Tamara Mandell
Director, University of Florida, Biotility
Tamara Mandell, M.Ed., serves as Director of Biotility at the University of Florida (UF Biotility), where she leads national efforts to build a skilled, future ready bioscience workforce. Applying more than a decade of combined academic research and industrial biotechnology experience, she leads with a pragmatic approach to aligning competencies and skills with regulated manufacturing and research environments. Tamara led the development of the Biotechnology Aptitude and Competency Exam (BACE), a nationally recognized credential that provides employers with validated measures of workforce ready skills and expands pathways into biotechnology careers. A champion for learners, instructors, and the broader bio industrial community, she seeks to embed industry practices, competencies, and skills into multi-level curricula to support a talent pipeline capable of contributing to engineering biology and biomanufacturing innovation.
She oversees Biotility’s portfolio of industry recognized, ISO/IEC 17024 aligned credentials, developed with biotechnology employers and governed by a national industry advisory board to ensure rigor and continued relevance. Her leadership focuses on stackable credentials with cross-cutting standards leading to increased career options and advancement across biotechnology sectors. A strong advocate for maintaining high standards while expanding access, Tamara emphasizes the role of validated credentials in strengthening employer–education alignment and supporting a safe, ethical, and well qualified biotechnology workforce. Tamara holds a B.S.E. in Biology and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, foundations that bridge scientific expertise with evidence based educational design. This combination drives her commitment to shaping a capable, credentialed, and forward-looking bioscience workforce equipped to support the responsible growth and innovation goals of the broader bioscience industries.