70. Marcie Finney, Executive Director, Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC), on Doing Good Work and Creating a Great Place to Work

Associations Thrive

Dec 14 2023 • 28 mins

How do you lead an organization that does great work AND is a great place to work?

In this episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda interviews Marcie Finney, Executive Director at the Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC). Marcie discusses:

  • What umbilical cord blood is and why we bank it.
  • The differences between a private cord blood bank and a public cord blood bank.
  • The life-saving treatments that are now available because of research enabled by cord blood and stem cell transplants.
  • Marcie’s journey from being a researcher to running the CCBC.
  • The work she’s done to make CCBC a great place to work, including better infrastructure, a new strategic plan, updated job descriptions, and so much more.
  • How the CCBC is part of the Cord Blood Association, which brought cord blood banks together and helped them achieve FDA licensing.
  • The importance of racial and ethnic diversity in the cord blood units stored by public cord blood banks, especially as the US population is growing more diverse.
  • How CCBC supports groundbreaking research into new treatments for all sorts of diseases, including leukemia, autoimmune disorders, cerebral palsy, and HIV.
  • How creating a diverse cord blood inventory is a national resource.
  • How nurses call donors when their baby’s cord blood is going to be used; these are some of the best calls they make!
  • Why moms should consider donating their babies’ cord blood to a public cord blood bank.

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