Board Trustee
Vitalant
AL
With more than 12 years of board service across public and nonprofit organizations, Cindy Elkins brings broad governance experience and deep mission commitment to the boardroom. Her five boards include a broad set of industries—biotechnology and cell therapy, healthcare and blood services, consumer wellness, mental and behavioral health, and the arts—where she has taken on chair and committee-chair roles. Backed by a vast network, boundless curiosity, and three decades of operating leadership, she helps the organizations she serves scale, transform, and deliver lasting impact. Cindy serves on the Board of Vitalant and is Chair of its Finance & Investment Committee—Vitalant is the nation’s largest independent, nonprofit blood services organization, with roughly 120 donation centers, some 60,000 blood drives a year, and blood and specialty services delivered to patients in about 900 hospitals nationwide. She is also Board Co-Chair of the Foundation for Art & Healing (FAH), a national nonprofit that...
With more than 12 years of board service across public and nonprofit organizations, Cindy Elkins brings broad governance experience and deep mission commitment to the boardroom. Her five boards include a broad set of industries—biotechnology and cell therapy, healthcare and blood services, consumer wellness, mental and behavioral health, and the arts—where she has taken on chair and committee-chair roles. Backed by a vast network, boundless curiosity, and three decades of operating leadership, she helps the organizations she serves scale, transform, and deliver lasting impact.
Cindy serves on the Board of Vitalant and is Chair of its Finance & Investment Committee—Vitalant is the nation’s largest independent, nonprofit blood services organization, with roughly 120 donation centers, some 60,000 blood drives a year, and blood and specialty services delivered to patients in about 900 hospitals nationwide. She is also Board Co-Chair of the Foundation for Art & Healing (FAH), a national nonprofit that applies evidence-based, arts-and-creativity strategies to counter loneliness, depression, and social isolation and improve community health.
Cindy is especially devoted to her work with the Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical TMS (FACTMS), where she serves as Treasurer and Chair of the Patient Advocacy Group. After her daughter found relief through SAINT Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) as a high-school senior, Cindy brought the voice of the parent and patient to the foundation—championing this non-invasive, durable, and well-tolerated therapy as a first-line treatment for depression rather than a last resort. As Treasurer she helps steward the foundation’s growth and financial health while expanding access “for all,” including the Patient Assistance Fund that helps clinics cover patients’ TMS-related costs and the Neil S. Hirsch TMS Centers, which bring TMS to underserved communities. Her goal is to make this life-changing treatment available to more adolescents and adults around the world.
Her first board service was WeightWatchers International (WW), where she served as an independent director from 2014 to 2019 on the Audit and Nominating & Governance committees—serving alongside Oprah Winfrey and the appointment of new CEO Mindy Grossman (formerly of HSN). She also served as a Non-Executive Director of Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX: CHM), an Australian-listed cell therapy company, from 2021 to 2023.
Cindy’s operating career spans the intersection of biotechnology and technology. She was the first Chief Information Officer of Juno Therapeutics, a CAR T cell-therapy pioneer, and following its acquisition served as Global Head of CAR T Patient Experience at Bristol Myers Squibb, connecting patients to personalized therapies through world-class service and technology. As VP of Pharma Informatics for the Americas at Genentech / Roche, she led an organization of 880+ people and a $189M budget and helped earn the company a #3 ranking on Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT. Earlier, as VP and GM at Ariba, she built the world’s largest B2B supplier network, growing it from zero to more than 100,000 suppliers in 18 months.
Cindy holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA and an MBA from Santa Clara University. Known for building vibrant, accountable, high-performing cultures where people bring their best selves to work and life, she believes the missions of the organizations she serves will leave the world a better place.
