Our Team

Magali Haas, MD, PhD

CEO & President

Dr. Haas is Chair, CEO and President of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a non-profit brain research organization based in New York City whose mission is to fast-track diagnostics and therapeutics to advance precision brain health. Magali has over 15 years of pharmaceutical executive experience, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson, where she assumed broad end-to-end development leadership roles in early and late stage neuroscience clinical development, translational medicine, diagnostics and integrative solutions. To pioneer new approaches for precision therapeutics for brain health, she founded Orion Bionetworks in 2012, which was transformed to Cohen Veterans Bioscience in 2015, while also serving as founding Chief Science and Technology Officer for One Mind for Research. She serves on several advisory boards including Alto Neurosciences, Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific Practice, VirtualBrainCloud, Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics and IMEC for nanoelectronics. Magali earned her BS in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, and her MD and PhD in neuroscience with distinction from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Allyson Gage, PhD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Allyson T. Gage is a neuroscientist and drug development executive, who has over 18 years of experience leading teams in all phases of clinical development. She has been responsible for the overall strategic
and clinical development of small molecules, biologics, and cellular therapies for the treatment of central nervous
system disorders, including depression, alcohol dependence, Alzheimer’s dementia, neuropathic pain, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. Allyson has a proven track record in partnering with therapeutic area clinicians, US and International regulators, patient groups, and data scientists to translate pre-clinical information into human evaluation, to design informative clinical trial protocols, and ensure a regulatory path with approvable and clinically meaningful outcome measures. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Allyson’s most recent experience was focused in the field of regenerative medicine, working toward the development of a therapeutic for spinal cord injury.

Allyson earned her BA from Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ and her MS and PhD in neuroscience from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

Andreas Jeromin, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Andreas Jeromin, PhD, has established research programs in translational neuroscience in both industry and biotech for the last 25 years and co-authored more than 200 publications. He has also been elected a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. Andreas Jeromin has led biomarker qualification programs in diagnostics and therapeutics in acute neurological injury and neurodegeneration in roles with increased responsibilities. This included several drug development program from proof-of-concept to a NINDS-supported phase III trial (Protect III). He has also provided leadership and several strategic biomarker initiatives in different roles as member of the SABs or steering committee such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) , the Coalition against Major Diseases (CAMD) directed by the Critical Path Institute (C-PATH), the Alzheimer’s Association CSF QC and biomarker assay standardization and harmonization initiatives in other CNS disorders, including MS (Accelerated Cure), ALS and PD. He is the founder and CSO of Atlantic Biomarkers, LLC, and joined Quanterix, Inc. as scientific and medical advisor in 2014.

Lee Lancashire, PhD

Chief Information Officer

Lee Lancashire, PhD has over 15 years of experience in machine learning and statistics. His PhD was focused on the development of artificial neural network based methodologies where he was involved in many of the first applications of neural nets to high dimensional datasets in bioinformatics.

Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Lee spent over five years within the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters where he established and led the machine learning and statistical data analysis team. Here he held global responsibility for managing and delivering analytical projects, serving the majority of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, as well as government, academic and non-profit organizations. These projects focused on utilizing advanced machine learning approaches in the molecular profiling of disease for biomarker discovery, patient stratification and drug target identification.

Lee completed his post-doctoral research in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, a Cancer Research UK core facility. He has also worked as a bioinformatics project lead in personalized medicine and diagnostics companies CompanDX and Almac Diagnostics. He has published in over 30 key industry journals and holds several patents around the use of neural networks in the biomedical domain.
In his free time Lee devotes time volunteering as a trustee for the Ichthyosis Support Group, a charity that supports individuals and families affected by a group of rare skin disorders.

Eugene Rakhmatulin

Chief Technology Officer

Eugene Rakhmatulin is launching a new department at Cohen Veterans Bioscience dedicated to highly sophisticated technology development. He has more than two decades of experience in Information Technologies (IT), including 15+ years in Life Sciences field. Eugene’s work has been largely focused on software development, systems architecture and management.

