Kirstie Keller has joined the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy as a Senior Associate, with a focus on health and medical philanthropy. Dr. Keller comes to the Institute with over eight years of biomedical research experience in fields ranging from cancer cell metabolism to bacterial pathogenesis. Dr. Keller most recently worked as a consultant at Clarkston Consulting, specializing in life sciences, where she led research and business teams in the design, development, and execution of highly complex, data-driven projects that resulted in successful outcomes in a variety of field settings. Dr. Keller received her Bachelors of Science in biology from Gonzaga University and her doctoral degree in biology from Johns Hopkins University; additionally, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her thesis work focused on the regulation of cancer cell metabolism, and she studied membrane proteases in pathogenic bacteria during her post-doctoral research. Her project portfolio includes neurodegenerative diseases, drug development, and breast cancer.