Elizabeth Ponder

Executive Director
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Dr. Ponder completed her PhD and postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Bogyo. Her past work has included promoting public-private partnerships in the non-profit sector, managing multidisciplinary research in the higher education sector, and business development consulting in the for-profit biotech sector. In 2014, she joined Stanford from the University of California, Berkeley where she served as the Executive Director of the Henry Wheeler Center for Emerging & Neglected Diseases (CEND). She is the founding staff leader of Sarafan ChEM-H, an interdisciplinary institute at Stanford University that brings together chemists, engineers, biologists, and clinicians to improve human health. Dr. Ponder joined the Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA) in 2021, and is currently the joint Executive Director of the IMA and Sarafan ChEM-H. She has extensive experience in launching multimillion dollar initiatives and alliances; overseeing translational projects in cancer, immunotherapy, neurodegeneration, rare diseases, cardiology, and infectious diseases; establishing and leading world-class training programs; strategic planning; and advancing DEI in the biomedical workforce.