Alumni Spotlight: Kristina (Krissy) Manansala ’09
Teachers Who Sparked Inquiry
Krissy entered Athenian in 6th grade and remembers feeling immediately at home. Unlike any previous school, it was a place where she could ask big questions and explore a variety of interests. While her enthusiasm for science predated Athenian, the biome project in Leah Webb’s class was the first time scientific inquiry felt intuitive and exciting. As Krissy explained, “Leah was the first person who made me feel like I could be a scientist.”
As much as she always loved science, math is what came easiest to Krissy. Still, she credits teachers like Tina Nott with turning that instinct into something she trusted. Calling teachers by their first names helped too; it made the classroom feel like a place where she could engage honestly. “It helped me think more freely, ask better questions, and feel like my perspective mattered,” she recalls. She adds that this approach “really shaped how I later engaged with professors in college and colleagues in scientific and clinical settings.”
School was a consistent, steady place during Krissy’s adolescent years, and she is grateful for the many Athenian adults who supported her in and outside of the classroom. Krissy credits her exposure to arts and world language for helping make her the person she is today. Taking French from Elizabeth Bertschi was more than just a language class, it was an immersion in culture and history. Krissy recalls, “Elizabeth sparked my love of language and global connection, which eventually informed my interest in international public health.”
Meanwhile, Sally Baker, who taught her art, offered a kind of creative breathing room that balanced her analytical mind, something she still draws on today for perspective and steadiness.
A Career Informed by Curiosity
After graduating Athenian, Krissy went on to study Neuroscience at UC San Diego, which led her to her first role in a neuroscience lab at Scripps Research Institute. She later moved into scientific publishing, working for an international research journal. She traveled frequently, and that experience offered a completely different view of the research world — not just the science itself, but how it’s communicated and shared.
During the same period, she began volunteering and fundraising for public health workshops in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Working directly with communities and seeing gaps in access to basic resources shifted her perspective. “It changed how I thought about science,” she said. “It wasn’t just about mechanisms anymore. It was about health outcomes.”
Eventually, she returned to graduate school for a master’s in Public Health at USC, focusing on Epidemiology and Biostatistics. At the same time, she worked for a biotech startup as a project manager, which helped her understand how data, teams, operations, and innovation come together behind the scenes. “Balancing graduate school and startup work gave me a clear understanding of how innovation, data, and global health systems intersect,” Krissy said.
Those combined experiences led her to Genentech, where she has been for just over four years. She started as a project manager, then moved into clinical operations for global oncology trials. Recently, she transitioned into a new position focused on biomarkers and how they can be used to accelerate the development of promising therapeutics for cancer patients.
Continuing Threads from Athenian
When Krissy looks back, she sees Athenian as the place where she first learned how to think expansively—not just to solve problems, but to understand why they mattered. The mix of structure and freedom she experienced shows up in how she approaches her work today, especially in fields that require both precision and adaptability. She still remembers the spark of that middle school science project and the comfort of teachers who believed in her and treated her like a partner in her learning.
Krissy’s path continues to evolve, but the continuity is easy to see: a commitment to understanding science in context, a strong quantitative foundation, and a desire to make healthcare more equitable. Threaded through all of it are the early experiences at Athenian that encouraged her to stay curious, follow connections across disciplines, and step forward with confidence when opportunities appeared. Reflecting on this, she notes that those experiences continue to shape her approach to work and life today.
And if she could bring one thing from Athenian into her life now? Focus Days, of course. Krissy still talks fondly about Focus Fridays. “I wish I could still do them,” she laughed. She adds, “The combination of structure and independence is just what the mind needs to do its best work.”
