LTEN Reveals Winners of 10th Annual Excellence Awards

LTEN today unveiled the winners of the 10^th Annual LTEN Excellence Awards, the life sciences training industry’s only professional awards program honoring excellent, innovation and performance. The annual honors were presented at a special ceremony at #LTEN2024, the 53^rd LTEN Annual Conference, held at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Kissimmee, Fla.

Jeff Hartzler and Brittany Pilcher, PharmD – vice president and member, respectively, of the LTEN Board of Directors – served as hosts for the annual ceremony. Winners in 11 competitive categories were determined by a panel of judges. Also honored at the ceremony were the LTEN 2024 Members of the Year – selected by the LTEN Board of Directors after open nominations – and a recipient of the LTEN Field Trainer Scholarship, presented by the LTEN Field Trainer Committee to help support involvement in LTEN educational programs and events. LTEN also inducted three new members into the LTEN Hall of Fame at the annual event.

Awards Hosts Brittany Pilcher, PharmD and Jeff Hartzler (left to right)

The 10^th Annual Excellence Awards include honors presented in five new categories or rebranded categories, recognizing excellence in leadership development; innovative solutions; measurement & impact; wellbeing, community & culture. A new “All-Star Teams” category specifically spotlights training teams of five people or less.

The complete awards ceremony was live-streamed and can be viewed at www.L-TEN.org/awards.

“This was a special year in many ways for the LTEN Excellence Awards program,” said Lauren Harbert, executive director of LTEN. “Not only are we expanding the program to recognize important aspects of life sciences like leadership, measurement and culture, we’re also recognizing the unique successes from small teams, who sometimes do so much with less. You’ll also see a more accurate representation of training in this year’s categories, where we’ve recognized the partnerships between client companies and suppliers to do great things. Some awards are still aimed specifically at each group, but many of them show a more collaborative role. And if all that’s not enough, we’ve hit the milestone 10-year anniversary – we’re all proud to have honored so many deserving professionals for so much incredible work.”

The four 2024 LTEN Members of the Year were announced earlier this year and were formally recognized onstage at the awards ceremony. Each honoree was selected based on their support, committee and involvement in LTEN. The 2024 LTEN Members of the Year are:

• Mike Ballas, global president of Red Nucleus. In addition to sponsoring LTEN activities and events, Mike is actively involved in the network. He’s written articles, spoken on and sponsored webinars and serves on LTEN committees.
• Mark Currier, director of marketing and new business for CLD. In addition to sponsoring LTEN events and publications, Mark is an active participant in the LTEN Charity Committee and is the first to volunteer to help as needed.
• Jeff Taylor, senior director of learning and development, commercial operations, for Harmony Biosciences. Jeff has written articles for LTEN Focus on Training magazine, serves on the LTEN Advisory Council and several committees, and has helped drive attendance at events.
• Julia Taylor, associate director, field leadership development, commercial excellence, Amgen. Julia also serves on the LTEN Advisory Council and several LTEN committees, and she is also a frequent Focus author and has brought in other authors from her team to share content.

2024 Winners & Finalists

The winners in the 11 competitive categories were announced with the awards groups by People, Partners and Process & Programs categories. Here are the 2024 LTEN Excellence Award winners and this year’s LTEN Field Trainer Scholarship recipient:

People Awards

• The All-Star Teams award went to the Eisai Alzheimer’s Training Team.
• The first All-Star Teams (Small) award was presented to the Sage Therapeutics Commercial Learning Team.
• Earning the 2024 Emerging Leaders award was Wanjiru Kimani of ViiV Healthcare.

Partners Awards

• The Learning Content award went to Metrix Group and Roche Academy.
• The Partnership Award was presented to LEADx, The Vaya Group and Takeda Pharmaceutical.

Process & Programs Awards

• The Innovation award went to Sanofi U.S. Specialty Care Commercial Training.
• The new Innovative Solutions award was given to Unveiling RSV by ELB Learning and CHEST.
• Also new, the Leadership Development award was earned by Michelle Taylor, Olympus Corporation of the Americas.
• Another new category, Measurement & Impact, went to GlaxoSmithKline and Unboxed Training and Technology.
• The Training for Change category saw this year’s only tie, with awards going to Oncology Learning & Capability Development, AstraZeneca and Red Nucleus and also to Gilead Sciences Medical Excellence.
• The new Wellbeing, Community & Culture award was earned by Genentech’s “Better Every Day” Nudge Implementation Team.

LTEN Field Trainer Scholarship

• The 2024 Field Training Scholarship was awarded to Brenda Chapman, who led a customer engagement blueprint project for Astellas.

Finally, LTEN also recognized three life sciences training veterans and members with induction into the LTEN Hall of Fame. Celebrated into that group of esteemed industry leaders were:

• John Constantine with Orchestrall, a former LTEN Board of Directors president and an ongoing LTEN supporter.
• Mark Osborne, recently retired from Novartis, who served more than 25 years on the LTEN Board of Directors, including as president.
• Carol Wells, recently retired from Genentech, who served nearly 20 years on the LTEN board, including two terms as president.

For more information on the awards and/or to view past winners, please visit www.ltenconference.com/awards/.

LTEN congratulates all winners, and thanks all nominees, finalists and judges for their participation in the 10^th Annual LTEN Excellence Awards. Nominations for the 11^th Annual LTEN Excellence Awards will open in late 2024.

ABOUT LTEN

The Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (www.L-TEN.org) is the only global 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization specializing in meeting the needs of life sciences learning professionals.  LTEN shares the knowledge of industry leaders, provides insight into new technologies, offers innovative solutions and communities of practice that grow careers and organizational capabilities. Founded in 1971, LTEN has grown to more than 3,200 individual members who work in pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostic companies, and industry partners who support the life sciences training departments.