Anabella Villalobos
Vice President, Neuroscience and Antibacterials Chemistry

Pfizer Global Research and Development, Groton, CT

Anabella Villalobos still holds on to the notebook from her high school organic chemistry class-it's not buried deep in the back of some closet-it's in her office at Pfizer's lab in Groton, CT. The binder, with notes written in Spanish, is a little reminder of her journey from student in Panama to Vice President of Antibacterials and Neuroscience Chemistry.

In her current role, she is responsible for Pfizer's strategy for antibacterial and neuroscience medicinal chemistry-creating greater efficiencies and effectiveness in the drug discovery process and creating a framework for generating quality drug candidates for clinical trials.

What began in a high school chemistry class continued in college, where Anabella earned a bachelors of science degree from the University of Panama. She then moved to the U.S. and completed both the PhD program in medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas and post-doctorate work in synthetic organic chemistry at Yale University.

Anabella cites one of her greatest strengths as her ability to bring people from different disciplines together, to develop their skills, and nurture their talents to drive scientific excellence. For this, she was recognized as Pfizer's honoree for the 2006 National Hispanic Corporate Achiever Award.

In addition to acting as a mentor to young scientists at Pfizer, Anabella works to encourage both women and people of Hispanic descent to pursue higher education and a career in the sciences. She sponsored the annual Career Women in Chemistry event, which connects students, ranging from high school to postdoctoral fellows, with women chemists at Pfizer to serve as role models.