An Interview with Alumnus Dr Sarah Holloway
Sarah Holloway, based in Chicago, IL, is an alumnus of our Department and a recent retiree. During our interview, we discussed her career that spans the breadth of Pharmacology and continents, which has also exceptionally bridged the gap between science and commercial thought.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Sarah Holloway, I am 51 years old. I moved to the United States 20 years ago this year, but I am originally from the UK. I studied undergraduate Pharmacology at the University of Bristol. Following my degree, I moved to The Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, for my Ph.D.
I got married a couple of years ago. I do not have any kids, which is relevant for this Women in Pharmacology discussion. But I do have two nephews, that I spoil tremendously.
What sparked your interest in Pharmacology?
My mother claims I remember nothing about my childhood, but one thing I do remember is that on a Saturday evening, I would watch a program called Tomorrow's World, which I think started in the Sixties. Tomorrow's World was a prime-time program, which showcased the latest scientific and technological innovations of the day. I would watch that religiously every week. Some of the inventions were crazy, amazing, and inspiring. But the bit I always liked was when things went wrong because it was always a live broadcast. Having to see the presenters tap dance around the tech when things were going south, I think sparked my interest in science at an early age.
At school, I had an equal proficiency in both science and the arts. One of the first points of decision that pushed me towards Pharmacology was my A-levels. This eventually led me to want to study Pharmacology at the age of 16.
Have you kept up with your artistic side during your scientific career?
We are a very musical family and music is a passion of mine as well. My husband sings and plays, while I am also a singer. There are several creative outlets outside of science that I very much enjoy.
I travel a lot, it’s one of my passions outside of work. I wrote a blog for about 20 years detailing my travels.
How would you describe your time at the Department of Pharmacology, Cambridge?
It was fantastic. Looking back, I'm glad I did my first degree at Bristol because when I came to Cambridge, I had some broader experience which helped me recognize how special the Cambridge experience was.
Back in ‘93 to ‘96, there used to be a Glaxo-funded section within the Department, the Glaxo Institute of Applied Pharmacology. This was unique because I had the incredible academic environment of Cambridge, and access to all of Glaxo’s resources. We did not have to rinse out pipette tips or have to worry about how we were going to continue to fund the research! For me, it really was the best of the best of both worlds. Getting that early exposure to how scientific knowledge could be translated from an academic to an industrial setting was insightful.
Being part of Downing College was also an amazing experience. I was the first female president of the Downing College MCR (Middle Combination Room) and helped rewrite the college's constitution. These opportunities to get involved and to feel that you're making a difference, that would endure, was really cool.
Would you say your Ph.D. research experience is similar to our AstraZeneca-funded students?
Unlike AZ students, who are split between Pharmacology and AZ, during my Ph.D., Glaxo was physically present within the Department. There were no physical boundaries, and you could have a cup of tea with the different labs. The leadership in the Department at the time did a great job making sure barriers weren't there.
Do you have a favourite memory of your time here?
I was one of the founding members of the Department of Pharmacology Ladies' Boat Club, so I would say my illustrious rowing career is a favourite memory. Also, I have great memories of just hanging out in the tearoom and shooting the breeze with friends. Life in the lab wasn't always easy, but having a supportive network of like-minded and super-smart people to talk with was a highlight.
Can you give us a flying tour of your career, now that you’re recently retired?
My career arc or trajectory is not a linear one, and it is pretty different, from a lot of my former colleagues and peers.
I have had a number of pivotal moments of choice throughout my career. One was as I was approaching the end of my PhD. Did I want to stay in research science, or did I want to move out of research science? I was a good scientist, but I was surrounded by a lot of other brilliant scientists. I wanted to find a place where I could really shine and succeed. Also, given the close proximity I had to Glaxo and corporate environments, it was not scary for me to decide that research science was not for me.
I developed a simple thought process that allowed me to diversify my experiences over time. Every time I came to a choice point, I thought: ‘what is the new skill set that I'm going to learn’, ‘how will this broaden out my skills’ and, most importantly for me, ‘How will this give me more choices in the future’?
