CIRM

From funding clinical trials to establishing the infrastructure that drives research and development, CIRM’s work has impacted countless lives, fueled innovation, and helped make cutting-edge therapies more accessible to patients. As the agency moves into its third decade, it remains steadfast in its commitment to accelerating regenerative medicine for the well-being of Californians and the world.

Kelly Shepard

Kelly Shepard serves as the Director of the Discovery and Education Team whose responsibilities include developing and executing research programs that catalyze the discovery of novel disease targets and biomarkers that can be translated for clinical use, and administering CIRM’s Shared Resources Infrastructure, a network of core facilities that provide California researchers and educators with access to unique expertise and resources for stem cell-based modeling.  The Discovery and Education team also manages and coordinates an extensive portfolio of training and workforce development programs to prepare a diverse and talented pool of individuals for careers in regenerative medicine.  

Kelly joined CIRM in 2009 as part of the Science Team under Dr. Pat Olson, where she worked on the initial concepts for CIRM’s Basic Biology, Discovery and Translation programs and developed the initial infrastructure by which CIRM tracked portfolio investments by disease area. Prior to joining CIRM, Kelly applied multidisciplinary approaches to investigate biological mechanisms underlying cell behavior and function, ranging from the regulation of mitochondrial inheritance and morphology to the study of RNA localization as means of gene regulation. After leaving academia, Kelly led an effort at Parallel Synthesis Technologies, Inc. to adapt a novel optical coding technology for use in high throughput biological screening applications. She has also acted as an independent contractor and biotechnology consultant.  Kelly received her Ph.D. from UCSD and conducted postdoctoral studies at UCSF as a fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research.