Director of the CRI
Sean J. Morrison is the founding director of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He holds the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research. Dr. Morrison completed a B.Sc. in biology and chemistry at Dalhousie University (1991), a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University (1996), and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech (1999). From 1999 to 2011, Dr. Morrison was a professor at the University of Michigan, where he directed its Center for Stem Cell Biology.
Among other awards, Dr. Morrison received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2003) and a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging (2009). He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine (2018), the US National Academy of Sciences (2020), and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO; 2023). Dr. Morrison served as the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015–2016) and has been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cell research, testifying before the U.S. Congress, and serving as a leader in the successful “Proposal 2” campaign to protect and regulate stem cell research in Michigan’s state constitution.
Board of Directors
Voting Directors
Christopher J. Durovich
President and Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Health
David W. Biegler
Retired Chairman, Southcross Energy Partners
Robert A. Chereck
Retired Executive Chairman, Southwest Securities, FSB
Joan Conaway, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean of Basic Research, UTSW Medical Center
Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D.
President, UTSW Medical Center
Michael Serber, MBA
Vice President of Finance, UTSW Medical Center
Mark Weinzierl
Founder and Chairman, Anelto
Non-Voting Directors
Sean Morrison, Ph.D.
Director, CRI
W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D.
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean, UTSW Medical School
Jorge Bezerra, M.D.
Chair, Department of Pediatrics, UTSW Medical Center
Scientific Advisory Boards
Internal
Michael Brown, M.D.
Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine, UTSW Medical Center; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1985
Helen H. Hobbs, M.D.
Director, McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, UTSW Medical Center; Member, National Academy of Sciences
W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D.
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean, UTSW Medical School
Eric N. Olson, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Molecular Biology, UTSW Medical Center; Member, National Academy of Sciences
External
Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D.
William Wikoff Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Gail Mandel, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute at Oregon Health and Science University; Member, National Academy of Sciences
Stuart H. Orkin, M.D.
Chair, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Member, National Academy of Sciences
Charles L. Sawyers, M.D.
Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Member, National Academy of Science
Owen N. Witte, M.D.
Director, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, UCLA; Member, National Academy of Sciences
Administration
Teresa Hui, MBA, M.S.
Executive Director
Katie Regan, M.A.
Science Communications
Misti Wheat, B.S.
Project Manager
Ashlei Johnson, B.S.
Financial Analyst Supervisor
Laura Clarke
Procurement and Faculty Support
