Stem Cell Oversight Committee Member Named
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Friday appointed Ricardo Azziz of Beverly Hills to the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee, which oversees the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (Office of the Governor release, 9/15).
CIRM is the state agency established by Proposition 71 to fund stem cell research. Voters in 2004 approved Proposition 71 to provide $3 billion in funding for stem cell research over 10 years (California Healthline, 8/24).
Azziz declined to state a party affiliation on his voter registration.
Azziz since 2002 has served as chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center and vice-chair of ob-gyn for the University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center, where he also is a professor of ob-gyn and the Department of Medicine.
Azziz is executive director of the Androgen Excess Society and a past president of the Society of Reproductive Surgeons. He is a member of the:
- Advisory Panel for the national Cooperative Program for Infertility Research;
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; and
- Endocrine Society.