Dr. Rizwana Islam is a Director/Pathway Head within the Rare Disease Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Rizwana leads a team of scientists involved in preclinical research on rare genetic disorders.  Rizwana did her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, where she graduated summa cum laude. She also attended Cambridge University during her junior year abroad. She had her early schooling in Bangladesh and completed her O and A level examinations before moving to the USA for her undergraduate degree. Rizwana is married to a software engineer and has two daughters aged 6 and 10. She loves reading and traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Shahanaz Rahman, Co-Founder of BanglaCare Foundation (BCF), created BCF to provide access to healthcare to the underserved in Bangladesh. Shahanaz obtained her Master of Public Health from NYU and has been working in clinical research focusing on oncology since 2004. Her passion for helping others and personal experiences with the healthcare system in Bangladesh motivated her to make a difference in the country her parents immigrated from. Despite many obstacles, to date, BCF has helped over 500 families in the Bihari community by providing COVID19 kits. BCF has also provided COVID19 kits, blankets and nutrition to hundreds of families in various villages in Chittagong and hopes that with the help of others BCF will be able to implement telehealth services to the people of Bangladesh free of charge. For more information  check us out at:FB.com/BanglaCareFoundationhttps://banglacarefoundation.org/ IG: BanglaCareFoundationor Email them at [email protected]

Simi Ahmed was born in Bangladesh and grew internationally, including having done some elementary and high schooling in Dhaka, which she sees as pivotal periods in her life. She was born to an academic family, and while not a traditional academic herself, her career path has been rooted in the pursuit and application of science towards therapies. Simi is an immunologist by training and in her range of endeavors has conducted both bench and programmatic science and in recent years has led strategic portfolio development for curative therapies, first with the JDRF and more recently with NYSCF (pronounced naisef), each of which are disease research and cure focused organizations based in NYC.

Barrister Tasnuva Shelley, is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and a member of the Hon’ble Lincolns Inn, London, UK. She completed her Bar-at-Law from City Law School, London, I have worked in a renowned law firm in Bangladesh, Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed and Associates, at Grameenphone and lastly as  Head of Legal & Compliance for a Danish pharma company known for inventing insulin, Novo Nordisk. She has also worked for several digital start-ups in health, music and software development pro-bono to establish their business in Bangladesh. She completed her LLM in Law and Economics from Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, Virginia and graduated in May 2020. She was featured in the Scalia Law July 2019 Dean’s List . She worked for the Federal Trade Commission(FTC), Washington DC during last fall and has also worked as a Research Associate at Global Antitrust Institute. She has worked for Google as a Compliance Attorney on an internal Project. Tasnuva is currently pursuing an MBA degree at International Technological University (ITU)in San Jose, California. To compliment her skills and experience she is presently working for a tech company based in Silicon Valley as a Corporate Compliance & HR Manager. Her current interest are in antitrust, privacy and digital tech laws She absolutely loves her career and is passionate towards making a change in the legal system of Bangladesh. Economics is part of everyday life, including the legal system which a lot of us are not aware of. She possesses a unique combination of business, tech and legal which makes her valuable asset to any organization whether in USA or Bangladesh.