Board of Directors

Amy Abernethy, M.D.

Director of the Duke Cancer Care Research Program

Amy P. Abernethy, MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine; Director of the Duke Cancer Care Research Program; Senior Fellow with the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research; faculty in the Duke Clinical Research Institute; and, an active clinician in both outpatient and inpatient oncology. Dr. Abernethy was also recently appointed to the National Cancer Policy Forum with the Institute of Medicine.

A NIH and AHRQ funded investigator with a substantial portfolio focused on comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient reported outcomes in cancer, Dr. Abernethy founded and directs the Duke Cancer Care Research Program (DCCRP). DCCRP is developing a new model of combined clinical/research inquiry in oncology, and IT-based methods to support it, in order to facilitate personalized CER. This model, the “rapid learning cancer clinic,” uses electronic patient-reported outcomes as the foundation for a real-time linked data system designed to facilitate evidence-based, individualized care as an integral component of routine cancer care in the 21st century. Approaches fundamentally rely on principles of data interoperability and sharing, and Dr. Abernethy is leading Duke’s efforts to create a transferable model of a learning healthcare system.

Joanne Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H.

Senior Medical Director, Women's Health, Aetna

Joanne Armstrong is a senior medical director for Aetna, a health benefits company providing health insurance to over 17 million individual both in the US and abroad.  At Aetna, Dr. Armstrong heads the Department of Women's Health and is the clinical and strategic lead for genetics. In this role, she is responsible for clinical program development and implementation, quality improvement efforts, medical cost management, and other activities. She serves on the Advisory Boards of a number of academic, governmental, and patient advocacy groups  that are active in promoting personalized medicine. She is a Board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition.

Dr. Armstrong is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and has additional training in epidemiology and public health.  She is also an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Jeffrey Cossman, M.D.

Secretary, PMC; Founder and President of United States Diagnostics Standards, Inc.

Jeffrey Cossman, M.D. is the Founder and President of United States Diagnostics Standards, Inc., (USDS) an independent certification body for laboratory and pathology diagnostics. USDS is dedicated to improving the regulatory and commercialization pathways for laboratory diagnostics by verifying the analytical and clinical performance of laboratory diagnostics.

Dr. Cossman is a pathologist and served as Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Georgetown University and as the Oscar B. Hunter Professor of Pathology at Georgetown. 

He founded one of the nation’s first Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories while at the National Cancer Institute, where he developed and implemented lymphoma molecular diagnostic tests now in use worldwide. He has also been Vice President and Medical Director of Gene Logic and Chief Science Officer of the Critical Path Institute. Dr. Cossman is a co-founder of Halcyon Diagnostics, Inc., Avalon Pharmaceuticals (now Clinical Data, Inc.), and the Association for Molecular Pathology. 

Dr. Cossman has authored 150 scientific publications including the book, Molecular Genetics in Cancer Diagnosis and has several patents in molecular diagnostics. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, is board-certified in pathology and trained in pathology at the University of Michigan, Stanford University and NIH.

William S. Dalton, Ph.D., M.D.

President, CEO & Center Director, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Dr. William (Bill) S. Dalton is President, Chief Executive Officer and Center Director of Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and serves as Board Chairman of M2Gen, a national biotechnology subsidiary of Moffitt Cancer Center. A nationally renowned cancer researcher, physician and health policy expert, Dr. Dalton has dedicated his career to the study and development of the most effective approaches to cancer research and care. For his leadership in the development of personalized cancer care and patient-centered outcomes research, Dr. Dalton was recognized as the 2010 recipient of the Personalized Medicine Coalition’s Leadership in Personalized Medicine Award.

Dr. Dalton currently serves as the President-Elect of the Association of American Cancer Institutes and is Chair of the Science Policy & Legislative Affairs Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research. In addition, Dr. Dalton serves on the Institute of Medicine’s, National Cancer Policy Forum and served on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors as well as multiple scientific advisory boards at cancer centers and research foundations across the U.S.

Stephen L. Eck, M.D., Ph.D.

