Yazmin I. Rovira Gonzalez (Yaz) obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2012. During her junior and senior years in college, she completed a 9-month co-op at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, spiking her interest in biomedical research. To further pursue this interest, she worked as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at FDA/CBER for 2.7 years. Here, she characterized the epigenetic profile of mesenchymal stem cells and was also exposed to some of the regulatory considerations of cell therapy products. Her research at the FDA confirmed Yaz's desire to focus on the field of cell and gene therapy, which is why she joined a gene therapy lab focused on rare muscle disorders at Johns Hopkins University in 2015 as a PhD candidate. During her PhD program, Yaz learned about the professional opportunities available outside of academia thanks in part to the CASSS-Hopkins mentorship program. She graduated from her PhD in 2019 and successfully transitioned from academia to a biotech startup in 2020. Yaz currently works as a Scientist at Shape Therapeutics in Seattle, Washington, where she leads the New Target Assessment team in testing various RNA therapeutics platforms for different diseases.