About the SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL CHAPTER

Keri Cannon

President

Keri Cannon is the Senior Director of Nonclinical Safety for Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc. Keri has been in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry for 15 years and actively involved in the SCCSOT Regional Chapter for over five years. She is currently serving as the president.

Gina Yanochko-Hoffman

Vice President

Gina Yanochko-Hoffman is the Director & Global Lead of the Investigative Cellular & Molecular Toxicology group at Janssen Research & Development. Gina has supported pharmaceutical drug discovery efforts through investigative toxicology and project toxicology work for 15 years, with an emphasis on the advancement of kinase inhibitors and degraders for oncology indications.

Mamta Behl

Vice President-Elect

Mamta Behl is a board-certified toxicologist who serves as Principal Scientist at Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., in San Diego where she plays a key role in the discovery and development of planning and implementation of preclinical testing using in vitro and in vivo approaches for new and current drug candidates. She provides strategic and operational direction ensuring studies are conducted in line with regulatory guidelines and manages the conduct and reporting of studies. Prior to her current position she was at the National Toxicology Program, NIEHS where she led the Developmental Neurotoxicity Health Effects Innovation Program.

Elizabeth Baker

Secretary

Elizabeth Baker is the Regulatory Policy Director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization working for more effective, efficient, and ethical medical research and product testing. Elizabeth focuses on policy change needed to support the use of innovative, nonanimal nonclinical approaches. Elizabeth is new to the SCCSOT

Dale Baker

Treasurer

Dale Baker is a Senior Principal Research Scientist (Associate Director) within Preclinical Safety Assessment for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dale has been in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry for over 20 years specializing in in vitro toxicology. He has also been a member of SOT and ACT since the early 2000s and is currently the treasurer of SCCSOT Regional Chapter.

Wenyue Hu

Past President, Councilor

Wenyue Hu is a board-certified toxicologist with over 15 years of experiences in pharmaceutical and biotech industries. She currently serves as the senior director of the global cellular and mechanistic toxicology within drug safety at Pfizer. She has also served as drug safety team lead on multiple drug discovery and development teams across various therapeutic areas and authored multiple IND and NDA submissions. Wendy has been actively involved in SOT and SCCSOT chapter leadership roles for more than 10 years.

Tejas Lahoti

Councilor

Tejas Lahoti is an American and European board-certified toxicologist, currently working as a Principal Scientist within the Drug Safety Research and Evaluation department at Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc. He has been an industry toxicologist for past eight years and actively involved with the SCCSOT chapter and a councilor for past four years.

Tian Xia

Councilor

Dr. Tian Xia is a professor in the Division of NanoMedicine, Department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has studied toxicology for over 20 years including air pollution particulate matter, electronic cigarette aerosol, and engineered nanoparticles. He is a Councilor for the Southern California Chapter of Society of Toxicology and is an Associate Editor for the journal Nanotoxicology.

Esther Omaiye

Marisol Arellano

Graduate Student Representative

Marisol Arellano is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles Molecular Toxicology Interdepartmental Graduate Program in the lab of Dr. Jeff Bronstein. Marisol's research focuses on studying the causes of Parkinson’s Disease, both environmental and genetic, using cell and zebrafish models. Marisol serves as the Graduate Student Representative for the SCCSOT Chapter and the Society of Toxicology Committee on Diversity Initiatives.