Board

CEO, ConferenceEdge, Inc.
Trevor Barlow has been actively involved in enterprise technology and building global companies for over 20 years.  He has helped pioneer multiple technology companies while building solutions that scale for SMBs all the way up to the Fortune 50.  
He is the founder & CEO of ConferenceEdge, Inc., an enterprise event registration company, that provides technology solutions for webinars, webcasts and in-person business conferences.  

His professional expertise encompasses all areas of business development and leadership with and experience navigating local, federal and international political environments.

Trevor’s personal interests involve international travel (he speaks 4 languages), outdoor activities (biking, hiking and skiing).  Barlow has a long history of environmental and social volunteer work (Big Brothers Big Sisters, Outward Bound, Environmental Fundraising, USSA Coaching, are a few of his favorites).

CEO & President, PALTOWN Development Foundation
Ms. Brown, a Montana native, had a long and healthy career as a corporate executive search professional in the consumer packaged goods and telecommunications industries until – at age 58 – she was diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer. Once her treatment was completed, she refocused her professional energies on the undeveloped niche of disease-specific patient empowerment, founding COLONTOWN, the patient community. COLONTOWN features deeply engaged, experience-specific, secret support groups that are exclusively dedicated to colorectal cancer patients and family members.

In 2016, Brown co-founded the PALTOWN Development Foundation to create additional disease-focused communities for even more patients and families. COLONTOWN is the model for patient community building, providing the template and proof -of- concept for disease communities that will be developed.

Erika holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts (French) from the University of Montana.

Ms. Brown is grateful, empowered, and disease-free – 14 years later.

COO & Vice President, PALTOWN Development Foundation
Seybold began her career as the first Web editor for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and soon moved to the National Cancer Institute, where she built a web-based initiative to increase understanding of and participation in cancer clinical trials. While at NCI, Seybold participated in a number of high-level initiatives surrounding the push to develop a unified, branded web presence (now cancer.gov) for the Institute.

Seybold has spent the last 16 years consulting to clients in the health information, biomedical, and public health fields as an information architect and user experience practitioner. Clients include several institutes at the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Johnson & Johnson.

Seybold co-founded the PALTOWN Development Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation, in 2016. The Foundation develops and manages online support communities for patients and caregivers affected by serious disease.

Seybold holds a B.A. in Humanities and M.A. in Medieval Studies from Yale University.

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Linh Nguyen is a nationally recognized leader in organizational strategy, talent development, and change management. Over the last four years, Linh has served as vice president for learning and impact, then chief operating officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. Prior to joining the foundation, Linh spent over 25 years in investment consulting and management consulting.

Linh started in consulting with Cambridge Associates, an international financial and investment consulting firm based in Boston, MA. Pivoting from numbers to people, Linh continued his career at Accenture, where he grew to lead the firm’s U.S. public sector talent and organizational performance group. In recognition of his expertise, Linh was selected in 2008 to serve on the Obama Presidential Transition Team as transition co-lead for the Office of Personnel Management.

Starting this September 2017, Linh will return to consulting, serving nonprofit clients in the areas of strategic planning, organizational change and capacity building. He will also begin a new journey as a practicing artist.

Linh holds a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Yale University in New Haven, CT. He lives with his college sweetheart and thirteen year old daughter in Albuquerque, NM. In his spare time, Linh is also a practicing artist, musician, and avid cook.

Dr. Chelsea Boet is a primary care physician board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. She cares for patients from birth through end of life, specializing in preventative care and management of chronic medical illnesses. Special interests include breastfeeding medicine. Dr. Boet earned her BA from Kalamazoo College, and completed her MD training at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She practices medicine full time in Grand Rapids, MI.

Art Director, American Chemical Society
In 1982, Robin Braverman received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been working as a graphic artist since graduation, and has spent the last 27 years working at the American Chemical Society, mainly as an Art Director for Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the Society.

She was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in August of 2002. Surgery was immediately performed, and she enjoyed a period of remission for 18 months. A recurrence was discovered in July of 2004. Since that initial diagnosis, she has endured three major surgeries, several minor procedures, and three different chemotherapy “cocktails.” She has been NED (no evidence of disease) since May of 2005, and has had no chemotherapy since that time.

She and some family members underwent genetic testing at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and it was determined that she had the MSH2 mutation of Lynch Syndrome. Her daughter was tested at the age of 18, and does not carry the gene mutation.

Wanting to help spread the word about colorectal cancer prevention, she became active with and joined the Board of Directors of Chris4Life (now the Colon Cancer Alliance). She participated in two public service announcements, a video, and has spoken to various groups about her journey. She was one of the first twenty people in COLONTOWN, and participates in the continuing discussion.

