Audrey G.S. Sykes
2023 Alumni Service Award
Alumni support played a major role in how Audrey Sykes was able to fund her education at Carnegie Mellon University and, with that same spirit, she continues to pay it forward, giving financially and encouraging others to do so as well.
She is a current director and past president of the Carnegie Mellon Black Alumni Association. In this role, she leads the charge to increase giving to the CMBAA’s Endowment Fund. Using her own special brand of inspiration, Audrey encouraged CMBAA ambassadors to nearly double their goals for Giving CMU Day for the past two consecutive years. She also helps organize and promote reunions and mini-giving campaigns and assists prospective students with the admissions process.
Audrey has served on the Department of Biological Sciences Advisory Board and participated in an alumni panel on careers and diversity in science for COMPASS (Coaching Minority Progress and Academic Success in Science), a peer mentoring group through the Mellon College of Science. She served on the board of the Andrew Carnegie Society for four years and established two ACS Legacy scholarships in honor of her late mother.
Audrey graduated with a bachelor of science in biology with a concentration in molecular and cellular biology from MCS with the intent of attending medical school, but the biotechnology industry called to her instead. Throughout Audrey’s career, she held technical support, sales, marketing, operations and business development positions at various product and contract manufacturing service organizations including Life Technologies, QIAGEN and IDT Biologika. Along the way, she obtained her master of science in business with a concentration in marketing and international business from Johns Hopkins University.
She currently serves as senior director, business development, for clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Altimmune, developing peptide-based therapeutics for obesity and liver disease. As a member of the Women in Bio-Capital Region Chapter, Audrey engages and supports women in life sciences in the Maryland region.
