2023 TBI Action Alliance Membership Forum
November 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Please join us for the inaugural TBI Action Alliance Membership Forum where we will bring together our growing network of new members and share our Alliance Action plan.
This event is for TBI Action Alliance partners, sponsors, and institutional members.
Please use the registration link in your invitation email to register.
If you would like to request an invitation to attend, please contact us.
Event Details
Schedule:
8am-9am – Registration
9am-5pm – Program
5:30pm-7pm – Networking Reception
Location:
Kellogg Conference Hotel
800 Florida Ave NE
Washington, DC 20002-3695
Speakers
Virginia Amann
Founder & CEO
ENTENTE Network
Virginia Amann has more than 25 years in Communications, Corporate Affairs and Brand Strategy. Prior to founding the ENTENTE Network of Companies, a communications and publishing company focused exclusively on science, innovation and health, she supported the topmost leadership at Johnson & Johnson in building engagement, reputation and relationships for their Global Public Health, Innovation and R&D initiatives. She also headed life sciences within Porter Novelli as an executive vice president in the healthcare group, where she was client relationship leader for the Johnson & Johnson global portfolio.
Virginia has deep experience in brain science-related communications, forming the Science Over Stigma mental health coalition with J&J’s Head of Science for Minds, leading strategic communications for brain-science focused foundations and nonprofits, leading mental health engagement with the World Economic Forum and serving as a frequent speaker to champion R&D and anti-stigma initiatives for traumatic brain injury (TBI), Alzheimer's disease and serious mental illness.
Michael Carson, MBA
Head of Communications
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Michael Carson is the Head of Communications of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, the New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to advancing brain health.
Prior to Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), Michael served as chief marketing officer of the Alzheimer’s Association leading strategic initiatives that drove the global conversation of early detection, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, and awareness initiatives in support of brain health. Michael’s role supported organizational advancements in advocacy and research.
Michael led the Association’s organizational branding, global communications and digital revenue streams. In addition to publishing initiatives Michael oversaw alz.org, social platforms, global media relations, celebrity engagement, advertising and internal communications for all staff.
Under Michael’s leadership, the Association has grown concern about Alzheimer’s disease and awareness of the organization and its programs and services. Reach among the public has significantly increased and Michael made significant social media gains in reach, engagement and revenue growth. Michael’s forward-thinking approach to new programs and initiatives has heightened concern, reduced stigma and advanced the cause.
Prior to joining the Alzheimer’s Association, Michael led marketing and operations as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for an ad- supported tech-based start-up venture. He also held marketing leadership roles at FTD.com, Ogilvy & Mather, Orbitz Travel and FCB.
He served on the Google App Developer Council, the Discover Financial Services Merchant Advisory Board and the Meta Social Good roundtable.
Michael received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Marquette University.
Shannon Finn Connell, PhD
CEO
David R. Metcalf Invisible Wounds Foundation
Shannon Finn Connell, Ph.D., is an executive coach, author, organizational change leader and philanthropist. An active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL parent, Shannon serves as an advisor to the Navy SEAL community where she leads advocacy initiatives for special operations warriors transitioning from active-duty military service to civilian life.
A former executive with SYSCO, Shell Oil and Procter & Gamble, Shannon worked internationally in China and Latin America before combining her corporate experiences and academic pursuits. She obtained her Ph.D. in organizational development, researching design thinking as a problem-solving methodology in global organizational change initiatives. While maintaining leadership positions in business, she was appointed adjunct professor of management in the MBA program at Rice University.
Shannon serves on the University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board to design academic and career opportunities for marginalized students and was named 2022 Philanthropist of the Year for her work. A member of Forbes Coaches Council and certified Gallup Strengths-Based executive coach, Shannon’s organizational change work is rooted in positive psychology. She holds an MBA from North Central College and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Cincinnati.
Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD
John McCrea Dickson Professor of Neurology
Director of Clinical TBI Research
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia is Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where he serves as Director of Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research. Dr. Diaz-Arrastia’s research interests are focused for the past 20+ years on understanding the molecular, cellular, and tissue level mechanisms of secondary neuronal injury and neuroregeneration, with the goal of developing therapeutic interventions.
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia received his MD and PhD degrees at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988. He served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern from 1993 - 2011, and at the Uniformed Services University and the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine from 2011 - 2016.
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia has published over 250 primary research papers, as well as over 50 invited reviews and book chapters. He has also served in several national committees related to TBI research and practice, convened by the NIH, DoD, VA, and the National Academy Medicine.
Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD
Senior Director, External Affairs
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Magali Haas, MD, PhD
Founder, CEO & President
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Peter Hoehn, JD
Executive Vice President
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Peter Hoehn is a proven healthcare business leader with 25+ years’ experience in a variety of commercial and strategy roles, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson. Throughout his career Peter has demonstrated the ability to develop insight driven strategies in complex markets and mobilize internal and external partners to achieve results. He brings broad-based commercial, strategy and leadership experiences across Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Digital Health and Precision Medicine, including brand positioning and messaging, reimbursement and market access, global launches, organizational capability building, business model innovation, new opportunity evaluation, business development, and policy.
Peter started his career as a corporate lawyer and entered the pharmaceutical industry as an attorney for Bristol Myers Squibb. After a short time as a lawyer Peter moved into various strategy, marketing and sales management roles at BMS before joining Johnson & Johnson in 2003. He started at J&J as Global Commercial Leader for Reminyl, an Alzheimer’s drug, and was then promoted to Global Marketing Leader, Neurology, where he had global commercial responsibility for in-line neurology products as well as products in late stage of development.
In 2008 Peter joined J&J’s Ortho Clinical Diagnostics organization as Vice President for WW Marketing and Strategic Marketing, responsible for long-term organizational strategy and a large global diagnostics business. In 2012 Peter moved back to J&J’s pharmaceuticals business as Precision Medicine Commercial Strategy Leader. In this role, Peter helped develop J&J’s Precision Medicine strategy, and built and led the Precision Medicine Commercial Team which was responsible for leading strategic marketing and market access for companion and complementary diagnostics across all Therapeutic Areas.
In his most previous role before joining CVB, Peter was Head, Commercial Strategy for J&J Science for Minds, a new organization focused on innovative development models and digital solutions to address Serious Mental Illness and dementia. In this position he developed the strategy, portfolio recommendations, investment approach, external collaborations, and business models for new mental health and brain health digital business ventures.
Peter received a BA in Government and Economics from the College of William and Mary, and a JD from New York University.
Stuart W. Hoffman, PhD
Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development (ORD)
Veterans Health Administration
Dr. Stuart Hoffman is the Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development. Dr. Hoffman is responsible for providing overall direction, program planning, development and implementation for ORD TBI research; coordinating with ORD leads and Federal partners in other high priority nationwide efforts in TBI and brain health; promoting data sharing in TBI research; and to expand the clinical trials network nationally to improve TBI treatments and diagnostics for Veterans.
Dr. Hoffman received his Ph.D. in behavioral and molecular neuroscience at Rutgers University in 1995 and completed his postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1997. Dr. Hoffman was a full-time Emory University faculty member from 1998-2006. Immediately prior to joining the VA in 2010, Dr. Hoffman was the Research Director for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hoffman has over 50 peer-reviewed publications and more than 35 years of translational neuroscience research experience that focused on TBI therapeutics.
James P. Kelly, MA, MD, FAAN, FANA
Executive Director
Marcus Institute for Brain Health
Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA
Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA is the Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI) at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH. Elena is a trained applied neuroscientist and an experienced biomedical product developer, with more than 25 years of practice in translational research in both the public and private sectors. Elena is a founding member of the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network, the virtual pharma unit that provides neuroscience researchers with funding and access to a full range of industry-style drug development services and expertise. She also coordinates NIDA’s multimillion small business programs and establishes strategic partnerships in areas of drug and medical device development, entrepreneurship, translational research, and technology transfer.
Before joining NIH, Elena worked at DOV Pharmaceutical, where she directed programs on the discovery of novel targets and drugs, with a particular focus on treatments for depression and pain. Elena designed the original preclinical program for centanafadine, a novel serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine triple reuptake inhibitor, which successfully completed phase III clinical trials for the treatment of ADHD in adults in 2020. She has contributed to the development of biomedical products that were named the products of choice for the United States Department of Defense, sold on Amazon, and even featured in the Doonesbury comic strip. Elena earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Moscow State University and her MBA in Executive Leadership and Organizational Innovation from the Gallup Organization/UNL. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neuropharmacology at the NIH Intramural Program. Elena lectures on a new product development and serves as a mentor/coach for aspiring startups, having trained more than 20 startup founders.
Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD
Chief Research & Development Officer
Veterans Health Administration
As the Chief Research and Development Officer, Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD, leads the approximately $2.3 billion research program at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, a job she has held since 2017. VA research is embedded within one of the largest integrated healthcare systems in the United States, with active research programs at 104 of the 170 VA medical centers across the country.
