Presenter
Valerie Fenster
Biography
Ms. Fenster, with thirty plus years’ experience as a persuasive advocate for implementing human factors engineering and human-computer interface best practices, is dedicated to developing powerful and user-centered design for combination products, medical devices, instructions for use, web sites, interactive voice response systems, and hand-held mobile devices for medical device and financial systems services.
Ms. Fenster is currently Senior Director, Packaging and Human Factors at Akero Therapeutics in So. San Francisco, California. Since 2022 she has been leading and developing Akero’s Human Factors expertise to support all aspects of human factors engineering, user-centered and industrial design activities. She is responsible for planning and executing design, research and documentation activities to ensure successful global regulatory health agency submissions for Akero's combination product development program.
Before Akero, Ms. Fenster was Director, Insights and Human Factors at Kaleidoscope Innovations, and prior to that, Senior Manager, Human Factors Engineering, Device Technologies at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California. At St. Jude Medical’s Cardiac Rhythm Management Division (Abbott), Ms. Fenster’s design and research expertise helped secure a 2009 Medical Design Excellence Award for their Merlin Remote Care Patient System for patients fitted with implantable cardiac devices.
She is an active member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES.org) and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI.org). Ms. Fenster currently holds a Masters of Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a second Bachelor degree in Humanities.
Ms. Fenster is currently Senior Director, Packaging and Human Factors at Akero Therapeutics in So. San Francisco, California. Since 2022 she has been leading and developing Akero’s Human Factors expertise to support all aspects of human factors engineering, user-centered and industrial design activities. She is responsible for planning and executing design, research and documentation activities to ensure successful global regulatory health agency submissions for Akero's combination product development program.
Before Akero, Ms. Fenster was Director, Insights and Human Factors at Kaleidoscope Innovations, and prior to that, Senior Manager, Human Factors Engineering, Device Technologies at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California. At St. Jude Medical’s Cardiac Rhythm Management Division (Abbott), Ms. Fenster’s design and research expertise helped secure a 2009 Medical Design Excellence Award for their Merlin Remote Care Patient System for patients fitted with implantable cardiac devices.
She is an active member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES.org) and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI.org). Ms. Fenster currently holds a Masters of Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a second Bachelor degree in Humanities.
Presentations
Discussion Panel
Medical and Drug Delivery Devices