Bio:

Dr. Chonnettia Jones is President and Executive Director at Addgene, a non-profit biorepository committed to advancing research and discovery by accelerating access to high-quality research materials and information. Serving scientists all around the world, Addgene provides three classes of products and services: plasmid DNA, ready-to-use viruses, and recombinant antibodies.

Chonnettia brings more than 20 years of experience enabling world-class research and innovation in the U.S., UK, Europe, and Canada. At the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she managed a multi-million-dollar international science program that brought together scientists and technologists to develop research tools for enabling transformative scientific discoveries. As a member of the executive team at the Wellcome Trust, she provided strategic leadership over a multi-billion-dollar global research portfolio across the sciences, humanities, and innovation. At Michael Smith Health Research BC, she directed the foundation’s research portfolio, guiding the foundation’s strategy, funding programs and strategic partnerships to maximize the impact of British Columbia’s investment in health research.

Chonnettia serves on a number of international advisory boards on scientific publishing, open science, research assessment and anti-racism in research. She has spoken internationally on issues central to research, including conceptualizations of research excellence and systemic inequities in research systems. Chonnettia is a founding partner of the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), an international consortium of funders, academics, publishers and technologists collaborating to make research systems more effective, equitable, diverse and inclusive.

Chonnettia holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, cell, and developmental biology from Emory University.