Rachel often describes this as her dream job, given that her passion is helping large research efforts of any type to achieve impactful, real-world results. This is borne out in the work she did before coming to the VA. For example, she led the team at Harvard Medical School that created SMART-on-FHIR, the data exchange format used by the major electronic health records and Apple HealthKit. One of Rachel’s core beliefs is that people can accomplish more by working together. Following her work on SMART-on-FHIR, she established and led the coordinating center for the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, which has the tagline, “solving medical mysteries through team science”. To date, this network of clinicians and researchers has diagnosed over 650 people living with previously mysterious medical conditions.
In her role as head of VA Research, Rachel is leading the effort to transform the program from a collection of independently-operating sites into a vast, integrated enterprise that can more efficiently deliver on its mission to improve Veterans’ well-being through research. Rachel has been deeply involved in the creation of VA’s precision oncology initiative, and she is now taking the lessons-learned from that experience to catalyze a brain health clinical-research program in VA.
Veerle Reumers, PhD
Head of Health Strategy and Portfolio
imec USA
Dr. Veerle Reumers started her career in academia with a master and PhD in medical sciences at the KULeuven, followed by postdoctoral research in neurosciences at Harvard Medical School. She joined imec’s health department to lead technology development efforts ranging from public funded academic collaborations to industry-driven bilateral projects. At imec USA she founded and managed the Space Health division and successfully raised NASA funding to validate imec technologies in a space-relevant environment. Currently she is the Head of imec health in the US and she leads a large internal endeavor to develop a model for the Blood-Brain-Barrier on a chip. Her passion is building relationships so imec’s innovative technologies can make a positive societal impact.
Amy Comstock Rick, JD
Principal
Leavitt Partners
Amy Comstock Rick is a principal based in Washington, D.C. Amy leads the Medicines Development Modernization Initiative and advises on federal health care policy, FDA, NIH, drug development and research educational convenings, and patient engagement initiatives.
Amy has over 30 years of experience leading organizations, executing strategy, transforming organizational culture, building consensus, and advocating policies across constituencies. From 2014 – 2022 she served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI). FDLI is a multi-stakeholder, educational non-profit organization dedicated to providing topical and timely conferences, courses, and publications to inform public policy, law, and regulation in all aspects of food and drug law. Prior to joining FDLI, Amy was the Chief Executive Officer of the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN) from 2003-2014. PAN was a Washington D.C.-based national nonprofit focused on educating the public and government leaders on better policies for research and therapy development and an improved quality of life for people living with Parkinson’s disease.
Amy serves on the Board of Directors of Research!America and One Mind. Amy has also served as the President of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, on the NIH Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Advisory Council, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Health Council and the American Brain Coalition. Before joining PAN, she was the Senate-confirmed Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics from 2000-2003 and the Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office from 1998-2000. Ms. Rick began her federal service as a career attorney at the U.S. Department of Education, Office of the General Counsel.
Amy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan.
Diana Saville
Co-Founder & COO
BRAINMind
Nsini Umoh, PhD
Program Director, Divison of Neuroscience
NINDS/NIH
Dr. Nsini Umoh is a Program Director in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster in the Division of Neuroscience. Dr. Umoh received her Ph.D at Howard University in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and did post-doctoral training in extremity trauma at Yale University and the U.S Army Institute of Surgical Research. Before joining NINDS, she served as a scientific program manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research & Development. While at the VA, she managed research related to traumatic brain injury, women's health, and health equity.
Before joining the VA, Nsini spent 3 years as a portfolio manager at the U.S Department of Defense (DoD) Medical Research and Development Command (MRDC) headquartered in Frederick, MD. While at MRDC, Nsini worked with the Combat Casualty Care Research Program (CCCRP) to manage research related to the early management of combat-related neurotrauma on the battlefield.
As a NINDS TBI Program Director, Dr. Umoh manages a broad research portfolio including translational and clinical research and serves as co-director of the Federal Interagency TBI Research informatics platform.
Ragini Verma, PhD
Head of Biomarkers & Clinical Development
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Ragini Verma, PhD, brings her expertise in neuroimaging, biomarkers, preclinical and clinical analytics and clinical translation. She has a double masters in math and computer applications, a PhD in computer vision and two postdoctoral fellowships, one in video-based computer vision, and the second in neuroimaging. Prior to joining CVB, Ragini was a tenured professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania (and is now an adjunct professor). At Penn, she led a team developing tools and conducting multimodal image analytics to create precision imaging solutions for clinical needs, and for biomarker discovery in disorders like autism, brain cancer and traumatic brain injury. She also led a translational center, that was tasked with deploying advanced AI-based solutions translating whole body medical imaging to real world clinical practice with the goal of empowering physicians and improving patient outcomes. As an adjunct professor, she will maintain her brain cancer, autism and TBI neuroimaging marker discovery portfolios to complement her work at CVB.
