Life Science Cares, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 that activates the financial and human capital of the life sciences industry to disrupt the cycle of poverty in communities across the country, has announced that Lynnea Olivarez has joined as an advisor.
Olivarez is the founder of Ticket to Biotech, a global community for biopharma communications professionals, and brings more than 15 years of corporate affairs and patient advocacy experience across the drug development lifecycle to the role.
About Lynnea Olivarez
Olivarez’s addition as an advisor formalizes a partnership that has existed in practice since the earliest days of Ticket to Biotech, which she founded in 2023 to cultivate connections among biopharma communicators. From the community’s first Boston meetup, which included a sandwich assembly line benefiting a local nonprofit, giving back to the surrounding community has been embedded in how Ticket to Biotech operates — making a formal advisory role with Life Science Cares, Inc. a natural extension of that mission. In the role, she’ll continue working alongside the organization’s leadership team to create new ways for biopharma communicators to connect with and support their local communities.
Olivarez founded Ticket to Biotech after 15 years leading corporate affairs initiatives across the industry. Since its 2023 launch, the community has attracted more than a thousand communications practitioners focused on elevating the profession’s influence across life sciences. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Corporate Communications at gene therapy company Encoded Therapeutics, where she built visibility and reputation across the board, media, investors, business development targets, patient advocacy organizations, and employees for a company transitioning to clinical stage.
Earlier in her career, Olivarez was recognized by PR News as a 2020 Top Woman in PR for her work at Intellia Therapeutics, where she executed communications and patient education strategy supporting the first potentially curative, systemically delivered in vivo genome editing therapy in human trials.
She also contributed to communications supporting the pivotal study readouts, launch, and pricing of the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease during her time at Ten Bridge Communications, and has advised a range of life science clients at boutique PR firms including MacDougall Biomedical Communications. Her career also includes leading marketing and communications for the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and running global IT communications for Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.
She is a summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern University, immediate past president of the Public Relations Society of America’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and chair of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy’s Communications Committee.
Announcing the news, Olivarez credited the collaborative spirit behind the partnership: “Partnering through Ticket to Biotech with Life Science Cares, Inc. frankly has been part of how we do things. This has been true from day one. We continue to create new ways to connect biopharma communicators with our local communities, and I can’t wait to expand the impact of T2B even further.”
About Life Science Cares, Inc.
Life Science Cares, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2016 by a consortium of life science executives to give back to the communities surrounding the industry’s hubs. The organization activates the financial, human, and social capital of biotech, pharmaceutical, medical technology, and research companies, partnering with local nonprofits to disrupt the cycle of poverty and inequity through grants, volunteerism, donated goods, and strategic support. Life Science Cares, Inc. operates across five biotech hubs — Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York — and has invested more than $12.6 million into local communities since its founding, focusing on access to basic needs, education, and economic opportunity.
