Leadership Team

John Bucksath joined KCAS Bioanalytical and Biomarker Services in May of 2016 where he serves as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member. He is responsible for the overall strategic direction and future success of the organization.

Previous to joining KCAS, Mr. Bucksath worked at Analytical Bio-Chemistry (ABC) Laboratories where he served in a variety of roles from starting as a chemist and working his way to leading the organization’s technical operations starting in 2003 and eventually succeeding as President and CEO/Board member starting in 2012.    Under his leadership, ABC Laboratories and Morse Laboratories were transformed into a growing and award-winning organization as evidenced by 3 years running CRO Leadership Awards recognition by industry and double-digit growth over the period. ABC Laboratories was sold to the Evans Analytical Group (EAG) in 2015.

John serves on the Missouri Biotechnology Association’s and BioKansas’ Board of Directors. He is a member of the University of Missouri’s Research and Development Advisory Board. John is also a member of the Mizzou Venture Mentoring Program, focused on mentoring startup companies in life sciences industry. John has served as an observing Board member for two early-mid stage biotechnology companies John’s undergraduate education in Biology and Chemistry was obtained from Central Methodist University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Olin Business School – Washington University in St. Louis.

Lawrence Goodwin is the Senior Vice President of Operations at KCAS Bioanalytical & Biomarker Services in Shawnee, Kansas. Business development, strategic planning, portfolio expansion, client-based solutions, and driving key scientific objectives for bioanalytical R&D and LC-MS/MS Services are among his primary responsibilities. Mr. Goodwin brings with him the breadth of knowledge to provide scientific and technical leadership across the drug development spectrum including Discovery, Safety Assessment, and Biologics Testing Solutions areas. Lawrence Goodwin has significant drug development aptitude within pharmaceutical and CRO industries. He has lead teams responsible for bioanalytical programs from Discovery through New Drug Application filings. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the Life Sciences industry which includes most recently Eli Lilly and Company and Charles River Laboratories. Leveraging tandem mass spectrometry, Lawrence has made significant contributions in the fields of Bioanalytical, Analytical, Safety Assessment, Biotherapeutics, and Integrated Drug Discovery. He has authored or co-authored more than 35 papers and presentations and provided over 150 internal documents.

Lawrence received his BS in Biological Chemistry from Fontbonne University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1986 and graduated Cum Laude. His continuing education includes the following areas: executive leadership, people and resource management, advanced instrumentation, and GLP training. He has been the recipient of numerous awards both as an individual contributor and as a leader, especially in the areas of tandem mass spectrometry, data management, and process/work-flow efficiency. He is the former chair of the Eli Lilly Mass Spectrometry group and is an active member of American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and a current member of executive leadership team at KCAS.

Amy Mize is Senior Vice President of Business Development at KCAS and joined the team in 2018. Dr. Mize brings experience in capacity planning, operational management, and a track record of building superior sales and marketing teams capable of serving the needs of the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. She has implemented several tools at KCAS to support an ongoing 12 month rolling forecast, to better understand client needs and position the organization to have the right capacity and expertise to meet those needs. She is also responsible for creating and implementing a program management function as well as improved business processes to create a customer focused experience, to help customers  meet their drug development needs.   Dr. Mize also supports and aligns the marketing effort to increase brand awareness and perception of KCAS in the marketplace.