Mark Zervas, PhD
Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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 human iPSC-derived dopamine neurons for understanding target biology and mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s Disease, including mitochondrial dysfunction. Mark was then a Senior Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where he led a team using RNAi to treat ocular diseases. At CVB, Mark is responsible for identifying putative therapeutic targets and advancing biological understanding of PTSD and TBI using multiple modalities.
Maryan Zirkle, MD, PhD
Executive Director, BRAINCommons
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Program
| Time | Topic | Speakers / Participants |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:50 am | Arrivals, Registration & Coffee | All |
| 9:00 – 9:10 am | Welcome | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 9:10 – 9:30 am | NRAP History & Path Ahead | Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD Chief Research & Development Officer Veterans Health Administration |
| 9:30 – 9:50 am | The Burden of TBI in the U.S. | Nsini Umoh, PhD Program Director, Division of Neuroscience NINDS/NIH |
| 9:50 – 10:10 am | International TBI Research (InTBIR) Community | Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD John McCrea Dickson Professor of Neurology Director, Clinical TBI Research Center University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine |
| 10:10 – 10:30 am | TBI Action Alliance Action Plan | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 10:30 – 11:00 am | Break & Networking | All |
| 11:00 – 11:20 am | Progress Report: PRECISE-TBI for Preclinical Models & Precision Brain Health Initiative | Stuart W. Hoffman, PhD Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) Veterans Health Administration |
| 11:20am – 12:00 pm | Placing TBI at the Top of the National Policy Agenda Beyond NRAP - Policy Framework (20min) Membership Feedback (20min) | Amy Comstock Rick, JD Principal, Leavitt Partners Moderator: Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD Senior Director, External Affairs Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Lunch & Networking | All |
| 1:00 – 2:30pm | TBI Diagnostics Accelerator
Accelerator Framework (5min)
The Patient Journey Map (15min) Biomarker Discovery Engine Leveraging Legacy Biomarker Cohorts & Normative Data (15min) Catalyzing Innovation/Models of Incubation (15min) Membership Feedback (30min) | Peter Hoehn, JD Executive Vice President Cohen Veterans Bioscience James P. Kelly, MA, MD, FAAN, FANA Executive Director Marcus Institute for Brain Health Ragini Verma, PhD Head of Clinical & Biomarker Programs Cohen Veterans Bioscience Diana Saville Co-Founder & COO BRAINMind Peter Hoehn, JD Executive Vice President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 2:30 – 3:00pm | Novel Incubator Models | Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) |
| 3:00 – 3:30 pm | Break & Network | All |
| 3:30– 4:15pm | Integrative Technology Platforms for Target Advancement
TBI & the Blood Brain Barrier (15min) TripleBBB (15min) Membership Feedback (15 min) | Mark Zervas, PhD Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research Cohen Veterans Bioscience Veerle Reumers, PhD Head of Health Strategy and Portfolio imec USA Moderator: Mark Zervas, PhD Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 4:15 – 5:00 pm | Establishing National TBI Awareness
National Advocacy Campaign(s) Concept (15min) Advocacy for Veterans (10min) Membership Feedback (20 min) | Virginia Amann Founder & CEO ENTENTE Network Shannon Finn Connell, PhD CEO David R. Metcalf Invisible Wounds Foundation Moderator: Michael Carson, MBA Head of Communications Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 5:00 pm | Call to Action/Adjourn | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 5:00 pm | Cocktail Reception | All |
Event Sponsors
Speakers
Virginia Amann
Founder & CEO
ENTENTE Network
Virginia Amann has more than 25 years in Communications, Corporate Affairs and Brand Strategy. Prior to founding the ENTENTE Network of Companies, a communications and publishing company focused exclusively on science, innovation and health, she supported the topmost leadership at Johnson & Johnson in building engagement, reputation and relationships for their Global Public Health, Innovation and R&D initiatives. She also headed life sciences within Porter Novelli as an executive vice president in the healthcare group, where she was client relationship leader for the Johnson & Johnson global portfolio.