Previously, Eugene was the Senior Director of Enabling Technologies and Informatics Delivery at Clarivate Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business. In this role, he led a global Professional Services Technology organization that was dedicated to designing and implementing data integration solutions, analytics tools and content services for major pharmaceutical companies, government, academia and non-profit organizations. Eugene joined Thomson Reuters in 2010 through an acquisition of GeneGo, the leading provider of software and content for Systems Biology. There, he served as the Head of IT and software Development.

Eugene earned his MS in Computer Science and Engineering from the Moscow Aviation Institute (State Technical University) in Moscow, Russia.

Mark Zervas, PhD

Deputy Director,
Translational Sciences

Mark Zervas earned his Ph.D in Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU School of Medicine, and was the Manning Assistant Professor of Biology in the MCB department at Brown University. Mark served as Senior Scientist at Amgen, where he led a research team that used human genetics to discover novel therapeutic targets and hIPSC-derived dopamine neurons for understanding target biology and mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s Disease, including mitochondrial dysfunction. Most recently, Mark led a team at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals using RNAi to treat ocular diseases.

Nicole Bjorklund, PhD

Director,
Translational Sciences

Nicole Bjorklund, PhD, brings her expertise in biochemistry, translational neuroscience and biomarker development to the RAPID-Dx program, focused on advancing biomarker discovery and validation in post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. 

Prior to joining CVB, Nicole led the development and management of the Diagnostics Accelerator initiative at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, which supports the advancement of biomarkers for use in drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.   

Nicole started her career as an Assistant Research Professor and Operations Director of the Biomarker and Biorepository core facilities at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her laboratories, as part of the CTSA-supported Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, supported the large number of clinical research studies at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY.

Nicole completed postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she investigated molecular resistance mechanisms to Alzheimer’s disease. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boise State University and a doctorate in biochemistry at Washington State University.

Lauren Chaby, PhD

Associate Director,
Translational Sciences

Dr. Lauren Chaby has a background in cognitive neuroscience, including experience in preclinical models of stress. The goal of her research has been to investigate the impact of early adversity on adult outcomes using a systems approach, including cognitive skills and vulnerability to stress-linked psychopathology. To do this, she has used translational, preclinical, and theoretical approaches to create a high-resolution map of how environmental conditions during development modulate vulnerability to traumatic stress in adulthood. Her research awards have included the Radboud Excellence Initiative Fellowship and the J. Lloyd Huck Graduate Research Innovation Grant. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from Pennsylvania State University under the mentorship of Dr. Victoria Braithwaite and Dr. Sonia Cavigelli. She then conducted postdoctoral research under the mentorship of Dr. Israel Liberzon and Dr. Shane Perrine. As a postdoctoral researcher, she investigated preclinical models of post-traumatic stress disorder and the capacity for stress to shape epigenetic regulation of protein expression and neurotransmitter levels within specific regions of the brain. Lauren also has experience in the intersection of technology and neuroscience pedagogy and has been involved in research to accelerate neuroanatomical learning using 3D models of the brain. Additionally, she served as a program coordinator for Developing Future Biologists, an immersive outreach short course through the University of Michigan.

Kersten Small, PhD

Deputy Director,
Clinical Programs

Kersten Small, PhD is an experienced pharmaceutical scientist, drug hunter and translational research leader with over 15 years of experience in drug discovery and development at Merck and Mitsubishi-Tanabe. She has a proven track record for pipeline building and enabling decision-making across all discovery and development stage gates. Kersten has expertise in translational pharmacology and has developed both preclinical and clinical validation and biomarker strategies for small molecules and monoclonal antibodies across multiple therapeutic areas. Partnering with industry leaders, physician scientists and disease area experts, she created an industry-academic network-based research model focused on target identification, validation and establishing translational animal models and capabilities to drive the pipeline. Prior to her career in pharma, Kersten was Research Faculty at the University of Cincinnati where she studied the molecular pharmacology of polymorphic adrenergic receptors and their association with cardiovascular disease. Kersten was also a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at Emory University focusing on rare X-linked muscular dystrophy. She received a B.S. in Biology from Purdue University and a PhD in Mammalian Development from University of Cincinnati.

