Jen Stotka

Jennifer L. Stotka (Jen) was born in El Paso, Texas on June 23, 1958 into a military family. She is a physician who spent her career in pharmaceutical research and development. She served 20 years at Eli Lilly & Company in various positions in research and management, and then joined an international law firm for three years as an expert drug development consultant. She earned her M.D. degree in 1984 from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She completed postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh from 1984-87 and then served as staff physician in the primary care and emergency departments at the V.A. Medical Center in Pittsburgh from 1987-88. She did fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at the Medical College of Virginia, affiliated with Virginia Commonwealth University, from 1988-91. In 1991, Dr. Stotka began her Lilly career as a Research Physician. She spent eight years in clinical development, and then 11 years in regulatory affairs. She worked in all phases of drug development. In 2011, Dr. Stotka joined Faegre Baker Daniels Law Firm as a Senior Advisor on the Health and Life Science Team. She practiced from the law firm's Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. offices. Stotka was involved with the award-winning documentary Lavender Scare (2017) about the persecution of gays in the Federal Government during the Cold War. She reached out to David Johnson and Josh Howard in December 2012 after she read Johnson's "Lavender Scare" book and learned of Howard's incredible work on the documentary. She was asked by Josh to collaborate with him, and she agreed in order to tell Drew Ference's story. Stotka said, "My Uncle Drew was a victim of ghastly discrimination. He was a first-generation American; he served as a U.S. Army medic in WWII; he was a brilliant polyglot who then served his country honorably in the U.S. State Department in the U.S. Embassies in Prague and in Paris. I wish to sincerely thank Josh Howard for honoring Drew as a remarkable Gay American Citizen."