Virginia has deep experience in brain science-related communications, forming the Science Over Stigma mental health coalition with J&J’s Head of Science for Minds, leading strategic communications for brain-science focused foundations and nonprofits, leading mental health engagement with the World Economic Forum and serving as a frequent speaker to champion R&D and anti-stigma initiatives for traumatic brain injury (TBI), Alzheimer's disease and serious mental illness.
Michael Carson, MBA
Head of Communications
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Michael Carson is the Head of Communications of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, the New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to advancing brain health.
Prior to Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), Michael served as chief marketing officer of the Alzheimer’s Association leading strategic initiatives that drove the global conversation of early detection, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, and awareness initiatives in support of brain health. Michael’s role supported organizational advancements in advocacy and research.
Michael led the Association’s organizational branding, global communications and digital revenue streams. In addition to publishing initiatives Michael oversaw alz.org, social platforms, global media relations, celebrity engagement, advertising and internal communications for all staff.
Under Michael’s leadership, the Association has grown concern about Alzheimer’s disease and awareness of the organization and its programs and services. Reach among the public has significantly increased and Michael made significant social media gains in reach, engagement and revenue growth. Michael’s forward-thinking approach to new programs and initiatives has heightened concern, reduced stigma and advanced the cause.
Prior to joining the Alzheimer’s Association, Michael led marketing and operations as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for an ad- supported tech-based start-up venture. He also held marketing leadership roles at FTD.com, Ogilvy & Mather, Orbitz Travel and FCB.
He served on the Google App Developer Council, the Discover Financial Services Merchant Advisory Board and the Meta Social Good roundtable.
Michael received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Marquette University.
Shannon Finn Connell, PhD
CEO
David R. Metcalf Invisible Wounds Foundation
Shannon Finn Connell, Ph.D., is an executive coach, author, organizational change leader and philanthropist. An active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL parent, Shannon serves as an advisor to the Navy SEAL community where she leads advocacy initiatives for special operations warriors transitioning from active-duty military service to civilian life.
A former executive with SYSCO, Shell Oil and Procter & Gamble, Shannon worked internationally in China and Latin America before combining her corporate experiences and academic pursuits. She obtained her Ph.D. in organizational development, researching design thinking as a problem-solving methodology in global organizational change initiatives. While maintaining leadership positions in business, she was appointed adjunct professor of management in the MBA program at Rice University.
Shannon serves on the University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board to design academic and career opportunities for marginalized students and was named 2022 Philanthropist of the Year for her work. A member of Forbes Coaches Council and certified Gallup Strengths-Based executive coach, Shannon’s organizational change work is rooted in positive psychology. She holds an MBA from North Central College and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Cincinnati.
Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD
John McCrea Dickson Professor of Neurology
Director of Clinical TBI Research
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia is Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where he serves as Director of Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research. Dr. Diaz-Arrastia’s research interests are focused for the past 20+ years on understanding the molecular, cellular, and tissue level mechanisms of secondary neuronal injury and neuroregeneration, with the goal of developing therapeutic interventions.
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia received his MD and PhD degrees at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988. He served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern from 1993 - 2011, and at the Uniformed Services University and the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine from 2011 - 2016.
Dr. Diaz-Arrastia has published over 250 primary research papers, as well as over 50 invited reviews and book chapters. He has also served in several national committees related to TBI research and practice, convened by the NIH, DoD, VA, and the National Academy Medicine.
Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD
Senior Director, External Affairs
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Magali Haas, MD, PhD
Founder, CEO & President
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Peter Hoehn, JD
Executive Vice President
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Peter Hoehn is a proven healthcare business leader with 25+ years’ experience in a variety of commercial and strategy roles, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson. Throughout his career Peter has demonstrated the ability to develop insight driven strategies in complex markets and mobilize internal and external partners to achieve results. He brings broad-based commercial, strategy and leadership experiences across Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Digital Health and Precision Medicine, including brand positioning and messaging, reimbursement and market access, global launches, organizational capability building, business model innovation, new opportunity evaluation, business development, and policy.
Peter started his career as a corporate lawyer and entered the pharmaceutical industry as an attorney for Bristol Myers Squibb. After a short time as a lawyer Peter moved into various strategy, marketing and sales management roles at BMS before joining Johnson & Johnson in 2003. He started at J&J as Global Commercial Leader for Reminyl, an Alzheimer’s drug, and was then promoted to Global Marketing Leader, Neurology, where he had global commercial responsibility for in-line neurology products as well as products in late stage of development.