Saheed Adeyeri, CCRP

Senior Clinical Trial Associate,
Clinical Programs

Saheed Adeyeri is a certified clinical research scientist and well-respected thought leader in the field, is managing clinical trial programs. Saheed has extensive industry experience having worked in clinical research management and programming at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Becton Dickinson and InVentiv Health Clinical as well as Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Saheed’s core competencies are end-to-end execution and management of clinical trials everything from study site start-up and monitoring to milestone tracking. He has studied and trained extensively completing Harvard University Fundamentals of Clinical Trials, the FDA Bioresearch Monitoring Program and an accreditation program in London. Saheed holds a BS with distinction in microbiology from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria.

Thahmina Rashid

Clinical Project Manager,
Clinical Programs

Thahmina is providing project management support for the adaptive platform trial in PTSD. She is an experienced clinical associate within the pharmaceutical industry having worked in a central core lab for several pharmaceutical companies including Romark, Biohaven, and Celgene, among others. She has also managed and implemented Phases I-IV for a number of clinical trials, simultaneously. Thahmina graduated with a BS in Neuroscience-Psychology from CUNY Queens College and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Health Care Informatics at Adelphi University.

Kevin Urban, PhD

Director,
Data Science

Kevin has over a decade of experience exploring a diverse range of complex data sets stemming from NASA and NOAA spacecraft missions in Earth’s ionosphere, magnetosphere, and interplanetary space, and from global-scale networks of ground-based instrumentation, and has leveraged this data to forecast space weather at the outer limits of Earth’s upper atmosphere and its effects in Earth’s polar cap regions, culminating in several peer-reviewed research papers. Kevin has also published on space mission design and dynamical system modeling of granular fluid systems. After receiving his PhD in physics from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Kevin worked as a data scientist at WWE, where he built predictive models for subscriber behavior on the WWE Network (a monthly, direct-to-consumer, video streaming service averaging ~2 million daily active subscribers), and led various data engineering efforts, such as the collection, ingestion, and harmonization of WWE fan data across a host of social media and online platforms.

Andrew Thompson, PhD

Associate Director,
Data Science

Andrew is a data scientist leading the RAPID-Dx program advance biomarker discovery and validation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Previously, he worked at PatientsLikeMe where he led analyses of patient-reported health data and multi-omic biological data to define predictive biomarkers and characterize disease sub-types. During his graduate degree training in neurobiology, Andrew focused on plasticity in the developing visual system, investigating a role for feedback projections in the fine-tuning of circuits during development. Prior to his PhD, Andrew worked with the discovery group at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, where he performed pharmacogenomics research in support of a phase 3 clinical trial and expression profiling studies – all in an effort to elucidate common gene signatures and repurpose existing drugs for new indications. Andrew earned his BS in biology from the University of Maryland and his PhD in biological and biomedical sciences from Harvard University.

Joseph Herman, PhD

Associate Director,
Data Science

Dr. Herman leads the PPMI Modelling Core, working with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to develop statistical modelling approaches for analysis of longitudinal multiomics and wearables data from Parkinson’s Disease patients. He also serves as a biostatistician on the Clinical Programs Team, and is working on the study design and statistical analysis plan for a Bayesian adaptive platform trial exploring novel treatments for PTSD. He obtained his Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Oxford, focusing on computational techniques for inference in Bayesian hierarchical models, with applications in bioinformatics and genomics. He then worked as a research associate at Harvard Medical School, developing statistical methods for analyzing subpopulation structure in single-cell and spatially-resolved transcriptomics datasets, and at NYC biotech startup Kallyope, where he helped to build a single-cell atlas of cell types along the gut-brain axis. Prior to joining CVB, he worked as a senior data scientist at women’s health startup Celmatix, using electronic health records in conjunction with whole-genome sequencing data to identify genetic and clinical markers predictive of individual reproductive health.

