The New York Genome Center (NYGC) welcomes Elizabeth (Betsy) O’Brien as Vice President and General Counsel.
Ms. O’Brien has over 25 years of collaborative non-profit administration and legal advisor experience. She spent the last 22 years at The Wistar Institute, an independent, non-profit, academic medical research organization affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as Vice President for Legal and External Affairs.
As The Wistar Institute’s chief legal officer and a member of its senior management team, she helped to chart the Institute’s strategic direction and worked on matters affecting all aspects of the organization’s administration and operations, including faculty and employee affairs, donor relations, intellectual property and technology transfer, corporate governance, and research compliance.
NYGC President and Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Moore said, “Betsy’s deep experience and understanding of the non-profit and academic medical research worlds make her an invaluable asset to the NYGC. We are pleased to welcome her to the team.”
Prior to The Wistar Institute, Ms. O’Brien was the Associate General Counsel at the University of Pennsylvania, where she counseled schools and departments across the University on research and intellectual property, employment discrimination and general contract matters. Before that, she was an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, an international law firm headquartered in Philadelphia.
“I am honored and excited to be joining NYGC and look forward to supporting the work of its talented researchers,” Ms. O’Brien said. “I believe NYGC is poised to make extraordinary contributions to our understanding of the genetic bases of human disease, and I am so pleased to be able to apply my skills to advancing this mission.”
Ms. O’Brien is a board member of the National Coalition for Cancer Research and a Co-Founder/Coordinator of The Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance. She received her Bachelor of Arts in German from Bryn Mawr College and her Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
About the New York Genome Center
The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is an independent, nonprofit at the forefront of transforming biomedical research and clinical care with the mission of saving lives. As a consortium of renowned academic, medical and industry leaders across the globe, NYGC focuses on translating genomic research into clinical solutions for serious disease. Our member organizations and partners are united in this unprecedented collaboration of technology, science, and medicine. We harness the power of innovation and discoveries to improve people’s lives — ethically, equitably, and urgently. Member institutions include: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medicine, Hospital for Special Surgery, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Stem Cell Foundation, New York University, Northwell Health (formerly North Shore-LIJ), The Rockefeller University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Stony Brook University and IBM.
