Anna Barker is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Ellison Institute, where she is building networks of leading experts in medicine, science, and engineering, that will help the Ellison Institute advance scientific discoveries and innovations that solve complex problems in cancer and other diseases. Previously, Dr. Barker served as the principal deputy director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and deputy director for strategic scientific initiatives. Initiatives and programs under her leadership include: The Cancer Genome Atlas co-developed with the National Human Genome Research Institute the Biospecimens Research Network; the NCI Clinical Proteomics Technology in Cancer Initiative; the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer Program; and the Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers Program, among several others. Additionally, Dr. Barker collaborated with the leadership of the FDA and was founding co-chair of the NCI-FDA Interagency Oncology Task Force, the Cancer Steering Committee of the Foundation for the NIH Biomarker Consortium and she led the NCI’s international programs. Most recently, Dr. Barker served as Director of Transformative Healthcare Networks, co-director of Complex Adaptive Systems -Biomedicine (CAS), and professor of practice, School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. As a result of her efforts, she led the development of the biomarker and clinical trials sections of the 21 Century Cures Act. Dr. Barker received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio State University where she studied chemistry, immunology and microbiology.