Careers in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Alumni and former College of Public Health staff will discuss the application of public health training in the pharmaceutical industry.

Panelists include: 

• Alexandria Kachurak ’13, ’15, associate director in the Center for Observational and Real World Evidence at Merck
• Matthew Phillips ’13, ’15, associate director of research management in Global Medical and Value Capabilities at Merck 
• Jacque Spitzer, associate director of research management in Global Medical and Value Capabilities at Merck

About the speakers

Alexandria Kachurak is an associate director in the Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence (CORE) at Merck. She holds an MS in epidemiology and a BS in public health, both from the College of Public Health. Prior to her appointment at Merck, she was a senior research associate at the college’s Center for Obesity Research and Education for five years, where she managed observational and experimental studies that focused on child eating behaviors. In her current position, she is responsible for managing, tracking and supporting the quality components of observational/non-interventional research studies. 

Matt Phillips is an associate director of research management in Global Medical and Value Capabilities (GMVC) at Merck. He has an MPH in social and behavioral sciences and a BS in public health, both from the College of Public Health. Prior to joining Merck, he worked as a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania, supporting the evaluation of statewide obesity prevention programs and the implementation of community-level healthy eating initiatives. He currently serves as the team lead for the Oncology Real-world Evidence Operations Team and as the Global Business Programs lead for the Merck Next Gen Network, a global employee resource group for intergenerational networking and development. 

Jacque Spitzer is an associate director of research management in Global Value and Medical Capabilities at Merck. She holds an MSEd in psychological services from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado. Prior to her position at Merck, Jacque most recently worked as a senior project director at Temple University’s College of Public Health supporting several research studies focused on health psychology, including those investigating bariatric surgery and traumatic brain injury. In her role at Merck, Jacque provides operational support of observational/non-interventional research focused on vaccine development.