Phyllis Gardner

Dr. Gardner is currently a Professor with tenure at the School of Medicine at Stanford University, where she has held several positions since she began there in 1984, including Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs. Her research centered on cardiac arrhythmias, ion channel biophysiology, cell biology, cystic fibrosis pathogenesis, gene therapy and diagnosis.  Her clinical work concentrated on medicine and cardiology, the latter in cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure and cardiac transplantation.

She has also been an adjunct partner and then partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures from 1999 until 2015. From 1994 to 1998 she took a leave of absence from Stanford to work at ALZA Corporation as a Principal Scientist, Vice President of Research and as Head of ALZA Technology Institute. She has received numerous national awards and honors and serves on the board of directors of the public companies Revance Therapeutics and CohBar, as well as the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and Advisory Council on Education.  She is a member of the CPRIT (Cancer Program for Research and Innovation of Texas) as a reviewer of small cancer-oriented biotechnology businesses in Texas or relocating to Texas.

Dr. Gardner holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a Chief Residency at Stanford University Medical Center. She completed research fellowships in the departments of Pharmacology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and University College, London, U.K. Dr. Gardner’s expertise thus resides in medicine, pharmacology and drug delivery systems, and corporate investing and governance.