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Joan Oefner, Founder, Association Manager & Meeting Planner
Joan Oefner, Managing Director, and Julian Piskula, Project Manager at WMA, checking up on the Opening Session of Cytokines 2023 in Athens
Joan Oefner (L), Managing Director, and Julian Piskula, Project Manager at WMA, checking up on the Opening Session of Cytokines 2023 in Athens
Joan Oefner (R), at the ICIS tabletop at Cytokines 2023 in Athens assisting our Pfizer and Lilly representatives.
Joan Oefner (R), at the ICIS tabletop at Cytokines 2023 in Athens assisting our Pfizer and Lilly representatives.
ICIS-Joan Oefner Travel Award for Student & Postdoc Members attending the Cytokines Annual Meetings
Joan Oefner awarded a named Travel Award for future trainees upon her retirement from ICIS
Joan Oefner achieved the certified association executive (CAE) designation in November 1998 from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
Joan Oefner was honored with the 2020 Cytokine Society Distinguished Service Award

Managing international scientific and medical societies and their conferences since 1993

ICIS Awards:

2024 – ICIS-Joan Oefner Travel Award for Trainees: Named in honor of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) retiring Managing Director, whose dedication drove the society’s growth. This award will carry her legacy forward by supporting future leaders in cytokine research. Source: https://cytokinesociety.org/joan-oefner-travel-award/

2020 ICIS Distinguished Service Award in recognition for extraordinary contributions and service to the ICIS and to the cytokine research community at large. Source: https://cytokinesociety.org/2020/09/28/2020-icis-distinguished-service-award/

Societies we have worked for:

SW Chapter, Society of Nuclear Medicine SWC, SNM (now the Southwestern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging SWC-SNMMI) 

North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI)

California Separation Science Society (CaSSS) (now CASSS, an International Separation Science Society), launching the first Well Characterized Biotechnology Pharmaceuticals (WCBP) in 1996 

Society for Molecular Imaging (SMI) (now the World Molecular Imaging Society WMIS) 

San Francisco Neurological Society

Meet the Newest Member of our Team!

Joan Oefner (L), Hannah Oefner, MA (R), at the ISDP 2025 in San Diego, USA

Hannah Oefner, MA

  • Event Assistant –
  • Event Assistant –
  • Check in Agent –

Education

  •  MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® –
  • Pepperdine Graziadio Business School –
 
  • FH Kufstein Tirol – University of Applied Sciences –
CURRENT & RECENT Managing Director clients:
Managing Director

From December 2016 – December 2024 International Cytokine & Interferon Society (formerly ISICR and ICS), Joan, and her Virtual Office, replaced the staff at the FASEB campus in Bethesda, MD which had managed the ISICR and then the merged society since 1996. Membership subsequently grew from 600 – 1,2000 international members across different research disciplines, with annual meeting participation ranging from 750 – 1,200 participants. ICIS is the premier organization promoting the field of cytokine biology, impacting all aspects of medicine and leading to new treatments in autoimmune diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and inflammation. Please visit the society’s websites designed by Rhema Association Management:

Awards:

2024: New Student/Postdoc Travel Award Named after Retiring Managing Director, Joan Oefner READ MORE

2020 ICIS Distinguished Service Award goes to ICIS Managing Director, Joan Saluzzi-Oefner READ MORE

Managing Director

Since December 2017 – International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP), Joan’ Virtual Office took over the management and Annual Meeting organization. Please visit the website we designed for more information: www.isdp.org. The first order of business was to set up a fully integrated, responsive online association management system using www.i4a.com for membership, meeting registration, abstract submission, and awards applications. We are using OxfordAbstracts for the online abstracts, program, attendee networking and ePosters. The International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) is an international non-profit organization which encourages research on the development of behavior in all organisms including man, with special attention to the effects of biological factors operating at any level of organization. The society holds annual meetings to facilitate communication of research results and theory in the area of Developmental Psychobiology. The ISDP strongly supports and encourages young scientists with travel awards, networking and meeting events designed specifically for the students.

Join the newly formed Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) and Related Agents Association, Inc., an international non-profit organization (501 c 3 application pending), established for the purpose of promoting research related to KSHV, a cancer-causing herpesvirus, and related viruses by bringing researchers together once a year to share developments leading to discovery of new and better approaches for treating and preventing malignancies or lymphoproliferative disorders, including Kaposi’s sarcoma, pleural effusion lymphoma, multicentric Castleman’s disease, and an inflammatory disorder, KSHV-inflammatory cytokine syndrome (KICS).
Join the newly formed Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) and Related Agents Association, Inc., an international non-profit organization (501 c 3 application pending), established for the purpose of promoting research related to KSHV, a cancer-causing herpesvirus, and related viruses by bringing researchers together once a year to share developments leading to discovery of new and better approaches for treating and preventing malignancies or lymphoproliferative disorders, including Kaposi’s sarcoma, pleural effusion lymphoma, multicentric Castleman’s disease, and an inflammatory disorder, KSHV-inflammatory cytokine syndrome (KICS).

 

2026 CONFERENCES:

2025 CONFERENCES:

PAST CONFERENCES:

Networking Lounge trying to bring the in-person and virtual participants together (not so easy….)

 

MORE PAST CONFERENCES PRE-COVID-19:

 

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