Mentorship Program

A six-month mentorship program connecting trainees with life science professionals.

Event Overview

The LSCDS Mentorship Program connects University of Toronto trainees with experienced life science professionals for one-on-one mentorship tailored to their career interests and goals. Mentors represent a wide range of sectors across the life sciences industry, providing mentees with valuable insights into diverse career paths.

Throughout the 6 months, participants will receive monthly newsletters, access to professional development workshops (e.g., resume writing, informational interviewing, and interview preparation), and opportunities to expand their network through LSCDS events.

Event Details

The mentorship program runs annually from January to June and begins with a mandatory in-person Launch Event held in early January.

Admission to the program is competitive and requires an application submission. Applicants will be asked to provide a resume, short written responses outlining their career goals and expectations for the program, and their preferred life science industry sectors to support the mentor matching process.

Priority is given to upper-year University of Toronto graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. A $10 CAD program fee is collected from successful applicants only to help offset program costs.

Here are some of our amazing mentors from previous years!

Darina Frieder is an experienced Medical Affairs professional and is currently a Medical Science Liaison at UCB Pharma. She also runs her own medical writing business, Science Nerd for Hire. Curiosity is one of her core values, which drives her to continue learning and enhancing her skills. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband, 2 kids, and 1 temperamental cat. She is passionate about many things, a few of which are gardening, creating delicious meals for family and friends, and reading as many books as she can.

Katrina is a University of Toronto MHSc in Medical Physiology graduate currently working in medical technology as a R&D Clinical Specialist. As a Clinical Specialist I work closely with the R&D, Product, and UIUX teams to validate current smart textile products, analyze clinical and non-clinical data, write documents and white papers, collect and interpret user feedback, and develop and disseminate information to users through an interactive mobile health application. Loves running, baking, and photography in my spare time.

Kristine is a medical communications strategist who takes pride in combining her scientific, analytical and creative expertise to support her clients’ educational goals. She has spearheaded medical education initiatives for pharmaceutical and medical device clients across multiple therapeutic areas, including endocrinology, rare disease, oncology, neurology, rheumatology, dermatology, psychiatry, orthopedics, and more. Leading the Strategy department at Scientific Global Communications, Kristine manages a high-performing team focused on meeting their client’s business goals through creative and effective educational programs. Before joining the agency world nearly a decade ago, she supported all aspects of peer-reviewed publishing for researchers at the cutting edge of cardiovascular repair and stem cell research at Toronto’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. With a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto, Kristine’s work combines true scientific rigor through a storyteller’s lens.

Pharmaceutical quality and compliance professional with 10 years of experience who likes trying different cuisines and enjoying nature.

Lisa is currently the Manager, Collaborations, Programs and Initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she manages the provincial partnerships portfolio, as well as other key industrial partnerships for the University and strategic initiatives. Prior to that position, she served as an Applied Research and Innovation Advisor for over six years supporting collaborative and investigator driven research projects. Previously, she was involved in research program administration at the provincial and national levels. Lisa has over ten years of scientific research experience in advanced molecular biology, and holds a PhD in Medical Biophysics and a MSc in Biology. She is experienced in project management, research program development, contract drafting and negotiation, stakeholder relationship building, software system implementation, resource management, social media management, effective communication and training.

-Helped raise and deploy $60M+ in venture capital in the neuroscience sectors to improve mental healthcare
-Co-founded and served as Director of Business Development for a stealth biotech, licensing in technology from universities, and helped raise seed capital.
-Experienced in early stage life sciences investment opportunity analyses across therapeutic areas at TIAP (MaRS Innovation)
-8+ years of research experience with 9 publications in peer-reviewed journals
-Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in Biology from the Max Planck Society, Germany
-M.Tech + B.Tech in Biotechnology (Minor in Chemistry) from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
-Soccer player with TSV Rödgen, Germany (2014-18), Toronto City FC, Canada (2019-22)

6+ years of building teams, products, and managing agile, end-to-end, meaningful digital transformations gathering requirements, designing UX, architecture, prioritizing backlogs, planning sprints, maintaining stakeholder communications, working with cross functional teams and developers to deliver MVPs and roadmaps across public sector, banking, talent, and education industries.

Having co-founded a start-up during undergrad aimed at providing exam prep material to more than 50,000 users, I understand the various facets of running a business and use that knowledge to build simple and scalable solutions.

Extremely passionate about film, I love critically analyzing and experimenting with the different facets of filmmaking in my spare time.