Rhonda Woerndle
Program Committee Chair
Rhonda (Wood) Woerndle is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where she earned a BA in Chemistry; and Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a MS in Biology.
Prior to her current role at Bayer, Rhonda was a Scientific Software Specialist (Monsanto, Regulatory and Compliance, 2010-2012), a Senior Research Scientist (Searle-Pharmacia-Pfizer, Small Molecule Drug Discovery, 2000-2010), and a Research Chemist (MediChem Technologies, 1999-2000).
Rhonda thrives on bridging new technologies for chemistry. At the interface of IT and chemistry, she embraces chaos, champions change, and brings transparency to chemical manufacturing development and support for Bayer Corporation. Since 2012, Rhonda has been a Process Chemist in the Production Technology Chemistry Team researching and developing manufacturing processes for new crop protection active ingredients. In addition, she has been a leader and innovator in the digital transformation for all chemistry at Bayer.
Habitually active in STEM education outreach, Rhonda began volunteering through Pfizer’s outreach network. She has designed classroom demonstrations, participated in leadership development forums, provided mentorship to young women, and recruited graduate students for Pfizer/Monsanto/Bayer. She has judged countless science fairs, demonstrated chemical experiments for students all over the metro-STL area, and served as an UMSL STARS Advisor since 2012. In 2016, Rhonda won ACS St. Louis Science and Technology Award. Since 2017, she has served on the Steering Committee for the local section, and now serves as Program Committee Chair.
Rhonda lives with her software engineer husband and their young child who they are inspiring to ask questions, take chances, and dream big.
