Meet Our Team

Advances in medical research happen at Coriell because of the exceptional people who work here.

We arrived here from diverse backgrounds and with different life experiences. We have various educational backgrounds and a variety of beliefs. We operate in assorted roles in many areas, such as molecular biology, genomics, information technology, facilities, finance, stem cell research, and communications and development. In the end, we’re all connected in our enterprise to advance medical breakthroughs that improve people’s lives. 

Every day we do work that matters.

Mark Bellafante Chief Information Officer Mark directs a group of application developers and infrastructure administrators charged with supporting the institute's key business and scientific programs.	Courtney Mengel Dirks, JD Director of Public Relations In this capacity, Courtney guides the internal and external communication programs of the institute, while also elevating the Coriell profile.
Kathryn H. Driesbaugh, PhD Program Director Kate is the principal investigator for the Congenital Heart Disease GEnetic NEtwork Study Biorepository, the Huntington’s Disease (HD) Community Repository and National Eye Institute (NEI) Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) Repository.	Leo Jose, MBA Director of Application Development Leo leads a team of highly-skilled software developers who create innovative software applications to address Coriell's unique and sophisticated systems requirements.
Sameer Kalghatgi, PhD Director of Laboratory Operations Sameer manages the cell and molecular biology laboratory supervisors and staff by providing scientific and technical guidance and leads the laboratory teams.	Ellen Kelly, PhD Program Director Ellen is the principal investigator of the NIA Aging Cell Repository, and oversees new projects at Coriell, leveraging her scientific background and resource management capabilities to guide earned business opportunities.
Ruby O'Lexy, PhD Manager, Grants & Research Development Ruby helps to expand Coriell’s research capacity by pinpointing funding opportunities which align with the institute’s priorities.	Deborah Requesens, PhD Program Director Debbie is the principal investigator of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Human Genetic Cell Repository.
Alissa M. Resch, PhD Chief Scientific Officer Alissa provides oversight and guidance for all repository contracts and grants and, in this role, oversees the project management teams to ensure all project deliverables are met or exceeded.	Laura Scheinfeldt, PhD Principal Research Scientist Laura is the principal investigator of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Human Genetics Resource Center at the Coriell Institute.
Dean Stoios, MBA Chief Financial Officer Tasked with overseeing the institute's financial infrastructure and introducing, initiating and implementing key directives, Dean is an accomplished innovator with experience steering global health and medical service organizations.	Tootie Tatum, PhD, MBA CLIA Director of the Coriell Genotyping and Microarray Center Prior to joining Coriell, Tootie founded the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Laboratory for Molecular Diagnostics and served as Associate Professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.
Nahid Turan, PhD Chief Laboratory Officer Nahid oversees the molecular biology, cell biology, stem cell and cytogenetics laboratories, biobanking logistics, quality control and assurance, and customer service for all of our laboratory operations.	Dana Youngblood Associate Director of Human Resources In her role, Dana oversees a wide range of duties including talent management, benefits administration and employee relations.
Stefan Zajic, PhD Principal Research Scientist Stefan is a research scientist at Coriell focused on the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (CPMC), a research study examining the clinical utility of genetic information.	Pan Zhang, MD, PhD Director of the Sequencing and Microarray Center  Pan oversees our powerful, high-throughput laboratory capable of analyzing large volumes of DNA and RNA samples.