Lea Witkowsky, Ph.D.
Innovative Genomics Institute
Dr. Lea Witkowsky is a project and policy analyst at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a non-profit, academic research organization formed through a partnership between Univeristy of California (UC) Berkeley and UC San Francisco. The institute’s mission is to develop and deploy genome engineering to cure disease, ensure food security and sustain the environment for current and future generations. After becoming interested in the societal and ethical implications of CRISPR-Cas9 during her Ph.D., Lea joined the IGI to work on public engagement and science policy projects. She received her B.A. from Willamette University in 2006, and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California Berkeley in 2016, where she worked with Dr. Robert Tjian studying mechanisms of human transcription and the influence of chromatin on CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.