Emanuele Libertini

Associate Director,
Data Science

Emanuele has a background in bioinformatics, network biology, genomics, metagenomics and epigenomics. He has worked in the academic field at University College London and Institut Pasteur Paris before moving to the private sector with Thomson Reuters and Clarivate. His interests lie in integrating and interpreting biological datasets representing multiple levels of regulation of molecular mechanisms with quantitative methods suited to capture resolution-dependent signals. His experience includes exposure to modelling plant signalling networks, host-pathogen relationships in the infection of human cells, and epigenomic regulation in humans. In the last five years he has focused on modelling molecular mechanisms of disease in a broad range of pharma projects, including pathologies of the brain and the nervous system.

Nikolai Shokhirev, PhD

Senior Data Scientist

Dr. Shokhirev received a Master of Science Degree in theoretical physics from Novosibirsk State University, Russia, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk. Dr. Shokhirev has conducted research in quantum mechanics, magnetic spectroscopy, econophysics, stochastic processes and kinetics. He has also been involved in data analysis and processing in pulse spectroscopy, indirect measurements and remote sensing, scientific, engineering and financial data. He has published over 70 papers in those fields. Dr. Shokhirev joined the Digital Health team to apply his data science skills to the emerging area of remote health monitoring and healthcare.

Roozbeh Atri, PhD

Senior Data Scientist

Roozbeh received a BSc degree in Electronic Engineering from University of Tabriz, a MSc degree in Bio-Electrical Engineering from K. N. Toosi University of Technology, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Florida International University. He has over seven years of research experience on signal processing and machine learning. He has been working on the use biomedical and mechanical signal processing to collect data and develop various machine learning algorithms that could improve the healthcare systems by transforming it toward a robust, evidence-based, and personalized system. His recent work, focused on optimization and control of powered-prosthetic systems, where he presented a model for energy expenditure and optimized it to objectively tune prosthetic parameters and presented an adaptive real-time control system for prediction of change in locomotion mode. Throughout his research background, he worked both on data collection and processing carrying out multi-disciplinary collaborations. Results of his work have been published and presented in various peer-reviewed journals and conferences.

Sarah Kann, PhD

Data Scientist

Sarah is a data scientist focusing on longitudinal analyses of neuroimaging data. Her dissertation research identified neural markers of cognitive and motor decline in Parkinson’s Disease. During her doctoral studies she also investigated neural markers associated with increased risk of Major Depressive Disorder. Her analyses included both functional and anatomical neuroimaging data and focused on utilizing classification models to identify disease subtypes with distinct longitudinal trajectories. Sarah received her Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Stony Brook University in 2020.

Maryan Zirkle, MD, MS, MA

Executive Director,
BRAIN Commons

Maryan Zirkle MD, MS, MA is an accomplished professional with more than 10 years of experience working in the research industry. She has expertise in research network infrastructure development and sustainability, Big Data, patient-centered outcomes research, healthcare delivery and medicine, mental health, interdisciplinary-based team management, contract management, and active research portfolio management.

Before joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Dr. Zirkle was the Associate Director of the Research Infrastructure team at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She was responsible for providing intellectual and organizational oversight for the development and regulation of PCORI’s National Patient-Centered Clinical Data Research Network, PCORnet. Zirkle has also worked as a research health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She gained considerable experience in polytrauma, traumatic brain injury (TBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and medical informatics research at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers in Tampa, Florida, and Portland, Oregon. She completed a three-year advanced fellowship in clinical informatics at the VA in Portland. She also received two bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Florida, a master of arts in rehabilitative and mental health counseling from the University of South Florida, a master of science in biomedical and clinical informatics from Oregon Health and Science University, and a medical degree from Spartan Health Sciences University.

Kimon Kotronis, MD, MSc, MBA

Director, Solutions Architecture,
Technology Development

Kimon Kotronis is the Director of Solutions Architecture, responsible for defining and designing functionality and helping to drive development of all CVB software solutions, including BRAIN Commons, Cohen Veterans Bioscience’s cloud-based research and discovery platform for the brain health community.

