Amanda is an experienced healthcare and biotech investor, bringing her passions for venture capital, company formation, health + bio, patient engagement, and clinical informatics to the JAZZ team.
Prior to JAZZ, Amanda was an investor at Emerson Collective, a social impact organization/family office founded by Laurene Powell Jobs that leverages venture capital, policy, and philanthropy to do the most good for the most people. Amanda joined to help form the Health Team, where she spent five years making early stage investments and building companies across biotech and healthcare with a focus on oncology.
Before joining the world of investing, Amanda studied neuroscience at Brown University as a part of its Program in Liberal Medical Education where she conducted research in the Assad Lab on the optogenetic investigation of neural rhythms and learning, worked as an EMT, and co-founded a cystic fibrosis focused company that reduces bacterial growth on nebulizers. Amanda loved the patient impact one can have at the intersection of business and medicine through company formation, which pushed her to jump into venture capital and this drives a lot of her work today.
Outside of work, Amanda co-leads the healthcare vertical of the Emerging Venture Capital Association, figure skates with the San Francisco Tremors Synchronized Skating Team, and is working towards her private pilot’s license.
Amanda earned a M.S in Clinical Informatics Management from Stanford School of Medicine and a B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University.
Sally Jenkins, originally from Fort Worth, Texas, is an influential and widely celebrated sportswriter who has been a columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post for over twenty years. She is the author of twelve books, four of which are New York Times bestsellers. Her books include The Real All Americans, a fascinating and inspirational revival of the lost history of the Carlisle Indian School football team, led by Jim Thorpe, who were the forerunners of today’s most exciting NFL trick-play offenses, and the No.1 bestseller Sum It Up, co-authored with legendary basketball coach, Pat Summitt, winner of eight national championships. Her latest work, The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life, was released in June 2023. Here, Jenkins reflects on the actionable principles of excellence she has observed in interviewing the best of the best, what qualities she consistently finds in our most beloved athletes, and how we can cultivate those same qualities in our own life.