Our leadership

Alliance Ambassador, University of Michigan

As associate vice president for research – technology transfer and innovation partnerships, Kelly works closely with the vice president for research as well as other leaders across the university to provide visionary and strategic leadership of UM’s innovation, business engagement and technology transfer activities, including the Office of Technology Transfer and the Business Engagement Center. In this role, she supports and encourages university-wide programs for intellectual property development, innovation, and engagement with business and venture communities in the region, across the nation, and around the globe.

As Alliance Ambassador for Great Lakes Discovery, Kelly works to ensure that the U-M therapeutics research community is aware of the resources available through Great Lakes Discovery, and that the alliance has the support of the U-M research and technology transfer infrastructure to ensure the successful translation of funded U-M projects.

Kelly holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology from the University of California, San Diego where she was supported by a fellowship from the California Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Kelly completed her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University where she was awarded a fellowship from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Kelly serves as co-chair of the U-M Roundtable on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, on the Advisory Board for the Detroit Chapter of Venture for America, and the Executive Committee of Ann Arbor SPARK.

Director, Michigan Drug Discovery

Peter Toogood is Director of Michigan Drug Discovery, a campus-wide initiative to translate academic discoveries into new advances in medicine at the University of Michigan. He previously held the position of Senior Vice President for Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Lycera, an Ann Arbor based drug discovery company that he joined in 2007. In this role, he was a member of the executive team and was a key scientific leader, helping to advance multiple compounds to the clinic. Prior to joining Lycera, Dr. Toogood worked at Parke-Davis/Pfizer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His drug discovery experience encompasses the fields of immunology/inflammation, infectious diseases and cancer. He was a co-inventor of the cyclin-dependent kinase-4 inhibitor Ibrance® (palbociclib), for which he has been recognized by the American Chemical Society with both a Heroes in Chemistry Award (2016) and a Team Innovation Award (2017). Before joining Parke-Davis, Dr. Toogood served on the chemistry faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he established an NIH and NSF funded research program in natural products total synthesis and chemical biology. He received his Ph.D. from Imperial College, London, working with Professor Steven V. Ley, and was a NATO postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Jeremy R. Knowles at Harvard.

Peter A. Ward Distinguished University Professor

Dr. Steven Kunkel is the Peter A. Ward Distinguished University Professor, Endowed Professor of Pathology Research, and Chief Scientific Officer/Executive Vice-Dean for Research at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his PhD at the University of Kansas in microbiology and did his post-doctoral training at the University of Connecticut Health Sciences. His areas of research have centered on assessing molecular mechanisms of lung inflammation by investigating cytokine directed cell-to-cell communication circuits. A significant amount of this work helped to launch and define the field of chemokine biology. In his current administrative role, he oversees the entire spectrum of biomedical research from basic investigations to human subject/clinical trial research in the Medical School. His past administrative duties include: Interim Associate Vice President for Research, University of Michigan; Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Michigan Horace H. Rackham Graduate School; Interim Dean, Horace H. Rackham Graduate School; and Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. He has served on numerous National Institute of Health peer review study sections, organized a variety of international conferences on inflammation (Gordon and Keystone Conferences), is an associate editor for various professional scientific journals, and is a past recipient of an NIH MERIT Award. In addition, he is the chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NIAID-NIH, a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Partner, Deerfield Management

William Slattery is a Partner on the Therapeutics team and joined the Firm in 2000. Prior to Deerfield, Mr. Slattery was a senior healthcare analyst for 10 years at Amerindo Investment Advisors, where he oversaw biotechnology investments. He has held various positions in research including those at National Medical Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson, and HMSS. Mr. Slattery is the Chairman of Gilda’s Club New York City, a non-profit organization supporting cancer patients and their families. He holds an undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany and completed coursework in Immunology at the Graduate School-New Brunswick, Rutgers University.