Our Team

Acumen brings a host of talented individuals to serve our clients. Our network includes over
50 contributors to handle projects of any size and scope.

Senior Management

  • Justin McLaughlin

    Chief Executive Officer and Founder

    With leadership in medical writing and product development, Justin oversees Acumen’s services and software development.

  • Virginia Kelly

    Chief Medical Officer and Founder

    A board-certified hematologist/oncologist, Virginia provides strategic medical and clinical development support.

  • Michael Claffey

    Chief Operating Officer

    Having led medical writing teams for over a decade, Michael heads Acumen’s medical writing services.

  • Kelly Danyow

    Senior Director of Editorial Services

    With more than 12 years of experience editing and writing technical documents, Kelly oversees Acumen’s editorial services and document QC.

  • Bruce Pierce

    Director of Product Development

    With over 20 years’ experience in software development, Bruce leads Acumen’s product development.

  • Tim Henion

    Senior Director of Medical Writing

    A seasoned research scientist and nonclinical writer, Tim oversees Acumen’s nonclinical writing.

  • Fernando Venegas

    Head of Operations & Quality

    Fernando has worked in biotech for 25 years and leads Acumen’s program management and quality control services.

  • Elizabeth Shea

    Director of Publications & Medical Affairs

    Drawing on over a decade of experience leading publications and medical communications, Elizabeth oversees publications writing, publication planning, and medical affairs.

  • Gabby Mangino

    Associate Director of Business Development

    With a background in medical writing, editing, and product management, Gabby collaborates with the software and services teams to facilitate marketing initiatives and efficiencies in business development to Acumen.

  • Patrick Barry

    Director of Medical Writing, Europe

    Having worked in medical and scientific communications for 10+ years, Patrick has extensive experience of clinical content development across several therapeutic areas, with a focus in hematology/oncology and rare diseases.

Medical Writers

  • Colleen Mullen

    Narrative Director / Managing Medical Writer

    With 25+years as a scientist and medical writer, Colleen has expertise in all phases of clinical writing, and leads Acumen’s narrative writing teams.

  • Elin Agoston

    Managing Medical Writer

    With a background as a research cancer biologist, Elin authors a wide range of nonclinical documents, both for regulatory and publications.

  • Dana Barberio

    Lead Medical Writer

    With a background in drug discovery, omics, and oncology, Dana has 17 years of experience as a research scientist, 10 years’ experience as a medical writer, and she supports clinical and non-clinical publications across a wide variety of therapeutic areas.

  • Nate Connors

    Lead Medical Writer

    Nate is a veteran medical affairs professional specializing in medical affairs publication planning and content development.

  • Jacquie Cronin

    Lead Medical Writer

    Jacquie is a lead medical writer with over 18 years of experience writing clinical regulatory documents and publications.

  • Dayna Deuter

    Lead Medical Writer

    With 18 years of medical writing experience, Dayna has deep experience writing regulatory documents, with a focus on oncology, rare disease, and gene therapy submissions.

  • Paula Gauthier

    Lead Medical Writer

    Paula has led, written, and edited clinical, regulatory, and pharmacovigilance documents for more than 20 years with a strong focus on oncology.

  • Erin Graham

    Lead Medical Writer

    Erin is a lead medical writer with a background in nonclinical writing for gene therapy programs. Erin also draws on her experience as a former analytical development scientist and technical compliance specialist for GMP testing and manufacturing.

  • Phil Hamilton

    Managing Medical Writer

    As a lead medical writer for Acumen, Phil is able to bring his 20+ years of experience to clinical document preparation.

  • Pamela Harvey

    Lead Medical Writer

    With 20 years of research experience in neuroscience and molecular biology, Pamela specializes in writing nonclinical and clinical publications and supports the development of regulatory documents.

  • Jennifer Hensel

    Lead Medical Writer

    With a background in immunology and cancer research, Jennifer has over 10 years of writing regulatory and clinical documents, with a focus on oncology.

