Member Profile: Barbara S. Fant, PharmD

By Adrianne Resek, Medical Writer, Pascale Communications

Barbara S. Fant, PharmD

Though she went out on her own as a consultant in 2002, Barbara S. Fant, PharmD, says that she’s just “a regular person” who needed and received the aid of excellent mentors along her career path.

Today, she’s the principal regulatory consultant and president of Clinical Research Consultants Inc., 

Cincinnati, OH , and has 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical and medical device research and development. She is also the founder and managing director of Visionary Excellence in Ophthalmology and an internationally recognized expert provider of FDA regulatory services for the development and approval of ophthalmic medical devices.

Just as OWL fosters an environment for personal-relationship building or professional development through its mentoring program, Barbara also recognizes the value of mentoring.

“Probably the single thing I needed most were very good mentors along the way,” she recalls. “They helped integrate me into the business aspects of consulting and guided me to fulfill my goals as a mother, as well as to be successful especially early on when my children were small.”

Barbara started working in clinical trials during graduate school and then moved to the pharmaceutical industry, working on phase I through III clinical research. After starting a university research center she moved more into medical devices.

“I love this area because it’s innovative, and the cycle to completion is much shorter so there is more immediate satisfaction,” she says. “In addition, I am gratified by being able to provide something that really helps people.

“A number of the devices are humanitarian devices that are providing alternatives to patients who didn’t have any treatment options previously,” she adds.

One of the first projects Barbara worked on in ophthalmology comprised a core team working together, and included the vice president of a major corporation.

“It was one of those coincidences in life that we met, and he took a real interest in me and my company,” she notes.

Barbara’s philosophy is that it takes confidence in oneself to have a mentor - to recognize what you don’t know and seek out those that do have expertise in that area. She now mentors several people through formal and informal relationships.

“I feel very privileged to have had and still have good mentors,” she says. “I am always open to who can help me, who can I learn from, and it’s important for us to give back whenever we can.”

Barbara says she truly appreciates this aspect of OWL. She feels that the group’s receptions and meetings are unpretentious events that make attendees feel welcome and put everyone on a level playing field. Technicians, researchers, and marketers all work together to help each other become more successful.

“This is an industry where there are successful women, but there is still a lot of male predominance,” she says. “We need the exposure to other women in the industry and mentoring programs to recognize opportunities and growth potential. We can see how successful women came from basic roots and made it work.”

Apart from serendipitous relationships, Barbara notes another quality most important to her success is not being afraid. All opportunities, including promotions or new jobs, have elements that are out of one’s control and she advises that women not shy away from them.

“There is no guarantee that everything will work out, but at least you went through the process and did everything you could to try,” Barbara says. “You learn from your failures as well as your successes; it’s the failures that keep you humble about your successes. Anyone working with FDA learns to be thankful for successes.”

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January 2012 eNews