Brandel France de Bravo, MPH
Brandel France de Bravo holds a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University and has been working in preventive health—internationally and in the U.S.—for nearly 30 years. She worked at the National Center for Health Research as Director of Communications and Public Affairs from 2008 to 2015. She left in 2016 to be a fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute, where she studied strategic philanthropy, behavior change, the science of decision-making, and compassion cultivation training (CCT). She is currently pursuing a teaching certificate in CCT, a contemplative practice and resource.
In her position at PSI (Population Services International) and as a consultant to the World Health Organization, USAID, the World Bank, Open Society Foundations, Marie Stopes International, and other organizations, Ms. France de Bravo provided technical assistance to contraceptive social marketing programs and conducted health research (quantitative and qualitative), evaluations, and needs assessments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has worked in family planning, harm reduction for intravenous drug users, and HIV/AIDS, including serving as country director for USAID’s first nationwide HIV prevention project in Africa (Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo).
A poet and essayist with a Master’s in creative writing (MFA), Ms. France de Bravo is the author of two prize-winning collections of poetry, the editor of a bilingual anthology of Mexican poetry, and co-author of the parenting book, Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise your Child in a Complex World. She has been awarded three artist fellowship grants and the Larry Neal Poetry Award from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. www.brandelfrancedebravo.com
Sarah Deutsch, J.D.
Sarah Deutsch is a practicing attorney providing counseling and advocacy for a number of clients in the areas of online liability, intellectual property, and Internet policy. Sarah was formerly Vice President and Deputy Counsel for Verizon Communications where she managed Verizon’s intellectual property practice for over 23 years. Much of her career has been devoted to working on consumer-facing legal and policy issues, including IP policy, online privacy, and combating online fraud and abuse. Sarah was a past recipient of Public Knowledge’s President Award for Protecting the Free Flow of Information on the Internet. She has also done pro bono work for the Massachusetts Advocates for Children and partnered with Wired Safety, a nonprofit devoted to keeping children safe online and combatting cyber-bullying. In 2019, she served as a Lecturer of Law at Harvard Law School teaching a class on online privacy. Sarah currently serves on the Boards of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization devoted to protecting civil liberties in the digital world and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), a nonprofit devoted to ensuring the secure operation of the global Internet’s unique identifiers.
Sarah has practiced law for over 30 years. Sarah holds a BA from Emory University and a JD from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she was on the Law Review and was the first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Law and Policy. She spent the year after graduating college working at the Office of Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Georgia. Sarah and her husband have two children and live in Northern Virginia.
Daniel Fox, Ph.D.
Daniel M. Fox, PhD is president emeritus of the Milbank Memorial Fund. He also serves as co-Associate editor for Policy of the American Journal of Public Health and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine. He is a widely published author of books and articles in scholarly journals on health services research, health and social policy, law, medicine, economic, cultural and intellectual history, and the history of medicine and health. His most recent book is The Convergence of Science and Governance: Research, Health Policy and American States (University of California Press, 2010).
Dr. Fox previously served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, held government positions in New York and Massachusetts, and was a faculty member and administrator at Harvard and Stony Brook Universities. He holds AB, AM and PhD degrees from Harvard University.
Benjamin Gitterman, M.D.
Benjamin Gitterman, MD is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at George Washington University and Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C. His major activities have included Child Health and Advocacy, with a focus on issues in the Health Promotion of underserved and disadvantaged children, Children’s Environmental Health and Community Health focused training and program development. He recently completed a term as Chair of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Community Pediatrics. He is the Past-President of the District of Columbia Chapter of the AAP and currently a member of the Academy’s Workgroup on Child Poverty and is one of the lead authors of the 2016 AAP Policy Statement on Childhood Poverty.
Dr. Gitterman has been the director of fellowship training in Community Oriented Primary Care/General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center and George Washington University. He founded and was both P.I. and program director of the post-graduate fellowship to bridge the gap between primary care and public health. He was a founding Co-Director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, one of 10 federally funded Pediatric Environmental Health Centers in the United States. He is currently a member of the Governor’s Council on Children’s Health and the Environment for the State of Maryland. and was on the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. EPA for Children’s Environmental Health. He has been a member of the AAP Committee on Children’s Environmental Health and has spoken nationally and internationally in this area, particularly with regard to advocacy and education.
