Helena Ellis

Helena is the founder and Managing Director of Biobanking Without Borders, LLC. She has over 30 years’ experience in human subjects’ research gained at Harvard School of Public Health, Brown University, Duke University, and as an independent consultant. She has focued her career on the field of biorepositories and data repositories. She served on the Biorepository Accreditation Committee of the College of American Pathologists, and regularly contributed to the development of the International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories' (ISBER) Best Practices.

Her work includes collaborations with academic medical centers, federally funded research initiatives, integrated clinical-research programs, nonprofit research foundations, commercial biobanking entities, and emerging startups navigating early regulatory design. this included working with large, nationally coordinated research initiatives operating under federal oversight.

Joseph Kessler

As an Executive in Residence, Joe leverages extensive expertise in developing high-efficiency, regulatory-compliant laboratories and biobanks to drive operational excellence. Throughout a distinguished career, he has held pivotal leadership roles, including Chief Operating Officer at a clinical pharmacogenomics company and Executive Director of Global Laboratory Operations within the CRO industry. His deep roots in pharmaceutical and basic research include impactful tenures at Merck, Glaxo, NCI-Frederick, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital; notably, at Merck, he contributed to critical HIV research and established the clinical sample biorepository for the Vaccine and Biologics Research division. A specialist in de novo facility build-outs and Lean/Six Sigma optimization, Joe is also a dedicated professional advocate, serving as a long-standing ISBER member, past co-author of its Best Practices, and a peer inspector for the College of American Pathologists Biorepository Accreditation Program.