Biopharmaceutical CEO, UNC employee identified as two killed in fiery Chapel Hill wreck
A Carrboro woman and a Durham man were killed Tuesday night when the car they were in crashed and caught on fire in the Meadowmont community.
Lisa Marie Yañez, 50, of Carrboro was driving the car when it hit a tree just before 9:40 p.m. on West Barbee Chapel Road near Raleigh Road, Chapel Hill police reported Wednesday afternoon.
Police and Chapel Hill Fire Department crews were on the scene within minutes, a witness told The News & Observer by phone Wednesday.
Yañez and her passenger, Vaughn Avery Booker, 40, of Durham, died at the scene, police said in a news release. The investigation into the crash is ongoing and awaiting a toxicology report from the medical examiner, Assistant Chief Josh Mecimore said Friday.
UNC-Chapel Hill officials confirmed Thursday that Booker was a technology support specialist in the university’s Information Technology Services division. He was hired as a temporary employee in 2003, a spokeswoman said, and was hired full time in 2006.
Booker’s LinkedIn profile showed that he also graduated from UNC in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree.
Yañez was chief executive officer at Aerami Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in Durham, according to a company news release issued Friday. She joined the company in 2022 as chief operating officer.
A December release noted that Yañez had worked in research and development for more than 25 years at “leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,” including Merck, Genentech, GSK, United Therapeutics and Acceleron Pharma. Her longtime focus was on rare diseases and pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to a Triangle Business Journal story.
The University of Chicago graduate was working this year on leading the company’s inhalant-based pulmonary arterial hypertension treatment into a phase 2 clinical trial.
“Lisa’s career, fueled by her endless curiosity and passion for helping others, was magnificent, but most important to her was her family, whom she loved dearly,” Aerami Therapeutics officials said in Friday’s release. “Our thoughts are with Lisa’s family and her extensive network of friends and colleagues.”
The company’s Board of Directors executive chair, Anne Whitaker, will lead operations for an undetermined tenure. Whitaker is the company’s former chief executive officer, who was named to chair the Board of Directors in 2020.
This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 8:50 AM.
