Governance

Heather Pinkett | President | Term Ending 2028
Dr. Heather Pinkett began her research career as an undergraduate at Connecticut College in the laboratory of Professor David K. Lewis, where she studied gas-phase kinetics. Following 2 years of post-baccalaureate research at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGR), as part of the Prostate Investigational Group, she earned her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Dr. Mitchell Lewis, focusing on the structure and function of phage transcription factors.  She then completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Douglas Rees at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Dr. Pinkett is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University. Her research program investigates the structure, function, and regulation of membrane proteins with a particular emphasis on ATP- binding cassette (ABC) transporters -proteins that use ATP hydrolysis to transport substrates across cellular membranes. Her interdisciplinary approach includes biophysical techniques such as X -crystallography and cryoEM to study transporters and associated proteins from fungi and pathogenic bacteria, including those linked to inner ear infections and respiratory disorders. Beyond the research, Dr. Pinkett actively contributes to the scientific community. She serves as the Director of the NIH Molecular Biophysics Training Program at Northwestern and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Liz Meiering | President-Past | Term Ending 2026
Dr. Meiering graduated with a BSc degree in Honours Chemistry, Physics Option from the University of Waterloo. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge with her thesis on the influence of active site residues on the folding and function of barnase, with supervisor Professor Sir Alan Fersht in the Department of Chemistry. She then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Her postdoctoral research was on the activity and drug binding of dihydrofolate reductase analyzed by multidimensional heteronuclear NMR in the group of Professor Gerhard Wagner. 

In 1996, Dr. Meiering joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, where she currently holds the position of Full Professor. She won a John Charles Polanyi Award and a University Research Chair. Her professional activities include serving on the Editorial Board for Protein Engineering Design and Selection, the ALS Society of Canada Scientific Advisory Board, CIHR Grant Review Committee, NIH Grant Review Panel, and a wide range of other internal and external committees and roles, including as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Director of the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology University of Waterloo, Director of the Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as Executive Council Member of The Protein Society and Chair of the Proteins Gordon Research Conference. Currently, she is serving as President-Past for The Protein Society.

Vicki Wysocki | Secretary/Treasurer | Term Ending 2026
Vicki Wysocki received her BS in Chemistry from Western Kentucky University in 1982 and her PhD in Chemistry from Purdue University in 1987. After pursuing postdoctoral studies at Purdue and at the Naval Research Laboratory as a National Research Council Fellow, she joined Virginia Commonwealth University as an Assistant Professor in 1990. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994. Vicki joined the University of Arizona in 1996 and was promoted to Professor in 2000. Most recently she was Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona. Vicki joined OSU in August 2012 as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and Director of the OSU Campus Chemical Instrument Center.  Awards include the 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, jointly with Professor Simon Gaskell, and the 2017 American Chemical Society Field and Franklin Award for Outstanding Contributions to Mass Spectrometry. Vicki served as VP Programs, President, and Past President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry from is currently an associate editor for the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.