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BOARD MEMBERS
Marc Guillet
Executive Director / President
Marc started A Foundation Building Strength in February of 2008 to help his daughter Ava and all patients with Nemaline Myopathy.
Marc is the CEO of Agile Physical Therapy, a company he founded in July of 2002. He is also the director of physical therapy for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Marc is on the advisory board for two medical device companies involving technological advances in treatment and rehabilitation of orthopedic and neurologic advances.
Marc is a Board-certified Orthopedic Specialist. His affiliations include: American Physical Therapy Association, National Athletic Training Association, and Orthopedic and Sports Sections of the American Physical Therapy Association. He graduated from Columbia University, New York 1991;
Aletha Coleman, J.D.
Director
For the last 20 years, Aletha Leong Coleman has focused on serving non-profit organizations in the Palo Alto, CA area in various board capacities, including establishing board governance, chairing finance, audit, development committees, and chairing specific development efforts.
Aletha was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1978 with a BA (with Honors) in Medieval Studies. She also attended Hastings College of the Law at U.C. Berkeley, and is a (retired) attorney and CPA.
Annette Bialson, J.D.
Director/Secretary
Annette is a lawyer with extensive experience with non-profit foundations. She is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for Avenidas and is on the finance committee of the Northern California Arthritis Foundation.
Annette has over 20 years of experience practicing law in Silicon Valley. She is one of the founders of Bialson, Bergen & Schwab – a law firm specializing in domestic and international commercial law transactions of publicly traded companies.
Annette received her J.D. from Stanford University.
Don Kennedy, Ph.D.
Director
Don Kennedy’s long and distinguished career has spanned education, science, the environment, and human health. Don is the President Emeritus and Bing Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Emeritus at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow by courtesy at the Wood Institute for the Environment, and the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Science Magazine (2000-2008).
Don has been on the faculty at Stanford University from 1960 to the present. He was Chair of the Department of Biology from 1964-1972, Director of the Program in Human Biology from 1973-1977, Provost from 1979 to 1980, and President of Stanford University from 1980 to 1992. Don was also Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 1977-79 during the Carter Administration.
Don has been involved in various roles with a number of organizations over the years, including: National Commission for Public Service; Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government; Director, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Trustee, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation; Senior Consultant, Office of Science and Technology Policy (Ford Presidency); Elected member, National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society Co-Chair, Committee on Science, Technology and Law (National Academy of Science); Editorial Board, New England Journal of Medicine; and Chairman, Selection Committee, National Academies Communications Awards.
Don holds AB and Ph.D. degrees in biology from Harvard.
Harvey Schloss
Treasurer
Mr. Schloss retired several years ago and now spends most of his time in the non-profit sector advising organizations on strategic and finance issues.
Prior to his consulting activity, Harvey was Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Mayfield, one of the oldest venture capital firms in the country. He also served as Vice President of Finance of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, one of the nation’s premier law firms serving the technology community. Harvey has extensive experience as a corporate chief financial officer, in both public and private companies.
Harvey holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences from the University of Rochester and a master’s degree from New York University.
Willie Quinn
Director
Willie Quinn is a life sciences entrepreneur with a passion for making a difference.
Most recently, Willie Quinn ran Corporate Development for Jazz Pharmaceuticals, a public specialty pharmaceutical company with experience developing and commercializing drugs for orphan indications (indications with fewer than 200,000 patients in the U.S.). Willie joined Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2003 and actively participated in the creation of their first business plan, working in various functions such as business development, strategy, and finance over his 8 years at the company. Prior to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Willie was COO and CFO at Novation Biosciences, a venture-backed startup developing software to extract meaningful information from microarray data.
Willie has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MA and a BA from Stanford University.
MEDICAL DIRECTOR
Hali Weiss, M.D.
Dr. Weiss uses her experience to help A Foundation Building Strength select research projects for funding, as well as provide ongoing medical guidance to the Foundation.
Hali is a Clinical Instructor and Staff Physician at Stanford Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Department of Neonatology. She is also an attending physician in the High Risk Infant Follow-Up Clinic.
Following a General Pediatrics residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, Dr. Weiss completed a fellowship in Neonatology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. As a fellow, she conducted several neonatal outcome studies and her clinical experience in developmental follow-up clinics dates back to her residency. Dr. Weiss worked for several years as a clinical neonatologist at LPCH, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and El Camino Hospital before joining the high risk infant follow-up team at LPCH in 2003.
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SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Alan Beggs, Ph.D.
Alan Beggs is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Research Associate at the Department of Medicine, Division of Genetics, Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA.
