Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, has been appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The appointment was announced Oct. 24.

CIRM was established in early 2005 following the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was approved by California voters on Nov. 2, 2004, and called for the establishment of a new state agency to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities and other vital research opportunities.

The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC) is the 29-member governing board for CIRM. The ICOC members are public officials, appointed on the basis of their experience earned in California's leading public universities, non-profit academic and research institutions, patient advocacy groups and the biotechnology industry.

The mission of CIRM is to support and advance stem cell research and regenerative medicine under the highest ethical and medical standards for the discovery and development of cures, therapies, diagnostics and research technologies to relieve human suffering from chronic disease and injury. To date, the CIRM governing board has approved 229 research grants totaling more than $614 million, making CIRM the largest source of funding for embryonic and pluripotent stem cell research in the world.

Since 2007, Puliafito has served as dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, holder of the May S. and John Hooval Dean’s Chair in Medicine, and professor of ophthalmology and health management at the Doheny Eye Institute. He is a member of the California Medical Association, American Association of Ophthalmology and Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Located on USC’s Health Sciences Campus, the Keck School of Medicine is home to the Doctors of USC – nationally recognized physicians practicing in a multitude of clinical specialties. They practice in private clinics on the Health Sciences Campus and in downtown Los Angeles, and at USC University Hospital, USC Norris Cancer Hospital, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, LAC+USC Medical Center, the Doheny Eye Institute and elsewhere around the greater Los Angeles area. The Keck School of Medicine also is home to several research institutes, including the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, the Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute, the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, and the Institute for Genetic Medicine.

As a chair of two departments of ophthalmology over a 16-year period, Puliafito established himself as one of most creative and successful leaders in academic ophthalmology. From 2001 to 2007, he served as director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He earned acclaim for creating and enacting a strategy for growth that propelled Bascom Palmer to new heights in clinical practice, education and research.

Under Puliafito’s leadership, Bascom Palmer’s faculty increased from 33 to 70 members. Research funding rose from $2.5 million in 2002 to more than $8 million in 2007. Clinical revenues rose from $16 million to a projected $35 million in 2007. In addition to the opening of two satellite patient care centers in South Florida, he led fundraising and development efforts for the opening of a $22 million, seven-acre campus for Bascom Palmer in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The facility offers the most technologically advanced eye care available. Bascom Palmer seized the No. 1 spot in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of eye hospitals in 2004, three years after his arrival.

Prior to his work at Bascom Palmer, Puliafito served as founding director of the New England Eye Center and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Tufts University (1991 to 2001). He accepted and met the challenge of building an eye program at Tufts that could compete with well-established Boston-area counterparts. During this time, he burnished his credentials as an administrator by earning an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Puliafito started his career at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, where he was founder of the Laser Research Laboratory, director of the Morse Laser Center, a member of the Retina Service, and associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.

A graduate of Harvard University and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Medical School, Puliafito completed his residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary of Harvard Medical School, as well as fellowships in ophthalmic pathology and vitreoretinal diseases and surgery. He also earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.