The 5th Annual Impact Festival

At our fifth annual Impact Festival, this community raised $427,300.

That funding becomes grants to the nonprofit partners closing gaps in basic needs, education, and opportunity across the Bay Area. It funds Project Onramp, volunteer programming, and the services our neighbors turn to in times of need. What a night! We celebrated with 5 Impact Awards with our board members, corporate partners, nonprofit leaders, and people new to Life Science Cares!

Highlights from this year’s Impact Festival

Impact Awardees

We’re proud to honor the leaders powering our mission, strengthening our communities, and transforming lives across five distinct Impact areas:

 

Leadership Impact

Lynn Seely

The Leadership Impact award celebrates an individual and a corporate organization that has played a key role in building Life Science Cares from the ground up through their  foundational leadership and expertise. They show the industry what’s possible through philanthropic giving and community engagement.

Lynn Seely – Dr. Lynn Seely, President & CEO of Lyell Immunopharma, has spent nearly three decades building Bay Area biotech companies and bringing life-changing medicines to patients, from XTANDI for prostate cancer at Medivation to ORGOVYX and MYFEMBREE at Myovant Sciences. She also serves on the Board of Managers for Life Science Cares Bay Area and continues to be an entrepreneur in raising funds to redefine care for women and men.

Gilead Foundation

The Leadership Impact award celebrates an individual and a corporate organization that has played a key role in building Life Science Cares from the ground up through their  foundational leadership and expertise. They show the industry what’s possible through philanthropic giving and community engagement.

Gilead Foundation – The Gilead Foundation have made community investment a foundation of their Bay Area presence, channeling corporate giving, grantmaking, and employee volunteerism into partner organizations across the region. From Women at Gilead service days assembling STEM kits for local nonprofits to sustained platinum-level sponsorship of Bay Area anti-poverty efforts, Gilead’s philanthropic track record reaches far beyond its labs. Last year, the Gilead Foundation committed more than $6.5 million in grant funding toward strengthening STEM education pathways in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Outsized Impact

Exelixis

The Outsized Impact Award honors a corporate partner whose community impact punches far above its weight. Despite operating with a fraction of the workforce and resources of large corporations, this year’s recipient leads in volunteer engagement numbers and is one of our most generous financial supporters. This award celebrates a company where philanthropy and community engagement are shared values embedded in all aspects of their work.

Exelixis – Headquartered in Alameda, Exelixis has turned its clinical success in oncology into a sustained commitment to the communities around it, with employees regularly showing up for local nonprofits through drives, walks, and hands-on volunteer projects with partners like Life Science Cares Bay Area, Safe Passages, and the Women’s Cancer Resource Center.

Community Impact

Kevin Judice

The Community Impact Award recognizes an individual that champions our nonprofit partners and invests in long-term solutions to poverty. They live and breathe LSC’s mission statement and work towards our neighbors having access to basic needs, access to education, and access to opportunity.

Kevin Judice – Kevin Judice has spent over two decades strengthening biotech companies aimed at public health’s toughest problems. He is a biotechnology executive, serial entrepreneur, and lifelong surfer. He was most recently the co-founder and CEO of DICE therapeutics, which was acquired by Eli Lilly for $2.4 billion in 2023. Prior to that, he was a co-founder at Achaogen, Cidara, and Eidos, and held senior leadership roles at Theravance and Genentech.

Visionary Impact

Aisha Baro

The Visionary Impact Award honors the person who has taken Life Science Care Bay Area to the next level. This person is charting our charting our path and turning a bold vision into reality

Aisha Baro – As the founding Executive Director at Life Science Cares Bay Area, Aisha Baro has spent the last five years building and shaping the life science industry’s collective power to show up for their neighbors. This has resulted in $5 million in grants to Bay Area nonprofits, 11,900+ engaged volunteers, and 190+ students placed in paid internships through Project Onramp. In 2025, her advocacy work helped secure passage of state legislation (SB 338) expanding mobile healthcare access for rural farmworkers, proof that her vision extends from the boardroom to the statehouse.

Catalytic Impact

Scientific Adventure for Girls

The Catalytic Impact Award champions a partner that is investing early in the young talent that will shape the future of our industry. They bring the spark to significant change for the next generation. 

Scientific Adventure for Girls – Based in Oakland, Scientific Adventures for Girls (SAfG) is closing the gender gap in STEM before it has a chance to open, delivering hands-on science, technology, engineering and math programming to K-6th grade girls across 23 East Bay schools — with more than 90% of participants identifying as BIPOC. SAfG has reached 12,000+ children and their families, earning recognition as the 2025 California Nonprofit of the Year, and counts Pixar Animation Studios, the Golden State Warriors Community Foundation, and the San Jose Sharks Foundation among its champions.

Meet Our Speakers

This year, we’re honored to introduce two individuals served by two extraordinary organizations tackling the root causes of poverty from education and workforce development to health and basic needs:

Monica is a Peruvian immigrant who has transformed adversity into impact—thriving as an entrepreneur and giving back as an Upward Scholars mentor to empower fellow immigrants on their path to success.

Monica Igunza-Carranza

Upward Scholars

Jennifer is a dedicated Tenderloin community advocate and cured Hepatitis-C alum who first came to GLIDE as a client navigating her own treatment. Having transformed her own journey into action, she leverages her harm reduction expertise to link neighbors to care and builds lasting trust across San Francisco.

Jennifer Croney

GLIDE

The Impact of Life Science Cares Bay Area

We connect life science leaders with high-impact local partners and practical ways to show up for the Bay Area.

Grantmaking

$5 million invested in Bay Area nonprofits advancing basic needs, education, and opportunity since 2021.

Volunteer Engaement

11,900+ life science industry volunteers engaged in hands-on service projects since 2021.

Career Pathways though Project Onramp

190+ students supported through mentorship and paid internship experiences.

Impact Festival Event Sponsor

Thank you to our event sponsors who make this event possible and bring essential resources to fight poverty in the Bay Area. All event sponsors receive complimentary tickets aligned with their sponsorship tier. Reach out to [email protected] if you have questions.

Your Logo Could be Here!

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Friend

Supporter

Check out highlights from last year’s Impact Festival