Kimon has more than 15 years of experience in Health Informatics and Life Sciences Technology projects, across a wide spectrum of public and private sector organizations internationally. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Kimon led the Life Sciences Enabling Technologies engagement team, driving digital transformation solutions at all stages of the Drug Development process for many of the top 20 global pharmaceuticals and many academic and government research organizations. Kimon earned his MD from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, his MSc in Medical Informatics from City University, London and his MBA from Cass Business School, London.

Zhanna Rozenberg

Director,
Technology Development

Zhanna received her BA at Cornell University where she triple majored in Economics, Comparative Literature, and an College Scholars major that tread on philosophy, critical theory, and sociology. She completed a minor in East Asian Studies. She later went to study statistics, econometrics, and machine learning at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Universität Mannheim, and the Metis’s data science bootcamp. Zhanna is interested in making technology that helps people live more meaningful lives, using data to improve human performance. Zhanna is active in NY’s meetup culture focusing on data science, neuroscience, wearables, IoT, and habit design. Zhanna’s major individual project, “Hindsight”, explored the interaction between subjective and objective measures of human performance.

Matthew Springer

Senior Cloud Engineer,
Technology Development

Matthew Springer has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry. He has extensive experience in computer manufacture, IT infrastructure management, database administration and cloud engineering.

Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, he was a Senior Development Operations Engineer in the Life Sciences division of Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business. He was responsible for the design and implementation of the cloud infrastructure within the Professional Services organization. He was also responsible for the management of their database infrastructure and the automation of their software deployments. Matthew joined Thomson Reuters in 2011 as a Senior Database Engineer.

Matthew is involved in various California-based initiatives to feed and support the homeless community. He also has a keen interest in Cinematography, Videography and Photography.

Isabel Curro

Device Lab Manager,
Technology Development

Isabel is working with the Digital Health team on device validation, data analysis and protocol development for internal testing and Sleepwell projects. Previously, she completed an engineering internship with VERO Biotech, a medical device start-up based in Atlanta. Isabel also conducted research on how to combat antibiotic- resistant bacteria and how to develop nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery at the Lab for Synthetic Immunity at Georgia Tech. She also interned with Siemens in Erlangen, Germany. Isabel received a BS in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology where she participated in the honors program and international plan. In addition, Isabel studied abroad at UC3M in Madrid, Spain.

Nicole Harmon, PhD

Executive Director,
External Affairs

Nicole Harmon brings more than 18 years of experience in psychology, philanthropy, patient advocacy, public health, and clinical research, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff for Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), FDA’s partner for data standards. During her tenure there she transformed CDISC’s financial roadmaps, program management and global brand. Additionally, she developed and managed complex partnerships with leading U.S and International funding partners, U.S. FDA, Japan PMDA, European Medicines Agency, NIH, WHO, EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiatives, Global Patient Foundations and others to drive data standards and sharing initiatives and oversaw grants cultivation and management successfully achieving funding for and administering multiple large-scale projects.  Prior to her time with CDISC, Dr. Harmon evaluated patients with Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychiatric conditions in a post-acute rehabilitation hospital.

Nicole earned her doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision at Texas Tech University with dissertation focus on understanding the caregivers experience associated with acquired brain injury following discharge from rehabilitation.

Nicole joins Cohen Veterans Bioscience to oversee development and engagement of strategic partnerships, grant management, events and the Brain Trauma Blueprint to further the Cohen Veterans Bioscience mission.

Karin Eskenazi

Senior Director,
Communications

Karin Eskenazi brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and biomedical communications, most recently at healthcare investment firm Deerfield Management Company, where she led media relations and content development. Prior to Deerfield, Karin served as Deputy Press Secretary for NYC Health + Hospitals and spent time at the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. She was the Director of Media Relations at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and separately at NewYork-Presbyterian, its hospital affiliate, for nearly 15 years. Earlier in her career, Karin represented pharma and biotech, including at global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where she launched The Biotech Group. Karin earned her B.S. in marketing at the State University of New York at FIT.

Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD

Director,
Policy & Advocacy

Dr. Chantelle Ferland-Beckham is a translational neuroscientist by training, with over 15 years of experience in preclinical models of neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury models. She is also an experienced public policy and advocacy professional, having spent nearly 10 years working on advocacy and public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels. After earning her PhD in Neuroscience from Tulane University, she went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships in both traumatic brain injury and clinical and preclinical models of comorbid addition and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She was later selected to be an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. In this role as a Health Science Policy Analyst, she evaluated research programs and developed policies to promote progress in biomedical research and ensure the effective use of taxpayer funds to conduct research for the benefit of human health. She also assisted with Congressionally mandated reporting and liaison activities to strengthen the relationship between the NIH and Congress. Additionally, she worked on the Fellows in Innovation initiative, spearheaded by the Obama administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, to analyze current strategies and provide policy recommendations for suicide prevention in current and former members of the US military. In 2017, she joined Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), serving in a capacity that bridged her scientific and public policy backgrounds and supporting both the programmatic and policy initiatives of CVB. In her new role as Director of Policy and Advocacy, she will oversee the development of CVB’s policy and advocacy agenda, with a focus on promoting and expanding CVB’s role as a leader in brain health.

Eric Prager, PhD

Associate Director,
External Affairs

Eric Prager is currently working on key initiatives including the Brain Trauma Blueprint, State of the Science Summits and grants management. Previously, Eric held a postdoctoral position at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Following this, Eric joined Wiley where he was named Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroscience Research (JNR) and also worked to improve scientific rigor by developing specific standards for more transparency including how data was reported and described. JNR continues to use these standard today. Earlier in his career, Eric was a postdoctoral fellow at Stony Brook University investigating how dopamine oppositely modulates synaptic integration in striosome and matrix compartments of the striatum. His work has led him to a leadership position on the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Preclinical Data Forum Network. Eric is a member of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director Working Group on Enhancing Reproducibility and Rigor in Animal Research. Eric received his master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Denver and his PhD in Neuroscience from the Uniformed Services University.

Renée Davis

Executive Director, Development

Renée Davis, our executive director of development, is responsible for the philanthropic engagement and strategic growth of private support for Cohen Veterans Bioscience. Working closely with the CVB team, she is leading the planning and management of private fundraising activities and engaging philanthropic partners in the mission and work of Cohen Veterans Bioscience to advance the discovery and development of next generation diagnostics and targeted therapeutics.

Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Renée served as the Managing Director of the Northeast region of William & Mary, based in New York City. There, she founded the University’s first regional advancement office and led the strategy and development of all engagement activities in the Northeast. She was also the Senior Director of Development at New York University’s (NYU) Langone Health, where she spearheaded efforts to support its Office of Science and Research for the School of Medicine including the NYU Neuroscience Institute and the departments of dermatology, neurology, neurosurgery, and otolaryngology.

Before moving into the development field, Renee launched a career in sales and business development for the commercial life sciences and genomics industry, working with companies such as Miltenyi Biotec, Corning Microarray Technology and Eppendorf. Her interest in the sciences began in college where she studied and earned her B.S. in biology from William & Mary.

Hilary Mauro

Director, Development

Hilary Mauro is the Director of Development for Cohen Veterans Bioscience. Prior to CVB, Hilary was the Director of Individual Philanthropy at the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation where she was responsible for creating and managing a formalized major gift program to fund high-risk, high-reward cancer research. In addition to Damon Runyon, she has worked in development roles for institutions including Weill Cornell Medicine and the American Red Cross. Hilary graduated with a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and received a M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University.

