Our Leadership
CIRM Executive Team
Jonathan Thomas, PhD, JD, President and CEO
Jonathan Thomas, PhD, JD, is President and CEO of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Thomas was previously the Chair of the CIRM governing Board from June 2011 to March 2023.
He is a Co-Founding Partner at Saybrook Capital (“Saybrook”), an investment banking and private equity firm based in Santa Monica, California. In his legal career prior to Saybrook, Thomas clerked for White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler in the last year of the Carter Administration and for the Honorable George Mackinnon in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He later practiced at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles.
Long interested in the biological sciences, Thomas majored in Biology and History at Yale, where he graduated summa cum laude. As a George C. Marshall Scholar at Oxford, he then earned a PhD with a medical focus in Commonwealth History. He subsequently returned to Yale for a JD at the Yale Law School. While there, Thomas retained an involvement with biology by teaching courses on the legal implications of genetic engineering and the impact of disease on history.
Thomas has a long-standing commitment to patient advocacy. He spent more than 15 years on the Board of the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California and served as chair for four years. The organization, now called AbilityFirst, assists children with spinal cord injuries and mental disabilities that could be targets of stem cell therapies. Thomas is an Honorary member of the AbilityFirst Board.
Vito Imbasciani, PhD, MD, Chair, Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC)
Dr. Vito Imbasciani was sworn in as Board Chair of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) on March 28, 2023.
Before joining CIRM, Imbasciani served as the Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) since 2015. As Secretary, he created several new programs within the department, including forging eight independent California veteran homes into a unified system, establishing programs for veterans in state prisons, and supporting the 58 county veteran service offices.
In addition, Imbasciani has been a practicing urologic surgeon for 30 years, treating a mostly older population suffering from congenital and acquired conditions.
Imbasciani completed medical school at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and his surgical and urologic residencies at Yale-New Haven Hospital and the West Haven VA Hospital in Connecticut. At the University of Vermont, he worked in the laboratory, assisting in studies of neurodegenerative diseases.
He earned MA and PhD degrees from Cornell University, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Rome, Italy in 1973. He held academic teaching positions at the University of Florida, Cornell University and Middlebury College in Vermont.
He also served for 27 years as a surgeon in the United States Army Medical Corps, with four wartime deployments that exposed him to battlefield medicine and post-acute care.
Maria Gonzalez Bonneville, Vice Chair, Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC)
Maria Bonneville is the Vice Chair of the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC) at CIRM. She serves as the Chair of the Accessibility and Affordability Working Group (AAWG), a group charged with providing recommendations to the ICOC to explore and develop affordability strategies to enhance the accessibility of CIRM-funded treatments and clinical trials, including reimbursement for patient-qualified costs. In addition to her Chair and Vice Chair roles, she leads government relations efforts for the Agency, collaborating with California legislators to keep the public informed about CIRM’s activities, and she participates in all board subcommittees and working groups. Since joining CIRM in 2011, she has held various leadership positions, including Vice President of Board Governance and Public Outreach and Vice President of Administration.
Before her tenure at CIRM, Maria accumulated over a decade of experience in state government, holding multiple key positions. As the Special Assistant to former Treasurer Bill Lockyer at the California State Treasurer’s Office, she represented the Treasurer in matters involving state and local governments, as well as the business community in the Bay Area. Maria also served as the Northern California Finance Director for the Lockyer Committee, managing major fundraising programs during the California Attorney General re-election campaign. Additionally, she brings extensive expertise in product development, marketing, and public relations.
Maria received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Sciences from the University of California Berkeley. She serves on the Moving Day Planning Committee of the Parkinson’s Foundation in San Francisco.
Rafael Aguirre-Sacasa, JD, General Counsel
Rafael has over 25 years of experience in corporate law and joined CIRM after seven years at Standard BioTools (formerly Fluidigm Corp). There, he provided worldwide commercial, strategic, and transaction legal support for all functions of the NASDAQ-listed life science company.
Prior to this role, he held various management positions and provided legal support for a wide range of commercial, intellectual property, and corporate matters at Teradici Corporation, PMC-Sierra, Inc., Autodesk, Hyperion Solutions, Grupo Financiero, and Xilinx Inc.
Rafael received his bachelor’s degree in history and government from Dartmouth College and a law degree from the University of California-Hastings. As CIRM’s new General Counsel, Rafael will support the President, Board (ICOC), management, and working groups on all legal matters affecting the agency.
