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šŸ™Œ Spotlight On Volunteer(ing) & Our Next Big Event!

Hello OUTbio Seattle Community!


Fostering community is a core focus for OUTbio Seattle, both in-person and online. We are so grateful for your active involvement in building OUTbio Seattle into a vibrant LGBTQIA+ community. In this special edition of our newsletter, weā€™re thrilled to shine a spotlight on one of our first volunteers, our Head of Marketing, Trevor. Make sure to read to the end for an exciting announcement!

How did you get involved with OUTbio Seattle, Trevor?

Iā€™ve had the great fortune of working with OUTbio Seattle co-founder Michelle Briscoe as a part of my day job as a media relations guy at s2s Public Relations here in Seattle. I saw on LinkedIn that, along with Naomi Schwartz and Brian Hsu, she was launching the Seattle chapter of OUTbio. When I raised my virtual hand to volunteer for the org, she suggested building out LinkedIn as a good place to start ā€“ and speaking of LinkedIn, are you following us over there yet? You can catch our updates, news and parking tips over there, too!

When youā€™re not moonlighting as our comms guy, what are you up to?

When Iā€™m not at my daytime desk at s2s PR or lending a hand here at OUTbio, Iā€™m plugged in over at Lowbrow Opera Collective where I serve on the board and as director of development and community engagement. Lowbrow strives to make opera a little more fun, a little more queer, a little more whatever-the-heck-we-want. We push the boundaries of opera and produce new works by living composers that reflect the diverse, evolving stories of modern America.This past fall, we had the honor of producing a fully staged production of Achilles and Patroclus with Seattle Opera after launching the work as a part of More Than Friends at 18th and Union. This spring, just in time for pride, weā€™re staging the operatic celebration of queer love (and entrepreneurship!) Sweets by Kate at Theater Off Jackson ā€“ I hope weā€™ll see you there!

How do you perceive the role of communications in the ā€œcommercialā€ side of the biotech industry, and what specific value does it bring to the overall advancement of the field?

I cut my teeth at Fred Hutch spinout SEngine Precision Medicine right out of school, and was lucky enough to learn from Carla Grandori and the executive suite as they commercialized a complementary diagnostic to help oncologists find the best drug for the hardest-to-treat cancers. When charting my next career move, I merged into the PR lane because itā€™s where (and big caveat that Iā€™m not a lab guy) I was able to drive the most impact for business goals at SEngine. I like moving the needle, and strategic, integrated communications strategy gives a boost just about everywhere ā€“ from company financing, to attracting and retaining talent, and business development. I could wax poetic, but it really canā€™t be said better than my colleague and mentor Crystal Clarity, so Iā€™ve linked to her perspectives.

What do you think makes Seattle biotech so exciting?

Seattleā€™s at the crux of bigtech and biotech, weā€™ve got the right talent across industries to bring transformative innovations to market. It takes a village to get tomorrowā€™s cures to market, and weā€™ve got the right village up here in the Pacific Northwest.

Anything else youā€™d like to share with our OUTbio Seattle friends?

Volunteering for OUTbio has been both rich and rewarding ā€“ itā€™s been such a gift to help play a small part in building our community ā€“ so if youā€™re interested in lending a hand thereā€™s plenty of opportunity to join the team! Shoot us an email at outbioseattle@outlook.com to tell us how youā€™d like to get involved!

šŸŽ‰Coming soon! šŸŽ‰

And it wouldnā€™t be an OUTbio newsletter without an event teaser: We are excited to announce that Zymeworks is sponsoring an upcoming OUTbio Seattle event on Thursday, April 4th. There will be free food and beverages, as well as opportunities to get a new professional headshot taken! More information, including an RSVP link, will be coming in March. In the meantime, mark your calendars!


Warm regards,

Your OUTbio Founders P.S. Donā€™t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news and updates!

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