Vice President, Global Head of Medical Oncology, Astellas Pharma Global Development

Dr. Eck is Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Medicine and Science at Astellas Pharma Global Development (Headquartered in Deerfield IL). He is directly responsible for the oversight of oncology drug development plans. Much of this work is focused on special cancer populations for which unique biology enables the development of personalized cancer therapies. Dr. Eck previously served as Vice President, Translational Medicine & Pharmacogenomics at Eli Lilly and Company (2007-2011) where he was responsible for the clinical pharmacology components of drug development including both early phase clinical studies and late stage drug development studies. His group also developed the biomarkers and companion diagnostics needed for effective decision-making and for tailoring therapeutics to the right patient population. Prior to Joining Lilly, Dr. Eck served in a variety of drug development leadership roles at Pfizer, Inc (2002-2007).

Dr. Eck is a board certified Hematologist/Oncologist with broad drug development experience in Oncology and Neuroscience. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Pharmaceutical Sciences). He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the ACGT Foundation (which supports academic cancer research), and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Fairbanks Institute (an institution dedicated to developing data banks to enable personalized medicine). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Keck Graduate School (Claremont, CA).

Felix W. Frueh, Ph.D.

Vice President for Personalized Medicine Research and Development, Medco Health Solutions Inc.

Dr. Felix Frueh joined Medco in May 2008 to lead Medco’s personalized medicine research and development organization. In this function, Dr. Frueh manages Medco’s expanding research efforts in personalized medicine, leveraging the newest developments in science to improve the safety and efficacy of prescription drug care. He is also responsible for the development of Medco’s Personalized Medicine Research Center, which is under construction in Whitestown, Indiana.

Prior to joining Medco, Dr. Frueh was Associate Director for Genomics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he built and led a core genomics review team in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), and chaired the first FDA-wide, interdisciplinary pharmacogenomics review group (IPRG). Prior to the FDA, he was Managing Partner at Stepoutside Consulting, LLC, and held senior positions at Transgenomic and Protogene Laboratories.

Dr. Frueh’s academic career includes a faculty appointment at the Departments of Pharmacology and Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University and the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he also received his Ph.D. in biochemistry.

David King

Treasurer, PMC; President and CEO, Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp)

David P. King is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp).  LabCorp, one of the world’s largest clinical laboratories, has annual revenues of $4.7 billion (2009) and more than 28,000 employees nationwide.

Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2007, Mr. King served as LabCorp’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2005.  Previously, he served as head of the Company’s US LABS / Esoterix Division, one of the nation’s leading specialty testing and cancer diagnostic laboratories, as well as Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. He is a member of the Company’s Management Committee.

Mr. King initially joined LabCorp as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer in 2001 after working for many years with the Company as an outside counsel. Prior to joining the Company, he was a partner with Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. in Baltimore, Maryland from 1992 to 2001.

Mr. King is also on the board of The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) which seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients.

Mr. King, holds an AB degree, cum laude, from Princeton University and a JD degree, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Lawrence J. Lesko, Ph.D., F.C.P.

Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Florida

Lawrence J. Lesko, Ph.D., F.C.P. has been leading UF’s new Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology in the interdisciplinary Institute of Therapeutic Innovation at the UF Research and Academic Center in Lake Nona (Orlando) since July 2011.

Before joining UF, Dr. Lesko worked nearly 20 years in the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research as the Director of the Office of Clinical Pharmacology.  He was also Chair of the Clinical Pharmacology Coordinating Subcommittee of the FDA’s Medical Policy Coordinating Committee and authored or co-authored numerous Guidance for Industry, and started the FDA’s Voluntary Genomics Data Submission Program and Mechanistic Drug Safety Program.

Dr. Lesko is the recepient of numerous awards related to his expertise in personalized medicine, and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Clay B. Marsh, M.D.

Executive Director, Center for Personalized Health, Ohio State University

Clay Marsh, M.D. is the Senior Associate Vice President, Health Sciences Research; Vice Dean of Research for the College of Medicine; Executive Director, Center for Personalized Health; Director, Center for Critical Care and Respiratory Medicine; Professor of Internal Medicine.  He is the former director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine. 