Dr Gitterman has been the Medical Director of the Health Access Program, a medical-legal collaborative linking the Children’s National Medical Center and the Children’s Law Center of Washington D.C. He was a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships. He has also been the founding Medical Director of Project Health (now Health Leads) , a collaboration between GWU and Children’s National, linking college undergraduates , Pediatric mentors and community health programs. He also volunteers overseas annually with Operation Smile.
He received his B.S. degree from City College of NY and his M.D. degree from SUNY Buffalo. He completed his Pediatrics residency and chief residency at the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center in New York.
Nancy Hardt, M.D.
Dr. Nancy Hardt is professor emerita of pathology and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She was instrumental in the transition of Alachua County from a trauma informed to a trauma responsive community, in the creation of a safety net collaborative of free clinics, and in the establishment of an undergraduate minor in health disparities in society. She is a gubernatorial appointee to the independent Children’s Trust, which makes spending decisions for a special county tax approved by the voters designated specifically for the wellbeing of children.
In 2006-2007, Dr. Hardt was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, working as Health Policy Advisor with Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and as a key staffer on health issues in the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Dr. Hardt is boarded in both Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology. She served on the full-time faculty at the university for nearly 20 years, rising to the rank of Professor with tenure and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Managed Care. She has held a number of key leadership positions, including serving as Co-Director, Center for Research on Women’s Health. In 2002, she moved to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where she served as the Director of the Institute for Women’s Health.
Dr. Hardt has been recognized for her outstanding contributions by many organizations, including the National Board of Medical Examiners Distinguished Service Award in 2006 and being named as one of “50 Women Who Make a Difference” in Memphis in 2005.
Judith L. Harris, J.D.
After more than 45 years of practicing law in the public and private sectors, Judy Harris recently retired from the law to serve full-time as President of The Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation (MHOMF). Her goal is to further the Foundation’s mission to eliminate stigma, minimize suffering, and improve the treatment and the lives of those held captive by serious mental illness. Together with her husband Norman Ornstein, and their surviving son Daniel, they established MHOMF following the death of Judy and Norman’s older son and Daniel’s brother, Matthew, at the age of 34.
Before her retirement, and after a clerkship with the DC Superior Court, Ms. Harris spent much of her career at the global law firm of Reed Smith, specializing in litigation, antitrust and consumer protection and later, communications and privacy law. She served for several years as Managing Partner of Reed Smith’s DC office, one of only a few women at the time to serve in that capacity at a major firm. She had also served as Director of the Office of Legislative and Inter-Governmental Affairs at the FCC, where she was in charge of the Commission’s work with Capitol Hill and the Clinton Administration during the debate on children’s television, digital T.V. and connecting classrooms to the Internet, among many other issues.
Ms. Harris earned a JD from The Yale Law School in 1973, where she won the John Currier Gallagher Prize, and a BA, with highest distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Michigan in 1970.
Alan Mendelson, LLD
Alan Mendelson was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Research Center for Women & Families in June 2006. He is a venture capitalist in Hartford, Conn., where he is the founder and managing general partner of Axiom Venture Partners. Axiom has over $200 million under management and invests in both information technology and the life sciences. Mendelson heads the life science practice.
Prior to founding Axiom, Mendelson served as vice president for Aetna Life and Casualty for about 25 years. In this capacity, he oversaw many projects including Aetna’s $135 million venture program, which generated over $300 million of profits. He also helped to create MBIA, the country’s largest municipal bond insurance company and he worked directly on over three billion dollars of corporate loans. Mendelson successfully worked with the chief information officer to formulate strategy and policy regarding Aetna’s $27.5 billion commercial mortgage loan portfolio. During this time, he also initiated and served as president and CEO of Aetna, Jacobs, and Ramo, a venture capital deal sharing arrangement.
He has dedicated more than two decades of his career to technology policy and development in Connecticut. As the finance committee vice chairman of the State’s first High Technology Task Force in 1984, Mendelson created Connecticut Seed Ventures and two Centers of Excellence. He has served on the Advisory Board of Connecticut Innovations since 1989, and is currently a board member of the Connecticut Technology Council. In his industry roles for the State, he has received the Distinguished Service Award from Connecticut Innovations and the Leadership Award from the Connecticut Venture Group, of which he was a past president.
