Our Team Features a Diverse Set of Expertise
and Decades of Experience

Dr. Pace has over thirty years of experience in the life science field, with 20 years legal and corporate experience and 12 years in biotech research for large and small companies.   He is a registered patent attorney with a record of over 40 issued US patents.  Since 2001 he has helped many early and development stage companies in the life sciences with their strategic, intellectual property, and transactional activities.  Dr. Pace has held executive management positions in several companies, including Novartis Corporation, Gentris Corporation, Quill Medical, Inc., and BASF Corporation.  Dr. Pace has a J.D. degree from the School of Law at North Carolina Central University, and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University.

Mr. McGinnis leads worldwide sales activities, including distributorships. He has 25 years of sales experience across leading companies in the life science industry, including Life Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Essen BioScience, and Sartorius, and expertise in building and leading teams selling instruments in the microscopy, flow cytometry, and bio-analytical fields. He joined Cell Microsystems from Sarcos Robotics, where he was Vice President of Sales through the company’s 2021 SPAC acquisition. Mr. McGinnis earned a B.A. in Chemistry from the College of Holy Cross.

Kap has over twenty-five years of experience in the life sciences tools and reagents industry. He started in R&D and product development where he launched products for cell biology and imaging applications.  For the last 15 years Kap has led strategic marketing,  market development and product management for a variety of companies including Thermo Fisher Scientific (Life technologies), Danaher (Beckman Coulter life Sciences),   Cell Signaling Technologies, Nexcelom Biosciences and Avantor-VWR.  Kap has a diverse experience managing complex portfolios including instruments, consumables, and reagents both in early stage and mature companies. Kap has a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Kent State University, a post doc from Harvard Medical School and an MBA from Babson College.

Mr. Aaron Kennington has over twenty-six years of experience developing hardware and software on a variety of platforms for a wide range of applications. Most recently, he comes to Cell Microsystems from IntelliCyt, a Sartorius Company that manufactures and sells instrumentation, software, and reagents that facilitate the high-throughput study of cells and their components using novel flow cytometry sampling techniques. He joined IntelliCyt as employee three in 2007 and served as the VP of Engineering for the last eight years, including through the acquisition by Sartorius in 2016. At Cell Microsystems, he is leading the Software Systems and Hardware Engineering teams, overseeing all aspects of the product development process. He is completing his Master of Science in Computer Science at Arizona State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Dr. Hartman has over 15 years of research and development experience in a range of disciplines, including oncology, stem cell biology, toxicology, and regenerative medicine in both academic and industry settings. She is focused on identifying and developing novel product applications for cellular and genomics workflows for the CellRaft Technology. She most recently served as the Director of Cell-Based Assay Development at ScitoVation. Dr. Hartman received a Ph.D. in Molecular Cancer Biology from Duke University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Virginia.

Lisa Birkby is a driven marketing professional with degrees in marketing, business management, and accounting. Mrs. Birkby has 15 years’ experience working with scientists to help convert complicated scientific messages into engaging content.  Her desire is to help promote products that increase efficiency in the lab leading to faster discoveries in research that will help improve the human condition.

Mr. McClellan leads Cell Microsystems’ efforts in software systems engineering for automated platforms that incorporate the CellRaft Technology.  Mr. McClellan’s professional experience covers 30 years in automation, image processing, software engineering, and research & development.  After beginning his career conducting medical imaging research at Cornell University, he developed products in the high speed paper handling industry at Pitney Bowes, General Binding and Bell + Howell.  Most recently, he worked for Monsanto Company developing imaging applications for agricultural biotechnology research in automated greenhouses. He completed his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rochester, and holds a Bachelors of Science in Physics with a minor in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany.

Dr. Gebhart has over ten years of research and development experience in medical and life science product development, with an emphasis in optical imaging, spectroscopy, and interferometry. He most recently served as Manager of Product Development and Manufacturing at Oncoscope, Inc. where he served as principal investigator on multiple NIH and NSF Phase I, II, and IIB SBIR grant awards. Dr. Gebhart has a Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he completed his doctoral work in the biomedical optics laboratory of Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Ph.D. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University in biomedical engineering.