In 2008 Peter joined J&J’s Ortho Clinical Diagnostics organization as Vice President for WW Marketing and Strategic Marketing, responsible for long-term organizational strategy and a large global diagnostics business. In 2012 Peter moved back to J&J’s pharmaceuticals business as Precision Medicine Commercial Strategy Leader. In this role, Peter helped develop J&J’s Precision Medicine strategy, and built and led the Precision Medicine Commercial Team which was responsible for leading strategic marketing and market access for companion and complementary diagnostics across all Therapeutic Areas.
In his most previous role before joining CVB, Peter was Head, Commercial Strategy for J&J Science for Minds, a new organization focused on innovative development models and digital solutions to address Serious Mental Illness and dementia. In this position he developed the strategy, portfolio recommendations, investment approach, external collaborations, and business models for new mental health and brain health digital business ventures.
Peter received a BA in Government and Economics from the College of William and Mary, and a JD from New York University.
Stuart W. Hoffman, PhD
Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development (ORD)
Veterans Health Administration
Dr. Stuart Hoffman is the Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development. Dr. Hoffman is responsible for providing overall direction, program planning, development and implementation for ORD TBI research; coordinating with ORD leads and Federal partners in other high priority nationwide efforts in TBI and brain health; promoting data sharing in TBI research; and to expand the clinical trials network nationally to improve TBI treatments and diagnostics for Veterans.
Dr. Hoffman received his Ph.D. in behavioral and molecular neuroscience at Rutgers University in 1995 and completed his postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1997. Dr. Hoffman was a full-time Emory University faculty member from 1998-2006. Immediately prior to joining the VA in 2010, Dr. Hoffman was the Research Director for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hoffman has over 50 peer-reviewed publications and more than 35 years of translational neuroscience research experience that focused on TBI therapeutics.
James P. Kelly, MA, MD, FAAN, FANA
Executive Director
Marcus Institute for Brain Health
Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA
Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA is the Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI) at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH. Elena is a trained applied neuroscientist and an experienced biomedical product developer, with more than 25 years of practice in translational research in both the public and private sectors. Elena is a founding member of the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network, the virtual pharma unit that provides neuroscience researchers with funding and access to a full range of industry-style drug development services and expertise. She also coordinates NIDA’s multimillion small business programs and establishes strategic partnerships in areas of drug and medical device development, entrepreneurship, translational research, and technology transfer.
Before joining NIH, Elena worked at DOV Pharmaceutical, where she directed programs on the discovery of novel targets and drugs, with a particular focus on treatments for depression and pain. Elena designed the original preclinical program for centanafadine, a novel serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine triple reuptake inhibitor, which successfully completed phase III clinical trials for the treatment of ADHD in adults in 2020. She has contributed to the development of biomedical products that were named the products of choice for the United States Department of Defense, sold on Amazon, and even featured in the Doonesbury comic strip. Elena earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Moscow State University and her MBA in Executive Leadership and Organizational Innovation from the Gallup Organization/UNL. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neuropharmacology at the NIH Intramural Program. Elena lectures on a new product development and serves as a mentor/coach for aspiring startups, having trained more than 20 startup founders.
Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD
Chief Research & Development Officer
Veterans Health Administration
As the Chief Research and Development Officer, Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD, leads the approximately $2.3 billion research program at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, a job she has held since 2017. VA research is embedded within one of the largest integrated healthcare systems in the United States, with active research programs at 104 of the 170 VA medical centers across the country.
Rachel often describes this as her dream job, given that her passion is helping large research efforts of any type to achieve impactful, real-world results. This is borne out in the work she did before coming to the VA. For example, she led the team at Harvard Medical School that created SMART-on-FHIR, the data exchange format used by the major electronic health records and Apple HealthKit. One of Rachel’s core beliefs is that people can accomplish more by working together. Following her work on SMART-on-FHIR, she established and led the coordinating center for the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, which has the tagline, “solving medical mysteries through team science”. To date, this network of clinicians and researchers has diagnosed over 650 people living with previously mysterious medical conditions.
In her role as head of VA Research, Rachel is leading the effort to transform the program from a collection of independently-operating sites into a vast, integrated enterprise that can more efficiently deliver on its mission to improve Veterans’ well-being through research. Rachel has been deeply involved in the creation of VA’s precision oncology initiative, and she is now taking the lessons-learned from that experience to catalyze a brain health clinical-research program in VA.
