Good news for Sacramento which has been attracting some smart women to key positions recently.

West Sacramento biotech startup Lipomics Technologies has appointed Dr. Meeta Patnaik, MD to the newly created position of Chief Medical Officer. The company states: "Dr. Patnaik comes to Lipomics with twenty years of experience in medicine, immunology, virology, molecular biology and has developed and marketed over 200 clinical assays, including the first commercially available test for Hanta virus. Dr. Patnaik will be responsible for developing Lipomics' rich pipeline of diagnostic products leveraging their proprietary database of lipid metabolites to identify disease states."

Over at the UCD Medical Center, Ann Madden Rice replaces Bob Chason as CEO. Ms. Rice had been serving as CEO of the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Prior to that Rice was Chief Financial Officer of the institution since 1999. She was the vice president of finance and CFO of the Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, Iowa from 1996 to 1999 and vice president of fiscal services for the Central Vermont Medical Center from 1992 to 1996.

Ms. Rice will be reporting to Dr. Claire Pomeroy, who, just over a year ago, was named as Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences and Dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Pomeroy first joined UC Davis in 2003 as executive associate dean of the School of Medicine.

Dr. Pomeroy received bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, then completed her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota. She also earned an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky. She held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Kentucky prior to her move to UC Davis. At the University of Kentucky, she served as associate dean for research and informatics and as a member of the University Board of Trustees.

And how rare is it to have a women dean of a medical school - pretty rare, but getting better. In 1990 there was only one female dean. As of early 2005 there are 13 (out of approximately 125 medical schools). Most of the women serving as dean were appointed in 2001 or thereafter.

Defying the odds - smart women in leadership roles.
Not a moment too soon!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive