What is AMWA-MAC?
We are the American Medical Writers Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter
(AMWA-MAC)
Our mission is to promote excellence in medical communication
and to provide educational resources in support of that goal.
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter is one of 15 chapters of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), the leading professional organization for writers, editors, and other communicators of medical information. The AMWA Mid-Atlantic Chapter includes Maryland, Virginia, DC, the southern part of Delaware, and the eastern part of West Virginia.
Leadership Team
Barry Johnson, PhD
President
Barry Johnson, PhD is a medical writer working as a contractor for the National Cancer Institute. He earned his PhD in Molecular & Cell Biology in 2007 from the University of Maryland Baltimore County
researching molecular mechanisms of retroviral replication and sparking an interest in drug development. He transitioned to a postdoctoral fellowship with the NIH’s HIV Drug Resistance Program where he performed preclinical studies of novel antiviral agents. This work was recognized by the American Society for Microbiology with the Heatley-Payne Exchange Program for Early Career Scientists Award in 2013 that provided an opportunity to learn x-ray crystallography as a visiting scientist in England. To gain clinical experience, Barry returned to school to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Salisbury University in 2016 and worked as an RN in Hematology/Oncology for several years.
Medical writing offered a unique opportunity to apply both his scientific and clinical experience to increase access to badly needed cancer therapies. He develops clinical trial protocols, informed consent documents, and other documents necessary for the ongoing management of clinical trials; manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals reporting trial results; and abstracts and slide decks for conference presentations. In 2022, he earned the Medical Writer Certified (MWC®) credential through AMWA and continues to explore new ways to develop his skills and engage with other medical communication professionals. Barry lives in Frederick County, Maryland with his wife, two kids, and their dog.
Vedangana Saini, PhD
Secretary
Vedangana Saini, PhD is a freelance medical writer, neuroscientist, and the founder of Intelligible Scientific Writing LLC. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and a certificate in medical writing and editing from the University of Chicago. Dr. Saini specializes in writing scientific manuscripts and grant proposals, designing educational material for continuing medical education for health professionals, and writing science in plain language for lay audiences.
Dr. Saini has done two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, and Burke Neurological Institute, White Plains, NY. She has published original research, review articles, and book chapters with over one hundred citations in reputed, peer-reviewed journals such as Pharmacological Research, Journal of Neurochemistry, Scientific Reports, etc. Dr. Saini loves to coach undergraduate and graduate students and new medical writers on the nits and grits of academic writing and publishing. She lives in Columbia, MD, with her husband, son, one dog, and a lot of fish.
Swati Dadhich, PhD
President-Elect
Swati Dadhich, PhD is Manager, Regulatory Medical Writing at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, where she serves as co-lead for Early Development Oncology and lead writer for 4 programs. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Protocol/Training Workstream within RegMW as the representative for the Oncology TA.
Swati joined Johnson & Johnson in February 2021 as a Senior Regulatory Medical Writing Scientist and in a very short time has made herself an indispensable asset to all her teams.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Swati was a full-time principal writer with Leidos Biomedical Research Inc. for the National Cancer Institute, where she wrote clinical documents to support investigational new drug (IND) studies and NIH Institutional Review Board, leading to FDA/IRB approval for over 30 new phase I/II clinical studies in the areas of Immuno-Oncology, Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines, and Gene Therapy.
Swati has a PhD in Molecular Biology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi where she worked on infectious diseases and was adjunct faculty at Gargi College, Delhi University. She was a post-doctoral research fellow at the NIH for seven years. She has authored 16 peer reviewed publications, is a member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), has been an ad-hoc reviewer for PLOS ONE, PeerJ, Molecular Biology Reports, and is pursuing her certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).
Yanni Wang, PhD
Treasurer
Yanni Wang, PhD, is an experienced medical writer and owner of International Biomedical Communications, LLC, which provides medical writing solutions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, medical communications agencies, research organizations, government agencies, and healthcare organizations.
Since she transitioned from a research scientist to a scientific writer in 2015, Yanni has worked with a wide range of clients in the global biomedical and healthcare industry on a variety of projects, including but not limited to medical publications, clinical study reports, training and educational materials, advisory board
meeting summaries, and federal advisory committee reports. As a trained scientist and a certified medical publication professional, Yanni strives to make a difference through clear communication.
Andrea Clark, PhD
Membership & Volunteer Coordinator
Andrea Clark, PhD is a Manager of Regulatory Medical Writing at Aroga Biosciences. She received her BS degree in biology from Salisbury University and MS and PhD degrees in chemistry from Old Dominion University. Andrea has experience authoring clinical study protocols, IBs, DSURs, briefing packages, CSRs, and manuscripts. In addition to authoring regulatory documents, Andrea mentors other writers and has presented at medical writing conferences. Andrea lives in Virginia and serves on the American Medical Writers Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter Board as the Membership and Volunteer Coordinator
Faris Naimi, MS
Communications Manager
Faris Naimi is a technical writer in the non-profit space and currently works at the United States Pharmacopeia. There, he aids in the development and implementation of internal and external science communications strategies. He received his Master’s degree in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases from George Mason University, where his research explored the relationships between bacterial communication and virulence. During his time in the lab, he was introduced to the world of medical and scientific writing.
From the lab bench to the keyboard, Faris creates and values accessible scientific writing that bridges the gap between theoretical research and its practical applications.
