Kathleen M. Kirby

Kathleen Kirby is a prominent member of Veristat’s Science Advisory Board and is currently Principal at Viridian Strategies, Boston, MA, where she advises early phase drug developers on clinical trial strategy and execution to guide the successful development and approval of new medicinal products. 

Kathleen has worked in a variety of senior clinical operations roles over the last 35 years and has made significant contributions at organizations including Biogen, Millennium, bluebird bio, and BridgeBio. Kathleen was a member of the early-development teams responsible for gaining approval for the successful gene therapies, Zynteglo and SKYSONA.

An architect of foundational program studies that include natural history, prescreening, rare disease and gene therapy, Kathleen is an advocate for data-sharing efforts when multiple natural histories exist for a disease. She is highly regarded within the industry for her work with startup companies and has an ardent enthusiasm for developing clinical operations and program management teams, spearheading efficient and quality processes, fostering positive cross-functional relationships by bridging efforts between clinical strategy and clinical trial execution, and mentoring teams to achieve their goals.

Kathleen received her B.S. degree in Biotechnology from Rochester Institute of Technology.

She actively supports disease foundations, specifically Cure GM1, the Canavan Foundation, and Cure Sanfilippo Foundation. For Cure GM1, in addition to providing overall support, Kathleen is helping to lead a data-sharing effort of natural history data across 7 different academic and industry studies.