Questions & Answers with Kathrin Jinivizian
As we neared the end of Women’s History Month, we caught up with our colleague Kathrin Jinivizian online, keeping a safe social distance during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Kathrin talks about revolutionizing medicine, women in manufacturing, and reaching a broad range of people to do highly creative and heart-based work.
Name: Kathrin Jinivizian
Role: Head, CMC COVID-19 PMO and External Manufacturing
Years at Moderna: 2 years
Hometown: Medford, MA
What exactly has your work at Moderna entailed?
Since starting at Moderna, I’ve headed up Clinical & External Manufacturing as well as CMC Strategic Operations, leading fabulous teams to produce our investigational messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines and to help ensure we have everything needed to run production. Now, I’m turning my attention to our work on a potential vaccine against COVID-19.
How did you end up in these roles and what do you love about your career choice?
As a process-oriented thinker, I enjoy figuring out how to get from A to B to C and I love working with people. I’ve been fortunate to have multiple roles at Moderna that have enabled me to do both. :)
What drew you to Moderna originally?
The clear mission and focus on being bold, collaborative, curious and relentless first drew me to Moderna. I also liked the possibility of tackling rare diseases.
What’s been your favorite part of working at Moderna? How has it changed your life?
The people… Moderna is where I met my partner!
Where do you find inspiration?
School, travel, daily meditation & gratitude apps (Calm and 365 Gratitude), audio books during my commute (one of my all-time favorites: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck) and Pinterest quotes.
If you could go back in time, which decade would you visit and why?
The late 1940s… I like the music and the clothing. (I also love crazy shoes!)
Top female leaders remain exceedingly rare in the biopharma industry. How do we encourage women to lead while lifting everyone up?
I am so driven by my overall curiosity that I tend to ignore my gender identification as it relates to my actions and leadership. That does not mean that I’m blind to the fact our industry has more work to do toward equality across gender and other factors.
For me, the bigger question is “how can we generate interest in areas like manufacturing and show that, despite popular beliefs, it is highly creative and heart-based work”? This way, we can reach a broad range of people overall.
What are your three home office must-haves for a successful workday?
Peppermint tea, chocolate mocha and a quick walk after lunch.
Which Moderna core value do you most embody — bold, collaborative, curious, relentless?
Based on above curious and I can’t help but being bold.
What are your hopes for our industry?
To address unmet medical needs with our new platform and revolutionize medicine. I really hope we can be a solution for this global health crises and bring a vaccine against COVID-19 forward quickly.
In addition to career growth and the opportunity to deliver on an important mission to advance the field of mRNA science and improve treatment options for patients, Moderna is committed to diversity and creating an environment where everyone can do their best work.
We are proud to be recognized by Science Careers as a top employer (2015-2019) and we’re always looking for smart, talented and passionate people like Kathrin. Want to join the team? See all open positions and find out more about why it’s good to be at Moderna.