Emily Shutman ‘20 was interested in multidisciplinary work as a Haverford student, minoring in health studies, which explores the intertwined areas of health, disease, and social justice. So, the biology major sought out a multidisciplinary career after graduation, working at ClearView in New York City. ClearView is a life sciences strategy consulting firm that provides guidance on how to solve business problems for pharmaceuticals and biotechnology clients.
“I am working as an analyst on projects to help these clients in a number of areas including portfolio optimization, valuation assessments, therapeutic area strategy, pricing, drug indication prioritization, and things of that nature,” said Shutman.
She uses her scientific academic background to helps clients navigate various stages of drug and biotech development and, then, helps them launch their products.
“At Haverford, I was able to develop a very strong background in the sciences, which will enable me to have a strong understanding of the science underlying the client’s product,” she said.
Her academic background also aids her understanding of the life sciences consulting industry as a whole, specifically in understanding how different pharmaceuticals work. Shutman notes that she uses skills she learned at Haverford for her job’s data analysis and literature analysis.
“Haverford really taught me how to work hard and enjoy doing it,” she said. “I hope to take this type of attitude into the workforce in order to challenge myself to do my best while also enjoying myself and making memories along the way.”
Shutman also credits her mentors in the Biology Department with supporting her “slightly unorthodox career goals,” and offering guidance for her non-medical-or-graduate-school path.
She is especially grateful that, during her junior year, Professor Karl Johnson guided her to make a decision regarding her summer plans that was right for her.
“I had received an offer to intern at the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, but I was also considering working in Karl’s lab and getting a jump on my thesis in case I really wanted to pursue grad school seriously,” she said. Ultimately, Johnson advocated for the internship at Pfizer because of the unique opportunity it presented. “He ended up being completely right, and I am very grateful that he pushed me to try something sort of new.”
Shutman used networking connections to land her internship at Pfizer.
“It was so great to see this idea of ‘Fords helping Fords’ really coming to life and effecting my own life in such a significant way,” she said.
Early on, like many liberal arts students, she hadn’t yet discerned a career path. She was considering going to law school, engineering school, or graduate school for biology. It was ultimately her tennis teammate, and role model, Abby Payson ‘17, a chemistry major, who suggested that she explore the life sciences field.
“I started looking more into it and I thought that it sounded really interesting because I was able to apply my passion for science in the versatile and stimulating consulting industry,” Shutman said.
In the future, she would love to work for a health technology start-up, especially in the personal genomics field. “I am really fascinated with this niche, in particular, and I think it would be really great to be able to help develop a product that I think could do a lot of good for the world,” she said. Additionally, she is considering a graduate degree in business of healthcare data analytics to bolster her current experience and knowledge.
“I am just very interested in the life sciences field,” she said, “and I am excited to be so immersed in so many different cutting-edge developments in this field.”