Kimberly Blackwell

Kimberly is the Chief Executive Officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Zentalis, she served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development, at Tempus Labs. In this role, she oversaw precision medicine initiatives to improve cancer care and guide therapeutic drug development and discovery. Prior to joining Tempus, Kim was VP of Early Phase Oncology and Immunology-oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, where she worked on early-stage cancer therapeutics. During her time at Lilly, she was named as one of “Twenty extraordinary women in biopharma R&D who worked their way to the top” by Endpoints News. For 18 years, Kim was a faculty member at the Duke University Cancer Institute. While at Duke, she served as the principal or co-principal investigator for over 50 cancer clinical trials, co-founded the radiotherapeutics company-Cereius, and co-directed the Woman’s Cancer Program and Precision Medicine Initiative. As one of the nation’s leading breast cancer researchers, she played a role in developing therapies that represent revolutionary non-chemotherapy-based approaches for treating cancer. This work led to Kim’s inclusion in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2013, recognizing her accomplishments contributing to the development of lapatinib and T-DM1 for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. She holds a BA degree in Bioethics from Duke University and an MD degree from Mayo Clinic Medical School.