Dr. Marsh received his medical degree at West Virginia University and Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship training at The Ohio State University. He is an NIH-funded investigator, his laboratory focuses on translational research in the area of macrophage biology; understanding molecular mechanisms underlying human health and wellness. Dr. Marsh is listed in America’s Best Doctors© and he has a rich history of mentorship of MD, MD/PHD, PhD, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty.

Dr. Marsh leads the efforts in Personalized Health Care at the Ohio State University, where he and senior leadership lead the effort in transforming health care delivery by creating pilot programs in wellness and chronic disease testing disruptive solutions that will result in lower cost and higher quality/outcomes. OSU is a partner in the Coriell Institute’s Personalized Medicine Collaborative and has recently entered a partnership with the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology to form the P4 Medicine Institute.

J. Brian Munroe

Past Chair, PMC; Vice President, Government Affairs, Endo Pharmaceuticals

Brian Munroe is the founder and the immediate Past-President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC).   He currently serves as the Chairman of the PMC Public Policy Committee and on the Executive Committee of the PMC Board of Directors.

Brian is a twenty year veteran of health care public policy, advocacy, and communications.  His areas of expertise are in FDA legislation and regulations, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, federal and state tax policy, and the development of government policies to advance personalized medicine.

Brian has created  successful, stand alone Government Affairs Departments from scratch at: SmithKline Beecham,  Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Endo Pharmaceuticals.  He is currently the Vice-President in charge of Washington office, the Public Policy group, State Government Relations and, the Political Action Committee at Endo.  He also serves on Endo’s Executive Operations Committee.

Brian’s breadth in health care policy stretches across pharma /biotech, home health care, diagnostics, medical devices, clinical laboratories, and health care payors.  His geographical responsibilities have included the fifty states, the Federal government and Congress, and for a short time the European Union and member countries.

Brian began his career in Washington, D.C. working for United States Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA).

Brian currently lives in the Washington,  D.C. area with his wife Vicky and their four children.

D. Stafford O'Kelly

Chair, PMC; President, Abbott Molecular

D. Stafford O'Kelly is President, Abbott Molecular.  He was appointed to his current role in April 2007.

Mr. O'Kelly joined Abbott in 1984 and has served in various management positions. These include Vice President, LatinAmerica/Canada Operations; Division Vice President Finance, Abbott International, Division;  Vice President and Controller, Ross Products Division (now Abbott Nutrition); and Vice President  Finance, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Mr. O'Kelly serves on the boards of Youth Conservation Corps, Inc., and the Clara Abbott Foundation.

He has a bachelor's degree in engineering and MBA from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Lori M. Reilly

Vice President for Policy & Research, PhRMA

Lori Reilly is Vice President for Policy & Research at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).  Ms. Reilly oversees PhRMA’s development of legislative and policy analysis and research studies on health care issues including pharmaceutical economics and utilization, health care quality, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising/marketing and promotion, import safety, comparative effectiveness and intellectual property.

In addition to her public policy work, Ms. Reilly is a frequent presenter on industry-related issues and is an industry spokesperson, appearing regularly on CNN, Fox News, ABC News, MSNBC and a host of other media outlets.  Ms. Reilly testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health to discuss the importance of reauthorization of the pediatric exclusivity program and the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act.

Prior to joining PhRMA, she was counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Commerce. And before joining the House Commerce Committee, Ms. Reilly was Chief of Staff to Rep. Jon Christensen. 

Ms. Reilly received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1993), where she graduated with Honors, and a J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law (1996).  She is a Member of the Virginia Bar.

Wayne A. Rosenkrans, Jr., Ph.D.

