A day in the life of… Kelly Doering, Waters Corporation

Awareness Interviews

Kelly DoeringKelly Doering, PhD

Senior Manager, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK)/Bioanalysis, Global Marketing, Waters Corporation (MA, USA).

Brief biography:

I lead a business team within Waters’ Global Marketing Group that focuses on the promotion of mass spectrometry solutions to (DMPK)/Bioanalysis labs, mostly within the Pharma and CRO sectors. Prior to joining Waters, I worked in a variety of commercial roles including product management, business development and new product development. I earned my doctorate from the University of Connecticut (CT, USA), where I studied nutrient regulation of hepatic gene expression in mice and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital (MA, USA), studying the effects of glycemic index on body composition, also in rodent models. Before graduate school, I worked in Nutrition Research within the Division of Preventive & Behavioral Medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical Center (MA, USA), where I worked on a number of NIH-funded projects, mainly centered around lifestyle interventions to improve cardiovascular outcomes. I am a Massachusetts native, and I currently live in the Greater Boston area with my husband and two children. My favorite days are when I get to be with my family and good friends, hang out outside, see great music and eat delicious food!

My alarm goes off…

  • Who needs an alarm? Seriously, the only time I need an alarm to get out of bed is when I am in a completely different timezone or I have to get up exceptionally early to catch a flight.
  • I start every day with a rich Assam tea with milk and honey. I love this tea so much that I often bring it with me when I travel. There is no substitute.
  • Most mornings, I am up before the rest of my family, so I have a few minutes to myself. I often check my email to see what my global colleagues have been up to, but I like to do some yoga and stretching and sometimes catch up on the news or LinkedIn before getting ready for work. There usually time to cuddle with my kids while I finish my tea. Some mornings I’ll hit the gym for a bootcamp class, and when it is lighter earlier in the morning, I head outdoors for a walk around the neighborhood.
  • I am very grateful to have a 23 minute drive to work, and rarely do I encounter traffic. This is much different than the hour-plus commute I had for 10 years prior to joining Waters. Some mornings, I take the long way and drive along one of my favorite local roads, taking me past Whitehall Reservoir in Hopkinton (MA, USA) where I canoed and swam as a teenager and where I’ve mountain biked and hiked as an adult.
  • Once the kids are up, my husband and I are juggling, getting everyone ready for the day, doing laundry, packing lunch, finding items the kids need, quelling arguments, etc. It is rarely a quiet morning…
  • My typical breakfast is crusty bread with avocado and cheese or instant oatmeal. I brew a cappuccino to take with me to work unless I get lazy and just stop at the coffee shop!

I’m responsible for…

I lead a team of very talented business development managers within the Global Marketing Group at Waters, based at the headquarters in Milford, MA. Our primary responsibilities are to develop go-to-market strategies for Waters’ LC/MS solutions as they pertain to bioanalysis and DMPK labs in Pharma and CROs, and we work closely with our amazing scientists and field marketing teams to bring value to our customers and support our Sales teams. A huge area of focus for our team right now is in large molecule quantification. There are varying needs globally, so although we are focused on the promotion of the solutions we currently offer, there is a constant feedback loop of additional customer requirements into product development. This is one of the most challenging and exciting parts of the job, as there is opportunity to influence what might be needed in the longer term.

My typical day…

Many meetings, with folks from all over the organization: Scientific Operations, Product Management, Marketing Services. There are always logistics for programs we are working on, but where I get the most enjoyment is during brainstorming sessions with these teams. When you can take a project from concept to completion and report out on the success, there is such a feeling of satisfaction. It could be building a promotional campaign, working on a product launch, organizing a trip to meet with customers and colleagues or to attend conferences around the world. No two days are the same, and I am always learning something new, but it is especially fulfilling to meet with our customers to learn about their research, the challenges they face and how we can help them succeed, and in some cases, collaborate on projects like webinars, presentations, publications and product improvements.

The strangest thing that has happened…

Not strange, but interesting…I have been fortunate to have travelled quite a bit for work. On my second trip to India with Waters, the local team was hosting a group of customers for a 2.5-day event in New Delhi, and as part of the event, we went on an excursion to the Swaminarayan Akshardham, a spiritual-cultural center and Hindu temple. The patio and walkway were made of different patterns of marble or stone, and it was so incredibly hot that when we removed our shoes to enter the temple, we made every effort to walk on the lighter colored stones to keep from burning our feet! We spent the afternoon exploring the exhibits, and just as it was time to head back to the bus, there were such torrential downpours that there was no way we could get back without getting completely soaked. Despite being drenched and exhausted in a steamy bus stuck in traffic, the 30 or so of us were laughing and having a good time. And I remember thinking at the time…how cool is it that I just got to have this amazing experience in India? How lucky am I?

After work…

Most evenings when I leave work, I head home to catch up with my family and have dinner. I might chat with my friends and extended family on the commute. Other nights, I take some time on my own to do a yoga class, meet up with friends or do errands. In the summer, we hang out outside and enjoy dinner on the patio, go for walks and bike rides together. It’s a great night when I don’t have to work once the kids are in bed, and I can just read, write, watch TV and sleep!

I always wanted to be…

As a little girl, my favorite hobbies were gymnastics, dance, drawing, painting and writing, so I was convinced that I would be an artist of some kind. In high school and early in college, I worked in restaurants and hotels, so I had even considered a career as a chef for a while. It took a few years for me to figure out what I wanted to major in in college, but when I took my first nutrition course, everything changed. I became increasingly interested in wellness, started working in healthcare, and I fell in love with science.