{"id":1725,"date":"2022-03-02T14:03:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T14:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/?p=1725"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:33:04","slug":"alumni-spotlight-kristen-eads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/news\/alumni-spotlight-kristen-eads\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: Kristen Eads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kristen Eads graduated from NC&nbsp;State with a Master\u2019s of Microbial Biotechnology (MMB) in 2006. Recently, Kristen began working at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucb.com\/\">UCB<\/a> as a Rare Patient Experience Strategy and Design Lead. She also serves on the <a href=\"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/people-industry-advisory-board\/\">Industry Advisory Board<\/a> for our MMB program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We reached out to Kristen to find out about her experiences since graduating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Do you have any news to share about your career or life?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I recently&nbsp;moved from GlaxoSmithKline to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucb.com\/\">UCB<\/a> in order to head-up strategy and design work for their new Rare Disease Patient Support Program. I will be helping build out a new working model for UCB to support patients who have been prescribed therapies, scheduled to launch in 3Q 2023.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>What do you enjoy most about your career?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In my pharma career, I&#8217;ve worked in Production Engineering, Occupational Health &amp; Safety, Compliance, Operations, and Marketing. I love that I&#8217;ve been able to do so many things and bring value to people living with a variety of diseases.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>What do you consider your biggest accomplishment in your career?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Designing the &#8216;Walk a While in Their Shoes&#8217; campaign. This was an effort designed to bring awareness to physicians who treat lupus about how to best approach and discuss health with their patients. It launched in 2018 and is&nbsp;still being presented at Lupus patient events today.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>What do you miss most about NCSU?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Harrelson Hall! Seriously, I miss grabbing a biscuit with friends at the Brickyard before class in the morning.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>You are a very involved Alumnus &#8211; What is the best part of being an NC&#160;State Alumnus for you?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I really enjoy giving back to my university. I also enjoy helping people who are invested in their own growth and development. Supporting the program 16 years on makes me happy.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Do you have any advice for current MMB students?&nbsp; <\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Keep your networks up. It takes effort, but it&#8217;s important and worth doing. You never know who may be able to help you progress with your next career steps.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>What do you do for fun?&nbsp;<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I spend a lot of time with my family &#8211; like reading to my children, watching movies with my husband, having dinner with the grandparents a couple of times a week. When I have time to myself, I enjoy reading, quilting and cooking.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kristen Eads graduated from NC State with her Master\u2019s of Microbial Biotechnology in 2006. Check out what she has been up to since she graduated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,26,23,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-newswire","category-people","category-uncategorized"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1725"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2289,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions\/2289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.cals.ncsu.edu\/master-of-microbial-biotechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}