Veerle Reumers, PhD
Head of Health Strategy and Portfolio
imec USA
Dr. Veerle Reumers started her career in academia with a master and PhD in medical sciences at the KULeuven, followed by postdoctoral research in neurosciences at Harvard Medical School. She joined imec’s health department to lead technology development efforts ranging from public funded academic collaborations to industry-driven bilateral projects. At imec USA she founded and managed the Space Health division and successfully raised NASA funding to validate imec technologies in a space-relevant environment. Currently she is the Head of imec health in the US and she leads a large internal endeavor to develop a model for the Blood-Brain-Barrier on a chip. Her passion is building relationships so imec’s innovative technologies can make a positive societal impact.
Amy Comstock Rick, JD
Principal
Leavitt Partners
Amy Comstock Rick is a principal based in Washington, D.C. Amy leads the Medicines Development Modernization Initiative and advises on federal health care policy, FDA, NIH, drug development and research educational convenings, and patient engagement initiatives.
Amy has over 30 years of experience leading organizations, executing strategy, transforming organizational culture, building consensus, and advocating policies across constituencies. From 2014 – 2022 she served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI). FDLI is a multi-stakeholder, educational non-profit organization dedicated to providing topical and timely conferences, courses, and publications to inform public policy, law, and regulation in all aspects of food and drug law. Prior to joining FDLI, Amy was the Chief Executive Officer of the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN) from 2003-2014. PAN was a Washington D.C.-based national nonprofit focused on educating the public and government leaders on better policies for research and therapy development and an improved quality of life for people living with Parkinson’s disease.
Amy serves on the Board of Directors of Research!America and One Mind. Amy has also served as the President of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, on the NIH Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Advisory Council, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Health Council and the American Brain Coalition. Before joining PAN, she was the Senate-confirmed Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics from 2000-2003 and the Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office from 1998-2000. Ms. Rick began her federal service as a career attorney at the U.S. Department of Education, Office of the General Counsel.
Amy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan.
Diana Saville
Co-Founder & COO
BRAINMind
Nsini Umoh, PhD
Program Director, Divison of Neuroscience
NINDS/NIH
Dr. Nsini Umoh is a Program Director in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster in the Division of Neuroscience. Dr. Umoh received her Ph.D at Howard University in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and did post-doctoral training in extremity trauma at Yale University and the U.S Army Institute of Surgical Research. Before joining NINDS, she served as a scientific program manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research & Development. While at the VA, she managed research related to traumatic brain injury, women's health, and health equity.
Before joining the VA, Nsini spent 3 years as a portfolio manager at the U.S Department of Defense (DoD) Medical Research and Development Command (MRDC) headquartered in Frederick, MD. While at MRDC, Nsini worked with the Combat Casualty Care Research Program (CCCRP) to manage research related to the early management of combat-related neurotrauma on the battlefield.
As a NINDS TBI Program Director, Dr. Umoh manages a broad research portfolio including translational and clinical research and serves as co-director of the Federal Interagency TBI Research informatics platform.
Ragini Verma, PhD
Head of Biomarkers & Clinical Development
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Ragini Verma, PhD, brings her expertise in neuroimaging, biomarkers, preclinical and clinical analytics and clinical translation. She has a double masters in math and computer applications, a PhD in computer vision and two postdoctoral fellowships, one in video-based computer vision, and the second in neuroimaging. Prior to joining CVB, Ragini was a tenured professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania (and is now an adjunct professor). At Penn, she led a team developing tools and conducting multimodal image analytics to create precision imaging solutions for clinical needs, and for biomarker discovery in disorders like autism, brain cancer and traumatic brain injury. She also led a translational center, that was tasked with deploying advanced AI-based solutions translating whole body medical imaging to real world clinical practice with the goal of empowering physicians and improving patient outcomes. As an adjunct professor, she will maintain her brain cancer, autism and TBI neuroimaging marker discovery portfolios to complement her work at CVB.
Mark Zervas, PhD
Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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 human iPSC-derived dopamine neurons for understanding target biology and mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s Disease, including mitochondrial dysfunction. Mark was then a Senior Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where he led a team using RNAi to treat ocular diseases. At CVB, Mark is responsible for identifying putative therapeutic targets and advancing biological understanding of PTSD and TBI using multiple modalities.
Maryan Zirkle, MD, PhD
Executive Director, BRAINCommons
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
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.