Dr. Mize began her career at Analytical Bio-Chemistry (ABC) Laboratories in 2002.  She started as a bioanalytical chemist in the large molecule laboratory.  In 2005 Amy was responsible for laboratory operations, as the Director of the preclinical service offering (DMPK, Bioanalysis and Synthesis services).  During this time, the operation made significant progress in process improvement and client satisfaction.  Amy transitioned to Business Development in 2010. During this time, Amy helped build systems in sales and operations planning, to help forecast the business and improve planning.  In 2012, Amy was promoted to Vice President, Business Development at which time she took on responsibility for the Sales pipeline for the pharmaceutical and Agri-Chemical businesses. Amy was instrumental in helping the company grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of >15% annually.  In 2015, ABC laboratories was successfully sold to Evans Analytical Group (EAG), and Amy was a member of the Senior Leadership team during this transition. In 2015, Amy was promoted to Vice President, Business Development and Commercial Operations for EAG Laboratories.  In this role, Amy was responsible for the Sales and Operations Planning function and overall Sales for the Pharmaceutical and Agri-Chemical Service offerings.  In addition, integration and process improvement were key functions Amy helped to support, bringing multiple sites and brands together as one.  In 2017, EAG was successfully sold to Eurofins.

Amy’s undergraduate education in Chemistry was obtained from Baker University (Baldwin City, KS), and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Kansas (Medical Center Campus).

Jeff Goddard joined KCAS Bioanalytical and Biomarker Services in August 2021 as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development.  In this role, Jeff leads efforts to grow through acquisition, strategic partnerships and service expansions.

Jeff brings over two decades of relevant industry experience to KCAS, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms.  Previous to joining KCAS, Jeff served as CEO of AIT Bioscience, where he led the company’s growth and successful sale to Nexelis in 2020.  He remained with Nexelis as SVP, Business Development and a member of the senior leadership team.  Prior to AIT Bioscience, Jeff led global business development for EPL Archives, a leading biorepository services provider.  Under Jeff’s leadership, EPL Archives tripled its revenue, expanded into Europe, and successfully sold to VWR International in 2017.  Prior to EPL Archives, Jeff held global commercial leadership positions at BioStorage Technologies (now Brooks Life Science), Gene Logic, Xceleron (now part of Pharmaron) and BASi (now Inotiv).

Jeff received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Business Administration degree with concentrations in International Business and Management of Innovation & Technology from George Washington University.

Maria Nelson is Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration at KCAS and joined the team in 2015.  Ms Nelson’s primary role involves strategic planning, forecasting, and managing real-time data which allows the company to make decisions quickly and execute with efficiency.  Ms Nelson leads the teams that provide finance, accounting, human resources, recruiting, and all administrative functions within the organization.  Maria brings with her a diverse background of experience in managing multiple aspects of early-stage high-growth companies.  Functioning in a highly operational capacity, her strengths lie in bringing together people and information across departments, and organizing teams in a way that allows data to best be utilized for quality decision making.  Prior to joining KCAS, Maria served as an Executive in multiple industries within the technology and professional services sectors.

Maria serves on the Advisory Board for the Professional Science Masters Program at Kansas State University- Olathe Campus, and is an active member of BioKansas.  She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Kansas, and a Masters of Business Administration from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Julie Deane joined KCAS as Chief People Officer in September, 2021. In her role, Julie is responsible for leading KCAS’ strategic Human Resources vision, talent acquisition, employee engagement and talent development.

Ms. Deane has worked extensively in the areas of Human Resources throughout her 20-year career in various industries, mostly recently serving as Head of Human Resources for Kansas City University, a top 10 medical school in the nation.  Under Julie’s leadership KCU was recognized for several awards to include HR Innovation and HR Excellence from The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Additionally, KCU under Julie’s leadership was honored with Healthiest Employer by the Kansas City Business Journal, The Cigna Well Being Award and Healthy KC Platinum-the highest level awarded by The Greater KC Chamber of Commerce.

Julie previously served as the Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Employee Engagement for Optiv Security, a multi-billion-dollar cybersecurity company, where Julie was responsible for hiring over 600+ external hires annually.  Julie was also a part of the mergers and acquisitions team and participated in several transactions and integrations.

Ms. Deane has strong background in leading the human resources functions for growing organizations. She is a visionary, results-oriented, and innovative executive management professional focused on shaping and nurturing positive, high value employee experiences and advancing workplace excellence.

Ms. Deane holds a Bachelor of Science degree in from University of Missouri – Columbia.

