Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth (Liz) Smith provides regulatory guidance and leadership to the foundation’s diseased-focused programs and their partners to help ensure timely and successful development and registration of health products supported by the foundation.

Before joining the foundation in 2020, Liz spent 28 years providing regulatory guidance and leadership in both consulting and corporate roles, with a focus on biologics, drugs, and cell and gene therapies. Most recently, Liz was an early member of the Juno Therapeutics executive team, first as senior advisor to the CEO and then as senior vice president of regulatory and quality, a role in which she developed regulatory strategies for multiple genetically engineered cell therapy assets initially developed at academic institutions (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Sarah Cannon Research Institute) and then acquired by Juno after Phase I studies. She went on to serve as senior strategic advisor to the company’s development teams and to the president of R&D.

Earlier, Liz served as vice president of regulatory affairs at Dendreon, where she built the company’s regulatory strategy and chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) and operations functions and led the effort to obtain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Provenge, the first therapeutic cellular cancer vaccine for treating prostate cancer.

Liz began her career in manufacturing at Immunex (later acquired by Amgen) and then Genentech, where she held a variety of regulatory positions and was responsible for the CMC aspects of Herceptin.

Liz has a bachelor’s degree in biology (cum laude) from Central Washington University.