Betty Yee

UCSF Nursing Professor Joins CIRM Board

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Elena Flowers, PhD, RN, newest member of the CIRM Board: Photo courtesy UCSF

Elena Flowers, PhD, RN, an associate professor of physiological nursing at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is joining the Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s Stem Cell Agency.

Dr. Flowers was appointed to the Board by State Controller Betty T. Yee who said: “Ms. Flowers’ experience and express commitment to equitable health outcomes for California’s diverse communities will bring a valued perspective to the work ahead.”

Dr. Flowers is a member of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics and the International Society of Nurses in Genetics. As a researcher her work focuses on genomics involving precision medicine and risk factors for cardiovascular health and type 2 diabetes. She is also a teacher and has lectured internationally on issues such as topics from racial disparities in Type 2 Diabetes to the implications of genomic technologies for the nursing workforce.

CIRM Board Chair, Jonathan Thomas, PhD, JD, welcomed the appointment: “Dr. Flowers brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our Board and, as a nurse, she will bring a different perspective to the work we do and help us in trying to better address the needs of underserved communities.” 

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the citizens of California in this capacity,” says Dr. Flowers. “CIRM has ambitious goals, seeking to improve upon common limitations of public research agencies by its commitment to delivering meaningful findings and ultimately treatments for patients as rapidly as possible. I’m particularly committed to improving inclusion and access to these treatments across the entire diverse California population.”

Dr. Flowers got her undergraduate degree at UC Davis and then served as a research assistant at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. She then went on to get her MS and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the UCSF School of Nursing.

In her spare time she has no spare time because she is the mother of two young daughters.

Journalism Pioneer and Founder of Latino Cancer Institute Joins Stem Cell Agency Board

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Ysabel Duron

Ysabel Duron, a pioneering award-winning Latina journalist, and a leading figure in cancer education in the Latino community in the US, has been appointed to the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  

State Controller Betty Yee made the appointment saying: “Ms. Duron’s personal perspective as a (cancer) survivor and her commitment to equity will serve the institute’s mission well.”

Ms. Duron was a journalist and TV news anchor for more than 43 years winning numerous awards, including two EMMYS. She has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and given the Living Legacy Award by the Chicana/Latina Foundation.

As a journalist she covered her own battle against Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, using her reporting to help raise awareness about the disease and the health disparities involved in treating it in communities of color.

In 2003, as a result of her own experience, she founded Latinas Contra Cancer, a non-profit organization that advocates for and serves the Latino community. She is now the President of the Latino Cancer Institute, a national network of Latino cancer service agencies addressing the community’s cancer disparities. 

“As a veteran journalist, I like to think I am as curious as a scientist, I just frame the question differently,” says Ms. Duron. “Usually I am looking for the best return for the public health! This appointment gives me a new learning opportunity to understand a very complex issue, and, make it bite size so the public, patients and advocates will understand how these scientific revelations will impact lives in the short term and the long run. As a steward of taxpayer dollars, I also want to make sure there is equity for communities across California, and that the research serves all of us”

We are delighted to welcome Ysabel to the Board,” says Jonathan Thomas, CIRM Board Chair. “She has a well-deserved reputation as a champion for patients and an activist committed to breaking down barriers that prevent people in the Latino community accessing quality care. She will add a powerful voice to our Board.”

Ms. Duron replaces Sherry Lansing as the CIRM Board patient advocate for cancer.

“It is impossible to overstate Sherry’s importance and contributions to CIRM over her long tenure on the Board,” says Thomas. “Sherry was one of the original Board Members and a towering presence who played a central role in the formulative years of the Agency, including co-chairing the Standards Working Group, which set the ethical guidelines for the future research CIRM would enable.  Since that time, she has been a commanding voice of reason and an unrelenting positive force on behalf of all patients. She will be sorely missed.”  

Baseball’s loss is CIRM’s gain as Stanford’s Linda Boxer is appointed to Stem Cell Agency Board

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Boxer

Dr. Linda Boxer: Photo courtesy Stanford University

One of the things that fascinates me is finding out how people end up in the job they have, the job they love. It is rare that the direction they started out on is the one they end on. Usually, people take several different paths, some intended, some unintended, to get to where they want to be.

A case in point is Dr. Linda Boxer, a renowned and respected researcher and physician at the Stanford School of Medicine, and now the newest member of the CIRM Board (you can read all about that in our news release).

In Dr. Boxer’s case, her original career path was a million miles from working with California’s stem cell agency:

“The first career choice that I recall as a young child was professional baseball—growing up in Minnesota, I was a huge Twins fan—I did learn fairly quickly that this was not likely to be a career that was available for a girl, and it wasn’t clear what one did after that career ended at a relatively young age.”

Fortunately for us she became interested in science.

“I have always been curious about how things work—science classes in grade school were fascinating to me. I was given a chemistry kit as a birthday gift, and I was amazed at what happened when different chemicals were mixed together: color changes, precipitates forming, gas bubbles, explosions (small ones, of course).

Then when we studied biology in middle school, I was fascinated by what one could observe with a microscope and became very interested in trying to understand how living organisms work.

It was an easy decision to plan a career in science.  The tougher decision came in college when I had planned to apply to graduate school and earn a PhD, but I was also interested in human health and disease and thought that perhaps going to medical school made more sense.  Fortunately, one of my faculty advisors told me about combined MD/PhD programs, and that choice seemed perfect for me.”

Along the way she says she got a lot of help and support from her colleagues. Now she wants to do the same for others:

“Mentors are incredibly important at every career stage.  I have been fortunate to have been mentored by some dedicated scientists and physicians.  Interestingly, they have all been men.  There were really very few women available as mentors at the time—of course, that has changed for the better now.  It never occurred to me then that gender made a difference, and I just looked for mentors who had successful careers as scientists and physicians and who could provide advice to someone more junior.

One of the aspects of my role now that I enjoy the most is mentoring junior faculty and trainees.  I don’t think one can have too many mentors—different mentors can help with different aspects of one’s life and career.  I think it is very important for established scientists to give back and to help develop the next generation of physicians and scientists.”

Dr. Boxer is already well known to everyone at CIRM, having served as the “alternate” on the Board for Stanford’s Dr. Lloyd Minor. But her appointment by State Controller Betty Yee makes her the “official” Board member for Stanford. She brings a valuable perspective as both a scientist and a physician.

The Minnesota Twins lost out when she decided to pursue a career in science. We’re glad she did.