About Us
The Cord Blood Council (CBC) is a capacity building non-profit organization developing and providing shared resources to National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI) funded, FDA licensed, public cord blood banks and their customers.
What We Do
Who We Are
Christina Melief, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Christina Melief, Ph.D., is a leader in genetics, stem cell science, and cellular therapy innovation. She joins the Cord Blood Council as founding member and CEO where she will advance the use of cord blood in transplant medicine and emerging cell and gene therapies through close collaboration with FDA licensed public cord blood banks. Dr. Melief previously held the roles of Executive Director of the National Cord Blood Network (NCBN), Senior Scientific Advisor at the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match and Business Development Manager at Bloodworks Northwest, where she helped expand access to cord blood–derived products and supported global transplant and therapy development. With a Ph.D. in genetics from Stony Brook University, Dr. Melief has built a career at the intersection of translational medicine, donor-derived therapies, and patient advocacy. Her work spans biotherapy operations, cellular material sourcing, and strategic scientific advising across the cell therapy ecosystem. With creation of the Cord Blood Council, she continues her commitment to bridging the gap between researchers, clinicians, and patients, and for championing the potential of cord blood for transplant and driving the next generation of curative therapies.
Megan Leonhard, MPH
Chief Research Officer
Megan Leonhard, MPH, is a senior leader in observational research, epidemiology, biostatistics, and AI/ML engineering. With more than a decade of experience driving large-scale health research, data infrastructure innovation, and multi-stakeholder scientific strategy, she has led complex observational, clinical, and mixed-methods programs across women's health, medical devices, occupational health, and real-world evidence on numerous industry- and government-funded studies, including serving as Principal Investigator. She served as founding Head of the Office of Research & Development for the National Cord Blood Network (NCBN) before transitioning to the NCBN Board. As Chief Research Officer for the Cord Blood Council, she is redefining how cord blood banks engage with data and evidence, modernizing business practices, driving process optimization, advancing inventory and product-performance research, elevating customer education and public outreach, and establishing shared frameworks to drive coordinated innovation across the field. Her career reflects a rare blend of scientific rigor, operational excellence, and systems-level vision, bringing together epidemiology, biostatistics, AI/ML, and clinical research leadership to transform how organizations generate, interpret, and act on evidence.
Seema Jayaswal, MBA
Chief Operating Officer
Seema Jayaswal, MBA, is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Cord Blood Council, Inc. Previously, she was employed as the Director of Finance and Administration of the National Cord Blood Network and spent over 11 years as the COO of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, a non-profit responsible for bringing over $1 billion in economic impact and creating over 7,000 jobs for the state of Ohio.