Shabnam Eghbali (C’17, W‘17)

Email: Feel free to contact Shabnam at shabnam.eghbali1@gmail.com. 

What did you study at Penn and when did you graduate? 

I was in the Vagelos Life Sciences and Management, or LSM, program, where I studied Biology in the College and Finance in Wharton. I graduated in 2017. 

What were you involved in as an undergrad?

I was involved in research, specifically immuno-oncology research. I spent the most amount of time on the boards of both the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project and Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club. Lastly, I worked on the consulting team for the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society. 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would tell my undergraduate self to not be so stressed out because it all works out in the end. Grades aren’t everything and keep an open mind. Now is a great time to explore other disciplines through classes or interest groups. Penn has so many opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. Your undergraduate years are the only protected years of your life that you have to explore your true interests. 

What did you do after graduation from LSM?

My career since graduating from Penn has been largely shaped by the experiences and internships I had at Penn. I had spent my sophomore summer doing an internship on the research & development team at Kite Pharma in Santa Monica, CA. Kite Pharma was one of the first companies to develop CAR T-cell therapy for hematologic malignancies. This internship was in 2015, and this experience piqued my interest in biotech at large as well as in a career in medicine. I spent my junior summer in biotech mergers & acquisitions at Centerview Partners in San Francisco, CA. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there and was fortunate to be given an offer to return full-time. I spent a few years at Centerview Partners where I learned a tremendous amount about the nuances of drug development in different therapeutic areas and was able to interface with very successful scientists and biotech executives. While the experience solidified my interest in a career in biotech, I realized two things: (1) that I wanted to be on the other side of the table as an operator, as a biotech executive and (2) that I wanted to interface more with the patients that would ultimately benefit from the industry’s efforts in research & development. This requires advanced scientific or clinical training, so I decided to go back to school. Currently, I am in my final year of medical school at Weill Cornell in New York City. In terms of next steps, I am pursuing internal medicine residency (I will find out which program in mid-March!) followed by an oncology fellowship. 

For students who may be interested in the healthcare space, would you say a degree in biology or chemistry is needed? 

To be in the healthcare space more broadly, whether in more technical roles like medicine or more business/finance roles, having a passion for the science and basic understanding of the terminology are foundational. But this doesn’t require a biology or chemistry degree. For medicine specifically, I have colleagues that have graduated from Wharton or majored in another non-science field like English to go on and have successful careers in various areas of medicine. As long as you complete the pre-med requirements, you can attend medical school. Medicine requires you to exercise your creativity and expand/challenge your perspectives on a daily basis. Whatever you major in, you are trained to think a certain way and that different way of thinking is appreciated in medicine.

What has been the biggest challenge of your career?

I think many LSM students and graduates grapple with the concept of always straddling the fence separating the science and business worlds. Some of my colleagues have firmly landed on the business or science sides, but I find myself constantly being pulled to either side. The reality is that as you progress in your career, you need to start eliminating options to narrow down to the foundation of your career. Because I find both business and science fascinating, I find it challenging to eliminate aspects of one or the other.

What has been your biggest accomplishment?

It’s hard to point to one thing, but quite frankly, I am very proud of how far I have come in my career coming from a modest background where I was first in my family to graduate from college–let alone an Ivy League with two degrees–and now will be the first physician in my family. My grandma and mother both wanted to be doctors, but because of the political and social climate in Iran were unable to, so to be able to make them proud in this way is truly amazing.

Another accomplishment I am proud of is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit I founded with my colleagues from LSM called Theia (theiahc.org). It is a platform for early career women who are interested in leveraging their skills to effect change in healthcare through entrepreneurship. We have networking sessions, a mentorship program, a podcast, and are building a framework for company building. It has grown over the past two and a half years where we have over 500 women as part of the network. This has been a passion project of mine, and I am really proud of the execution and how far we have come. 

What do you like to do in your free time?

Being in New York City, I treat it as my playground. I love going to new restaurants and bars - of the top 50 bars in the world, six of them are in New York City and I’ve been to five of them. I have a list of bagel shops and another list of ice cream shops that I have been tackling over the past few years. Of course, I try to balance this with working out - basketball, weightlifting, boxing. I love listening to live music so I’ll often try to go to SoFar Sounds concerts. It’s a concert series available in cities all around the world featuring 2-4 local artists. You buy tickets in advance, but you don’t know the exact location or who is performing. About 24 hours before the concert, they reveal the location and upon arrival the performers are announced. It is a great way to not only uncover hidden talent but to also explore different neighborhoods and cool venues.