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RGC Winner 2025
Dear CCI,
We are pleased to announce the winner of the 11th Annual Richard Carroll Excellence in Research Award on what would have been Richard’s 66th Birthday. This year’s winner is Vanessa Gonzalez. Vanessa is Director of Operations of TCSL. Vanessa has demonstrated outstanding leadership in managing the lab’s transition to a Service Center. She established the foundation of a sustainable business model, ensuring the continuity of lab operations while meeting the rigorous demands of clinical research. Vanessa has played a pivotal role in aligning the Translational and Correlative Studies Laboratory (TCSL) with industry-leading quality standards, closing the gap between existing practices and GCLP standards during her tenure as Quality Manager. Her work has been foundational in advancing translational science and supporting groundbreaking immunotherapy research. Vanessa embodies the values of mentorship and collaboration by fostering a supportive and innovative work environment. Her ability to allocate resources strategically and empower team members has been crucial to the lab's achievements.
The purpose of this award as you may remember is to acknowledge the folks behind the scenes that make things happen but often do not get recognized for their efforts-like the award’s namesake Richard Carroll. Richard was a wonderful scientist who had an infectious love of science and working in the lab. Richard often did the jobs that did not get much fanfare to make the entire CCI program more successful in getting therapies to patients. Vanessa’s efforts as part of TCSL help all in CCI better understand how adoptively transferred immune cells function, persist, hopefully cure disease in treated individuals.
Vanessa will get a plaque acknowledging her as the winner of the award and her name will join the previous winners on wall near the elevator. Vanessa will also be able to attend a meeting of her choice or to attend workshop to improve her skills a researcher. Richard was a firm believer that everyone doing science should always be learning new things and by allowing folks who normally don’t attend meetings to go, we further pay tribute to Richard’s ideals and values.
Please join us in congratulating Vanessa on being recognized by this award.
All the best,
Richard Carroll Award Selection Committee.