Ishita Das, PhD, is an associate director at the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy. Her expertise lies within biomedical research, science and health policy, stakeholder engagement, workforce diversity, strategic planning, and project management. At the Institute she uses this knowledge to guide philanthropic investments to have a meaningful impact on science and health. Previously, Das was a project manager at Ripple Effect, a management consulting firm, where she led cross-functional teams to implement various science and health initiatives for federal agencies, nonprofits, and public-private partnerships, including the National Institutes of Health, the Office for Human Research Protections, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Das received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and doctorate in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.