New Public Finance Aide Appointed at California Stem Cell Agency

The California stem cell agency has named a veteran staffer to fill a key slot in developing a plan for its financial future beyond 2017.

Amy Lewis
CIRM photo

She is Amy Lewis, who has been with the agency since the very beginning. Indeed, her work in connection with CIRM, as the agency is known, dates back to the ballot initiative campaign that created CIRM in 2004.

In response to an inquiry, Kevin McCormack, chief spokesman for the agency, said Lewis previously served as grants management officer after working as deputy chief of staff to then CIRM Chairman Bob Klein. Her new title is deputy to the chair for public finance and governance.

During the campaign for Prop. 71, she was the “lead development staffer” in Northern California, McCormack said. She has an MBA from the University of San Francisco with an emphasis in finance.

Lewis will be a key aide to CIRM Chairman Jonathan Thomas, who is working on a plan to finance the agency after its money for new grants runs out in 2017. The position that she fills was reconfigured after the departure of Lynn Harwell to spell out that it would involve “meeting the financing and sustainability goals” of the agency.