Dr. Lily Khidr is an academic research scientist and Executive Publisher for RELX Group, the company that works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell. She received a BS in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley; an MS in physiological sciences from UCLA, and a MS/PhD in biochemistry & cancer genetics from UC Irvine School of Medicine. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of New York (UNA-NYC), a Fellow of the UNA-NYC Worldview Institute, and has served as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences at Columbia University.

Her graduate training was spent focusing on uncovering the mechanisms by which mitochondrial genetics influence human cancer formation, with Professors Wen-Hwa Lee and Douglas C. Wallace, and she has been an instructor at undergraduate, graduate and medical school levels domestically and internationally. Alongside her academic work, she concomitantly upheld a position with the National Academy of Sciences, managing projects that enable successful university and industry partnerships.

Lily began her publishing career as an Editor for Nature Genetics. Her focus on personalized genomics led her to Science Magazine, where she was an Editor at the inception and launch of Science Translational Medicine. For the past 10 years, Lily oversees editorial research publications, manages global academic and industrial strategic alliances, actively drives projects to enhance university-owned research commercialization, and pursues ways to develop the business of knowledge dissemination in emerging regions, like Africa. Her work brings her around the world where she advises on science, technical, and medical topics using research publication driven data analytics. Her broad experience, along with her multiple global strategic alliances has allowed her on behalf of RELX to strategically position Elsevier to play an influential role in the success of the US White House Cancer Moonshot Initiative.