Past Chair, PMC; Distinguished Fellow, MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation

Wayne is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Biomedical Innovation at MIT working on health care strategy and policy issues related to science and medicine, a member of the Ethics and Systems Medicine Program at Georgetown University and Chairman of the board of directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition.  He is also VP Strategic Consulting at Fuld & Company focusing on strategic simulations in health care, Chief Scientific Advisor at Expertech focusing on strategic futuring for Air Force Medical Systems, and Chief Applications Officer for SciTech Strategies focusing on scientific competency and capacity development for academia and industry.  He is a former Director of External Relations for Personalized Healthcare and Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) as part of External Medical Relations at AstraZeneca where he had responsibility for long-range external relations strategy and policy development.  Prior to that role, he was involved in long-term strategy development for the AstraZeneca Discovery, Development, and US Commercial divisions, and created and ran strategic intelligence units at both AstraZeneca and SmithKIine Beecham Pharmaceuticals.  He is a former President of SCIP (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals) and has received the SCIP Fellows Award and Lifetime Achievement Award in Intelligence from Frost and Sullivan.  Wayne is active on strategy and advisory boards of several organizations including the IOM, IBM Life Sciences, and Hewlett-Packard Life Sciences.  He has presented at numerous forums on aspects of personalized health care, evidence-based medicine, new development paradigms, and strategy development.  He holds a B.S. in Biology from MIT, a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Boston University, and received post-doctoral training in Cancer and Radiation Biology at the University of Rochester.  Wayne lives in Malvern, Pa., is married with two college-age children, and enjoys teaching martial arts (Tang Soo Do), restoring antique/classic Fords, and aviation history.

Jared N. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief Medical Officer, Aperio

Jared N. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., F.C.A.P., brings 30 years of pathology expertise to his role as Chief Medical Officer at Aperio, most recently serving as President of the College of American Pathologists, and Director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, North Carolina. Board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology with subspecialty boards in medical microbiology and cytopathology, he is a graduate of Duke University Medical School, where he completed his residency and fellowship training, and served as chief resident. He was appointed to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee by HHS, and was a co-chair and author of the ASCO/CAP Guidelines on HER2, which was published in the January 2007 editions of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and was one of authors of ASCO/CAP Guidelines for ER/PR published in Journal of Clinical Oncology and Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 2010. He also serves as a Consulting Professor of Pathology Stanford University.

Nancy Simonian, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company

Dr. Simonian is the Chief Medical Officer at Millennium, The Takeda Oncology Company which is focused on innovative cancer medicines. She is responsible for Clinical Development, Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, and Development Project and Portfolio Management. Dr. Simonian is a member of the executive management team of Millennium and chairs the company's Portfolio Review Committee. She is a member of the board of Arqule Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the Personalized Medicine Coalition.

Prior to joining Millennium, Dr. Simonian was a Vice President of Clinical Research at Biogen where she was responsible for the clinical development of AVONEX^® (Interferon beta-1a), Tysabri (natalizumab), and their oncology programs.

She is a graduate of Princeton University and received her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She did her internship in medicine and residency in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and was an Assistant Clinical Professor at MGH and at Harvard Medical School prior to joining industry.

Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D.

President and CEO, The Institute for Individualized Health

Dr. Stephan is a widely recognized visionary in the field of molecular medicine and currently serves as the President and CEO of the Institute for Individualized Health. He founded the Institute in his quest to change the medical paradigm from reactive and generalized to proactive and personalized through the implementation of molecularly informed, tactical solutions.

Dr. Stephen is a pioneer in personalized medicine – working for over a decade to develop early diagnostic tests and knowledge-based therapies for the many different subtypes of common human diseases.  He has worked on the interface between academia and industry where “translational medicine” occurs.  

Dr. Stephan has founded a number of companies, including Navigenics, Amnestix, and Aeuon, Inc. Prior to this, Dr. Stephan served as a Senior Investigator and founding Chairman of the Department of Neurogenomics at the non-profit Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona and later moved into the role of Deputy Director of Discovery Research for the Institute. Stephan and his colleagues were among the first to use the latest genome scanning technologies to identify genetic links for over two dozen diseases, including autism, ALS, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Stephan has held faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University and the University of Arizona. He is the author of over 140 scientific publications and has been highlighted twice on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for his contributions to the field of medicine.

Dr. Stephan received a B.S. in Biology/Biochemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 1996. He completed a fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute in 1999.