Dr. Beggs’ research is aimed at understanding the structures and function of the proteins that make up skeletal muscle fibers. Beggs and colleagues are taking two approaches to the problem. The first involves identifying and characterizing new skeletal muscle genes and proteins. The second entails identifying genetic mutations that cause human neuromuscular disease. These simultaneous approaches should enable them to correlate their basic muscle biology findings with their studies on muscle tissue in patients with neuromuscular diseases. The diseases under study include nemaline myopathy, myotubular myopathy, congenital fiber type disproportion (CFTC), multiminicore disease, and congenital myopathies with non-specific muscle findings.
Ching Wang, M.D., Ph.D.
Ching Wang is Associate Professor of Neurology at Stanford Medical School and Director of the Pediatric Neuromuscular clinic at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Dr. Wang is currently conducting clinical trial with Spinal Muscle atrophy patients.
Helen Blau, Ph.D.
Helen Blau is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor for Stem Cell Biology at the School of Medicine at Stanford University.
Dr. Blau is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences and a recipient of numerous national and international awards. Her research expertise is in the area of nuclear reprogramming and stem cell biology, and she is renowned for her work on muscle stem cells and tissue regeneration in normal and dystrophic muscle of mice and humans.
James Spudich, Ph.D.
James Spudich is Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University. His specific research interests include all things actin. Dr. Spudich is co-founder of Cytokinetics, a company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics.
Nanci Yuan, M.D.
Nancy Yuan is Associate Professor of Pediatric pulmonary medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Yuan’s research interests are concentrated on the pulmonary complications due to neuromuscular disease, cerebral palsy/hyper tonicity, scoliosis, and sleep disorders in the pediatric population.
Susan Iannaccone, M.D.
Susan T. Iannaccone, MD, FAAN, is the Jimmy Elizabeth Westcott Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Neurology, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Director of Child Neurology at Children's Medical Center Dallas.
Dr. Iannaccone was Principal Investigator for AmSMART, American Spinal Muscular Atrophy Randomized Trials, from 2000 to 2008, with funding from the National Institutes of Health. She has been site Principal Investigator for clinical trials in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and hereditary neuropathies. Her Neuromuscular Medicine clinic meets four times per week and serves a population of over 500 children with neuromuscular diseases. She is mentor for a pediatric NMM fellow each year and Director of the annual Carrell-Krusen Neuromuscular Symposium.
ADVISORS
Cliff Katz
Cliff lives in New York City with his wife, Alice, and son, Jackson (Jack). Jack was diagnosed with Nemaline Myopathy in 2011 at 15 months old. Cliff joined the team of a Foundation Building Strength because of their mutual dedication to finding a cure or treatment for people with Nemaline Myopathy.
Cliff is an attorney with the national law firm of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He focuses his practice on complex litigation matters, with an emphasis on cases concerning fraud, deception, and false claims in the health care sector. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Rutgers University.
Dana Guillett
Dana graduated from University of Southern California with a B.S. in Business Administration. She thrived as a recruiter in the area of Human Resources for a variety of companies in the fields of Entertainment, Investment Banking and Technology. In 2002, Dana partnered with her husband in starting Agile PT. When her youngest child of three was born with NM, Dana founded A Foundation Building Strength and invests her time in working to better the lives of those affected by this rare disease.
Jay Kershner
Jay strives to make a difference by fundraising for causes he believes in. He began raising money for AFBS in 2008 at the 1st annual fitness challenge and has been a lead fundraiser every year since.
Prior to joining AFBS, Jay spent 15 years in the restaurant industry, managing restaurants in San Francisco and the Peninsula. In 2000 he transitioned to customer service industry, and held Director roles at TiVo Inc. and Dash Navigation. Jay is currently the Senior Director of Player Advocacy and Service at Zynga Inc.
Jay holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Patricia Mitchell
Patricia Mitchell's daughter Kathryn (Katie) Mitchell was diagnosed with Nemaline Myopathy in 2008, at the age of 2. Patricia has her Masters degree in business from Michigan State University. She currently works for the global health care company Baxter International, as a consultant to sales teams in the areas of sales force effectiveness and commission plan design. Patty lives with her family in Libertyville, Illinois.
Rob Reich, Ph.D.
Rob Reich got involved with A Foundation Building Strength through his passion for social entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and his desire to make a difference.
Rob Reich is Associate Professor of Political Science, Ethics in Society, and, by courtesy, Education, at Stanford University. He also holds appointments in the following programs: Ethics in Society, American Studies, Urban Studies, and the Center for Social Innovation in the School of Business, the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Haas Center for Public Service, and in the School of Education. He is the author of Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education (University of Chicago Press, 2002), co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and What We Can Do About It (Brookings Institution Press, 2005), and co-editor of Toward a Humanist Justice: The Political Philosophy of Susan Moller Okin (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Rob has received fellowships from the Spencer Foundation, the Stanford Humanities Center and the Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
Roger Kornberg, Ph.D.
Biochemist and professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to RNA, "the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription".
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