Sara Shnider, Ph.D.

Sara is the US Academic Innovation Lead at Joy Ventures, where she is responsible for creating research partnerships between Joy and academic institutions in the US. She brings over a decade of experience managing diverse aspects of industry-academia partnerships across pharma, academia and the nonprofit sector.

Prior to Joy, Sara directed a portfolio of global academic collaborations at Teva Pharmaceuticals, designed to enhance the company’s drug development efforts from discovery through Phase I. In this capacity, she was responsible for technology scouting and evaluation, scientific project management, and international public-private consortia. She was also an active mentor in Teva’s entrepreneurship and educational programs for graduate students across Israel.  

Previously, Sara was executive director of the non-profit organization Prize4Life. She led scientific programs that engaged startup companies, universities, and nonprofits to identify and validate new drug candidates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Earlier in her career, she negotiated industry research agreements in the technology transfer office of University of California, San Francisco, and was a science policy fellow at the National Academies in Washington, DC. 

Sara completed her PhD at Harvard University investigating the molecular controls over development of neuronal subpopulations in the neocortex. Earlier, she completed her MSc in bioinformatics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a BSc in biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

Sources of Joy: long hikes, getting lost in a book, and quality time with friends and family.