CMMR Managing Director Ann Gleeson, MS, has extensive experience as a policy analyst and administrator in regenerative medicine research.
Ann Gleeson is the Managing Director of the Center for Military Medicine Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. Gleeson brings a wealth of policy analyst and strategic planning expertise to the center, which represents a formal mechanism through which the challenges and opportunities of casualty care and wound healing can be exploited at an advanced research level. The Center aims to identify a network of successful partnerships and collaborations between the University of Pittsburgh and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to exploit the most promising research technologies and therapeutic strategies for concepts and applications of regenerative medicine, reconstructive surgery, transplantation immunology, tissue engineering and neuroscience (especially, traumatic brain injury, neurorehabilitation and neuro-prosthetics). From 2001 to October 2011, Ms. Gleeson was the Deputy Director at Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. Ms. Gleeson worked to increase understanding among federal legislators for the potential therapeutic benefits of tissue engineering technologies, while raising awareness of the Pittsburgh region’s important role within this emerging field of biomedicine.
Prior to joining PTEI, Ms. Gleeson was the Special Assistant to the President for External Relations at Point Park College for two years. Prior to this she was senior staff for legislative affairs to Congressman William J. Coyne for 20 years. As a policy analyst for Congressman Coyne, she established legislative priorities as they related to his committee assignment on the Ways and Means Committee, managed communications with state and federal funding agencies, and guided assessment of strategic ventures to increase national effectiveness of federally-financed research and development initiatives including the Software Engineering Institute, the National Robotics Engineering Consortium and the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center. Ms. Gleeson was instrumental in coordinating critical elements of the high-performance zones established by the National Competitiveness Act of 1993 and led oversight efforts for numerous domestic and human service programs.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ms. Gleeson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Seton Hill College, Greensburg, Pennsylvania and a Master of Science degree in Applied History and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Ms. Gleeson also attended Carnegie Mellon’s Doctoral Program in Applied History. During the last 15 years, Ms. Gleeson has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. She developed curricula and instructed graduate students in legislative theory, history of the legislative process and the relationship between the economy and social policy. She has published in the Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders. Ms. Gleeson has earned a solid reputation for meeting objectives as a professional advisor for economic development projects including the Pittsburgh Robotics Initiative.
Ms. Gleeson is recognized for defining the challenge in recent years of building national partnerships that have secured regenerative medicine as a pillar in military medical research with the award of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine in spring of 2008. The award is an $85 million dollar program to study and treat battlefield injuries. Ms. Gleeson served in the Wake Forest Pittsburgh Consortium of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) leadership as a policy analyst responsible for identifying opportunities to improve the performance of the organization’s multitude of contracts, partnerships, and networks.