Program
| Time | Topic | Speakers / Participants |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:50 am | Arrivals, Registration & Coffee | All |
| 9:00 – 9:10 am | Welcome | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 9:10 – 9:30 am | NRAP History & Path Ahead | Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD Chief Research & Development Officer Veterans Health Administration |
| 9:30 – 9:50 am | The Burden of TBI in the U.S. | Nsini Umoh, PhD Program Director, Division of Neuroscience NINDS/NIH |
| 9:50 – 10:10 am | International TBI Research (InTBIR) Community | Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD John McCrea Dickson Professor of Neurology Director, Clinical TBI Research Center University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine |
| 10:10 – 10:30 am | TBI Action Alliance Action Plan | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 10:30 – 11:00 am | Break & Networking | All |
| 11:00 – 11:20 am | Progress Report: PRECISE-TBI for Preclinical Models & Precision Brain Health Initiative | Stuart W. Hoffman, PhD Senior Health Science Officer for TBI for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) Veterans Health Administration |
| 11:20am – 12:00 pm | Placing TBI at the Top of the National Policy Agenda Beyond NRAP - Policy Framework (20min) Membership Feedback (20min) | Amy Comstock Rick, JD Principal, Leavitt Partners Moderator: Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD Senior Director, External Affairs Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Lunch & Networking | All |
| 1:00 – 2:30pm | TBI Diagnostics Accelerator
Accelerator Framework (5min)
The Patient Journey Map (15min) Biomarker Discovery Engine Leveraging Legacy Biomarker Cohorts & Normative Data (15min) Catalyzing Innovation/Models of Incubation (15min) Membership Feedback (30min) | Peter Hoehn, JD Executive Vice President Cohen Veterans Bioscience James P. Kelly, MA, MD, FAAN, FANA Executive Director Marcus Institute for Brain Health Ragini Verma, PhD Head of Clinical & Biomarker Programs Cohen Veterans Bioscience Diana Saville Co-Founder & COO BRAINMind Peter Hoehn, JD Executive Vice President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 2:30 – 3:00pm | Novel Incubator Models | Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA Director of the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations (OTIPI) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) |
| 3:00 – 3:30 pm | Break & Network | All |
| 3:30– 4:15pm | Integrative Technology Platforms for Target Advancement
TBI & the Blood Brain Barrier (15min) TripleBBB (15min) Membership Feedback (15 min) | Mark Zervas, PhD Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research Cohen Veterans Bioscience Veerle Reumers, PhD Head of Health Strategy and Portfolio imec USA Moderator: Mark Zervas, PhD Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 4:15 – 5:00 pm | Establishing National TBI Awareness
National Advocacy Campaign(s) Concept (15min) Advocacy for Veterans (10min) Membership Feedback (20 min) | Virginia Amann Founder & CEO ENTENTE Network Shannon Finn Connell, PhD CEO David R. Metcalf Invisible Wounds Foundation Moderator: Michael Carson, MBA Head of Communications Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 5:00 pm | Call to Action/Adjourn | Magali Haas, MD, PhD Founder, CEO & President Cohen Veterans Bioscience |
| 5:00 pm | Cocktail Reception | All |
We’re connecting leading experts and catalyzing collaborative action
The TBI Precision Research Roadmap focuses on 7 lines of effort:
-
Injury burden: Identify the burden of disease across all populations and injury severities as determined by incidence, prevalence and long-term trajectories of patients suffering from TBI.
-
Disease models: Develop an array of translationally valid disease models (preclinical and computational) based on biological understanding of trauma pathogenesis and disease phenotypes that support evaluation of novel therapies.
-
Precision diagnosis: Identify, develop and validate diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers for TBI to develop first-generation diagnostic tests.
-
Targeted therapeutics: Validate therapeutic targets & fast track a first-generation of TBI (wellness, device, digital, drug) therapeutics targeted to the right person at the right time.
-
Clinical practice implementation: Accelerate adoption of best practices, clinical practice guidelines, and precision therapeutic approaches to optimize brain health outcomes.
-
Translational infrastructure and enabling technologies: Identify and address infrastructure, incentives, regulatory and technology gaps to advance the TBI roadmap.
-
Awareness and advocacy: Place TBI at the top of the U.S. Public Policy agenda and raise awareness to reduce stigma of brain injury, encourage treatment-seeking, and enable access and reimbursement of care.
"At the TBI Action Alliance, our belief is that success can be achieved through a collaborative model. We aim to identify research gaps, work collectively, and ensure a coordinated effort towards making an impact in the lives of those affected by traumatic brain injuries.”
Join the alliance and become a partner
The Roadmap
Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) established the Brain Trauma Blueprint – a framework for generating and executing precision research roadmaps.
Through this framework, CVB has convened TBI Researchers and other stakeholders at State of the Science Summits to identify and publish consensus challenges and recommendations for TBI research.
