Sherry Lansing

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

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments
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.”  

Emotions and gratitude at changing of the guard at Stem Cell Agency

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

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Randy Mills and his family

Randy, as regular readers of this blog know, is, or rather was, the President and CEO of CIRM. James Harrison is less well known to the outside world but his imprint on CIRM, as our General Counsel and one of the key figures behind Proposition 71, is even bigger than that of Randy’s.

Randy came to the stem cell agency a little over three years ago and in pretty quick order completely refashioned us. Under his guidance CIRM 2.0 became a sleek, streamlined funding machine, turning what had been an almost two-year process from application to funding into one that took just 120 days. He revamped the frequency with which we offered specific programs, making it more predictable and so easier for researchers to know when the next round was coming up. He helped usher in a new Strategic Plan that is a blueprint for us until 2020.

But the changes he implemented were not just about the way we worked, it was also about how we worked and particularly how we worked together. He turned the agency into a true team, one where everyone felt they not only had a role to play but that what they did was important in determining the success of the agency.

Not surprisingly there was no shortage of people ready to praise him. CIRM Board Chair Jonathan Thomas (JT) thanked Randy for turning the agency around, transforming it into an organization that even the National Institutes of Health (NIH) now looks to as a model (more on that in a subsequent blog). Vice Chair Art Torres thanked Randy for his leadership and for his compassion toward patients, always putting them first in everything that he and the agency did. Board member Sherry Lansing called Randy “a genius and visionary”.

But perhaps the most moving tributes came from patients advocates.

Don Reed said; “When I first met Randy I didn’t like him. I thought CIRM was one of the best, if not the best, organization out there and who was this person to say they were going to come in and make it better. Well, you did Randy and we are all so very grateful to you for that.”

Adrienne Shapiro from Axis Advocacy, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for sickle cell disease, presented Randy with the “Heart of a Mother” award, thanking him for his tireless support of patients and their families.

Jake Javier, a participant in the Asterias spinal cord injury trial, wrote a note saying: “You positively affect so many through your amazing funding efforts for life changing research, and should be very proud of that. But something I will always remember is how personal and genuine you were while doing it. I hope you got the chance to meet as many of the people you helped as possible because I know they would remember the same.”

Randy – who is leaving to become President/CEO of the National Marrow Donor/Be The Match program – was clearly deeply moved by the tributes, but reminded everyone that he was leaving us in good hands. The Board named Dr. Maria Millan as the interim President and CEO, pending a meeting of a search committee to determine the steps for appointing a permanent replacement.

Randy praised Maria for her intelligence, compassion and vision:

“Maria Millan has been a great partner in all that we have achieved at CIRM. She was a key part of developing the Strategic Plan; she  understands it inside out and has been responsible for administering it. She is a wonderful leader and is going to be absolutely phenomenal.”

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James Harrison (left) with CIRM Board members Jonathan Thomas and Bert Lubin

The tributes for James Harrison were ever bit as moving. James has been a part of CIRM since before there was a CIRM. He helped draft Proposition 71, the ballot initiative that created the stem cell agency, and has played a key role since as General Counsel.

JT: “James has been a part of literally every decision and move that CIRM has made in its entire history. He’s been integral in everything. When I first came to CIRM, I was told by Bob Klein (JT’s predecessor as Chair) ‘Don’t brush your teeth without checking with James first’ suggesting a level of knowledge and expertise that was admirable.”

Jeff Sheehy “We would not be here without James. He organized the defense when we were sued by our opponents in the early days, through the various leadership challenges we had, all of the legal difficulties we had James was there to guide us and it’s been nothing short of extraordinary. Your brilliance and steadiness is amazing. While we are screaming and pulling our hair out there was James. Just saying his name makes me feel more relaxed.”

Sherry Lansing: “One thing I never worried about was our ethics, because you protected us at all times. You have such strong ethical values, you are always calm and rational and no matter what was going on you were always the rock who could explain things to everyone and deal with it with integrity.”

James is leaving to take a more active role in the law firm Remcho, Johansen & Purcell, where he is partner. Succeeding him as General Counsel is Scott Tocher, who has been at CIRM almost as long as James.

Randy; “To have someone like Scott come in and replace someone who wrote Proposition 71 speaks for the bench strength of the agency and how we are in very good hands.”

Art Torres joked “Scott has been waiting as long as Prince Charles has to take over the reins and we’re delighted to be able to work with him.”

We wish Randy and James great good luck in their next adventures.

 

Giving Thanks by Looking Forward

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The CIRM Team gather to give Thanks

Thanksgiving is traditionally a time of reflection, a time to look back and express gratitude for all the good things that have happened in the past year. At CIRM we have a lot to be thankful for but this Thanksgiving we are looking forward, not backward. We’re unveiling our new Strategic Plan, our blueprint for the future, and we would love to hear what you think about it.

Randy Mills, our President and CEO, calls the Strategic Plan “a bold, new vision” for what we hope to achieve over the next five years. After reading it we hope you’ll agree.

Taking it on the road

We actually began this process several months ago with a talking tour of California. Randy Mills went around the state talking to researchers, academics, company officials, patients and patient advocates – anyone who has a stake in what we do. He posed a few simple questions such as: “what’s impeding progress?” and “how do you think we could do better?” and asked them what they thought we should focus on in the next five years.

As you can imagine we got a wide range of answers, but there was also surprising agreement on some key issues – such as the need to push for regulatory reform to help remove some of the obstacles slowing down the ability of researchers to move their therapies into clinical trials.

Bold ideas

The plan is an ambitious one, but then as Sherry Lansing, the cancer Patient Advocate member of our Board, says in a news release, why aim low:

“As we enter what could be CIRM’s last phase, we want to show the people of California that we are doing everything we can to fulfill the hopes of all those who voted to create the agency when they supported Proposition 71 in 2004.  That’s what this Strategic Plan demonstrates. It’s an ambitious plan, but you never achieve anything worthwhile by playing it safe. Too many lives are at stake for us to do anything less than work as hard as we can, as long as we can, to achieve as much as we can.”

Over the course of the next five years we hope to:

  • Launch 50 new clinical trials covering at least 20 unique diseases or conditions, and including at least 10 rare and 5 pediatric indications
  • Increase the number of projects advancing to the next stage of development by 50%
  • Work with patient advocates, the FDA and researchers to develop a new, more efficient regulatory process for cell therapies
  • Reduce the time it takes a stem cell therapy to move from discovery into a clinical trial by 50%

But wait, there’s more

And that’s just a taste of what we are planning. For the full picture you need to check out the Strategic Plan. But as Randy Mills says, we don’t want you to just read it. This process began with us asking you for your thoughts. Now we want to end it the same way.

“Your input was invaluable in helping us chart an ambitious course and giving us the inspiration to be bold and think outside of the box. Now, as we get ready to put this new vision for the agency into action, we want to share it with the public, with patients and patient advocates, scientists and researchers, and give them a chance to let us know what they think.”

Here’s where you can find the Strategic Plan.

What do you think?

If you have any thoughts or comments send them to me by 5pm, Thursday, December 3rd at kmccormack@cirm.ca.gov

The Strategic Plan is due to go before the CIRM Science Subcommittee on Monday, November 30th and the full Board for its approval on Thursday, December 17th.