After earning an undergraduate degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, Ammon began working in research and development with a company under the DuPont umbrella in Delaware and set her eyes on a PhD. But then she obtained a promotion into the company’s regulatory affairs department and discovered she enjoyed the business side of the pharmaceutical industry even more than the scientific side.
When Ammon started Endo Pharmaceuticals in 1997, there were 28 employees and $100 million in equity. When she stepped down a decade later, there were more than 750 employees and a market capitalization of $4 billion.
Pinizzotto forged her own path to professional success. Upon graduating from Jefferson, she served a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical Center of Delaware, choosing the specialty because “it involved constant movement.”
She had been in practice for nine years when she was recruited by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals to head the company’s women’s health care division for drug safety, overseeing pharmacovigilance (the science of detecting, assessing, and preventing adverse effects from medications) and risk management. Pinizzotto remained in the pharmaceutical industry for the remainder of her career, ultimately starting her own consulting firm centered on pharmacovigilance and risk management.
Since retiring from their pharmaceutical careers, Ammon and Pinizzotto have devoted much of their time to philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. Then in 2017, Ammon fulfilled a personal dream by earning her BSN in the Jefferson College of Nursing—at age 66.
During her course work, Ammon spent a lot of time in Jefferson Alumni Hall and noticed there was no adequate space to accommodate alumni returning to campus. She and Pinizzotto decided to help the University build on its already-growing alumni relations momentum by funding a new alumni facility—the Pinizzotto-Ammon Alumni Center.
Ammon says she and Pinizzotto would like to see all alumni remain part of the Jefferson community, no matter where they live or what degree they earned.
“If we keep people focused on the great education they got at Jefferson, our hope is that they will want to give back for years to come.”