GENE EDITING INSTITUTE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Founder and Retired Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc
• President of the Generic Pharmaceutical Business Unit of the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company
• Retired CEO and Chair, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Carol A. Ammon is the founder and retired chief executive officer and chairman of Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Chadds Ford, Penn. In May 2005, Ms. Ammon retired as CEO after serving in that position since 1997. Before she founded Endo Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Ammon spent 23 years in the pharmaceutical division of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company where she served in positions of increasing responsibility across research and development, finance, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. In 1993, Ms. Ammon was appointed president of the generic pharmaceutical business unit of the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, the pharmaceutical joint venture of DuPont and Merck and Company, Inc. In 1996, she was named president of the U.S. Pharmaceuticals Division of DuPont Merck. As president, she was responsible for a significant share of DuPont Merck's corporate revenue and earnings. Ms. Ammon was named the CEO of the Year in 2004 by the Eastern Technology Council, an organization of 800 technology and life sciences companies in the Philadelphia region. The award recognizes a recipient's leadership qualities, impact in the company's industry and/or market, achievement of financial and other significant milestones, success in executing an operating strategy, and community industry involvement. Under her leadership, Endo also was the Eastern Technology Council's Company of the Year in 2003. Ms. Ammon also received the 2003 Greater Philadelphia Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Health Sciences category. Ms. Ammon was chosen as the winner of the 2005 Paradigm Award and received the Woman of Spirit Award from the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Ms. Ammon is the 2018 recipient of the Pete DuPont Freedom Award. Ms. Ammon was named an Innovator of the Year by Jefferson University in 2022. She is a former chair of the Myeloma Center Advisory Board; a trustee of Christiana Care Health System and The University of Delaware; former vice president of the board of trustees of the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Del.; and a former member of the Harvard Healthcare Advisory Board. Ms. Ammon is also a Director at Sustained Therapeutics, a clinical stage company in British Columbia, Canada. A native of New Hyde Park, N.Y., Ms. Ammon earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Central Connecticut State University. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Adelphi University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in 1995. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa from Adelphi University in May of 2010 and an honorary Doctor of Science from Central Connecticut State University in 2009. Ammon pursued a new brand of philanthropy in 2018 when she enrolled at the Jefferson College of Nursing in Philadelphia where she earned degrees in Nursing. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice at Jefferson College in 2021 and continues to perform services on behalf of vulnerable populations.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Center for Special Health Care Needs, ChristianaCare
• Internal Medicine Specialist
• Medical Director of the Mary Campbell Center

Dr. Charmaine Smith Wright is an Internal Medicine Specialist and has over 18 years of experience in the medical field. She is the inaugural medical director of ChristianaCare's Center for Special Health Care Needs, which is the only center in the greater Delaware area dedicated to providing primary care for adults ages 18 and older with complex medical and social conditions that originated in childhood. Dr. Wright oversees a team of medical experts who focus on guiding patients through the transition from pediatrics to adult medicine. Dr. Wright is the Medical Director of the Mary Campbell Center and is on the Easter Seals of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore Board of Directors. Dr. Wright earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 2003 and completed her residency at Brigham & Women's Hospital in 2007. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. She received a Master of Science in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Biology from Harvard University.

Job Titles:

• Chief Scientific Officer
• Executive Director

Eric B. Kmiec, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Gene Editing Institute (GEI) at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute at ChristianaCare. The Gene Editing Institute has recently been endowed by the Ammon Foundation. His research centers on understanding the process of gene repair and gene editing with a focus on CRISPR-directed genome engineering in human cells. He is widely recognized for his pioneering work in the fields of molecular medicine and gene editing having discovered many of the molecular activities that regulate the efficiency of human gene editing. Throughout his professional career, Dr. Kmiec has led research teams in developing gene editing technologies and genetic therapies for inherited disorders such as Sickle Cell Disease and Criglar-Najar Disease. The Institute is now heavily focused on developing CRISPR-based gene editing approaches for solid tumors with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung and esophageal cancer as the initial targets. These clinical programs are now advancing through the FDA approval process. Dr. Kmiec received his BA in Microbiology from Rutgers University, MS in Cell Biology from Southern Illinois University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the University of Florida School of Medicine. His Post-doctoral training was done at University of Rochester. Dr. Kmiec holds faculty appointments at the University of Delaware and the Wistar Institute. He has also held faculty appointments at Thomas Jefferson University, University of California at Davis, and Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Kmiec has served as the Principal Investigator for research projects supported by the National Institute of Health (R01, COBRE and R21 grants), the National Science Foundation, the NIST-BIRD Foundation, the March of Dimes, the State of Delaware, and the American Cancer Society for over 35 years. He serves on numerous editorial boards, has authored 165 peer-reviewed publications as primary or senior author, numerous reviews and has edited several books and journals in gene therapy. Dr. Kmiec has been the primary thesis mentor for 18 Ph.D. students, 4 MS students and numerous postdoctoral fellows and residents. He has held or holds major administrative posts on various NIH regional and State biomedical research grants, including IDeA Network of Biomedical Research (INBRE) and Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) as well as NIH study sections. Dr. Kmiec was also honored as the Eminent Scholar in residence at Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia) in 2009-2011 and was elected as an Honorary Medical Commander of the 436th Air Wing at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware for in 2013 and again in 2014. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief for the journal Gene & Genome Editing. Dr. Kmiec has 15 issued patents, has founded two biotechnology companies and has received numerous service medals and awards, including the Genome Canada Lectureship, the Proudford Research Award in Sickle Cell Disease, multiple Delaware Bio Science Innovation Awards, and the Philadelphia- Israeli Chamber of Commerce Life Science Innovator Award.

