Melissa Cooper, J.D., serves as the Senior Vice President of People. She is a strategic and versatile human resources leader leveraging experience developing and delivering on strategies for companies in the start-up phase undergoing rapid growth. She most recently served as the Vice President, Human Resources at Allogene Therapeutics where she built the HR infrastructure from the company's inception. Prior to Allogene, she worked at Kite Pharma as the first HR employee and helped scale the company from 30 employees to 550 employees until the acquisition by Gilead Sciences. She started her career as a real estate transactional attorney at both large and small firms, as well as in-house counsel before transitioning to a career in HR. She has a B.A. in English with a minor in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley, a J.D. from Duke Law School, and a DEI Certification from eCornell.