Dr. Carmen Ufret, PhD is a ResearchCon 2021 co-chair along with Molly Pam. Carmen joined the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Bethesda as director of lung transplant research in 2019. Before joining the CF Foundation, Carmen spent six years at the CF Foundation Thereputics Development Network Coordinating Center in Seattle helping to plan, implement, monitor and manage multi-center CF clinical trials. Carmen received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine before embarking on a series of basic science research projects that took her from the Institute of Neurobiology in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle. It was there that Carmen first became passionate about the CF Foundation's mission while teaching about CF and US research advances championed by the CF Foundation. Ultimately, this experience was her inspiration to leave basic science, transition into clinical research, and join the fight against CF. Carmen loves to spend time with her family, especially her three daughters and son-in-law. You can find her playing the piano, dancing, hiking, working out, or cooking and baking in her free time.