Elsa LaVita
Senior Director, Patient Advocacy
Bio:
Elsa LaVita is Senior Director of Patient Advocacy at Cullinan Therapeutics, where she leads efforts to bring the patient perspective into clinical development programs across oncology and autoimmune diseases. In this role, she partners closely with patients, caregivers, advocacy organizations, researchers, and internal stakeholders to ensure patient experiences, priorities, and unmet needs are reflected throughout the drug development process. Her work focuses on improving clinical trial design and accessibility, generating patient insights to inform strategy, and developing meaningful partnerships that advance patient-centered research and education.
Elsa brings more than 15 years of experience spanning patient advocacy, rare disease and oncology drug development, corporate affairs, and healthcare communications. Prior to joining Cullinan, she held patient advocacy leadership roles at MorphoSys (now Novartis) and bluebird bio (now Genetix Biotherapeutics), where she helped integrate patient and caregiver perspectives into the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for beta thalassemia, cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, and sickle cell disease. Throughout her career, she has partnered with patient communities to inform clinical development strategies, support regulatory engagements, create educational resources, and improve the overall patient experience.
A recognized advocate for patient-centered research, Elsa is the outgoing Chair of the MassBio Patient Advocacy Roundtable and is passionate about fostering collaboration among patients, advocacy organizations, healthcare providers, researchers, and industry to ensure medical innovation reflects the needs of those it aims to serve. She holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and an MBA from Boston University.