About Our Board
CIRM’s board—also known as the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC)—is composed of up to 35 California-based patient advocates, nurses, research leaders, and biotechnology industry leaders. Visit our calendar of events to see upcoming board meetings.

Meet Our Board Members

Vito Imbasciani,
PhD, MD

Maria
Gonzalez Bonneville

Eyad Almasri,
MD

Kim
Barrett, PhD

Dan
Bernal

George Blumenthal,
PhD

Linda Boxer,
MD, PhD

John M. Carethers,
MD

Judy Chou,
PhD

Le Ondra
Clark Harvey, PhD

Deborah Deas,
MD, MPH

Anne-Marie
Duliege, MD

Ysabel
Duron

Mark
Fischer-Colbrie, MBA

Elena Flowers,
PhD, RN

Judith C. Gasson,
PhD

David Higgins,
PhD

Rich
Lajara

Pat Levitt,
PhD

Hala Madanat,
PhD, MS

Linda Malkas,
PhD

Shlomo Melmed,
MD

Carolyn Meltzer,
MD

Christine Miaskowski,
RN, PhD, FAAN

Adriana Padilla,
MD

Joe
Panetta

Marvin Southard,
DSW

Shauna Stark, MS

Karol E. Watson,
MD, PhD, FACC

Yael Wyte,
MSW

Kevin
Xu

Keith R. Yamamoto,
PhD
Meet Our Alternate Members

Monica
Carson, PhD

Harold
Collard, MD, MS

Jeffrey
Golden, MD

Joyce
Sackey, MD, FACP

Suzanne
Sandmeyer, PhD

Donald
Taylor, PhD, MBA, CLP
Who Makes Up Our Board?
Patient advocates who keep the agency’s focus where it belongs: on the people who need treatments for chronic disease and injury. They represent a wide range of diseases including diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, HIV/AIDS, mental health and spinal cord injury.
Nurses who provide expertise in clinical trial management or stem cell or genetic therapy delivery to inform the agency on patient care standards, quality assurance procedures and care systems
Biotechnology industry leaders who ensure that our policies and funding draw on California’s biotechnology expertise. With these board members guiding agency decisions we have confidence that the industry will be poised to work with CIRM to accelerate the process of getting these new therapies to the patients who need them.
Research leaders from nationally ranked medical schools and research institutes with track records of moving basic research to the clinic who provides the agency with scientific expertise needed to direct the agency’s funding initiatives.
How Board Members are Appointed
The University of California Chancellors at San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine and Riverside can each appoint a single executive officer from their respective campus. In addition, the Chancellor at San Francisco can appoint a faculty member, physician/scientist, researcher, or executive officer from the Fresno/Clovis campus.
The Governor can appoint an executive from a California University, an executive from a nonprofit research institution, an executive from a California life sciences company, a patient advocate for spinal cord injury, a patient advocate for Alzheimer’s disease, and a patient advocate for mental health conditions.
The Lieutenant Governor can appoint an executive from a California University, an executive from a nonprofit research institution, an executive from a California life sciences company, a patient advocate for type 2 diabetes, a patient advocate for either multiple sclerosis or ALS, and a patient advocate for mental health conditions.
The Treasurer can appoint an executive from a California University, an executive from a nonprofit research institution, an executive from a California life sciences company, a patient advocate for type 1 diabetes, and a patient advocate for heart disease.
The Controller can appoint an executive from a California University, an executive from a nonprofit research institution, an executive from a California life sciences company, a patient advocate for cancer, and a patient advocate for Parkinson’s disease.
The Speaker of the Assembly can appoint a patient advocate for mental health disease or mental health conditions.
The President pro Tempore can appoint a patient advocate for HIV/AIDS.
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer and Controller can each nominate one person for the position of Chair and Vice-chair. The appointed members of the governing board vote from among those nominees to select those two positions.
Forms & Board Regulations
