Our Story
WiLS began with a conversation that was never meant to end when the panel did.
It Started With
a Conversation
At the 2025 BSMA Conference, four women were invited to take the stage for a panel on breaking barriers and women leading innovation in the supply chain management of life sciences.
Audra Gavelis, Dyma Khudari, Jenifer Arellano, and Nevada Blair, joined by moderators Kristin Ekwall and Mary Yurkovic, came together to speak candidly about the realities women face while building careers and leading across the life sciences supply chain.
Dyma Khudari
Jenifer Arellano
Nevada Blair
Mary Yurkovic
The conversation went beyond professional success. It explored the barriers that can shape women’s careers:
What if we didn’t stop at talking about the barriers? What if we created something that could help women move beyond them?
That question became the beginning of a BSMA initiative: Women in Life Sciences Supply Chain Management—WiLS-SCM.
Talent is
everywhere.
Opportunity
is not.
Opportunity, visibility, sponsorship, and access are not distributed the way talent is.
Women across the life sciences supply chain bring expertise, perspective, and leadership to some of the industry’s most complex challenges. Yet too often, the relationships, opportunities, and platforms that accelerate careers are not equally accessible.
WiLS exists to help change that. We create a community where women can build meaningful relationships, learn from one another, strengthen their leadership capabilities, elevate their voices, and create opportunities—not only for themselves, but for the women coming behind them.
Drive meaningful change for women in life sciences supply chain by creating a platform that supports growth, leadership, and industry impact.
Build a diverse, inclusive, and supportive community that empowers women through networking, mentorship, and professional development—advancing collaboration, leadership, representation, and innovation.
Be a driving force in advancing women leaders in life sciences supply chain and shaping a more inclusive, innovative, and representative industry.
Connection is
where we begin.
Leadership is
where we’re going.
WiLS is evolving beyond traditional professional networking into a platform designed to actively accelerate women’s growth, visibility, and influence—creating structured pathways from making connections to becoming decision-makers.
Connect
Build meaningful relationships and a community of support.
Develop
Access mentorship, professional development, and leadership-building opportunities.
Lead
Gain visibility, elevate your voice, and expand your influence across the industry.
Our Values
The principles that guide how we build our community, develop leaders, and create impact.
Empowerment
Supporting women to grow, lead, and create opportunities for themselves and others.
Inclusivity
Creating space where diverse voices, experiences, and perspectives are welcomed and valued.
Collaboration
Building relationships rooted in shared learning, mutual support, and collective success.
Integrity
Leading with purpose, authenticity, accountability, and respect.
Excellence
Continuously learning, improving, and raising the standard of the impact we create.
Networking alone
wasn’t enough.
The original vision was simple: create a space where women across the life sciences supply chain could connect, support one another, learn from shared experiences, and build stronger professional networks. But as the community began to take shape, so did a larger ambition.
Women needed access to mentorship. Career development. Visibility. Sponsorship. New capabilities. Opportunities to lead. And, perhaps most importantly, people willing to open doors for one another.
What began as a conversation about breaking barriers began evolving into a platform for helping women build forward.
A Leadership
Accelerator
Today, WiLS is evolving from a professional network into something more ambitious: a leadership accelerator for women in life sciences supply chain.
Through mentorship, learning, community, advocacy, industry engagement, and leadership opportunities, WiLS is working to create an environment where women don’t simply navigate the systems that already exist—they help shape what comes next.
Because breaking the glass ceiling matters. But what we build after we break through matters even more.
Be part of
what comes next
Join a community of women building forward across the life sciences supply chain.
Meet the women
leading WiLS
The leaders, mentors, and advocates shaping this initiative from the ground up.