As the founder and main worker bee at Rhema Association Management, I have always had to push the boundaries of information technology to do more with less. Back in the mid 1990’s it took a team of four full-time worker bees to manage all the details of a handful of growing international societies, their annual meetings, journal subscriptions, membership applications, and dues renewals. With today’s advances in information technology all that and more can be efficiently & effectively handled through a well-featured Virtual Office and someone who knows how to choose and use the best technology for the job at hand. Over the past 30 years, I’ve welcomed the technological changes that have helped to streamline Association Management.
Career Highlights
Experience Managing a Virtual Society Office
International medical and scientific societies have always had “virtual offices” because the staff could never be in all the places where the members, leaders, and other stakeholders are located. Today’s advances in information technology have transformed the way international societies communicate, network, and disseminate their message.
Is the society currently facing multiple-year net losses, or is the membership association technology outdated? Then, a financially disciplined, bottom-line, results-oriented manager with experience managing non-profits in a collaborative environment can help reshape the organization to not only get back on solid ground but to flourish.
Executive Director Experience
Managing Director
December 2016 to 2024
International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS)
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. By transitioning to a Virtual Office, the society has saved on administrative costs and can better focus its resources on promoting the fields of cytokine, interferon, and chemokine biology, and growing as a network to facilitate research communication to ultimately translate discoveries to improve human health. The International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) is a non-profit organization of over 1,000 scientists devoted to research in the fields of cytokine, interferon, and chemokine cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and the clinical use of these biological response modifiers. Bringing together scientists across many different research disciplines, the International Cytokine & Interferon Society is the premier organization promoting the field of cytokine biology, impacting all aspects of medicine, from cancer to autoimmune disease to neural development and function. A common ground where scientists interested in all aspects of cytokine biology can join and work together to improve human health. Please visit the website for more information: www.cytokinesociety.org
Managing Director
December 2017 to present
International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP)
Joan Oefner was appointed the new Managing Director and transitioned the Society to her Virtual Office with addresses in New Jersey, USA and Regensburg, Germany. Please visit the website that we designed for more information: www.isdp.org. 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.
Administrator & Manager of the Annual International Workshop
September 2024 to present
Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) and Related Agents Association, Inc.
With the support of the Foundation Group, and after 26 consecutive years of organizing the international workshops without an official society, Joan and the newly appointed board members formed the Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) and Related Agents Association, Inc., as an international non-profit society designated as a (501 c 3) tax-exempt organization incorporated in the USA. (The KSHV Association US Federal Tax ID # is: 33-2073831). This streamlines the organization of the International Workshop on Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus & Related Agents so that the local organizers can concentrate on the science and program. Joan handles the finances, the vendor contracting, website, communications, advertising, board meetings and elections. The KSHV Association has been 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).
Society Manager, Webmaster, and Triennial Meeting Manager
November, 2017 to present
Tularemia International Society (TULISOC)
The interest and the increasing need for communication, exchange of experience and materials, and training in diagnostics and research methods has led to the idea of creating an international scientific society focusing on Tularemia.
Under the umbrella and with active participation of WHO, a group of scientists has met twice in Berlin at the Robert Koch-Institut in 2008/2009 to develop this idea. Finally, the 6th International Conference on Tularemia which was held at Charité, Berlin, from 13 to 16 September 2009 was used to establish the a non-profit organisation: TULAREMIA INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY – with the abbreviations TULISOC. The society is incorporated as a 501 c 3 not-for-profit charity with the tax ID number: 81-4335992. Joan was first hired to organize the 9th International Triennial Meeting in Montreal, Canada, in 2018. The 10th International Meeting was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and took place in 2023 in Grenoble, France, as a Hybrid Meeting. We are now planning the 11th International Conference on Tularemia, 27-30 September at the Portofino Hotel & Marina in Redondo Beach, California, also as a Hybrid Meeting with virtual participation possible.
