Community Spotlight: Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA)

A Conversation with Elyse Blazevich, President & CEO of Colorado BioScience Association and President of Colorado BioScience Institute

With a commitment to advancing scientific breakthroughs, CBSA plays a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, health innovation, and growth within the Colorado bioscience community. We are especially proud to highlight the close ties between CBSA and KBI Biopharma, with KBI Chief Operations Officer, Tony Fraij, recently joining the CBSA Board of Directors. Learn more about Tony’s board appointment in CBSA's recent press release. 

With a commitment to advancing scientific breakthroughs, CBSA plays a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, health innovation, and growth within the Colorado bioscience community. We are especially proud to highlight the close ties between CBSA and KBI Biopharma, with KBI Chief Operations Officer, Tony Fraij, recently joining the CBSA Board of Directors. Learn more about Tony’s board appointment in CBSA's recent press release. 

"I am both excited and grateful for the opportunity to join the CBSA Board of Directors! It's a privilege to support the Colorado Bioscience Ecosystem in their collective mission to making Colorado a top hub for the life sciences industry. The region is well-suited to achieve this, and I look forward to working with the CBSA team to further promote what can be accomplished here."  -Tony Fraij, Chief Operating Officer, KBI Biopharma

Tell us about Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) and Colorado BioScience Institute (The Institute).

CBSA creates co-opportunity for the state’s life sciences community. That means we work to build an environment where health innovation thrives.

We expand access to capital, offer education and networking opportunities for our members, advocate for life sciences in Colorado by creating strong partnerships with policymakers and business leaders, and connect our members to job seekers and job opportunities.

The Institute cultivates and diversifies Colorado’s life sciences workforce from classroom to campus, to career. It was founded by CBSA in 2015.

Could you share more about you and your background?

Changing and saving lives through breakthrough health innovations is my true passion. I envision a world in which patients no longer suffer from preventable harm and death or unmet medical needs and am driven to support breakthroughs that help people live longer and healthier lives.

That’s why I’m proud to lead our work to build a pro-business environment for health innovation and drive our state to become a top five hub for life sciences in the U.S. at Colorado BioScience Association. At the Colorado BioScience Institute, it’s rewarding to see the impact of our investments to cultivate and diversify the state’s life sciences workforce. I am a proud alum of The Institute’s Executive Leadership Program, a career-defining course for life sciences executives.

Before joining CBSA and The Institute, I co-founded Securisyn Medical and led the organization as COO and CFO, transitioning the company from a founder-led startup to a professionally led, commercial-stage medical device company. I remain a member of the Securisyn Medical Board of Directors today.

What does it mean to be a CBSA member? How can people get involved in CBSA and The Institute?

When you join CBSA, you become part of an active community dedicated to improving lives around the world. We provide co-opportunity for members to develop big ideas into bold health innovations, products, and services. CBSA creates supportive networks for members with robust networking opportunities, work to improve access to capital, policy and advocacy leadership to create a pro-innovation business climate and workforce cultivation.

When you work at KBI Biopharma, you automatically become a member of CBSA because of your company’s corporate membership. To get involved, start by joining one of our CBSA Education + Networking events to learn more about us and meet other life sciences professionals in our community.

Also, there are a number of rewarding ways to get involved with The Institute, including mentoring a student, hosting a teacher from the Research Experience for Teachers Program, giving a tour of your site, office, or facility to students, and sharing your expertise at an event or training program, or sponsoring an event or program. KBI Biopharma supports The Institute’s work as a P-TECH sponsoring partner company.

How is CBSA encouraging diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives?

As an ecosystem driving to become a top five hub for life sciences in the U.S., our collective engagement in accelerating innovation through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is imperative. Studies show that in a rapidly evolving global marketplace, integrating diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and viewpoints enables a broader understanding of complex issues and leads to more robust and creative solutions. Embodying inclusive and equitable practices in the workplace empowers people to be their whole selves, which attracts and retains an engaged and impactful workforce.

Our community’s passion is to solve unmet critical health needs for patients. Research shows embedding DEI practices fuels transformative breakthroughs in health innovation, making them accessible to the most patients. The CBSA Board, team, and our members have been instrumental in shaping our DEI, a strategic priority identified by our board.

CBSA just released a new report, Accelerating Health Innovation Through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to outline our investments and commitments to address the educational and industry-specific needs of our community.

Can you tell us more about the exciting things happening in Colorado to make it a growing life sciences cluster?

Colorado’s mix of leading talent, outstanding infrastructure, welcoming business environment, and unmatched quality of life make our state the ideal place to start, grow, or relocate a life sciences business. CBSA and our partners are working on all fronts to attract new companies and talent to Colorado, ensure we have outstanding infrastructure and options for life sciences office and lab space, offer a predictable regulatory environment, and support companies as they seek to raise funds.

I’m especially excited about our 2024 Rocky Mountain Life Sciences Investor & Partnering Conference, scheduled for September 12 and 13. It’s in a new location, Breckenridge, to welcome more angel investors, VCs, and strategic partners to meet the region’s leading life sciences companies. Our 2022 event was standing-room only!

I want to thank KBI Biopharma for its partnership with the P-TECH program, which serves over 150 students annually. The Institute serves as a company liaison for the P-TECH program at Frederick High School, Eagle Tech, which allows students to earn a high school diploma, as well as a no-cost Associate degree. It prepares students for biotech careers and is a partnership between St. Vrain Valley School District (Frederick High School), Aims Community College, and the life sciences community.

Through the KBI Biopharma partnership, KBI employees provide mentorship to the students throughout their time with Eagle Tech, as well as a paid summer internship, providing over 135 hours of on-the-job training experience per student.

We celebrated the first program graduates in May 2023.

Our Partner Spotlight Blog Series showcases many of the meaningful relationships we've built in our local communities. In the coming months, you'll learn more about the important work of these mission-driven organizations and how KBI Biopharma supports the visibility, growth, and impact of these organizations in our own backyard. Interested in learning more? Please reach out to Christina Wright, our Manager of Community Partnerships at chwright@kbibiopharma.com.

You can learn more about CBSA and the Institute, as well as find more information about exciting upcoming events on the CBSA website or LinkedIn page, including the new Colorado Hub for Health Impact, a new national economic development campaign elevating Colorado as America’s epicenter for life sciences innovation launches today. The campaign emphasizes Colorado’s leading innovation talent, central location, robust infrastructure, collaborative community, reasonable costs, and unmatched quality of life as key reasons why companies considering relocation or expansion should join the state’s health innovation ecosystem. KBI Biopharma is one of 22 partners supporting this initiative to attract new life sciences companies, talent, and investors to Colorado.