Cheikh Kane is the Executive Director of Biopharmaceuticals Services at KCAS. Dr. Kane, a recognized bioanalytical leader brings almost two decades of combined scientific/technical knowledge, implementing strategic initiatives and technical expansion within organizations spanning from Pharma to CROs. He brings the circular industry experience from Biotech to Pharma and from small CROs to large CROs. Part of his role at KCAS is to define and implements strategic and technical initiatives to expand KCAS footprint in the bioanalytical and biomarkers fields. Prior to joining KCAS Dr. Kane served as the Senior Director Bioanalytical & Biomarker at Nexelis US (Formerly Pacific Biomarkers), where he provided global scientific leadership and technical guidance for Nexelis large molecule bioanalytical and biomarkers. Prior to that position, he held roles at Boehringer Ingelheim-US and Charles River Laboratories in Canada. He is a member of the AAPS Immunogenicity Discussion Group and Co-leader of AAPS LPC Sub-team.

Dr. Kane earned his Ph.D. in Virology (Microbiology)-Immunology from the INRS (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique)-Institut Armand Frappier in Canada.

Dr. Sohrab Habibi Goudarzi joined KCAS in May of 2018 as the Director of Discovery, Bioanalytical Research, and has since taken on the role of Senior Director, Non-regulated LC-MS/MS Services.  He earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University and engaged in post-doctoral research at Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Cornell University.  This followed by 22 years of experience in mass spectrometry-based research and development that included instrumentation, automation, fundamentals of MS/MS, and analytical and bioanalytical applications.  His experience includes 13 years of experience in three major corporations and 9 years of experience in academia.  He has 24 peer reviewed publications in addition to authoring funded internal and external research proposals.   He was a major contributor to a NSF proposal and the principal investigator of a NIH grant.

Marsha Luna is the Senior Director, Regulated LC-MS/MS Services at KCAS.  She received her B.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  She has over 31 years of experience working in a laboratory environment involving studies focused on environmental analysis, bioanalysis, pharmaceutical finished product analysis, and toxicology study analytical support. For the last 20 years, her focus has been on bioanalytical regulatory studies at KCAS, and previously at Quintiles.  Marsha joined KCAS in 2006 as a Principal Bioanalytical Investigator and has managed numerous studies and a group consisting of analysts and scientists. She has recently been promoted to her new role as a Director and member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Dominic Warrino, PhD, is a Senior Director of Scientific Services. His role is to serve as scientific and technical advisor for both clients and internal teams for development, validation, and application of bioanalytical, immunogenicity, and biomarker methods for large molecule therapeutics. Dominic joined the company in 2013 and brought with him expertise in a full range of bioanalytical techniques including ECL, ELISA, RIA, Flow Cytometry, ELISpot, cell-based assays and Luminex. He has 20 years of experience developing and validating immunological assays for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He most recently spent several years in the Biopharma Services department at Viracor-IBT (formally IBT), and previously also worked for Cytogen (formally Cellcor), Eligix, and Streck Laboratories developing novel compounds for treatment of various cancers. Dominic has worked on over 100 large molecule compounds developing and validating PK, PD, ADA, and Biomarker assays in support of pre-clinical to phase IV testing.

Dawn R. Dufield is a Scientific Officer, Mass Spectrometry at KCAS.  Previously she had been with Pfizer and legacy companies for over 20 years working in the quantitative LC-MS/MS field.  She was one of the early pioneers of using immunoaffinity combined with LC-MS/MS to offer additional selectivity which is now commonly referred to as Hybrid LCMS. She currently is a member of the AAPS Mass Spec Protein Bioanalysis Committee (MSPBC) and an active member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS). She has numerous publications and presentations in her field and recently contributed to a white paper on recommendations for validation of LCMS based bioanalytical methods for protein biotherapeutics.

Dawn received her Ph.D. in BioAnalytical Chemistry (Honors) from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, K.  She earned her bachelors degree in Chemistry, (Computer minor)  from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO.