Phyllis Gardner (clinical pharmacologist)
Phyllis Irene Gardner was an American pharmacologist and academic who was a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and dean of education. Gardner was one of the first people to be publicly skeptical of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood testing company Theranos, who was later found guilty of investor fraud.
Early life and education
Gardner was born on July 7, 1950, in Ames, Iowa to parents Frank Gardner and Opal Gardner,. Her mother and father met when they were both attending Berea College in Berea, Kentucky; a school intended for Appalachian Americans. Her father enlisted in the U.S. military during World War II, and her mother traveled to where he was stationed and they were wed in an elopement.During his time in the military, her father was a drill instructor, and her mother followed her father to his stations in the Southern U.S. throughout the war. Her father was sent off to fight during the war in Europe, and upon returning to the U.S. he continued his studies at Virginia Tech under the G.I. Bill. Her father worked as a professor at Iowa State University, where he taught courses to college students in the field of agronomy while simultaneously completing his PhD in the field. Her early life was spent in Iowa growing up with her sister and brother, Colleen Gardner and Donald Gardner, and the three siblings maintained close ties in later years as well. Gardner's father went on to University of Georgia where he became an assistant professor, and subsequently to Ohio State University where he served as an associate professor. He later returned to Ames, Iowa to accept a position as a full professor back at Iowa State University. The family later moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma as her father took up a position as department chair at Oklahoma State University. After his academic teaching career, her father retired while employed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.
Through her father's side of the family, she was descended from American Revolutionary War soldier, James Gardner, who settled after the war in Hillsville, Virginia. The Gardner family in Virginia were mainly farmers. Her father was one of seven children. Five of his siblings went to college and post-graduate studies as well, and those became educators or professors.
Gardner's mother was a religious Christian and a teetotaler. Her mother grew up in Kentucky in a family supported by a father, John Van Winkle, who worked in coal mining. Through her maternal grandfather, she was related to the Van Winkle family that settled in Hudson Valley, New York, including Rip Van Winkle. A group of her Van Winkle ancestors from the Hudson Valley subsequently moved to Kentucky. Gardner's maternal grandmother was Mamie Rose of Ohio. Through this grandmother, she was related to major league baseball player, Pete Rose.
Gardner completed her bachelor's degree in 1972 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she specialized in biology. During her undergraduate years, her father served as dean at the same school. Upon graduation from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she received honors including: the Bronze Tablet, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. Gardner was the second person from her university to be admitted to Harvard Medical School.
Gardner studied at Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1976. She enjoyed her time studying at Harvard Medical School, where she lived in the graduate student housing on campus, Vanderbilt Hall. She achieved high honors at Harvard Medical School, and graduated with the distinction: Alpha Omega Alpha. She held a license to practice medicine in California from 1979. Gardner trained in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She was a chief resident at the Stanford School of Medicine. She chose the path of pursuing the chief resident track at Stanford after her initial residency in internal medicine at Mass General, due to her interest in continuing to focus on academic medicine. After Stanford, she moved to New York City and went on to a research fellowship at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She subsequently moved to the United Kingdom, and became a postdoctoral fellow at University College London in 1982. She completed both research fellowships at Columbia University and the University College of London.
Career
Academic research
Gardner joined Stanford University in 1984. Her initial role upon hiring in 1984 was as assistant professor of medicine and pharmacology. Gardner worked on cardiac arrhythmias and cystic fibrosis pathogenesis. Gardner was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs at Stanford University. She was a professor of clinical pharmacology.Her role as Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs at Stanford University covered multiple responsibilities, with oversight into: all medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers; the campus library and lecture halls; and student services including admissions, and financial aid. When Gardner began the managerial role she found the prior structure in the system to be lacking in organization. She became an advocate to improve student services on campus and increase compassion among the employees towards those they served on campus. She lobbied Stanford University management and successfully had student services offices reorganized and moved closer to the center of campus. She discovered the medical school was at risk of losing its licensing status under the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Gardner noted the LCME had reviewed the medical school and found the lecture halls dilapidated and the medical library inadequate in its facilities. She encouraged the medical students to complain to the administration. Gardner found herself unpopular with the other deans at the medical school due to her advocacy for improved student services on campus.
She led a laboratory that focused on ion channel biophysics. She felt she encountered unfavorable treatment by male management at Stanford due to being a woman physician. Upon her initial hiring as assistant professor of medicine and pharmacology, she was told she would be given a laboratory measuring 450-square-feet. However, when she came to the facility, she realized her laboratory was only 150-square-feet of space. She filed multiple memos and advocated for herself with Stanford management, eventually acquiring a laboratory multiple years later of 650-square-feet. She supported women in her department and told three female subordinates they should advocate for better compensation and more senior roles. Gardner believed her chairman of her department was not happy with her support of these female colleagues, and as retribution he neglected to publicize a posting for help with office management for her. This resulted in a significant delay for Gardner to gain secretarial help for her academic department.
In 2002, Gardner argued against a merger of University College London and Imperial College London. In 2003, Gardner testified to the United States House of Representatives on the subject matter of applications of biotechnology research in the United States. Gardner's medical and scientific research was published in multiple peer-reviewed scientific journals including Nature, Science, and The Lancet. She carried out research in 2013 while at Stanford, into the relationship between extracellular calcium upon t-cell receptor signaling. Gardner served on the Board of Fellows of the Harvard Medical School.
Entrepreneurship
After spending ten years in academia, Gardner became interested in research and development and entrepreneurship. She mentored women interested in pursuit of the field of science. She gained experience in companies seeking out venture capital funding. She developed several forms of slow released medication, including an adaptation for retention in the stomach.Gardner was involved with several start-ups in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. From 1994 to 1998, Gardner served as Vice President of Research and Head of the Technology Institute at the Alza Corporation. Gardner served as Director of the biopharmaceutical company Revance Therapeutics from 2007 to 2018. She was an adjunct partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, from 1999 until 2015. She founded several companies, including the Genomics Collaborative, SKOLAR and the CambriaTech Holding Co. She was appointed to the board of directors of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals in 2006. She was appointed to the Board of Directors of CohBar, a clinical stage biotechnology company, in 2019.
In 2002, Elizabeth Holmes visited Gardner at Stanford University. Holmes proposed her idea for a microfluidic device that could detect and treat infectious diseases. Gardner was critical of the proposal, and told Holmes she did not think her invention would be successful. She explained to Holmes that it is not possible to use antibiotics on such a small scale. Holmes dropped out of Stanford a few months later, but Gardner followed the evolution of Theranos. Very briefly, both Gardner and Holmes served on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows after Holmes was given an invitation to join. Gardner did not permit Holmes to visit the Stanford campus and called for her to be sent to prison. Holmes was ultimately found guilty of criminal fraud, in the federal case, United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al. — which was brought by the United States against her and Theranos former president and COO Sunny Balwani.
Personal life and death
Gardner was married in 1984 to Andrew Perlman, an executive within the biotechnology sector in the United States. Gardner initially encountered Perlman when he visited their mutual friend, physician and endocrinologist Andrew Hoffman, during Gardner's internal medicine residency training in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hoffman and Gardner worked together in the intensive care unit at the hospital. Perlman completed his undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then went to New York University where he earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree from the same insitution. Gardner and Perlman spent time together in California during their respective medical training after their initial meeting in Boston. During that time period, Gardner was completing her chief residency at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Perlman was studying in a residency for internal medicine. Their relationship continued in New York while Gardner was completing her pharmacology fellowship at Columbia University. They resided in England together during Gardner's studies at University College London as a pharmacology fellow.Gardner and Perlman were wed in London on July 26, 1984. The couple came back to Stanford University in 1984 where Gardner took up a position as an assistant professor at the medical school in the fields of both pharmacology and medicine. Gardner and Perlman resided together on the campus of Stanford University during her time as a medical professor at the institution. Perlman briefly served on an advisory board for Theranos for a few months before the panel was shut down. Perlman learned that Theranos was a significant buyer of laboratory diagnostic testing equipment from the company Siemens.
Together with Perlman, Gardner had two children: Nicola Claire Perlman and Jay Gardner Perlman, in 1987 and 1989 respectively. Their daughter Nicola also studied medicine and became a physician. Like her mother, Nicola studied medicine at Harvard Medical School. After successfully completing medical school, Gardner's daughter carried out a residency in obstetrics and gynaecology through education at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Gardner & Perlman's son Jay graduated in 2012 with a degree in psychology from the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, at University of Southern California. Jay's positive experiences and comments about the support and resources at USC motivated his father to become a member of the USC Dornsife's Board of Councilors. Both Gardner and Perlman highly involved themselves in philanthropy and charitable giving. Perlman explained their motivation to give back to society saying, "We see philanthropy as a duty. And as a privilege." Gardner died of a heart attack on September 10, 2025, at the age of 75, while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.