Howard Brown is an Internet/software entrepreneur, and a two time cancer survivor. His areas of expertise include new game strategic consulting, digital platforms (mobile, audio, video, broadcast / cable, cloud computing, social media, online communities and smart enterprises (data collection, analysis, intelligence, insights and reporting. He is the founder of Advocasee, and was the CEO and Cofounder of CircleBuilder Software LLC, a provider of private online community software. He has twice served as the President of the Babson College Alumni Association Board of Directors, and has served on a number of other nonprofit and private sector boards and committees.

Director, Fairfield and Woods
John A. Eckstein focuses on the general representation of technology-based companies and venture capital funds, investors, investment bankers, financial advisors and financial institutions. He works often with complex legal structures in entity and project financings; however, lately he has often represented private business owners in the exit sale of their companies.

As a securities lawyer active in corporate finance, John has been involved in a range of offerings in the U. S. capital markets, including initial public offerings; other primary and secondary offerings of securities; exchange offers; tender offers; and private and limited offerings. He also has assisted clients in preparing and reviewing all types of disclosure reports for businesses regulated under federal and state securities laws.

John provides advice regarding integrated legal strategies for board-level challenges faced by all kinds of companies. He is interested in the application of technology to the business of energy and is actively involved in legal and public policy aspects of energy, biomedical and IT/software.

Eckstein holds degrees from the University of Iowa, an M.A. from SAIS at Johns Hopkins, and a law degree from UVA.

Dr. Christopher Heery is the Chief Medical Officer for Bavarian Nordic where he oversees the clinical development of BN’s pipeline, comprising therapeutic cancer vaccines and vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases. He is a medical oncologist by training. He trained at the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, where he went on to be the Head of the Clinical Trials group in that translational ImmunoOncology-focused branch. He has personally run a wide variety of immunotherapy trials using a variety of first-in-human agents including therapeutic cancer vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-cytokine conjugates, and cytokine targeting antibodies. His trial experience also includes combination strategies in IO and IO with standard therapies based on mechanistic rationale.

Senior Vice President, Powell Tate
With 25 years of public affairs experience, Hoffman is an expert at devising and executing strategic communications programs that achieve legislative, regulatory and reputational goals. His experience includes corporate communications and running issue-oriented media, advocacy and third-party initiatives. Eric also has deep experience managing crisis communications programs.

Eric’s issue portfolio focuses on highly-regulated industries, including having deep experience for the medical device industry. Eric has worked with numerous patient advocacy groups to bring their voice to legislative and regulatory decisions at CMS and the FDA. His current clients include the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, Siemens USA, Bayer Consumer Health and PhRMA. Eric has won numerous PR industry awards, including a 2015 Sabre award for his work for the Lung Cancer Alliance to convince Medicare a lung cancer screening should be an essential health benefit.

Prior to joining the firm, Eric spent eight years at another agency focusing on health care advocacy. His clients included the American Cancer Society, Nike, U.S. Oncology, Kaiser Permanente, PhRMA and American Health Care Association.

Previously, Eric served as press secretary for the U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Mark R. Warner. Eric was Warner’s spokesman and designed and executed Sen. Warner’s 1996 campaign communications strategy. Prior to taking part in Warner’s campaign, he served in the Clinton Administration working for the Childhood Immunization Program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the CDC, he planned high-profile media events with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Health and Human Services Department Secretary Donna E. Shalala.

Eric earned his B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University.

Kamala Maddali, DVM, Ph.D.

Vice President, Biopharma Collaborations & Companion Diagnostics, Cancer Genetics

Dr. Maddali’s mantra for leadership is to “spread some sunshine” by being passionate and positive about her commitment to patient’s health via novel testing solutions for precision medicine.

While at Merck, Dr. Maddali played a pivotal role as a biomarker scientist understanding the various pharmacological and toxic effects of investigational drugs across multiple therapeutic areas in oncology, neurology and obesity disorders. 

She also has extensive experience as a chief scientific commercial liaison for precision medicine at top-tier central laboratories and reference laboratories, including Quintiles and Quest Diagnostics.  

At Cancer Genetics, she has initiated a biopharma collaboration campaign, implementing strategic initiatives to foster positive growth of the company through the provision of high-quality, innovative, responsive services. Her vision is to ensure that the patient’s voice is heard and her goal is to help patients and pharma partners implement the right test for the right patient and innovate the right drugs for improving global community health.

Dr. Maddali’s work to realize this vision includes the upcoming “Adopt a patient program,” which will help screen women in underserved communities in Asia for early cancer diagnosis. She is a board member for “Cancer NJ”, a South Asian cancer patient advocacy organization working to foster knowledge about cancer diagnosis and prevention, and is a scientific advisor to “Beat Cancer,” which works to help prevent cancer through lifestyle changes. Dr. Maddali also empowers students as a scientific educational mentor and helps them to successfully navigate their educational goals by staying committed to healthcare.

Dr. Maddali was the 2016 Healthcare Heroes Finalist Award for “Innovation-Individual” category at NJBIZ.

