Kristin M. Neff ’88 Distinguished Alum 2023

Kristin M. Neff
BSc Electrical Engineering, 1988 
Vice President of Clinical Operations, Provention Bio 
 

Kristin Neff is a clinical operations and project management expert with 30 years of leadership and operations experience in the drug and medical device development industry. For much of her career, Kristin has held leadership positions at growing biotech companies where she built clinical operations departments from the ground up to support the development of novel therapies.  

With the encouragement of her father, Kristin studied Electrical Engineering at UMass Amherst alongside her siblings, a sister with degrees in Civil and Geotechnical Engineering and a brother with a degree in Economics. Kristin graduated with honors as a Commonwealth Scholar and was awarded the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship to study Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. 

Kristin was introduced to clinical research early in her career studying new treatments for asthma in a research center. Kristin quickly moved to industry working for Parexel International, a clinical research organization providing services for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industry, where she held roles of increasing responsibility in project management. Kristin then went on to work at a succession of large and small biotech companies working on the development of medical devices and investigational drugs to treat across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas. The common thread in these positions was the excitement and personal satisfaction of contributing to the development of new treatments to target unmet needs and improve the lives of patients. 

At age 30, Kristin developed type 1 diabetes, a life-changing autoimmune disease resulting in lifelong insulin therapy and rigorous glucose monitoring to maintain health. After this diagnosis, Kristin focused her career on the development of new treatments for type 1 diabetes.  

Kristin has achieved her career goal and is grateful to be leading drug development programs in various autoimmune conditions as a Vice President of Clinical Operations at Provention Bio, a company which recently announced the approval of the first and only treatment to delay the onset of insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes in at-risk patients. Kristin is committed to continuing to develop this treatment for type 1 diabetes patients around the world.