Elena Levi-D’Ancona serves as a Science Policy Analyst at Friends of Cancer Research (Friends). Friends is an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC that drives collaboration among partners from every healthcare sector to power advances in science, policy, and regulation that speeds up life-saving treatments to patients.
In her role at Friends, Elena supports the development and implementation of the organization’s research and policy agenda through landscape assessments, evidence generation, and stakeholder engagement. She collaborates with diverse partners to identify challenges in cancer research and develop solutions that accelerate the delivery of innovative therapies to patients. Elena also works to translate complex scientific and policy issues into accessible resources for a broad range of audiences.
Elena earned her PhD in Immunology from the University of Michigan, where she also completed the Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) certificate program, gaining a strong foundation in policy writing and analysis. During her graduate studies, she was selected as a Washington Fellow by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), through which she participated in a Hill Day to advocate for continued NIH funding and authored a policy brief. She holds a BS in Biochemistry from Tulane University.