across the country, and is active as a translator, essayist, and librettist. Rick also serves as Artistic Director of Mason's Center for the Arts and Associate Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, where he teaches a wide range of courses. He was educated at Lawrence University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA, DFA).

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Paul Mullin's plays have been produced across the U.S., treating subjects ranging from personal nuclear catastrophe to the uncelebrated underbelly of American History. LOUIS SLOTIN SONATA won the L. A. Drama Critics Award for Outstanding World Premiere, and was read by invitation before scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Both the Los Angeles and Seattle productions of his epic, AN AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DEAD - THE GAME SHOW, received wide critical acclaim.

Mullin also wrote and starred in the independent feature film HITTING THE GROUND, which won Gold at the Houston WorldFest and later played in rotation on the Sundance Channel. He has provided scripts for several nationally recognized documentaries, including THE RAINERS and TREASURES OF THE WORLD, which aired on PBS.

Paul lives in Seattle with his wife and young son. His second child is due at the end of May.

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Ilona Dulaski (Yellow / Eleanor) comes directly from playing Hannah in The Spitfire Grill and Mme. Arcati in Blithe Spirit at the Wayside Theatre. Some of her TV credits include Homicide (Carla Justo), Unsolved Mysteries (Mother), As the World Turns (Anna), The Doctors (Barbara), Yindi, the Last Koala and A Single Pistol Shot (Narrator- The Discovery Channel). This summer Ilona will be playing Sister Amnesia in Nunsense, Mrs. Rogers in Ten Little Indians, and, Emilie Ducotel in My Three Angels at the Totem Pole Playhouse.

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Lisa Nanni-Messegee (Blue / Ruth) is a freelance actor and voice-over artist, director and instructor. As an actor she was in the West Coast premiere of Christopher Durang's Durang / Durang at the Hollywood Court Theatre with an extended run at Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles. Regionally, Lisa did a yearlong tour of Jack and the Beanstalk with Missoula Children's Theatre and was a resident company member of The Beechwood Theatre Company in Rhode Island, where she acted and directed. In Voice-Over, Lisa voiced the nationally syndicated fashion show, Main Floor. Recent directing credits include An Ideal Husband at Mason and The Dining Room at the Highland Summer Theatre in Minnesota. She is currently in production on The Rainmaker, for Prince William Little Theatre in Manassas. Lisa is an Adjunct Professor in the theater departments of George Mason University and University of Mary Washington.

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Frank Robinson, Jr. (Green / Francis Collins) Frank's favorite credits include James Wilson in 1776, Jesse Dunlap in Inherit the Wind, both at Ford's Theatre; Noel Coward in Queen of Clubs at Church Street Theatre; Uncle Pumblechook in Great Expectations: the Musical at Interact Theatre Company; Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet at the Maryland Shakespeare Festival; Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol for Nebraska Theatre Caravan; and St. George in The Reluctant Dragon at Birmingham Children's Theatre. Frank has also appeared in The First Light Festival at the Theater of the First Amendment.

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John Leslie Wolfe (Red / Craig Venter) appeared on Broadway in Parade, Passion, Evita, and Sarava. Tours include Parade (Watkins), Evita (Peron), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney), and Annie (Warbucks). In Washington, he played Hancock in 1776, Dr. Gibbs in Our Town, Heck Tate in To Kill a Mockingbird, Pierre Guerre in Martin Guerre, and Col. Ricci in Passion. Television includes The West Wing, The Wire, and HBO's Something the Lord Made. John is the author of YOU CAN WORK ON-CAMERA (Heinemann.)

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