Marcie Finney, Cleveland Cord Blood Center, & Dr. Frances Verter, Ph.D., Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation - Innovating, Advocating & Advancing Cord Blood R&D

Marcie Finney is the Executive Director of the Cleveland Cord Blood Center ( https://clevelandcordblood.org/about-us/leadership/ ) where her responsibilities include strategic planning, finance, administration and quality product development. With an extensive background in the field of cord blood, she spent over 10 years at Case Western Reserve University where she participated in all aspects of cord blood research and she is active in the cellular therapy community, sharing knowledge and experiences in cord blood banking research and cellular therapy throughout the U.S. and globally. The Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC), a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), is an independent public cord blood bank serving as a leader in the collection, processing, storage and distribution of quality cord blood stem cell units for transplantation in patients with life threatening disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma and immune system disorders. The Center is one of only eight FDA-approved cord blood Centers in the U.S. Prior to her current role, Marcie served as the organization’s Director of Hospital Relations where she headed the education and training of collection coordinators and medical staff at hospital collection sites. She received a Master of Science in Chemistry and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Slippery Rock University. Marcie also serves on the Board of Directors for the Cord Blood Association, one of the industry’s foremost organizations. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Gamida, a cell therapy company that is pioneering new standards of care for patients with blood cancers and other blood diseases. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio. Dr. Frances Verter, Ph.D., is Founder & Director of Parent's Guide to Cord Blood ( https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/staff ), an organization she started in 1998 in memory of her daughter Shai, who when unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer, led her to become a patient advocate in order to take better care of her child. Dr. Verter started her career as a research scientist, earning a BS in physics from Brooklyn College and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Princeton University, and she found that her training as a scientist enabled her to review medical research on Shai's diagnosis and seek out treatment from the best doctors and the best hospitals. After Shai passed away, Dr. Verter formed the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood organization and in 2006 she made a career out the project. Since then, she has thrown herself even deeper into following everything about cord blood, from education for expectant parents to the use of cord blood in clinical trials. She regularly attends conferences, gives talks, and publishes articles and is LinkedIn to professionals around the world. Dr. Verter also launched CellTrials.org as a subsidiary of the Foundation in 2017 which aims to provide the world’s most complete and most accurate data on clinical trials of advanced cell therapies. 

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