Rosa Canet-Avilés, PhD, Chief Science Officer
Rosa Canet-Avilés, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer (CSO) at CIRM, where she oversees all programs and strategies across the Agency. In this role, Rosa ensures the cohesive alignment of CIRM’s strategic objectives, providing high-level management and leadership to guide the integration of Discovery, Preclinical Development, Clinical Development, Patient Outreach/Access, and Infrastructure programs. Prior to this role, Rosa served as the Vice President of Scientific Programs and Education, where she led a team dedicated to identifying the most promising early-stage research in stem cells and regenerative medicine while also overseeing CIRM’s education program aimed at fostering the next generation of scientists. From 2008 to 2014, she served as a Science Officer at the Agency, where she helped develop CIRM’s Translational Program, managed a diverse portfolio of projects, and organized workshops on diseases such as Parkinson’s and autism. Since joining CIRM, she has been instrumental in ensuring strategic connectivity between CIRM’s clinical networks, data initiatives, registries, and educational programs, with the ultimate goal of translating these efforts into real-world cures.
With nearly two decades of experience, Rosa has held leadership roles across biopharma, government, and nonprofit sectors. She served as the Director of Strategic Alliances at the Eisai Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2), where she drove external innovation partnerships and alliances in the neurobiology business unit. Before that, she spent seven years as the Director of Neuroscience Research Partnerships at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), where she led major initiatives like the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Schizophrenia.
Rosa holds a PhD in neuroscience from the School of Medicine at Leeds University, UK, and a BS in organic chemistry from the Central University of Barcelona.
Jennifer Mielnicki Lewis, Vice President of Operations
Jennifer Lewis is the Vice President of Operations at CIRM leading the Grants Management, Finance, and Information Technology functions for the agency. In this role, she provides strategic operational and policy direction, ensures awardee funding is monitored and in compliance with appropriate regulations, identifies opportunities to streamline processes and enhance portfolio reporting, and oversees technology solutions to enable CIRM operations to work in a collaborative and fast-paced environment.
Jennifer joined the grants management team at CIRM in 2016 and, during that time, has contributed to the rigorous grantmaking engine through portfolio oversight and management, implementing electronic grant records, database improvements, and operationalizing the grantmaking of funding partnerships. In addition, during the wind-down of Proposition 71, Jennifer oversaw the administrative and research budgets, ensuring that CIRM could make the most impact with the remaining funds.
Before joining CIRM, Jennifer was a senior member of the program team at the Stuart Foundation, where she made funding recommendations, created grantee communications, and developed system and process enhancements. Jennifer’s experience has focused on operational roles spanning the philanthropic, nonprofit, private, and government sectors. She also has experience in organizational development, project management, and financial analysis.
Jennifer received a Bachelor of Hospitality Administration from Boston University and holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Gil Sambrano, PhD, Vice President of Portfolio Development and Review
Gil is the Vice President of Portfolio Development and Review and leads the team responsible for selecting the highest-quality stem cell-based projects for CIRM funding, from Discovery to Clinical programs. His team builds and cultivates a world-class team of expert reviewers and directs a rigorous review process through the governing board-appointed Grants Working Group (GWG).
Gil joined CIRM in 2005 as the first Scientific Officer. During his tenure, Gil has contributed to building the vision of CIRM by leading and advancing the scientific review process, constructing grants administration policies, guiding the early development of the Grants Management System, and managing the training grant programs. He has been a key point of contact to help applicants and grantees identify appropriate partnering opportunities and navigate the CIRM solicitation and application process. He leads the conduct of GWG review meetings and has been the primary liaison with patient advocates and scientific members of the GWG.
Prior to CIRM, he was an assistant professor in the department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF. In 2001, Gil took on a notable position to coordinate efforts of the Alliance for Cellular Signaling, a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary consortium of scientists led by the Nobel Laureate, Alfred G. Gilman, whose goal is to understand the basic principles that regulate signal transduction in cells.
His scientific education includes a BS in biology from the University of Texas at El Paso and a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Diego. Gil trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California San Francisco.
CIRM Team Leads
Janie Byrum, Senior Science Officer, R&D Data Infrastructure
Janie Byrum, PhD, is a Senior Science Officer at CIRM where she leads the R&D Data Infrastructure team. In this role, Janie drives the democratization of data resulting from CIRM awards under Discovery, Preclinical Development, Clinical Development, and Patient Access programs. This team develops data sharing initiatives and manages CIRM R&D data infrastructure such as CIRM Data Explorer and the CIRM clinical trial platform to improve patient access and trial site coordination. She also oversees data science programs to foster computational expertise in CIRM Education programs.