Scott has 13 years of technical and commercial experience across the Life Sciences industry. Joining us from Nexcelom Bioscience (a PerkinElmer Company)  working as Regional Sales Manager for New England and Canada and latterly as Global Key Accounts leader. He joins us as our North America Sales Leader, growing and guiding our business in North America. Scott has a keen interest in addressing the current challenges in the development and manufacturing of Cell and Gene Therapies which if creatively solved with cutting edge technologies like the Cell Raft AIR system, will drive innovation in therapeutics.

Dr. Thompson leads all phases of product development for consumable microfluidic and array products, including expanding functionality of both fluidic subsystems and new materials and chemistries. He received his post-doctoral training and obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia where he performed research in the field of microfluidics under Dr. James Landers.  Dr. Thompson also holds a Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry from Furman University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from The College of William and Mary.

Dr. Stern is focused on developing novel cellular and genomics workflows for product applications using the CellRaft Technology. She has experience in both academic and industry research settings, with a strong background in comparative physiology and the development of 2D and 3D cell-based assays for toxicological studies. Dr. Stern received a Ph.D. and Master of Science in Physiology from North Carolina State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Kuehm specializes in Immunology with a focus on cancer immunotherapy. She has several years of experience as a microbiologist prior to obtaining her PhD and has also been working on CAR-T/TCR-T cell research. As an application scientist at Cell Microsystems, she is responsible for not only training new customers on the CellRaft® AIR system but also troubleshooting methods in single cell workflows. In addition, she specializes in assay and cell line development.

Dr. Schoepke is responsible for demonstrating the CellRaft® AIR System to the scientific community, training current customers, and troubleshooting novel workflows. Her background is in Nuclear Receptor pharmacology, testing novel drugs in 2D and 3D cell-based assays. She received post-doctoral training in translational breast cancer research at Baylor College of Medicine, obtained a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Physiology from Saint Louis University, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mr. Smith contributes to the manufacturing of all consumable array products at Cell Microsystems. He has multiple years of production experience in a range of technological fields that include fabrication of micro electrical thin films at Kyocera AVX, as well as assisting in the production of piezoelectric sensors at PCB Piezotronics.

Ms. Dobson works on cell line development with the Product Applications team. She previously worked at StrideBio, testing candidates for gene therapy, and at Abcam, where she specialized in antibody discovery and validation. She received a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry as well as a M.S in Cellular and Molecular biology from the University of New Haven.

Ms. Land contributes to developing scientific workflows that are compatible with the CellRaft® AIR System. Her focus at Cell Microsystems involves stem cell research, 3D organoid work, as well as adherent and suspension cell culture. She received a Bachelor of Sciences in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University with a focus in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.

Mr. Mintz works in cell line development with the Product Application team. Before working at Cell Microsystems, He worked at StrideBio, where he worked in translational science for gene therapy, and at Mako Medical, where he swabbed and ran tests for Covid-19. He received a B.S. in Molecular Cell Biology at East Carolina University.

Mr. Peeler is responsible for developing novel workflows and generating SOPs for the CellRaft® AIR System. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a concentration in Biology at Clemson University as well, as a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University. His interests include stem cells, organoids, in vitro systems, and therapeutic models.

Ms. Wilcox contributes to developing and manufacturing all consumable array products. She previously worked in quality control and chemical analysis with Arclin Inc. and UDM Systems LLC. She received a B.S. in biological sciences from North Carolina State University with a focus in human anatomy and physiology.

Mr. Rubin is responsible for customer technical and field support for the Company’s automated platforms including installation, integration, and onsite troubleshooting. He previously worked as an Electrical Engineer doing product design, troubleshooting, and product support for Ultra Electronics – Ocean Systems. Mr. Rubin received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Carolina Columbia.

Mr. McClellan contributes to the design and development of both new and existing software products. His emphasis is primarily in the areas of graphical user interfaces, image processing, mathematical computations and machine control. Mr. McClellan has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from North Carolina State University.

Mr. Williams contributes to the design and development of both new and existing software products. His emphasis is primarily in the areas of image processing, automation, and instrument control. Mr. Williams has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Concentration Biomedical from East Carolina University, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Mr. Fleming’s responsibilities include commercial manufacturing, product development, and design of the Company’s manual and automated platforms. He has previous experience in machine design at Denso. Mr. Fleming earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Ms. Waters supports the team at Cell Microsystems by providing assistance in multiple areas including administrative, accounting, and logistics support. Ms. Waters received her Bachelors of Science in Managerial Accounting from the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University.