Donna G. Crenshaw named executive director of Duke MEDx

Donna G. CrenshawDirector Geoff Ginsburg and Associate Director Ken Gall announced that Donna G. Crenshaw has been named executive director of MEDx, the innovative collaborative venture of the Duke University School of Medicine and the Pratt School of Engineering.

Crenshaw, a life sciences professional with deep experience in bringing new health care technologies to market, will begin her new role immediately.

As executive director, Crenshaw will work with Ginsburg and Gall to evolve the MEDx strategy, oversee and lead MEDx operations, provide oversight for MEDx’s pilot research programs and colloquia, and will identify external partners for the initiative.

“Donna brings a wealth of extremely valuable experience as both a university research scientist and as an industry expert in technology evaluation, licensing and marketing,” said Ginsburg, a professor of medicine and of biomedical engineering at Duke. “We were looking for an executive director with a proven track record of building relationships and facilitating collaborations among researchers, clinicians and engineers. We found that person in Donna Crenshaw.”

Crenshaw’s experience includes work as director of strategic partnerships for the Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, and as senior research scientist for the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute, both located at Duke.

She has also worked in competitor and scientific intelligence and clinical development strategy for drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. While with GlaxoSmithKline, she developed pharmacogenetics strategies in support of clinical and commercial development goals for 14 Phase I, II and III drugs in cardiovascular, metabolic and autoimmune/inflammation therapy areas.

She has also served on the board of advisors of Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as a member of the joint patent committee of the Zinfandel-Takeda Alliance. For those organizations, she analyzed reimbursement, regulatory and intellectual property issues for combination products for an Alzheimer’s disease delay-of-onset indication.

Crenshaw holds a doctorate in biochemistry from Duke and a master’s degree in health care administration from UNC-Chapel Hill. She lives in Durham.

Created in 2015 with the support of the Office of the Provost, MEDx (http://medx.duke.edu) fosters the exchange of ideas, encourages and develops new collaborations, and creates research and translational opportunities among clinicians, engineers, data scientists and innovators at Duke.