Women's History Month: Gainesville Profile 2: Sue Washer

This is the second installment of our series with the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce for Women's History Month. Each week we will highlight a women in our community that is involved with this year's History Month Theme: Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics.

Today's guest post is from Nathalie McCrate of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce - thank you Nathalie for this wonderful piece.

Sue Washer President and CEO of AGTC



Sue Washer has a “Jack of All Trades” mentality when it comes to leading a business. 

Washer is the President and the CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corp (AGTC) — an Alachua biotechnology company that develops treatments for diseases like muscular dystrophy emphysema and degenerative eye conditions.



“When you’re an entrepreneur and starting a company...everything needs to be done and if you don’t have a specific person trained in that you have to get down there and figure it out yourself” she said. 

"Having a multifaceted background — if not by training but at leastby experience or by outlook — can be a very helpful characteristic.



Washer exemplifies that versatility. She has a degree in biochemistry from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Florida. Washer was one of the first to graduate from the UF Warrington College of Business’s entrepreneurship program.
She has worked inside both the research and sales/marketing spheres of large pharmaceutical firms. Washer has 16 years of senior management experience with entrepreneurial firms and has helped raise more than $91 million at AGTC.



Professional highlights include: leading product development at Abbott Labs chairing BioFlorida and mentoring women through the Innovation Hub’s Empowering Women and Encouraging Technology Startups (eWiTS) program.

She believes 

Gainesville’s community is uniquely collaborative. “We have this mentality that we all kind of want to help each other - we don’t necessarily see ourselves as internally competitive.” Washer credits the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce for fostering interaction and encouraging the community to work together to build a more successful city.
She believes that Innovation Gainesville (iG) has also helped unite our community.

“It was a pretty invigorating time. [The development of iG] was really the first time I can remember in Gainesville’s history when all of the stakeholders in the community were really on the same page about what was a good way to move the community forward. It really was a game-changing thing for our community.”