Janie joined CIRM in 2023, initially as part of Dr. Canet-Avilés’s Scientific Programs and Education Team, where she managed portfolio in Discovery and Education programs. Prior to CIRM, she was an R&D Engineer at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub where she built imaging pipeline projects to interrogate the impacts of viral infection on cell function. Her training is in T cell immunology and Computational Microscopy.
Janie received a BS in Integrated Science from University of British Columbia and a PhD in Biomedical Science (Immunology) from University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
Denise D’Angel, Director, Human Resources
Coming soon
Joseph Gold, PhD, Senior Director of Clinical Development
Joseph Gold is the Senior Director of Clinical Development, bringing over 30 years of expertise in stem cell research, cell therapy development, and cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing. His extensive career spans basic research, process development, and GMP manufacturing, providing him with a unique perspective on the challenges facing the field. Joe has collaborated closely with both CIRM and NIH to advance cell therapies, understanding the critical role funding agencies play in clinical translation.
Throughout his career, Joe has held prominent roles, including leading stem cell research at Geron Corporation and contributing to groundbreaking work in stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, pancreatic islet progenitors and oligodendrocytes. As Assistant Director of Translational Research at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, he played a key role in the approval of the HECTOR Phase 1 trial for hESC-derived cardiomyocyte therapy. At City of Hope’s Center for Biomedicine and Genetics, Joe managed GMP production for multiple Phase 1 and Phase 3 trials, including CIRM-supported programs.
Most recently, as VP of Technical Operations and Manufacturing at Catamaran Bio, Joe directed the development and manufacturing of CRISPR- and transposon-engineered CAR-NK therapies for solid tumors. Now, as Senior Director of Clinical Development at CIRM, Joe is eager to lead the Clinical Development team and support investigators in advancing transformative therapies to patients.
Shyam Patel, PhD, Associate Vice President of Preclinical Development
Shyam Patel is the Senior Director of Business Development and Alliance Management and is responsible for managing CIRM’s Industry Alliance Program and strategic partnerships. Shyam’s team engages with the biotech industry to create visibility for CIRM’s mission and to facilitate industry partnership and commercialization opportunities for CIRM’s portfolio. Shyam led the expansion of CIRM’s Industry Alliance Program to establish a collaborative network of venture investors, biotech companies, and large biopharma partners. He also manages CIRM’s partnerships, including the Cure Sickle Cell partnership with NHLBI, the iPSC repository partnership with Fujifilm CDI, and data sharing collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Shyam joined CIRM in late 2016, initially as part of Dr. Sambrano’s Portfolio Development & Review team, where he managed the application, review, and approval processes for Discovery, Translational, and Clinical Programs. Prior to CIRM, Shyam was CEO and Chief Science Officer for NanoNerve, Inc., where he and his team developed tissue-engineered medical devices for tissue regeneration. He was also on the teaching faculty in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in biomaterials, stem cells and tissue engineering, and medical device development.
Shyam received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Bioengineering from the Universities of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco.
Kelly Shepard, PhD, Director, Discovery & Education
Kelly Shepard serves as the Director of the Discovery and Education Team whose responsibilities include developing and executing research programs that catalyze the discovery of novel disease targets and biomarkers that can be translated for clinical use, and administering CIRM’s Shared Resources Infrastructure, a network of core facilities that provide California researchers and educators with access to unique expertise and resources for stem cell-based modeling. The Discovery and Education team also manages and coordinates an extensive portfolio of training and workforce development programs to prepare a diverse and talented pool of individuals for careers in regenerative medicine.
Kelly joined CIRM in 2009 as part of the Science Team under Dr. Pat Olson, where she worked on the initial concepts for CIRM’s Basic Biology, Discovery and Translation programs and developed the foundational infrastructure by which CIRM tracks portfolio investments by disease area. Prior to joining CIRM, Kelly applied multidisciplinary approaches to investigate biological mechanisms underlying cell behavior and function, ranging from the regulation of mitochondrial inheritance and morphology to the study of RNA localization as means of gene regulation.
After leaving academia, Kelly led an effort at Parallel Synthesis Technologies, Inc. to adapt a novel optical coding technology for use in high throughput biological screening applications. She has also acted as an independent contractor and biotechnology consultant. Kelly received her Ph.D. from UCSD and conducted postdoctoral studies at UCSF as a fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research.