My very first position following my PhD was working for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, as part of what was called a Graduate Management Scheme. This scheme was to be a three-year engagement where you would spend the first eight months in the field as a sales rep, and then you come into the head office and go through multiple three-month rotations. For me, this was a great idea to get exposure to a range of different roles and help me decide what I wanted to do in the end.
This was a useful learning point at the beginning of my career because about a year after I joined, the program folded, which shows that not everything always works out the way that you think, but invariably new opportunities arise. The choice I made was to move into the market analytics setting of a drug company. For me, that was the easy transition, that both leveraged my existing skill set and helped me to build a broader set of experiences.
My career then went all over the place! One of the jobs that I loved the most was in market assessment in Pfizer R&D. which I describe as a commercial translator. I worked directly with the scientists and the clinicians to guide Pfizer’s drug discovery efforts, asking questions such as - what are the unmet needs of the market? What are the current leading treatments? What would you need for any future product to have a clinical benefit? My skill set was perfect because I could leverage my science brain when talking to researchers and clinicians and my commercial head to put it into the context of patient and market unmet needs.
My final career choice was basically taking everything I have learned as a layer cake of experiences. And that icing on the cake was when I basically became a ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ for Kelly Science and Clinical, which is a recruitment and staffing company. I provided scientific education to recruiters and sales.
One of my proudest career achievements was developing the ‘Kelly Academy of Science’, which was an awesome program that I put together in collaboration with dozens of people to deliver education in foundational aspects of science.
How have you been able to keep on top of the scientific languages and advances after leaving the bench?
Going back to the layer cake of my career, the buttercream icing in the middle, that is the science. Science is the glue that held my career together.
When I was at Pfizer, in my market assessment career, I supported several therapeutic areas. I had to read a lot of scientific and clinical literature to support this role. I also did a lot of primary market research, both qualitative and quantitative market research. I would write discussion guides as well as conduct interviews myself. Another way of keeping current was through firsthand discussions, whether it was with clinicians or other specialties, and saying, okay, what's important to you in the disease area X, Y, Z?
Have you ever had the opportunity to talk to the patients, or the public, in your roles?
I am privileged to have been in positions that had a lot of patient contact and the chance to have a meaningful impact on patient’s lives.
When I started working for Pfizer, we were working on a new drug for fibromyalgia, which is a disease that's not very well understood. This is a pain condition in which patients are fatigued and have zero energy. There are a lot of misconceptions and a lot of physicians do not believe it exists. I was leading the effort to put together the advertising/awareness campaign to highlight fibromyalgia.
We collaborated with patients, through a fibromyalgia patient society, where we sponsored and worked with them to get the European Parliament to sign a white paper, recognising fibromyalgia as a legitimate condition that is worthy of treatment. During this, a woman came over in tears and said, ‘Thank you, thank you for listening, thank you for supporting this effort’.
Another job that had a lot of patient interaction was with Shire. I had a lot of contact with patients with Von Willebrand disease, a bleeding disorder that a lot of people haven’t heard of, but it has a huge impact, especially on women. Every month these patients would have a menstrual period and these women were bleeding and it would not stop - and so there's that double stigma, right? I met some of the patients when I was involved in putting together patient websites and collecting testimonials. The women had appalling stories, for instance, there was a woman who was in her early twenties and their physician was deeply unsympathetic and said ‘Well, just have a hysterectomy’ despite there being treatments available.
Your career has a strong theme of communication, did you particularly enjoy that during your career?
I am a storyteller, so I love to weave and tell stories. You have to be articulate when you're trying to connect groups that are coming from different places. This was key in many of my roles - translating between corporate and the scientists. It is important to be able to recognize and empathize in different situations. This wasn’t always easy and especially sometimes the commercial realities of needing to launch drugs in today's market can be tricky to communicate.
Did you have a team you could lean on for support often during your career?
You’re always surrounded by a team of people. Whether or not that team of people reports to you or whether you are part of a team, you have to be able to rely on the people around you.
