Rebecca L. Grant, DVM
Senior Director of Life Sciences & Innovation
Department of Commerce, City of Philadelphia

Dr. Rebecca L. Grant attended Tuskegee University where she obtained her undergraduate and doctorate degrees. After graduating she practiced small animal clinical veterinary medicine in Knoxville, Tennessee. Looking for a change in her career path, Rebecca came to Pennsylvania to complete a post-doctoral fellowship in Laboratory Animal Medicine at the R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (Johnson & Johnson). Upon completion of her fellowship, Rebecca accepted a position under Dr. James M. Wilson at the University of Pennsylvania with the Institute for Human Gene Therapy (today known as The Gene Therapy Program), where she was Director of the Nonhuman Primate Research Program. Rebecca stayed at U Penn for 13+ years. Throughout her career, Rebecca had a desire to teach lower school and began teaching after leaving U Penn. Missing the world of research, she decided to accept a position managing a laboratory for a former U Penn researcher, Dr. Susan Margulies, at Emory University and Georgia Tech. In Georgia Rebecca established the laboratories for Dr. Margulies and helped develop and perform studies looking at mild traumatic brain injury in youth. Missing Philadelphia, Rebecca decided to move back where she managed programs for Charles River Laboratories and then Cambridge Innovation Centers (CIC) before accepting a position with the City of Philadelphia. Dr. Grant’s role with Commerce allows her to work with life science companies wanting to remain, expand, and/or locate to Philadelphia. Rebecca loves the City of Philadelphia and is so happy to be a part of a team helping the life science ecosystem grow in our city. Rebecca’s motto is, “Catch up to the future in Philadelphia.”