Board of Directors & Our Staff

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Board of Directors

Charles A. Sanders, M.D. (Chairman)
Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Glaxo, Inc.

Mrs. William McCormick Blair, Jr. (Secretary)
Director Emeritus, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation

Kathy Bloomgarden, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Ruder Finn, Inc.

Mrs. William (Buffy) N. Cafritz
Honorary Trustee, The John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts

James H. Donovan
Managing Director, Goldman Sachs & Company;
Adjunct Professor, University of Virginia;
Trustee, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Joseph Feczko, M.D.
Retired Senior Vice President and Chief
Medical Officer, Pfizer Inc

Maria C. Freire, Ph.D.
President and Executive Director,
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

Paul L. Herrling, Ph.D.
Chairman, Novartis Institute
for Tropical Disease

Ronald L. Krall, M.D.
Former Senior Vice-President and
Chief Medical Officer, GlaxoSmithKline

Judy Lansing Kovler, Ph.D.
Director, Kovler Foundation and
Vice Chair of Sasha Bruce, Inc.

Freda C. Lewis-Hall, M.D., FAPA
Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice
President, Pfizer Inc

Edison T. Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
President and CEO,
The Jackson Laboratory

Ann Lurie
President, Lurie Holdings;
President and Treasurer,
Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation

Joel S. Marcus
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
and Founder, Alexandria Real
Estate Equities, Inc. and
Alexandria Venture Investments

INTRODUCING NEW BOARD MEMBERS —In May 2015, the FNIH unanimously elected two new directors of the Foundation. Russell W. Steenberg, is the founder and global head of BlackRock Private Equity Partners, with more than 32 years of experience in private equity investment. Judy Lansing Kovler, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist in private practice with more than 30 years of experience working as a consultant to government agencies, including the White House, State Department and Secret Service.

Steven C. Mayer (Treasurer)
Former Chief Executive Officer, CoGenesys, Inc.

Paul M. Montrone, Ph.D.
Chairman, Perspecta Trust

Martin J. Murphy, Jr., Ph.D. DMedSc, FAFSCO
Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AlphaMed Consulting, Inc.

Steven M. Paul, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
at Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. and
Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures

The Honorable John Edward Porter
(Vice Chairman for Policy)
Hogan Lovells US, LLP

Jillian Sackler, D.B.E.
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Dame Jillian & Dr. Arthur M. Sackler
Foundation for the Arts, Sciences
& Humanities

Lily Safra
Chairwoman, The Edmond J. Safra
Philanthropic Foundation

Ellen V. Sigal, Ph.D.
Chairperson, Friends of Cancer Research

Solomon H. Snyder, M.D.
(Vice Chairman for Science)
Distinguished Service Professor of
Neuroscience, Pharmacology & Psychiatry,
Solomon H. Snyder Department of
Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University

Nina K. Solarz
Former Executive Director of
Peace Links and the Fund for Peace

Russell W. Steenberg
Global Head, BlackRock
Private Equity Partners

Samuel O. Thier, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care
Policy, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School;
Massachusetts General Hospital

Anne Wojcicki
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder,
23andMe

HONORARY DIRECTORS

Luther W. Brady, M.D.
Affiliate Faculty Member in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Drexel University; Former Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, MCP Hahnemann University

Patrick C. Walsh, M.D.
University Distinguished Service Professor, James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

DIRECTOR EMERITUS

Paul Berg, Ph.D.
Cahill Professor in Biochemistry (Emeritus),
Stanford University School of Medicine

Sherry Lansing
Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
The Sherry Lansing Foundation

EX-OFFICIO

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health

Stephen Ostroff, M.D.
Acting Commissioner,
Food and Drug Administration

Our Staff

PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR’S OFFICE

Maria C. Freire, Ph.D.
President and Executive Director

Ann Ashby, M.B.A.
Deputy Executive Director

Andrea Baruchin, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor to the President

Erika Tarver
Senior Project Manager

Felicia Gray
Executive Assistant

OPERATIONS

Kevin A. Klock, J.D.
Director of Operations
Advisor to the President

Susan Powell, M.T.S.
Senior Grants Manager

Kathy Peterson
Operations Officer

Liz Johns
Executive Assistant

FINANCE

Julie Tune, C.P.A., C.F.E.
Chief Financial Officer

Eva Coyne, C.P.A. 
Controller

Cathy Martin, C.P.A.
Senior Accountant

Noemi Rodriguez
Staff Accountant

Peggy J. Gerlacher
Operations Associate

COMMUNICATIONS

Abbey Meltzer, M.P.S.
Director of Communications

Richard Folkers
Director of Communications

Kai Yee
Digital Administrator

MEETINGS & EVENTS

Jolie Mak, C.M.P.
Meetings and Events Manager

Jasmin Miles, C.M.P.
Senior Events Coordinator

Janelle Lewis
Meetings and Events Planner

Sarah Kay
Events Assistant

Dalia Travis
Events Assistant

ADVANCEMENT

Melissa Cather
Director of Advancement

Jamie Cooper, M.A.
Advancement Officer

Rob Drucker, J.D.
Advancement Officer

Laren Friedman, M.F.A.
Writer/Researcher

Cassandra Hoye
Advancement Assistant

DEVELOPMENT

Julie Wolf-Rodda, M.A.
Director of Development

Renee Bullion, M.P.A.
Development Officer

Meredith Donnelly
Development Officer

Dinetta Parrott
Development Officer

Will Tolentino
Development and
Communications Systems Officer

Anisa Sanghrajka
Development Assistant

Jillian Bante
Development Assistant

SCIENCE

Stephanie James, Ph.D.
Director of Science and Director,
Grand Challenges in Global Health

Michael Gottlieb, Ph.D.
Deputy Director of Science

Dennis Lang, Ph.D.
Senior Program Coordinator (Contractor)

Karen H. Tountas, Ph.D.
Scientific Program Manager

Susan Wiener, M.A.
Senior Project Manager,
Grand Challenges in Global Health

David Brown, Ph.D.
Scientific Program Manager, CTC-VIMC

Gail Levine, M.A., C.R.C.C.
Scientific Program Manager, CTC-VIMC

Tiffany Francis
Executive Assistant
Contract Specialist

RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS

David Wholley, M.Phil.
Director of Research Partnerships

Maria Vassileva, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Program Manager, Metabolic Disorders

Paula Eason, Ph.D.
Scientific Program Manager, Cancer

Steven C. Hoffmann, M.S.
Scientific Program Manager,
Inflammation and Immunity

Rosa Canet-Aviles, Ph.D.
Scientific Program Manager, Neuroscience

Sanya Whitaker, Ph.D., P.M.P.
Scientific Program Manager,
Metabolic Disorders

Ron Benjamin, Pharm B, M.B.A.
Clinical Operations Manager

Jessica Ratay, M.S.
Clinical Project Manager

Dorothy Jones-Davis, Ph.D.
Scientific Project Manager, Neuroscience

Nicole Spear, M.A.
Scientific Project Manager

Cheryl Melencio
Executive Assistant

Jessica Jones
Administrative Assistant

INTERNS

Samantha Gonzales

Amber Langway

Celia Rumbin