Hailey Brighton, PhD, is the Associate Director of Grants and Programs at the Institute for Convergent Sciences. Brighton works to advance UNC’s applied and translational research pipeline and promotes innovation at UNC through management and development of interdisciplinary collaborations. She has 15+ years of combined experience in life sciences research and work in the commercial sector. Her past roles have involved preclinical development of small molecule inhibitors for oncology at an early-stage biotech company, supportive nonclinical oncology studies for a company in Phase II clinical trials, project management for an interdisciplinary team developing technologies at the graduate and undergraduate level, and analyst/consulting experience covering a wide range of business topics. Brighton has significant drug development training with a focus on preclinical design, study management, analysis, and opportunity assessment. Brighton received a B.S. from the University of California San Diego, a Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill, and she performed postdoctoral research at Duke University.