CRI - Key Persons


Ashlei Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Financial Analyst
  • Supervisor

Charles L. Sawyers

Job Titles:
  • Chairman, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis, Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center Member, National Academy of Sciences

Christopher J. Durovich

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • President and Chief Executive Officer, Children 's Health

Daniel K. Podolsky

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • President, UTSW Medical Center

David Russell

Job Titles:
  • Vice Provost and Dean of Basic Research UTSW Medical Center Member, National Academy of Sciences

David W. Biegler

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Retired Chairman, Southcross Energy Partners

Eric N. Olson

Job Titles:
  • Chairman, Department of Molecular Biology UTSW Medical Center Member, National Academy of Sciences

Gail Mandel

Job Titles:
  • Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute at Oregon Health and Science University Member, National Academy of Sciences

Helen H. Hobbs

Job Titles:
  • Chief, Division of Medical Genetics UTSW Medical Center Member, National Academy of Sciences

Joan Conaway

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Vice Provost and Dean of Basic Research, UTSW Medical Center

Jonathan A. Epstein

Job Titles:
  • William Wikoff Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Julio Perez-Fontan

Job Titles:
  • Physician - in - Chief, Children 's Medical Center Robert L. Moore Chair, Pediatrics, UTSW Medical Center

Katie Regan

Job Titles:
  • Media Requests
  • Science Communications

Laura Clarke

Job Titles:
  • Procurement and Faculty Support

Lewis C. Cantley

Job Titles:
  • Meyer Director and Professor of Cancer Biology, Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine

Meyer Director

Job Titles:
  • Meyer Director and Professor of Cancer Biology, Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine

Michael Serber

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Vice President of Finance, UTSW Medical Center

Misti Wheat

Job Titles:
  • Project Manager

Owen N. Witte

Job Titles:
  • Director, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research Member, National Academy of Sciences

Paul J. Thomas

Job Titles:
  • Chairman in Medicine, UTSW Medical Center Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1985

Robert A. Chereck

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Retired Executive Chairman, Southwest Securities

Sean J. Morrison

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Director of the Children 's Medical Center Research Institute
  • Director, Children 's Research Institute
Sean J. Morrison is the director of the Children's Medical Center Research Institute (CRI) at UT Southwestern and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He holds the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research. Dr. Morrison completed a B.Sc. in biology and chemistry at Dalhousie University (1991), a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University (1996), and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech (1999). From 1999 to 2011, Dr. Morrison was a professor at the University of Michigan, where he directed its Center for Stem Cell Biology. His laboratory studies the mechanisms that regulate stem cell function in adult tissues and the ways in which those mechanisms get hijacked by cancer cells to enable tumor formation. Among other awards, Dr. Morrison received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2003) and a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging (2009). He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (2018) and the National Academy of Sciences (2020). Dr. Morrison served as the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015-2016) and has been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cell research, testifying before the U.S. Congress, and serving as a leader in the successful "Proposal 2" campaign to protect and regulate stem cell research in Michigan's state constitution.

Stephen Skapek

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Interim Chair, Pediatrics, UTSW Medical Center

Steve Gruber

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Partner, Blumenthal & Gruber, LLP

Stuart H. Orkin

Job Titles:
  • Chairman, Pediatric Oncology, Dana - Farber Cancer Institute Member, National Academy of Sciences

Teresa Hui

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director
  • Operations

W. P. Andrew Lee

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean, UT Southwestern Medical School

William Wikoff Smith

Job Titles:
  • William Wikoff Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania