Olivia Tournay Flatto

Dr. Olivia Tournay Flatto is currently the director of the Pershing Square Cancer Research Program at the Pershing Square Foundation (PSF), which supports social entrepreneurs in the area of economic empowerment, education, health and human rights as well as innovative programs in arts and culture and actively promotes social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. A native of France, Tournay Flatto received her Master's degree from the University of Montpellier (France) in Parasitology and Microbiology. She then moved to the U.S., where she started her research in 1990 at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and completed it at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She received her PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. Tournay Flatto has had her research published in numerous scientific journals. After completing her Ph.D, Tournay Flatto served for 10 years as President of the Emerald Foundation, an independently funded private medical research foundation based in New York City. Through its grants, the Emerald Foundation supports basic cancer and kidney disease research. In this capacity, Dr. Tournay Flatto was responsible to establish the direction of all grant-making activities, including the identification of over 50 young scientific investigators at the beginning of their careers who required vital seed funding to launch their projects. She then joined the New York Stem Cell Foundation, a foundation whose mission is to accelerate medical developments through stem cell research, where she stayed until 2010. Currently, Tournay Flatto is Chairman of the Board of the American Friends of the Paris Opera and Ballet, a not-for-profit organization that fosters artistic cooperation and partnership between the Paris Opera and Ballet and American cultural institutions. She also serves as a member of the board of the Paris Opera and Ballet. In addition, Dr. Tournay Flatto is a member of the Trustees Council for Women at Penn and a member of the New Leaders Group at the Institute of International Education (IIE), a group that recognizes the work of current Fulbright students who actively promote mutual understanding between the US and other countries. She is also a founding member of Women in Science of Rockefeller University. Previously, she served as a member of the boards of The New York City Opera and the French Institute/Alliance Francaise.