Moderator: Christina M. Celluzzi, PhD, MS - Director of Biotherapies, Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB)

​Dr. Celluzzi has a background in biomedical research which includes basic and applied research in cellular therapy (CT). She applies her more than 25 years of experience to her current position at AABB serving as a resource to its many CT professionals – helping to create and develop CT projects, including the Cellular Therapies Certificate Program.

Presenter: Maria De Los Angeles (Angie) Muñiz, MD - Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Medical Director of Education, Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Department of Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapy, Weill Cornell Medicine

​Dr. Muniz is board-certified in clinical pathology as well as in transfusion medicine. She has taught transfusion medicine to many different audiences and has given peer-selected presentations at a variety of institutions and medical societies across the country. She has also published several case reports and abstracts.

Presenter: Federico Rodriguez Quezada SBB, MLSi (ASCP) CM - Stem Cell Lab Coordinator, UF Health Shands Bone Marrow Transplant Program

Mr. Rodriguez Quezada has over 30 years of experience in immunohematology and cellular therapy, working in manufacturing, regulatory compliance, process design, and quality management. He has been a FACT/NetCord inspector from 2005 until 2012 and consults with facilities around the world to help them achieve accreditation.

Juliet Barker, MD

Juliet Barker, MBBS (Hons), FRACP, is an Australian trained hematologist. She is currently an Attending Physician in the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Program, Memorial Hospital, N.Y., an Attending Member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), the Director of the MSKCC Cord Blood (CB) Transplant Program, an Associate Vice Chair, Faculty Development, Department of Medicine, MSKCC and a Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Over the last 20 years Dr Barker has demonstrated the ability of CB transplantation (CBT) to extend transplant access to racial and ethnic minority patients with hematologic malignancies. She has also worked to improve the practice of unrelated adult volunteer searches for minority patients. Dr Barker’s CBT Program is internationally recognized with survival in adult CBT recipients comparable to the gold standard of matched adult donor allografts in patients with leukemia.

​Dr Barker has published extensively concerning novel strategies to optimize CBT outcomes. Dr Barker has also advised the National Marrow Donor Program and the Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration concerning the national CB inventory. She has served on the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) Board and led the national ASTCT Cord Blood Special Interest Group.

​Dr Barker also has a keen interest in academic mentorship.

Amanda L. Olson, M.D.

Dr. Olson completed Hematology and Oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in 2013 where her research focus was related to optimization of umbilical cord blood transplantation and infectious complications following hematopoietic stem cell transplant in adults. She currently is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy where she oversees clinical research related to cord blood transplantation, mesenchymal stem cell manipulation and cellular therapy.

​Dr. Olson is the Principal Investigator for several cellular therapy trials including a Phase I trial of mesenchymal stem cells transfected with plasmid containing interferon beta for the treatment of refractory epithelial ovarian cancer, an international, multi-institutional, Phase III study evaluating the use of cord blood derived mesenchymal stem cell expansion to expedite hematopoietic engraftment following stem cell transplantation, a Phase I trial of IV mesenchymal stem cells for the use of cardiac regeneration following chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy and a Phase II trial of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in the treatment of BK and JC virus. Dr. Olson has institutional funding and extramural grant support.