Kelly Parsons, PhD

Kelly Parsons serves as the director of technology commercialization, while also managing a portfolio of innovations related to gene therapies and biologics. Since joining the office in 2008, Kelly has worked across numerous UNC schools and departments to advance life science inventions including vaccines, small molecules, biologics, and research tools. Prior to joining the technology commercialization team full-time, Kelly worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the UNC-Chapel Hill Cystic Fibrosis and Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center studying the effect of chronic bacterial infection on innate lung immunology while also serving as an intern in the technology transfer office. Kelly is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers, the Licensing Executives Society, and is a licensed patent agent. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology, with a minor in chemistry, from Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Wake Forest University.