On the commercial side, for example, when I was at Pfizer, I was part of the early candidate management teams. This is where you've got a compound that's come out of the lab and is in the early stages of clinical studies. At this stage, you've got important decisions to make to shape that molecule into a future drug asset. In that situation, I was one member of a very important cross-functional team. We all had our roles to play. For that, you're communicating your perspective and working very closely.
I learned very early on in my career that individual excellence is great and necessary, but you are part of a team, and one needs to think about how you can offer your strengths to the team and vice versa.
Can you give us a brief overview of your work to uplift fellow women in science/pharmacology?
One of the ways that I got involved was with the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association soon after I moved to New York, and I was elected to the board of the New York metro area chapter. I took the role of the Director of Planning, and I would organise events where members could come and listen to career or science advice, as well as network with industry colleagues.
I have been asked to mentor people as part of my corporate roles. I also have had mentors during my career and have benefitted from having critical conversations at key decision points. It's only when you look back on these moments, you realize how important they were. And so being open to having conversations with people, was key to me since you do not know how pivotal these chats may be at the time.
What advice would you give early-career women scientists?
Do not be afraid to take risks. There is no right or wrong way to do your career. It is fascinating because I keep up with a lot of my peers on LinkedIn and some of them are chief scientific officers or CEOs. My career path was not like that, but I would not swap it for anything.
It is important to be fearless, even knowing that sometimes it might not play out because there is always a learning opportunity. If you're thoughtful about the choices that you make, it may be really helpful in your next job.
Talk to people! Do not be afraid to strike up a conversation with somebody you do not know if you go to a networking event. It might not come naturally sometimes, and it can be a bit intimidating, but if you go online, there are a ton of resources to help. Like some questions, and some openers for networking so that you do not feel like such an idiot when you go in!
Have you encountered any barriers in your career as a woman?
I have never felt that my gender got in the way of anything. To me, it was neither a help nor a hindrance. I was there as the commercial representative most of the time, or the strategic planner, or some other position. I was always seen more as a functional expert rather than a woman first and then a functional expert.
I do not know whether it's because I was just very fortunate, or because of the folks that I worked with, but I always felt that my perspective was valued. I did not have kids during my career, so I did not have to juggle that additional responsibility.
I know that that may not be representative of everyone's experience, but I think it's important for people to hear that you're not always going to run into a blatant sort of sexism and discrimination because you're a woman.
What’s the most important thing in your life?
This is just going to sound a little hackneyed but it’s my family, friends, and my relationships.
Interestingly, it was a few years ago that a study by Harvard looked at what is the greatest predictor of happiness in life. And it was not status or wealth, but it was the quality of love in their lives. I'm very fortunate, I met and married the love of my life. Right now, my priority is to spend time with my husband, family, and friends.
I'm also in my ‘giving era’! Like Taylor Swift in my giving back era’. I volunteer regularly at the Field Museum in Chicago and at a local food pantry.
What do you do to relax?
At home, I love to cook and bake. I'm a foodie, so I went to the King Arthur School of Baking in Vermont about a year ago to learn artisan bread baking which was great fun. Obviously, music is a big part of our lives. We're usually practicing for some show or another. There is also active relaxation – which for me is travel.
What women scientist do you look up to?
When I was doing some quick research, I ended up reading about this woman called Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake. She was a badass! She lived during the mid-1800s and she fought for the right of women to learn and to practice medicine in Edinburgh. The barriers that she had to overcome, both legally and physically were amazing. She became one of the first practicing women physicians. She was also the first woman to be admitted to the University of Edinburgh. There's a plaque somewhere in the University of Edinburgh now commemorating her and seven other women who joined her cause. These women only actually got their honorary degrees in 2019, which is 150 years after they matriculated.
How would you like to be remembered?
Professionally, I'd like to be remembered as a builder and a creator- whether that's teams, whether that's things like the Kelly Academy of Science, and knowing that things are in a slightly better place before I was there.
Personally, I want to be remembered as a kind, generous person who was fun to work with!