Executive Director
August 2002 to December 2006
Society for Molecular Imaging
Chosen as the founding Executive Director as the society’s membership grew from 200 – 1,250 full, student and industry members and annual meeting attendance grew year on year from 650 to 1,250 participants. Organized their annual meetings in San Francisco, St. Louis, Cologne, Germany and the Big Island, Hawaii with each meeting drawing increased attendance, abstract submissions, support from industry and adding to the Society’s financial reserves and establishing itself as the internationally renowned platform for reporting on the most important advances in molecular imaging. Managed the society with a Virtual Office, with both a German and Texas base, until the society began having joint meetings in 2007 with a clinically oriented affiliated society. As of 2011, the joint meeting became the merged World Molecular Imaging Society, WMIS.
Executive Director
July 1992 to August 2005
North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging
Became NASCI’s first Executive Director as the society went through a reorganization and undertook the revitalization of the field of Cardiovascular Imaging by taking the initiative in cardiovascular MRI. NASCI strategized an action plan for the advancement of Cardiovascular Imaging among radiologists through educational programs in conjunction with large radiology society meetings. Another strategy that developed was to familiarize more teachers about Cardiovascular Imaging procedures through “Teach- the-Teachers” courses so that more radiologists could be trained to perform and interpret these procedures. Participants from these courses went on to become the future leaders of NASCI, which remains the leading multi-disciplinary, multi-modality society for the advancement of Cardiovascular Imaging, incorporating radiologists, cardiologists, physicists and industry representatives. Beginning in 2001, the society began holding its Annual Meeting independently, and by 2005 grew to 550 participants as we moved the meeting to the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island. The venue change from downtown hotels to a premium resort, as well as translational advances that were being made in cardiovascular CT and cardiovascular MRI, and expanding our marketing to private practice radiologists and cardiologists, attracted a huge increase in clinicians to the meeting and society membership. NASCI is now managed by the American College of Radiology.
Executive Director
January 1995 to June 2001
CASSS, an International Separation Science Society CASSS
Provided full-service association management and meeting planning for 2-3 international congresses per year as the society’s annual budget grew exponentially year on year. The growth of this society, from what was once known as the California Separation Science Society (CaSSS), to their current standing as CASSS, an International Separation Science Society, is what fueled the growth of Rhema Association Management, enabling me to hire three full-time employees, including an experienced meeting planner and a CPA who are still working for the Society, which we transitioned to a freestanding management model in 2001. Since moving to Germany, I have had the pleasure of planning CASSS’s first two European CMC Strategy Forum meetings (Brussels in 2007 & Paris in 2008) as well as the 21st International Ion Chromatography Symposium in Dublin in 2009. They are now holding meetings all over the world in support of their mission to enable a global community of industry, academic and regulatory professionals to work together to resolve scientific challenges in the field of bio-pharmaceutical development and regulation.
Executive Director
July 2002 to August 2005
San Francisco Neurological Society
Registered their domain, set up first website and administered CME accreditation recertification. Attracted new members by increasing the awards to young investigators, making the meetings more family friendly and providing more networking during the year at local dinner meetings. Added a one-day hot-topic educational program on the Friday before the Annual Meeting weekend, which drew more attendees from other parts of the western USA and southern California. Membership retention and new memberships increased substantially by converting the society’s database to an online association management system. Continued to help them with their online communications, website and online membership renewals upon request of my successor, Amanda Pacia, through 2012.
Executive Director
March 1992 to June 2001
SW Chapter, Society for Nuclear Medicine
The trick with this society was to keep up the industry support and meeting attendance when the society met in unpopular cities within the Chapter, or in a city that was far away from the membership base in Texas. Meetings in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and to a lesser extent, Dallas, were always successful, but every other year the meeting had to be in one of the other states in the Chapter. We managed to have successful meetings in Albuquerque, New Orleans, and Santa Fe, by negotiating really good rates at excellent venues and emphasizing the unique aspects of those venues in all marketing materials. Our key employee, Charles Metzger, is still managing the society which is now the SW Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.