Melissa has served as Senior Vice President of Operations since July 2025. She leads corporate operations and strategic planning as we advance our assets into the clinic. Melissa brings 20 years of expertise in operations, partnering and clinical development across a variety of organizations including biopharma, public-private partnerships, and academia. Her experience guides our asset portfolio management, process improvements across the organization, and provides operational leadership to our growing team.

Her most recent role was as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at OncoNano Medicine, where she directed the organization’s operations, communications, and business development activities.  Previously, Melissa spent 5 years at Arcus Biosciences as Vice President of Corporate Development and Eternal Alliances, helping to drive partnerships and portfolio planning during a time of great growth. Over the last two decades, she has provided strategic organizational consulting to several large pharmaceutical companies across a variety of therapeutic areas, ran large scale research programs at University of California at San Francisco and the National Cancer Institute, and developed multiple consortia to support innovative drug development efforts. 

Melissa received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University and undergraduate degree from Stanford University. Additionally, she completed her medical oncology residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and master’s in clinical research training at Duke University. She has been an accomplished speaker and scientific author for many years.