Lili Portilla M.P.A.

Lili Portilla has worked in the area of strategic alliances and technology transfer at NIH since 1989, joining NCATS in December 2011. She oversees the Center’s partnership, strategic alliance and technology transfer functions. She also is the program director for the NCATS Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) grant and contract programs. In this role, Portilla works closely with interested small businesses by providing advice and educational resources about the program.

Before coming to NCATS, Portilla served as senior advisor to the director of the National Center for Research Resources and as the director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Development at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She serves as an ex officio board member of the University of Kansas Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation. She also serves as a member of the Federal Laboratory Commercialization Task Force on the governor’s Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board.

Portilla received a master’s degree in public administration in 1992 from American University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1986 from Stephen F. Austin State University, where she majored in finance and Spanish literature.