AMWA Recognizes Rona Grunspan, Haifa Kassis, and Thomas Schindler with 2025 AMWA Fellowships

AMWA Fellowships are awarded to members who have made significant contributions to the goals and activities of AMWA. It is one of the highest honors AMWA bestows upon members for service to the organization.

Rona Claire Grunspan, MD, CPI, has been a medical writer for over 15 years. She is currently a Senior Director of Early Phase Medical Writing at ICON plc where she leads a global scientific medical writing department specializing in early phase studies. Rona joined AMWA in 2007 and immediately became an active member of the AMWA Mid-America Chapter. She served as the chapter’s Membership Chair, Chapter Delegate, and President from 2011 to 2016. In addition to her chapter involvement, she has led a roundtable and presented posters at the annual Medical Writing & Communication Conference. Most recently Rona has volunteered on two AMWA workgroups contributing to the development of both the AMWA Value of Medical Writing Measures of Success Toolkit for Regulatory Medical Writers and the AMWA Medical Writing Apprentice Program Framework.

Haifa Kassis, MD, has been a freelance medical writer since 2017. She specializes in continuing education for physicians and other health professionals (CME/CE). Haifa co-authored a competency model designed for training the next generation of CME writers. She is also a regular contributor to Clinical Practice Today, a Duke Medicine publication, where she writes about practice management. After joining AMWA in 2017, Haifa served on the membership committee, wrote articles for the AMWA Journal, and has led several sessions and presented posters at the annual Medical Writing & Communication Conference. She joined the AMWA Journal Editorial Board in 2019 and is currently the editor for the CE Craft Corner section. Haifa is also a current member of the Nominating Committee and the Education Specialty Area Subcommittee. Currently a member of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, she was previously an active volunteer for the AMWA New England Chapter, serving as President, Program Director, and Chapter Advisory Committee Representative.

Thomas M. Schindler, PhD, has over 30 years of experience as a medical writer. He is currently the Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at BioNTech SE. He worked at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, as the Head of Medical Writing where he founded and developed the regulatory medical writing group, ultimately leading over 40 employees over 20 years. He has been an active volunteer with AMWA since 2010, leading many AMWA Workshops at the annual Medical Writing & Communication Conference and contributing extensively to the AMWA Journal. In addition to authoring articles in the AMWA Journal, he is a member of the AMWA Journal Editorial Board and is currently the editor for the Global Medical Communication section, after serving as editor of the Statistically Speaking section for more than 10 years. He was a member of the 2019 Salary Survey Task Force and served as a subject matter expert for several AMWA interactive learning activities.

Join us at the 2025 Medical Writing & Communication Conference as we celebrate their accomplishments and their well-deserved honors!