Wisconsin Biohealth Awards: BioForward Announces Winners

BioForward has announced the winners of the fifth annual Wisconsin Biohealth Awards, dedicated to showcasing leadership and innovation in the Wisconsin biohealth industry. In the fifth year of the awards, BioForward is excited to continue recognizing scientific and business successes that have brought Wisconsin to be among the top leaders in integrated health solutions. The 2019 winners of the Hector F. DeLuca Scientific Achievement Award and Wisconsin Biohealth Business Achievement Award are Dr. Thomas “Rock” Mackie and Ms. Laura Johnson Douglass, respectively.

Dr. Thomas "Rock" Mackie is the Chief Innovation Officer at UW Health and the Director of the Isthmus Project, an innovation and commercialization initiative of UW Health and UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. A native of Canada, Rock came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987 and became a full professor in 1998 in the Department of Medical Physics. He has been a UW Professor Emeritus since 2012 and an Emeritus Investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research since 2015. Rock Mackie has co-founded several not-for-profit and for-profit organizations including the Center for the Assessment of Radiological Sciences, the Advocacy Consortium for Entrepreneurs, Geometrics Corporations, TomoTherapy, HealthMyne, Asto CT, OnLume, and Linectra. He is also a board member of Shine Medical Technologies and BioIonix.

Ms. Laura Johnson Douglass founded and serves as President and CEO of both Eufaeria Biosciences and Next Generation Clinical Research. Ms. Douglass is a Founding Director of SbBancorp, Inc. and Settlers bank. She is also involved as a board member at Odonate Therapeutics, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, and several other biotech companies as a business advisory board member. Previously, Ms. Douglass has held roles as Director of Clinical Operations at Hazleton Laboratories (now Covance) and Director of Clinical Affairs & Research at Bone Care International (now Sanofi Genzyme). In 2008 and 2010, she was honored as a biotech entrepreneur by the national organization, Women in Bio, and in 2008 received the Rising Star Award by the Wisconsin Biotech and Medical Device Association.

"BioForward Wisconsin is pleased and honored to announce this year's award winners," said Lisa Johnson, CEO of BioForward. "It was a long selection process with many quality professionals put forth for the awards, but Rock and Laura kept coming to the forefront of the candidates due to their leadership and impact on the global and Wisconsin biohealth communities. These awards are a testament to the ingenuity, passion, and vision of our awardees."

Rock Mackie and Laura Johnson Douglass will be honored during a lunch ceremony at the Wisconsin Biohealth Summit presented by BioForward on October 2, 2019, at the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Additional information on the Wisconsin Biohealth Awards, awardees, and the Wisconsin Biohealth Summit can be found at www.wisconsinbiohealthsummit.org.

About BioForward Wisconsin

BioForward serves as the independent voice of Wisconsin's biohealth industry, providing services and resources to support the growth of the biohealth industry throughout the US and the world. BioForward is the only Wisconsin organization representing over 200 biohealth member companies including biotech, biopharma, medical device, healthcare systems, diagnostics, and digital health, as well as research institutions, and service providers. Learn more about BioForward Wisconsin and their initiatives for 2019 at www.bioforward.org.

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