  • Molly Jenkins

    Lead Medical Writer

    With almost 20 years of experience researching, writing, and reviewing advanced concepts in biomedical sciences, Molly has expertise preparing nonclinical regulatory documents and publications.

  • Petra Langerak

    Lead Medical Writer

    With a background in immunology, molecular biology, and drug discovery, Petra contributes to a wide range of clinical documents.

  • Pat Nastase

    Lead Medical Writer

    Pat has 25 years of experience as a regulatory medical writer and has written a wide variety of clinical documents and contributed to many submissions.

  • Courtneay Parsons

    Lead Medical Writer

    In her nearly 20 years of experience as a medical writer, editor, and team leader, Courtneay has worked across multiple clinical document types and therapeutic areas.

  • Ava Taylor

    Lead Medical Writer

    Ava has been a medical writer for 15 years, with extensive experience in managing writing teams and overseeing processes. Ava also performs lead medical writing for all clinical document types.

  • Kathleen Ohleth

    Lead Medical Writer

    Kathleen has over two decades of experience in publication planning and development, medical/scientific content, and advisory boards.

  • Caroline David

    Senior Medical Writer

    Caroline is an experienced research scientist who contributes to nonclinical and clinical writing and project management.

  • Aaron Slyman

    Senior Medical Writer

    Joining Acumen after completing his PharmD, Aaron contributes to the development of various clinical documents including submission filings.

  • Alice Lim

    Senior Medical Writer

    Alice is a medical writer with a cancer cell biology background who supports nonclinical publications and regulatory submissions.

  • Beth Miller

    Senior Medical Writer

    Beth has been a medical writer for 17 years, with experience in multiple therapeutic areas and regulatory document types, including patient safety narratives.

  • Dikshya Bastakoty

    Senior Medical Writer

    With a background in molecular biology and over 10 years leading and managing research projects, Dikshya contributes to a wide range of clinical and nonclinical documents.

  • Ida Lister

    Senior Medical Writer

    Ida is an experienced biochemist and applied microbiologist with a drug discovery background. She has additional experience in vaccinology and supports non-clinical and regulatory document writing.

  • Jen Bracy

    Senior Medical Writer

    Leveraging her background in molecular immunology and over 15 years of analytical experience, Jennifer authors both clinical and nonclinical regulatory documents and publications.

  • Lindsay Larkin

    Senior Medical Writer

    With over 10 years editing biomedical content, Lindsay supports both Acumen's clinical writing and editing.

  • Mary Donoghue

    Senior Medical Writer

    Mary is a clinical writer with an extensive scientific background and experience across multiple regulatory document types, including patient narratives.

  • Mia DeFino

    Senior Medical Writer

    Mia is a medical writer and project manager with a background in pharmacology and translational science who supports clinical publications and regulatory submissions.

  • Paul Guttry

    Senior Medical Writer

    Paul is a medical writer with a focus on clinical manuscripts and publications, leveraging his extensive prior experience in academic publishing.

  • Laney Casella

    Medical Writer

    Laney has 10 years of biomedical engineering research experience and contributes to Acumen’s clinical and non-clinical writing projects.

  • Hilary Weismiller

    Medical Writer and Editor

    Hilary leverages her background as a research scientist and project manager to support Acumen's writing and QC teams.

  • Kris Nelson

    Narrative Medical Writer

    Kris has over 20 years of pharma/biotech experience specializing in drug safety and narrative writing, having authored over 30,000 narratives.

  • Sarah Keates

    Medical Writer

    Sarah is a medical writer with experience in both basic science and clinical research. She supports clinical and nonclinical documents and publications.

  • Sarah Ryan

    Medical Writer

    With a background as a research scientist, Sarah supports clinical and nonclinical documents.

  • Darlene Vickers

    CMC Regulatory Affairs Consultant/Writer

    Darlene is a regulatory affairs and CMC writer with a background in CMC regulatory strategy; alongside Module 3 authoring, she performs risk mitigation and strategic CMC plans for biopharmaceutical companies.

