Joan Oefner, Managing Director, International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS)
Joan Oefner is honored with the 2020 ICIS Distinguished Service award in recognition for her extraordinary contributions and service to the ICIS and to the cytokine research community at large. Since she joined our Society as Managing Director in 2016, she has reached far beyond expectations to ensure the administrative, conference, and financial success of ICIS and has devoted significant time and energy to further the goals of the Society.
Joan founded her association management company in San Francisco in 1993 to support international scientific and medical societies. After moving to Germany in 2005, she found it surprisingly difficult to convince prospective new clients that a virtual business model is the most efficient and responsive way to support the missions and goals of international non-profit scientific and medical societies. Past-President Nancy Reich and the ICIS Council, however, had no issues with this concept and boldly hired Joan’s “Virtual Office”.
Joan received her Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, in 1982 from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She obtained the CAE (certified association executive) designation in November 1998 from the American Society of Association Executives. She is not a scientist but loves working with scientists and even married her favorite one, Peter Oefner, who is Chair of the Department of Functional Genomics, Institute of Functional Genomics at the University of Regensburg (thus the move to Germany).
Managing Non-Profit Scientific & Medical Societies and their International Conferences since 1992.
Accomplished Association Executive driven to manage costs and establish strategic, mutually beneficial alliances with all stakeholders as well as other organizations with allied missions. High-energy, results-oriented leader with an entrepreneurial attitude and team spirit.
Robert StevensonManaging Director at Abacus Group Our situation at CASSS was dire. Under Joan’s leadership, Rhema took over and saved the society from almost certain bankruptcy. Joan’s outgoing personality, wisdom and drive all combined to make the turn-around exciting and fun. Plus, we kept her two best employees when she relocated to Regensburg. They are with us still. I recommend Rhema and Joan for any society that needs competent, energetic management with a respectful soft touch and big smile. She will not let you down.
Norbert Wilke, MD, FACCDirector, Chairman, CEO Mrs. Joan Oefner is one of the brightest Executive directors I have worked with. Her passion for the job at hand and profound knowledge of the business, makes her an asset for anybody, who wants to grow an organization or business. Excellent personality and outstanding character is recognized by everybody who had or will have the pleasure to collaborate with her. I therefore can only highly recommend her organizational skills and her exceptional leadership qualities.
Robyn Young, MDPast President Joan has served the SF Neurological Society as executive director and then as communications director for many years (1995 is a guess as she started before I came on the board). She helped draft bylaws, arranged for the organization to become a 501c6 and took the society through the process of being certified to provide CME (educational credit). She continues to manage our website and design and send mailings and email blasts for meetings She is extremely knowledgeable, efficient, dedicated, trustworthy, reliable, creative and a really nice person. She has always had our backs and I hope that she will continue to do so, whatever her principle project is.
Cytokines 2023: final day, at the Divani Caravel Hotel, Athens, Greece. Highlighting the scientific presentations and discussion, engaging poster session and gala dinner condensed into a 3 minute video. Wednesday …
Visit the Website We welcome you to participate in the premier international meeting on ‘Cytokines’ that takes place worldwide and is regularly attended by 750-1,000 participants. The 11th edition comes …
Society Announcement Joan Saluzzi-Oefner, Managing Director, International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS)Joan Oefner is honored with the 2020 ICIS Distinguished Service award in recognition for her extraordinary contributions and service …
After conducting an exhaustive search for a Virtual Meeting Platform, including participating in numerous demos and virtual meeting for other scientific societies, the ICIS decided to partner with LabRoots to …
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