Nancy Contel

Dr. Nancy Contel is a retired scientific research executive with over 30 years of research and development experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  She has played critical roles in most aspects of preclinical and clinical development inclusive of regulatory filings with agencies across the globe.  At Incyte Corporation, she was a key member of the team that discovered and developed, Jakafi ®, a marketed therapy targeted towards a genetic mutation in several hematological cancers.  Nancy has published in a variety of peer-reviewed scientific journals, inclusive of Nature and Cancer. 

Nancy was one of the first women to graduate from Williams College.  She obtained a Diploma of Science in Physiology from Massey University in New Zealand.  Following four years at the NIH, Nancy obtained a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. She joined DuPont Pharmaceuticals as a post-doc followed by tenures at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Incyte Corporation, and Prelude Therapeutics.   She participated in international travels to evaluate contract research organizations for pharma.  Nancy participated in a multi-company collaborative enterprise with the Imperial College London investigating the utility of metabonomics.  She also participated in the assessment of grant applications for the Therapies for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program of NIH.   

Nancy moved to Hilton Head in 2019.  She participates as a volunteer at VIM and has helped with the acclimation process for an Afghan refugee family located in Savannah.  She is actively involved in ‘get out the vote’ efforts locally and nationally and is a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion committee of the local League of Women Voters.