Katelyn Weissman

Project Associate, Development

Prior to CVB, Katelyn worked for other nonprofits, including Camp Kesem at The George Washington University as a Development and Events Coordinator and Community Outreach Coordinator. To gain hands-on experience before returning to a career within nonprofits, Katelyn worked at the not-for-profit corporation Operation Breakthrough, which serves a high-trauma, low-socioeconomic community. She worked as an Early Childhood Educator for Operation Breakthrough through Teach For America in Kansas City, Missouri from 2018-2020. Katelyn joins CVB after working as a Program Coordinator for the Institute of International Education (IIE), where she focused on numerous projects that supported the Fulbright U.S. Student Program team. Katelyn holds a BA in Psychology and Criminal Justice from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Lauren J. Goldsmith

Senior Director, Contracts and Grants Management

Lauren is a contracting professional with over 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry with specialized expertise in outsourcing and contracting for all R&D activities for clinical and preclinical trials. She also has experience in supporting corporate agreements, research collaborations with academic institutions, and vendor relationship management.

Before joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, she was the Global Head of Site Contracts leading an international department of over 25 people globally.

Lauren graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and holds a Paralegal Certificate from Northeastern University. She has also holds a Certificate in the Fundamentals of the Bioscience Industry from The Center for Biotechnology from Stony Brook University.

Elinor Litwack, CPA

Finance Comptroller (Contract)

Elinor Litwack is Partner at GRF CPAs and Advisors’ outsourced accounting and advisory team. Over the past decade she has specialized in providing financial and organizational solutions to nonprofit organizations, utilizing state of the art technology combined with deep industry expertise. She is proficient in systems design, cloud computing, audit readiness and accounting best practices. As contract finance manager, Elinor leads the finance team at CVB.

Elinor serves as Treasurer of I Support the Girls, a nonprofit organization that facilitates donations of bras and menstrual hygiene products to women and girls experiencing homelessness. A graduate of George Washington University, Elinor was nominated for the Greater Washington Society of CPAs’ Women to Watch Awards in 2015. Additionally, Elinor was recognized in NYN Media’s 2021 Nonprofit 40 under 40.

Elinor is a member of the American Institute of Public Accountants, the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of CPAs, where she serves on the Chief Financial Officer committee. Additionally, Elinor participated on the planning committee for the 2021 Better Business Bureau of New York’s Charity Effectiveness Symposium and is serving as the 2021 Digital CPA Advisory Board Chair. Elinor lives in Englewood, New Jersey with her husband and four kids.

Dmitriy Levchenko

Associate Director,
Finance

Born in Kiev, Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, Dmitriy has always been passionate about working at organizations with a strong social impact. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience he worked at andros, a startup digitizing provider network management, where he implemented best practices and automation across finance and business operations while spearheading various strategic initiatives. Previously, Dmitriy has also helped develop predictive models at a quantitative hedge fund, managed natural gas and oil refinery procurement at a consultancy, and sold bonds at an international brokerage. When not at work, Dmitriy loves to cook, travel, practice self-improvement, and support fledgling non-profits through initiatives like Net Impact and the Taproot Foundation.

Esther Zohn

Senior Director,
People and Culture

Esther Zohn is a senior HR leader who establishes and matures human resource organizations for growth-stage startups, newly acquired entities, and global companies facing significant change. An innovator and trusted business partner, Esther translates business vision into talent and organizational strategies that enable a company to drive results through its people.

Esther has spent many years building out HR departments for startup companies. She worked as the Director of Human Resources at Dialogic, a telecommunications company, where she identified opportunities to improve employee engagement and retention. Most recently, Esther was the Director of Talent and Culture at Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon.

Esther received her BA from University of Illinois at Chicago where she majored in Industrial/ Organizational Psychology. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources Professional (SPHR) and a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM- SCP).

Surya Narayanan-Pandit

Administrative Associate (Temp)

Surya is an Administrative Associate (Temp) at Cohen Veterans Bioscience. Prior to joining CVB, she worked as a surveillance associate on a COVID-19 home testing study under Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute of Cambridge, MA. Surya also assisted in drafting and developing the final report for the People Living with HIV Stigma Index in Vietnam, 2020, under the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam (HAIVN). She has experience in clinical, research-based, and community healthcare settings and has focused on maximizing health equity and literacy through data-based interventions. Surya earned her B.S. in Public Health and Sociology from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.