Dr. Maddali serves as a Vice Chair for the Women in Bio (WIB) Philadelphia chapter. The Women In Bio organization promotes careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship for women in the life sciences.

Dr. Maddali is very committed to save lives, to empower those affected by cancer, and to inspire younger generations to stay committed to healthcare education and be the future of global community health. She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from University of Missouri-Columbia and a DVM Veterinary Medicine from Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University in India. 

Chief of Staff, Global Digital and Analytics & Global Finance and Operations, Boston Consulting Group
Kelly has also led finance and planning, strategy development, plan execution and business operations for Boston Consulting Group’s North America region, where her duties included:

• Managing member of Americas Region executive leadership team, a partner-driven group that sets and leads BCG’s strategy and operations in the region
• Partners with global leadership, specialty functions, other operations and broader Partner group on business building, strategy and operations initiatives, including new business development and implementation
• Leads team encompassing Controller functions, Financial Planning and Analysis, Business Reporting, Payroll, Risk Management and other finance operations for North America
• Directs Americas’ region functions related to real estate, financial IT investment management, workplace management, compensation programs, travel operations and procurement/vendor management
• Develops and executes internal and executive communications programs

Previously, she was a Principal in client service, working in consumer goods, travel and tourism, energy, and non-profit, as well as for the US Government. Her experience includes strategy, process development, organizational design and change management.

In addition, Kelly spent 6 years with Northrop Grumman, a U.S. defense contractor, including extensive work on large-scale initiatives, including post merger integration, staff retention initiatives, and projects realigning employee skill-sets to new industry and organizational needs.

Prior to that, she worked with KPMG’s Corporate Finance practice and with a California-based manufacturer and distributor of industrial chemicals.

Ms. Nelson has a M.B.A. from the Smith School of Business (University of Maryland), where she was part of student team investing and managing a $1.2 million equity portfolio. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Environmental Studies from Yale University.

Senior Advisor for Mental Health Services, Epidemiology, and Economics, National Institute of Mental Health
Dr. Schoenbaum directs a unit charged with conducting analyses of mental health burden, service use and costs, intervention opportunities, and other policy-related issues, in support of Institute decision-making; and with helping to strengthen NIMH’s relationships with outside stakeholders, to increase the public health impact of NIMH-supported research.

Dr. Schoenbaum’s research has focused particularly on the costs and benefits of interventions to improve health and health care, evaluated from the perspectives of patients, providers, payers and society. He has been a scientific principal in NIMH’s Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (http://www.armystarrs.org; now STARRS-LS); and has worked on initiatives with the Veterans Health Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Business Group on Health, among others.

Prior to joining NIMH, Dr. Schoenbaum spent nine years at the RAND Corporation, where his work included studies of the feasibility and consequences of improving care for common mental disorders, particularly depression; studies of the social epidemiology and economic consequences of chronic illness and disability; design and evaluation of decision-support tools to help consumers make health benefits choices; and international health sector development projects.

Dr. Schoenbaum was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1995-1997. He holds a PhD in Economics from University of Michigan.

Chris has over 20 years of experience in advancing cutting-edge biomedical information technology. He is Founder, President & CEO of Systems Imagination, Inc., which offers advanced cognitive computing technology and artificial intelligence methodologies to translate big data into valuable insights. Chris was instrumental at IBM as Head of Strategy and Planning in the Information Based Medicine group, where he developed initiatives to target the growing field of personalized medicine as new molecular therapeutics were first being used to treat cancer. He has also held leadership positions at healthcare and technology companies including Systems Oncology, Cisco, Oracle, and Applied Biosystems.

As a serial entrepreneur, Chris has created value in new companies that accelerate the adoption of personalized medicine through genomics and cognitive computing. He has founded and successfully engineered the exit of startups including MedTrust Online, LLC, the world’s first largest online community of cancer doctors treating difficult cases with molecular medicine. He continues to create new value in innovative ventures at the intersection of Healthcare & Life Sciences and Information Technology.

Dr. Yoo is an Adjunct Faculty member of the Department of Biomedical Informatics of Arizona State University. He is a recipient of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Cancer Research Award for his postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley, and he received his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Yale University.

Partner, WilmerHale
Daniel Zimmerman, has advised emerging companies and technology startups for more than 20 years, drawing on his extensive expertise in complex corporate transactions and venture technology issues. Zimmerman provides counsel on a variety of corporate governance and finance matters, as well as exit transactions such as public offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He further counsels Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms, as well as global venture and private equity funds in their portfolio investments in the US and abroad.

Zimmerman is co-chair of WilmerHale’s Diversity Committee. He has served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Law Section of the State Bar of California for the 2009-2010 term and as Chairman of the Board of the German American Business Association. He has also previously served as president and board member of Alto International School in Menlo Park and serves as primary pro bono counsel to the School.

Zimmerman holds an LLM from UCLA and was educated at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.