2021’s Top Talent

MEET THE WINNERS – By Tim Sosbe

We’re coming out of a time like no other in modern history, and the life sciences industry was at the epicenter. As the world watched, life sciences stepped up and did what it does: save lives, using a combination of experience, knowledge, training and duty.

While our colleagues were finding vaccines, LTEN members were building their own creative solutions to challenging times and keeping the business of training on track.

This year’s 7th Annual LTEN Excellence Awards recognized much of that work, with innovative programs and professionals joining the ranks of winners. At a special virtual ceremony held on June 9, 2021, LTEN unveiled the winners in eight competitive categories, as well as naming winners in the annual LTEN Field Trainer Scholarship program.

Winners were recognized in categories for both practitioners and for supplier professionals, as well as the Industry Partnership category, which recognizes the teamwork from both sides of that table.

Winners of the two Members of the Year categories will be announced this November, as part of the 50th LTEN Annual Conference, taking place Nov. 8 to 11 at the Gaylord Rockies in the Denver area.

While this article will introduce you briefly to the noteworthy winners this year, you’re also able to learn more about their work in their own words. Once again, for this year’s Excellence Awards program, we invited all winners, finalists and nominees to submit posters detailing their work.

The posters you’ll see here are also available on the LTEN website at www.LTEN.org/awards.

Before you start flipping pages and reviewing the amazing work, here is a quick look at this year’s winning LTEN members. Congratulations to them all:

Emerging Leaders (practitioner) – Brett Smith, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., for planning innovative launches.
All-Star Teams (practitioner) – The Neuroscience Account Associate Development team, SK Life Science, for creating a peerdriven development program.
Training for Change (practitioner) – The SDPA Sunovion Training & Development team, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma America, for creating a two-day virtual field leadership summit.
Non-Commercial Training Efficiency (practitioner) – Jennifer A. Marshall of Janssen, for redefining her work group to develop the workforce of the future.
Innovation (practitioner) – Susan Hendrich, AstraZeneca, for designing patient-centric and empathetic training, and Jessica Hutchins, Chiesi, for increasing engagement and effectiveness through gamification.
Innovation (provider) – LCILX, for building a virtual reality mindful meditation program, and MC3, for using a virtual city to build a multimodal launch.
Learning Content (provider) – CMR Institute, for developing client-focused virtual selling content.
Industry Partnership (provider & practitioner) – TiER1 Performance & Genentech, for together using a fitness theme to create engaging compliance training.
Field Trainer Scholarships – Shawn Nordquist of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, for designing and implementing a new field training framework, and Michael Tomlinson of Eisai, for improving retention through career path education.

We hope you find inspiration for your work in the pages ahead, and we encourage you to use the LTEN On-the-Go app and social media channels to connect with and congratulate this year’s LTEN Excellence Awards winners. And next year, we hope to see you on stage!

Tim Sosbe is editorial director for LTEN. Email Tim at tsosbe@L-TEN.org.