The Foundation for Sickle Cell Disease Research is seeking a highly organized, detail-oriented Scientific Program & Committees Specialist to support the planning and execution of FSCDR’s scientific meetings, annual symposium, Grant Writing Institute, abstract program, speaker management workflows, planning committees, and related educational programs.
This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys managing details, communicating with speakers and committee members, tracking deadlines, preparing meeting materials, updating project trackers, and keeping complex program workflows moving. The ideal candidate is proactive, professional, calm under pressure, and comfortable working with physicians, researchers, speakers, committee members, presenters, mentors, vendors, and internal staff.
This position is fully remote for day-to-day work; however, travel is required for live meetings, site visits, pre-conference activities, onsite event execution, and post-event closeout. Candidates must be willing and able to travel to South Florida and/or other meeting locations as needed, including extended onsite periods around major meetings.
Reports To: Director of Scientific Meetings and Programs
Key Responsibilities
Scientific Program and Committee Support
- Support planning and execution of FSCDR’s scientific meetings, annual symposium, Grant Writing Institute, pre-symposium sessions, and related educational programs.
- Assist with the recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, and ongoing management of Scientific Planning Committee members and other planning committees.
- Prepare committee meeting agendas, materials, attachments, minutes, action items, and follow-up communications.
- Track committee assignments, deadlines, attendance, recommendations, speaker selections, topic submissions, and program decisions.
- Maintain accurate rosters, contact lists, planning calendars, committee files, and program documentation.
- Coordinate recurring planning calls, including Scientific Committee calls, GWI planning calls, speaker/program calls, and other committee-driven meetings.
- Provide written updates before meetings and ensure post-meeting action items are documented and followed through.
- Help maintain program-related timelines, task trackers, and project management tools.
Speaker, Faculty, Moderator, and Presenter Management
- Send speaker invitations and related communications, including customized invitation letters and attachments.
- Track speaker acceptances, declines, second-choice speakers, replacements, bios, headshots, disclosures, AV needs, presentation titles, session details, and registration status.
- Maintain regular correspondence with speakers, moderators, chairs, poster presenters, and faculty.
- Send reminders regarding deadlines, registration, presentation submissions, disclosures, CE-related requirements, travel/housing details, and onsite logistics.
- Support development of speaker tasks, speaker forms, presentation collection workflows, moderator schedules, moderator packets, chair training materials, and speaker welcome letters.
- Coordinate with internal staff, program committees, CE/accreditation partners, and event technology staff to ensure speaker and session information is complete and accurate.
- Assist with collection and organization of final presentations, handouts, videos, and related session materials.
- Support onsite speaker check-in and help ensure presenters, moderators, and poster presenters arrive for assigned sessions.
Abstracts, Posters, Oral Presentations, and Call for Submissions
- Support the Call for Submissions process for abstracts, manuscripts, oral presentations, posters, and related scientific content.
- Assist with updating submission guidelines, deadlines, topics, reviewer instructions, reviewer assignments, and presenter instructions.
- Track submitter and reviewer deadlines and send reminder communications.
- Support abstract review workflows, acceptance/rejection notifications, oral/poster migration, poster numbering, poster instructions, and presentation guidelines.
- Help maintain accurate abstract, poster, oral presentation, author, and reviewer records.
- Coordinate with the Meeting Operations & Event Technology Specialist on Cadmium/Eventscribe workflows, including Scorecard, Ed Harvester, Poster Harvester, and related reporting.
- Assist with onsite poster and presenter logistics.
OUP / Journal Supplement Coordination
- Support the coordination of abstract supplement materials for the Journal of Sickle Cell Disease / Oxford University Press or other publishing partners.
- Assist with exporting abstract titles, author information, abstract text, images, captions, references, presentation details, poster numbers, session information, and related data.
- Help format and organize abstract supplement files according to production timelines and submission requirements.
- Track License to Publish tasks and related author information.
- Support standard-deadline and late-breaking abstract supplement workflows.
- Coordinate internally to ensure welcome letters, approvals, files, reports, and final materials are submitted on time.
Grant Writing Institute and Mentorship Program Support
- Support planning and execution of the Grant Writing Institute, including planning committee calls, agenda development, presenter coordination, participant communications, scholarship workflows, onsite materials, surveys, and follow-up.
- Assist with mentor/mentee communications, reminders, meeting tracking, quarterly newsletters, surveys, reports, and stakeholder updates.
- Coordinate with committee members to collect content for newsletters, program updates, participant reminders, and reports.
- Support GWI speaker, mentor, participant, and scholarship-related logistics in coordination with the Director and other team members.
- Assist with onsite GWI needs, including materials, speaker support, participant support, honorarium coordination, and program flow.
Cadmium/Eventscribe and Program Data Support
- Use Cadmium/Eventscribe or similar event technology platforms to support speaker, abstract, poster, session, and program workflows.
