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2024-2025 Board of Directors
Caroline McLachlan
President
Caroline McLachlan is a freelance medical writer specializing in continuing medical education and scientific publications for medical and scientific audiences. She holds an MPhil in Medical Science from the University of Cambridge and went on to earn a PhD in Neurobiology from Boston University, where she studied the interplay of gene expression and behavior. After spending over 6 years writing scientific manuscripts, designing posters for international conferences, delivering oral presentations, and composing federal grants in a research setting, she decided to make the leap and pursue medical writing. Caroline joined AMWA in 2024 and supported the New England Chapter as an outreach volunteer. She is looking forward to continuing to serve New England AMWA, while helping her clients craft high-impact, fact-based documents that lead to exceptional patient care.
S. Patrick Murphy
President-Elect
S. Patrick Murphy received his Ph.D. in biomedical science with a concentration in molecular genetics from the University at Albany. He has over eight years of research experience investigating the effect of endogenous retrovirus activity in a model system that represents the maintenance of stem cell populations, as well as over eight years of expertise in confocal and wide-field fluorescent microscopy and data analysis. He also has over ten years of experience teaching the biological principles of public health and scientific writing to MPH students at the University at Albany School of Public Health. Patrick designs online educational content and has served as a mentor for high school science teachers, undergraduate students, and high school students. He has provided continuing education for health and human rights professionals combating the spread of HIV-1 and tuberculosis in Central Asia. He specializes in science and medical communications, biological science and public health education, design of visual materials for publication, and patient advocacy.
Claudia Prahst
Immediate Past President
Claudia is a freelance medical writer specializing in medical education for healthcare professionals. She is originally from Germany and holds a PhD from the University of Freiburg. She performed research on blood vessel development as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and was an instructor in the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Claudia joined AMWA in 2012, when she decided to start a career in medical writing. She spent several years working as a Medical Writer for EBSCO/DynaMed and Foundation Medicine before she decided to start her own freelance medical writing business.
Dora Levin
Secretary
Dora Levin is a Senior Science Writer/Editor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Department of Medical Oncology. Her work focuses on scientific writing/editing, scientific compliance (IACUC/IRB), and medical communications, and she is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of science writers, editors, and communicators at Dana-Farber and beyond. She completed her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University, studying cardiovascular cell biomechanics. After several years teaching physics as an adjunct professor, she freelanced as a science writer and as a content specialist for digital media, bridging the gap from academia to scientific writing. Dora joined AMWA in 2021 and has served on the Board of Directors, the Advisory Council, and as Communications Strategist for the New England Chapter.
Jeanette Towles
Treasurer
Jeanette Towles is President and owner of Synterex, Inc., a woman-owned, disability-owned clinical and regulatory consulting firm specializing in agile-based project management methodology, automation, and AI-driven technologies. Prior to that, she held in-house consulting and FTE medical writing and clinical science positions at both small- and large-size companies, including managing a group of programmers and vendors working on automated documents, with cumulative industry experience of over 15 years. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, 2 children, and 2 dogs.
Peter Stein
Treasurer-Elect
Peter is a freelance medical writer and clinical spine specialist, with a research background in human movement science and rehabilitation. He particularly enjoys creating informational materials for clinical professionals, content marketing copy for businesses and general audiences, and plain-language adaptation and summary documents.
Before his science career, he was a classically trained musician, and still enjoys playing with friends and in church activities. He believes the arts will play an important role in medicine and health care; and also that experience in the arts is excellent preparation for becoming a scientist.