Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 3/1/2025 12:00:00 AM
Stacey Tannenbaum, PhD, Northbrook, Illinois
What are you looking forward to in your role as the Quantitative Pharmacology (QP) Network Chair?
I am a huge advocate for model-informed drug development, and I have spent my entire career in this area. I am excited to work with inspiring leaders like Qi Liu, PhD, and Neeraj Gupta, PhD—I am sure I will learn a lot from them—and I am continuously impressed by the diligence and creativity of our Communities under the QP umbrella! I am excited to help the QP Network members connect, and to facilitate the creation and dissemination of both technical and strategic programming to our Community members; it is critical to empower the scientists who do this important work so that they can have a real impact on decision making!
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am extremely proud of my contributions toward building the Pharmacometrics Community, through both organized and grassroots leadership. Some of the activities and organizations that support this Community today started as unformed ideas that just needed a champion, and I was young and energetic enough to take these challenges on and mobilize the resources and the people to get them off the ground. It is so gratifying to see how the small seeds we planted have blossomed and grown!
What is the most important leadership lesson you have learned the hard way?
As a committee or working group leader in other organizations, I was often frustrated by decisions made by the board that affected our group and often tried to push back, with little success. It was not until I served on a board myself that I realized how many factors and how much careful thought went into each decision, and that the board often has to make complex decisions that impact certain groups but support the greater good of the organization. This lesson is true whether it is the board of an organization or the senior leadership in a company, so it has allowed me more understanding in accepting decisions that impact me or my team.
What is your favorite society memory?
I was part of the clever and fun MIDD Point-Counterpoint session at ASCPT 2019—it was in a debate format. My topic was “Talk More, Model Less” and the irony was that I had COMPLETELY lost my voice the day before, so I had to do the whole presentation in basically a whisper! Perhaps one can talk TOO much.
When you are not working, how do you spend your free time?
After attending a conference in Colombia this past spring, I decided that I wanted to learn to speak Spanish—I am now almost 150 days into my Duolingo streak, plus listening to podcasts, reading books, watching movies with Spanish subtitles, and practicing with Spanish-speaking friends. I am probably a little obsessed with this new hobby, but it has been so challenging and fun to use the other side of my brain and make some new pathways!
What is the one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
I starred in a commercial for Florida Power and Light when I was in kindergarten. The theme of the commercial was to encourage energy savings for the future of our children. It started with kids in my class sharing what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was given a scripted line, but it seems fitting for those who know me today: “Can I be President?”
Dr. Tannenbaum has been a member of ASCPT since 2017.
