Nicole Connelly
Director, Medical Affairs Operations
ImmunoGen
A Logistics Maestro
Two things that Nicole Connelly loves, besides her handsome husband of course, are spreadsheets and slide decks. For Nicole, it’s hard not to have a fond appreciation for those things when they have helped her master operations, streamline logistics, and make an impact in an industry she has been in for a little over four years.
In her first role within the industry at Sobi, Nicole was tasked with implementing the peer-to-peer program for the emapalumab launch expansion. The program had failed to progress and Nicole had to get things moving. She quickly devised a plan and created a slide deck to align with her manager, and then proceeded to get things done. She got the first speaker training up and running within two and a half weeks and established a process for content review, training, and intake requests that made everything faster and more efficient. She used those same skills when the company had her help with an FDA pharmacovigilance audit—and they were so impressed they gave her the 2019 Service to Sobi Award for Operational Excellence.
Now at ImmunoGen, Nicole is making a similar impact. When she started at the company in September 2021, she became the fifth member of the Medical Affairs team and took over the grants review process. At the time, it was mostly done through email, but Nicole saw a better way. She implemented monthly meetings for the grants review committee and devised a new meeting minutes template and format that made the entire process more efficient. She used Smartsheet so everyone could easily see each grant and sponsorship and key information regarding the status of the review cycle, the Letter of Agreements, payment, etc. Now, the team can review 20 grants in an hour. In 2022, they reviewed 90 grants total and they should surpass that total this year.
Nicole also put her skills to use managing the fundraising for her family’s Pan-Mass Challenge team, which participated in the 192-mile bike ride to raise money for the Jimmy Fund or the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Because something else she is good at is throwing a mean party.
