About Us
NCBN History
The National Cord Blood Network (NCBN) was created in 2023 by internationally recognized adult and pediatric transplant specialists Dr. Juliet Barker, Director of the Weill Cornell Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/ NewYork-Presbyterian and Dr. Andromachi Scaradavou, MSK Kids, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Pivotal to the establishment of the Network was the critical activities of Marcie Finney who led the Administrative Coordinating Center, as well as the generous support of the Abraham J & Phyllis Katz Foundation. The Network's mission was to increase curative CB transplantation across U.S. transplant centers.
NCBN Today
The Network is an independent nonprofit organization led by the founding Medical Chair and Co-Chair. Network Operations are executed by the Executive Director, the Head of Office of Research and Development and the Director of Finance and Administration. The Network's activities are overseen by a Board with expertise in transplant medicine, operations of nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and patient advocacy.
Purpose
Cord blood transplantation (CBT) is a highly effective treatment for acute leukemia and other lethal diseases of the bone marrow. CB grafts extend transplant access to patients lacking suitable adult donors. This is especially important for underserved patients who may not have readily available adult donors or those requiring urgent treatment. Despite these advantages, CB transplants are rapidly declining. To address this urgent unmet health care need, the National Cord Blood Network will strive to increase curative CBT activity across the U.S.
Our Mission
Establish CBT as a widely available curative therapy for patients requiring stem cell transplantation in U.S. Transplant Centers.
Our Objectives
- Increase CBT activity by optimizing transplant practices and facilitating transplant center staff training with an initial primary focus on the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies
- Increase CBT activity by creating multi-center collaborations that investigate approaches to optimize CBT
- Conduct personalized outreach to promote transplant center interest in CBT
- Perform research to spearhead advances in CBT and CB-derived cell therapies
- Conduct patient advocacy activity to increase community awareness of the curative potential of CBT
- Utilize the readily available, high quality U.S. public CB inventory and thereby support the associated CB banks
Board
Dr. Juliet Barker
Medical Chair
Juliet Barker MBBS, FRACP, Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, is the Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/ NewYork-Presbyterian and formerly the Director of the Cord Blood Transplant Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Barker leads the Network strategic development, innovations in adult CBT and fostering national collaborations.
Dr. Andromachi Scaradavou
Medical Co-Chair
Andromachi Scaradavou, MD is an Associate Attending at the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Program at MSK Kids, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Scaradavou leads the pediatric transplantation for the Network, the search coordinator consortium and oversees the development of transplant center training activities.
Christina Melief, PhD
Executive Director
Christina Melief, PhD is the President of the National Cord Blood Network and serves as Executive Director of the Administrative Coordinating Center. She is a strategic and scientific consultant at Wenatchi Group, Inc where she provides critical guidance to transplant centers, cord blood banks, and scientific researchers on the current and future use of cord blood for transplant and cell and gene therapies.
Marcie Finney, MBA
Strategic Alliances Consultant
Marcie Finney, MBA is the Chief Financial Officer at Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland & East Central Ohio. Formerly the Director of the Administrative Coordinating Center for the Network, she provides continuing organizational management consulting and serves as a partnership liaison for cross-organizational activities including with industry partners.
Operations
Megan Leonhard, MPH
Head of Office of Research & Development
Megan Leonhard, MPH is an epidemiologist and biostatistician with over a decade of experience leading observational and mixed-methods health research. As founding Head of the Office of Research & Development, she collaborates with the Network's partners to drive innovation and adoption of cutting-edge methods and technologies.
Seema Jayaswal, MBA
Director of Finance and Administration
Seema Jayaswal, MBA is the Director of Finance and Administration of the National Cord Blood Network. She has over 11 years of Non-Profit Management as the former COO of a non-profit responsible for bringing over $1 billion in economic impact and creating over 7,000 jobs for the state of Ohio.
Contributing Members
Eric Davis, MPH
Donor Search Specialist
Eric Davis, MPH is the Director of Strategic Development for the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at Weill Cornell Medicine / New York Presbyterian Hospital. Eric leads the search coordinator consortium and training for the network.
Dr. Warren Fingrut
Transplant Access and Health Services
Warren Fingrut, MD, MPH is a Hematologist and Transplant Physician in Houston, Texas. His health services research seeks to characterize and mitigate challenges in access to transplantation.Through his work, Dr. Fingrut highlights the critical importance of Cord Blood Transplantation in expanding transplant access to all.