Toggle – Colleen Driskill

Colleen Driskill is the Director of Biosafety and Senior Biosafety Officer at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, where she has served for the past 17 years. In this role, she provides institutional leadership for biosafety programs, regulatory compliance, and high‑containment research support. Prior to joining UMass Chan, Colleen worked at Pfizer Research and Development in Groton, Connecticut, where she was the Biological Safety Officer for a site of approximately 6,000 employees. In this role, she supported diverse research portfolios and gained extensive experience in managing biosafety needs at a large pharmaceutical R&D campus. Colleen holds both the Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) and Certified Biological Safety Professional (CBSP) designations from ABSA International and is the Responsible Official for the UMass Chan “High Complexity” select agent program. Her expertise includes comprehensive biosafety program management, with a strong focus on advancing high‑containment research operations. She has been instrumental in strengthening compliance within a growing Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) research environment. She has demonstrated experience implementing evolving regulatory and policy requirements, consistently resulting in strong inspection outcomes. With decades of experience in biosafety and environmental health and safety, Colleen brings a strong operational understanding of research environments and a commitment to building collaborative, risk‑aware cultures. She continues to be engaged in professional development, policy interpretation, and the advancement of safe and responsible biological research practices.