GRACE M. FURMAN, PhD DABT
CEO/President
Paracelsus, Inc.

As CEO/President of Paracelsus, Inc., Grace provides professional toxicology services to the pharmaceutical industry as an independent consultant. Grace made the decision to become independent in mid 2006, at which time she was Senior Director of Regulatory Safety Assessment in Pfizer's Drug Safety Research and Development department.  

Grace began her professional career in Cincinnati as a divisional toxicologist in Procter & Gamble's Health Care Sector (1992-1994). In 1994, Grace migrated to San Diego to accept a position as sole toxicologist with DepoTech Corporation (now Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), where she was instrumental in building the preclinical development group (1994-1999). Grace's first opportunity to explore independent consulting came unexpectedly in early 1999 as a result of corporate restructuring and a concurrent lack of professional prospects within the San Diego area. Later that same year, an attractive position within Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. lured Grace back into industry. Through a subsequent series of mergers and acquisition, the Agouron opportunity developed into the position Grace held within Pfizer's Global R&D division through 2006. In late 2006, Grace founded Paracelsus, Inc. and became its first employee. Paracelsus commenced conducting business as a corporate entity in January 2007. Grace's area of professional expertise relates to regulatory toxicology as applied to development of novel small molecule therapeutics across a wide range of therapeutic areas.   

Grace received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in toxicology from Northeastern University in Boston, MA (1992).  She also holds a B.S. in toxicology (1986) and has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology since 2000.  Grace is an active member of the American College of Toxicology (ACT) and has served ACT as a 2-term Council member (2009-2011 and 2017-2019), a member of the Nominating Committee (2008), as Secretary (2013-2014), and as co-chair (2017/2018) and chair (2018/2019) of the Education Committee.  Grace is also an active member of the Society of Toxicology and the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Toxicology and has held several Executive Council positions, including President, within the Regional Chapter.  Grace is chair emeritus of the San Diego Biotechnology Discussion Group and a founding member of San Diego’s Women in Biosciences.  Additionally, Grace designed and instructed the “Toxicology” classroom and distance-learning courses offered through University of California/San Diego Extension’s Drug Discovery and Development and AMDET Process Certificate Programs (2005-2014).