Mendelson currently serves on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum and the Advisory Council of Claremont College’s Keck Graduate Institute, which offers a master’s degree in Bioscience. He also is treasurer and a Board of Trustee member of the Jewish Community Foundation, a director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, and chairman of the Board of Trinity College Hillel. Mendelson graduated Phi Beta Kappa, with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Trinity College. He received, with honors, his LLD degree from the University of Connecticut.
Duchy Trachtenberg
The Honorable Duchy Trachtenberg served on the Montgomery County Council, at-large (Maryland) from 2006 – 2010. Upon joining the County Council, Ms. Trachtenberg became the leading force in creating the Montgomery County Family Justice Center to bring coordinated government services to domestic violence victims. The Center opened in the spring of 2009 and in the last decade has served over 12,000 families from over 100 countries. Ms. Trachtenberg has continued her work with women and families touched by violence. She has worked recently with several international organizations addressing the safety and health of refugee families from the Middle East. Ms. Trachtenberg‘s work has included program development at refugee camp sites in Turkey, Syria and Jordan.
As a public health professional and effective grassroots activist for over twenty years, Ms. Trachtenberg has had a special interest in women’s health, behavioral health services, and public health policy. Ms. Trachtenberg holds a Masters Degree in Social Work and is a past Governing Councilor and Section Chair within the American Public Health Association (APHA).
Ms. Trachtenberg has received numerous honors, including the Our Bodies Ourselves Health Collective, “Women’s Health Hero” Award, the “Hero” Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the “Ally for Equality” Award from Equality Maryland, and recognitions from NARAL, APHA, NOW and other national organizations. Ms. Trachtenberg has also completed the 2009 Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Susanne Wilke, Ph.D., MBA
Dr. Susanne Wilke is a venture capitalist and former bio-tech executive and entrepreneur who is dedicated to investing in and bringing to market drugs that make a difference in patients’ lives. She is the former CEO and Board Member of Neurotrope Bioscience, Inc., a clinical stage biotech company focused on regenerative strategies to improve memory and cognition of Alzheimer’s patients.
Dr. Wilke has expertise in all aspects of the drug development process, including research, clinical, regulatory, IP and commercialization, with a particular focus on cancer treatment and prevention. In addition to her position as CEO of Neurotrope, Dr. Wilke co-founded and worked as a Managing Director of CrossBridge International, an international advisory firm supporting early-stage, high-growth biomedical companies.
Dr. Wilke has spent five years as a Venture Capitalist, at Schroder Ventures Life Sciences and at NGN Capital. She was also the co-founder an early stage immune-oncology company, Pin Pharma, and served on the scientific advisory committee of Immunomics, an allergy and immuno-oncology company with technology out of Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Wilke has a personal experience with a loved one who died after being misdiagnosed, and this has influenced her strong interest in the importance of providing informed consent and accurate information to patients and health professionals.
Dr. Wilke holds a dual Ph.D. in chemistry, biochemistry with focus on drug development from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Dartmouth College and a BA from Loyola University in Illinois. Dr. Wilke served as a Kauffman Fellow, a prestigious two year fellowship in Venture Capital.
Susan F. Wood, Ph.D.
Dr. Susan F. Wood is Research Professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, where her work focuses on the use of scientific knowledge in public policy. She is also Director of the Jacob’s Institute of Women’s Health at GWU.
Dr. Wood served as Director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Women’s Health from November 2000 through August 2005. She championed women’s health both inside and outside the FDA, and then resigned on principle over FDA’s delay of approval of emergency contraception for over-the-counter sale.
Previously, Dr. Wood was the Director for Policy and Program Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, where she led the development of policy for the Office. She also coordinated the activities of the Public Health Service Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health. From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Wood worked on Capitol Hill for the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, an organization of Members of Congress dedicated to legislation that promotes legal, economic, and health equity for women. Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, Dr. Wood was a research scientist at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, in the Department of Neuroscience, where her research focused on cellular mechanisms of sensory transduction. She received her Ph.D. in biology from Boston University at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, where she carried out basic research on the biochemistry of vision.
Dr. Wood has received numerous awards in recognition of her work. She is married and has a daughter.
NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro, U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut
Mark Frankel, Ph.D., (Retired) Director, Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Patricia Hendel, Past President of the National Association of Commissions for Women
Phyllis A. Katz, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Research on Social Problems
Rebecca Klemm, Ph.D., President, Klemm Analysis Group
Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., Psychologist and Author
Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., Author
Lisa Lopez, J.D., (Retired) Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Haemonetics Corporation
Mary McDonough, Actress and Director