Katherine Beaverson, MS, is Executive Director and Head of Patient Advocacy Lead for Pfizer’s Rare Disease Research Unit (RDRU), leading the strategic planning and implementation of patient engagement activities supporting mutual areas of priority.  She is both external facing, engaging with rare disease patient advocacy groups to integrate their expertise into early medicines research and development and she is also internal facing, helping to facilitate alignment among cross-functional colleagues committed to advancing Pfizer science and programs with rare disease patient communities.  Prior to joining Pfizer Inc., she held similar positions at Boehringer Ingelheim and Amicus Therapeutics.  She is professionally trained as a Genetic Counselor, having, spent 10 years at both New York Hospital- Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center before entering industry.   She received her BA from Swarthmore College and her Master of Science in Human Genetics from Sarah Lawrence College.  Katherine is the current Chair of the Companies Constituent Committee of the International Rare Disease Research Consortium (IRDiRC) and a Member of the New York University Pediatric Gene Therapy Medical Ethics Working Group (PGTME).