  • Amanda Sidwell

    Medical Writer

    With a neuroscience background, Amanda supports clinical regulatory documentation.

Medical Editors

  • Jamie Spagnuolo

    Lead Editor

    With 5 years’ experience editing medical content, Jamie supports both Acumen's editing and medical writing services.

  • Louise Adam

    Lead Editor

    Louise is a scientific/medical editor with 20 years of experience, with a background in clinical genetics. She is a BELS Diplomate and CIEP advanced professional member.

  • Kim Marcozzi

    Senior Editor

    With more than 5 years of experience in technical editing and publishing, Kim supports Acumen's editorial and QC team.

  • Carolyn Whiston

    Senior Editor

    With over 25 years of experience in medical editing and document quality review across multiple therapeutic areas and phases of development, Carolyn supports Acumen's editorial and QC team.

  • Mary Claffey

    Lead Editor

    With over 20 years in academic publishing, medical writing, and technical communications, Mary provides in-depth quality reviews and editing.

  • Laura Pringle

    Editor

    Laura is a medical writer with a background in Health Sciences who supports Acumen’s writing and QC teams with regulatory and clinical document submissions.

  • Lori Potraffke

    Lead Editor

    Lori has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for nearly 15 years, specializing in copy editing, data quality control review, formatting, template creation, and style guides.

  • Connor Wood

    Editor

    Connor holds a PhD from Boston University and brings his 10+ years of experience in research and editing to Acumen's editorial and QC team.

  • Susana Curley

    Editor

    As a neurobiologist, Susana has spent 15 years working in Academia and in the Pharmaceutical industry, and brings this experience to Acumen as a member of its narrative writing and scientific document editing teams.

  • Elizabeth Knight

    Editor

    Elizabeth uses her experience as a chemist, project manager, and science editor as a member of Acumen's editorial and QC services team.

  • Allison Matia

    Editor

    Allison has 10 years of experience in scientific research and communications and supports Acumen’s editorial and QC services team.

  • Ellie Lin

    Editor

    Ellie is a medical editor and QC specialist with background as a published researcher and leader in the American Medical Writers Association.

Project and Submission Management

  • Mandy Munsch

    Project Manager

    Mandy leverages her background in biomedical engineering research to support project management and clinical writing at Acumen.

  • Rebecca Ververs

    Project Coordinator

    Rebecca contributes to Acumen’s software development and project management; she also supports Acumen’s narrative writing team as an editor and writer.

Medical

  • Cindy Spier

    Medical Lead

    Cindy is a board-certified physician trained in emergency medicine with 25 years of experience. She supports medical review of patient narratives.

Regulatory Affairs

  • Katie Kane

    Regulatory Affairs Consultant

    Katie is a Regulatory Affairs consultant with over 25 years of experience across devices, biologics, and drugs and a range of indications.

  • Joanne LaValle

    Regulatory Affairs Consultant and Senior Medical Writer

    A strategic regulatory affairs professional and regulatory writer with over 30 years of experience in biopharmaceutical and device development. Expertise in FDA/MAA submissions, regulatory documentation, and navigating complex regulatory across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including oncology and immunology.

Internal Support

  • Dora Blake-McLaughlin

    Finance Manager

    Dora leads Acumen’s finance and human resources.

  • Deb Wallace

    Human Resource Manager

    Deb has over 25 years of experience managing academic research enterprises and supporting learning organizations’ capability development.

Clinical Trials Disclosure

  • Kim Green

    Clinical Trials Disclosure

    Kim has 15 years of experience writing and reviewing clinical documents and managing global teams and has substantial expertise in clinical trial transparency and disclosure.

Graphic Design

  • John Welle

    Senior Graphic Designer

    John has spent 20 years as a technical writer and graphic designer, leading Acumen’s graphical services for posters and publications.