Shanthanelson to speak at MSSU Commencement on May 13
Joplin, MO- Dr. Monicca Shanthanelson will be the featured speaker during two Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 13 in the Leggett & Platt Gymnasium.
The College of Health, Life Sciences & Education as well as Golden Grads will be celebrated at the 10 a.m. ceremony, followed by the 2 p.m. ceremony for the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business, Communication & Technology, and Bachelor of General Studies.
Shanthanelson is a Southern graduate of the Class of 2003 who joined the Honors Program as an International Student from Chennai, India. Her dual degree in Biology and Chemistry and Pre-Med concentration paved her path to becoming a life scientist.
Her doctoral and post-doctoral work in Neuroscience at Stony Brook University was conducted in the laboratories of Lorne Mendell, one of the 7 labs forming the Consortium of Spinal Cord Injury Research of the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
She studied synaptic plasticity and regeneration after spinal cord injury. Her work is published in several scientific congresses and peer reviewed journals. She will be the first international graduate to be the commencement speaker.
She spent the last 13 years in Medical Communications, designing and delivering communication strategies for multimillion dollar programs supporting pharmaceutical drugs that are changing the treatment paradigm.
The goal of her programs is to ensure critical scientific data is available for Health Care Professionals to make the best treatment choices for their patients. In Medical Communications, she is a recognized industry leader, often delivering talks, authoring guidelines, and white papers published through the Medical Affairs Professional Society and International Society of Medical Publication Professionals.
Shanthanelson has held several roles in pharmaceutical Medical Affairs. Currently she is at AbbVie where she is a Portfolio Strategy Director, for the Oncology Portfolio where she leverages technology to support medical education, communications, drug development and launch.