- Assist with Ed Harvester, Scorecard, Poster Harvester, speaker tasks, abstract review tasks, presentation collection, program data, and reporting.
- Maintain accurate program data across internal trackers, Google Sheets, Smartsheet, Cadmium/Eventscribe, and other systems.
- Coordinate with the Meeting Operations & Event Technology Specialist to ensure session data, speaker information, presentation materials, CE data, and app/website information are accurate.
- Conduct quality control checks for speaker names, titles, credentials, session times, room assignments, bios, disclosures, and presentation details.
- Help prepare reports needed for leadership, committees, CE/accreditation partners, event technology platforms, and post-event analysis.
Pre-Symposium Sessions and Sponsored/Satellite Programs
- Support program and speaker coordination for pre-symposium sessions, workshops, satellite symposia, product theaters, or other partner-supported educational programs.
- Coordinate speaker invitations, confirmations, presentation collection, session details, chair meetings, and program support for approved additional sessions.
- Work with the Director, Operations & Event Technology, and Sponsorships/Grants/Exhibits teams to ensure content, speaker, logistics, and sponsor-related deadlines are aligned.
- Track session titles, speakers, descriptions, deadlines, materials, and last-minute changes.
Onsite and Post-Event Support
- Travel onsite for major meetings.
- Serve as a point of contact for speakers, moderators, poster presenters, committee members, GWI participants, and program stakeholders onsite.
- Help ensure presenters arrive at sessions, handouts/materials are available, and program-related issues are escalated quickly.
- Support onsite program rooms, speaker communications, GWI activities, poster sessions, chair/moderator needs, and scientific committee-related events.
- Assist with post-event surveys, reports, committee follow-up, thank-you letters, program documentation, and lessons learned.
- Help organize final files, reports, data exports, and historical records for future planning.
Required Qualifications
- 3+ years of experience supporting scientific meetings, medical meetings, academic programs, association meetings, nonprofit conferences, educational programs, speaker management, committee management, or similar multi-stakeholder programs.
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage many deadlines, details, and communications at once.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience preparing agendas, meeting notes, action items, trackers, reports, and follow-up communications.
- Comfortable communicating professionally with physicians, researchers, speakers, faculty, committee members, presenters, moderators, vendors, sponsors, and internal staff.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain accurate records across multiple systems.
- Ability to work independently in a remote environment while staying highly responsive and connected to a distributed team.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Zoom/Teams, and project tracking tools.
- Ability and willingness to learn event technology platforms, including Cadmium/Eventscribe.
- Ability and willingness to travel for live meetings, site visits, pre-conference activities, onsite event execution, and related planning needs.
- Ability and willingness to work occasional evenings, weekends, and extended hours during peak planning periods, committee deadlines, speaker deadlines, abstract deadlines, and live meetings.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Cadmium/Eventscribe, including Ed Harvester, Scorecard, Poster Harvester, speaker tasks, abstract workflows, or presentation collection.
- Experience supporting abstract submission and review processes.
- Experience supporting scientific committees, planning committees, advisory committees, or physician/researcher-led committees.
- Experience with speaker invitations, disclosures, bios, presentation collection, moderator communications, or CE/accreditation data.
- Experience with medical, scientific, healthcare, nonprofit, association, or continuing education meetings.
- Experience with Smartsheet, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Cadmium, abstract management systems, or event registration platforms.
- Experience supporting journal supplement, manuscript, publication, or abstract supplement workflows.
- Experience supporting mentorship programs, research training programs, grant writing programs, or educational workshops.
Skills and Competencies
- Highly organized and detail-oriented
- Hands-on and execution-focused
- Strong written communication skills
- Professional and calm under pressure
- Comfortable following up repeatedly and diplomatically
- Able to manage physicians, researchers, speakers, and committees with professionalism
- Strong deadline tracking and follow-through
- Able to turn meeting discussions into clear action items
- Comfortable learning new technology platforms
- Flexible and willing to jump in where needed
- Able to manage confidential, sensitive, and time-sensitive information appropriately
Work Environment and Travel
This is a fully remote position. Candidates may live anywhere in the United States, subject to FSCDR’s ability to employ in that state.
Travel is required for live meetings, site visits, pre-conference activities, onsite event execution, and related planning needs. Travel may include several consecutive days onsite before, during, and after major meetings. Travel expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with FSCDR policy.
This role may require occasional evening or weekend work during peak planning periods, committee deadlines, abstract deadlines, speaker deadlines, live meetings, and post-event closeout.
Additional Information
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, or requirements. FSCDR reserves the right to add, remove, or change duties and responsibilities at any time, with or without notice.
Pay: $55,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Paid time off
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
Application Question(s):
- This is a fully remote position for day-to-day work, but it requires travel for site visits, live meetings, and onsite execution, including several consecutive days onsite around major events. Are you willing and able to meet this requirement?
Work Location: Remote