Job Titles:

• Director of Corporate Partnerships for Zip Code Wilmington

Lossie Freeman is the Director of Corporate Partnerships for Zip Code Wilmington, the first non-profit coding bootcamp in Delaware. She is responsible for driving new corporate relationships and other strategic partnerships, and cultivating existing corporate relationships, with ultimate responsibility for helping to place Zip Code graduates in paid technology jobs. Prior to that, she worked as Special Assistant to Mayor Mike Purzycki, Wilmington Delaware, where she was responsible for the Employment Initiatives and the development of an employment infrastructure for the recruitment, training, and placement of the city's unemployed residents.

Job Titles:

• President of the Delaware BioScience Association
• President, Delaware BioScience Association

Michael Fleming was appointed President of the Delaware BioScience Association in June 2020. Prior to joining Delaware Bio, he spent 18 years at the global biopharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), most recently as Head of Global Medical and Regulatory Communications. During his time at GSK he also led corporate brand management, US CSR and community investment, digital media and product communications, and was president of the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation. Earlier he held positions in strategy, marketing and public affairs at GD Searle and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. Fleming began his career as an aide to the late United States Senator William V. Roth, Jr., first as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill and then as the senator's Wilmington state office director. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Delaware. Michael and his family live in Wilmington.

Job Titles:

• President & CEO, Delaware Health Sciences Alliance

Omar A. Khan, M.D., MHS, FAAFP is President & CEO of the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, a collaboration between the major health sciences institutions in the Delaware valley. He serves as Enterprise Chief Scientific Officer for ChristianaCare, overseeing the functions of Research Administration & Scientific Affairs across the health system, which include the Office of Sponsored Programs, the IRB, and the Office of Research Finance. He has previously served as the inaugural Service Line Leader, Primary Care & Community Medicine, and Medical Director of the Eugene duPont Preventive Medicine & Rehabilitation Institute. He serves a governance role on the Advisory Committees for Delaware's main NIH-funded health sciences research programs namely the Delaware Clinical & Translational Research Program (ACCEL) (ACCEL) and INBRE, as well as chair of the External Advisory Committee for the Puerto Rico CTR. Dr. Khan is also a practicing family physician with particular interests in general primary care, health systems improvement, medical education, and global health, having served as founding director of the Global Health Residency Track in Family Medicine. He is on the clinical faculty of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the medical staff of ChristianaCare and AI DuPont Hospital for Children. He has previously served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, where he directed the Global Health electives in the Dept. of Family Medicine. Dr. Khan is an immediate Past-President of the Delaware Academy of Medicine, Chair of the Advisory Council of the Delaware Public Health Association, and a Past President of the Delaware Academy of Family Physicians. He is a Trustee of ChristianaCare and former Board member of the ChristianaCare VNA. He serves on the annual Holloway Infectious Disease Symposium committee, the American Public Health Association annual conference program, and the annual meeting for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). He co-chairs the annual DHSA Global Health Symposium and the annual ACCEL Community Research Exchange. He is appointed to the Partnerships for Health Communities committee, and the State of Delaware's Health Care Loan Repayment Program committee. Dr. Khan received his BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania, MD and residency from the University of Vermont, and public health degree from the Johns Hopkins University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Delaware Journal of Public Health (www.djph.org) and has authored/edited 5 books in the area of infectious diseases and global health, including as Editor in Chief (with Dr. David Heymann) of the renowned Control of Communicable Disease Clinical Practice Manual. He has been named a ‘Top Doc' by Philadelphia magazine on several occasions including 2021-22. He is on Twitter as @homerkahn and his bi-monthly column, Khanversations, can be found at www.delamed.org. He spends his free time attempting to stay fit and work on his assorted automotive projects.