THE WOMAN

A trailblazer with a passion for pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, while dotting the i’s and coloring within the lines.

THE DREAM

• Assist others in having an easier time getting off the ground and be successful within their line of work.
• Use the tools, methodologies and systems I have created over the years and share them with people in need.
• Find my Ikegai, be in flow, have fun, never be bored and be grateful to my mentors by paying it forward.

THE MENTORS

I could not have reached my present level of expertise without the long list of mentors who, each in their own field and their own way, have assisted me on this life-long journey.

I want to recognize them here for what they have shared with me – precious time, dinners, questions, answers, files, data, templates, best practices, lessons learned, true disasters, reviewed stuff and just been there with their skillset and examples for me to learn from.

Oh … and pulled me out of court …..

                           I am standing on the shoulders of giants

The Hard Ones: Thank you to: MaryEllen Kennedy, Paul Langevin, Mark Huza, Mark Fitzgerald, Uwe Mueller-Doblies, Kathrin Summermatter, Allan Bennet, Randy Kray, Peer Staugaard, Bob Hawley and Sean Kaufmann.

Each of you know why you are mentioned. You have all made a difference. I can never pay it back, but I hope I can pay it forward to the youngsters of the next generations. Many others have also had an impact on the professional path I have followed, but the people mentioned above have provided outstanding support and exceptional mentor ship.

The Soft Ones: Lisa and Pia Bech Mathiesen, two women who played a major role when it came to pursuing my dreams. Art Reade taught me mental methodologies to achieve them.

When it comes to working successfully in different cultures around the world, Fernando Lanzer has been a true inspirational teacher.

Henriette Schubert has for many years been a very dear, special friend and colleague. We share a passion and a desire to make this world as safe as possible. Henriette’s critical eye for detail and content has made a big difference, while I was building this web site and repository.

Dorthe Dyrlund is my graphic designer. In her hands, letters and logo’s take on a life of their own. She is one of the best I have encountered in her field.

THE JOURNEY

Organic Chemist – Vips Halkjaer-Knudsen graduated in 1993 with a Masters and a PhD in organic chemistry from H.C. Ørsted Instituttet, Copenhagen University, Denmark.

Inorganic Analytical Chemist – She got her first post-university job at the Statens Serum Institute (the Danish counterpart to the US CDC) as Manager in the Raw Material Control Unit, with responsibility for quality control of raw materials for vaccine production.

Biologicals – Two years later, she became Manager of the Tuberculin Unit in addition to the Raw Materials. Tuberculin is a diagnostic test for Tuberculosis/

Distribution & Cold Chain Validation – A couple of years later she became Director of the Service Department, overseeing order fulfillment for the SSI including the responsibility for the collection of blood and serum from hospitals, and delivery of diagnostic test kits back to the end users at the hospitals.

Vaccine Production – Vips later assumed a Director position at the Polio Vaccine Production Department and was, for many years, responsible for the GMP production of polio vaccine, and an R&D unit focused on developing a new non-animal ingredient production process for the vaccine.

Building projects – As an outcome of the newly developed animal ingredient free production process, SSI decided to build a new Polio Vaccine GMP production facility to serve not just the Danish vaccination program but also with world wide export capacity. This was her first building project, building a “BSL2 going to 4” as primary project manager, while at the same time maintaining the responsibility as director, ensuring a continuous flow of polio doses for the national childhood vaccination program. Since then it only got easier….

EH & S Certifications – In her last years at SSI up to 2011, Vips was Director for the Environmental Health and Safety Department overseeing and coordinating all initiatives related to general environmental health and safety aspects for human/animal diagnostic/research laboratories and large scale GMP facilities. She was also responsible for the emergency response plans at the institute, as well as biosafety and biosecurity compliance. She contributed with subject matter expertise when new design, construction and renovation of several older production sites and laboratories at SSI were due. Likewise she assisted in same capacity for other institutions and A&E companies around Denmark.

International SME in the Biorisk Management Field – In 2011 she relocated to the United States and has since then been working as a senior SME on the international biorisk management scene. She continued her work with diagnostic and research facilities, lab design, large scale vaccine facilities, chemical safety, emergency response, executed table top exercises, and implemented biorisk management programs, although now in a much larger scale for the whole world.

Certified Core Practitioner through Breakthrough Coaching, Covisioning LLC – Studied under Dr. Marcia Reynolds and became a certified coach.

Dr. Marcia Reynolds is the president of Covisioning LLC. A pioneer in the coaching profession, Marcia was the 5th global president of the International Coach Federation. Marcia is recognized by Global Gurus as the #5 coach in the world. In addition to training and consulting, Marcia coaches executives globally, as well as teaching her programs for agencies of the National Institutes of Health. She has trained and coached leaders in 41 countries, and has presented at a number of prestigious institutions, such as the Harvard Kennedy School, Cornell University, and additional universities in Europe and Asia.