Linda Tannenbaum, CLS (ASCP), Founder & CEO/President
The inception of Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) traces back to the personal journey of its founder, Linda Tannenbaum. As OMF’s President and CEO, Linda’s motivation was deeply personal; her daughter, at the age of 16, was struck by ME/CFS, a diagnosis that came without the prospect of diagnostic tests or viable treatments. Confronted with the painful reality of her daughter’s diminished quality of life, Linda was propelled into action.
Her pursuit for answers revealed a stark void in collaborative and transparent research, as well as funding for ME/CFS and related chronic, complex diseases. Determined to bridge this gap, Linda established OMF in 2012, with a vision to catalyze large-scale research efforts aimed at creating diagnostic tools, effective treatments, and ultimately, prevention methodologies for these conditions.
Linda’s professional background as a clinical laboratory scientist, holding a bacteriology degree from UCLA, and her experience managing a clinical laboratory for over 20 years, have all converged to fuel her current mission. With unwavering dedication, Linda Tannenbaum now channels her expertise and passion into spearheading the quest to find a cure for chronic complex diseases, enhance patient care, and restore the lives of millions affected by these conditions.
Kimberly Hicks, COO/CFO/Treasurer
Ms. Hicks has worked with OMF as a board member since 2014, has served in an interim capacity as the CFO/COO, and has joined the team full-time. She is a C-suite Finance industry veteran with over 25 years of leadership, business transformation, business development/sales, merger integrations, and major strategic initiative experience across private and public sectors, and international settings. In the past few years she has transitioned to Health Tech and Healthcare, and has a keen interest and passion for the use of technology to solve big healthcare problems. Ms. Hicks holds an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from St. Mary’s University and a BA in Psychology from The University of Texas.
Deborah Gould
Deborah Gould has spent 30+ years in accounting and financial management roles at Warner Bros. orchestrating diverse projects that carried big impacts. The various roles included working with small divisions to ultimately serving as VP Finance, Worldwide Distribution. In total, Deborah had served as a go-to resource for solving complex problems, executing critical initiatives, and guiding teams as a hands-on leader. A few examples include:
✓ Partnering cross-functionally as Finance Lead on system implementation, enhancement, and configuration projects, including incorporating an offline database into an SAP ERP system to deliver a new level of data analysis and reporting while reducing costs, improving reliability, and enabling data-driven decisions.
✓ Consulting line of business leaders on financial modeling, budgets, forecasts, cost control, industry trends, deal obligations, and market conditions to support film releases.
In addition to a career within the entertainment industry, Deborah is a long-time supporter of charitable causes and nonprofit organizations, specifically helping to address issues related to homelessness and Alzheimer’s.
Deborah has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Business Administration in International Finance from St. John’s University.
Rabbi Shai Held
Rabbi Shai Held–theologian, scholar, and educator–is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar, where he also directs the Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas. Previously, he served for six years as Scholar-in-Residence at Kehilat Hadar in New York City, and taught both theology and Halakhah at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also served as Director of Education at Harvard Hillel.
A 2011 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education, Rabbi Held has been named multiple times to Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. He holds a doctorate in religion from Harvard; his main academic interests are in modern Jewish and Christian thought, in biblical theology, and in the history of Zionism. Rabbi Held’s first book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, was published by Indiana University Press in 2013; The Heart of Torah, a collection of essays on the Torah in two volumes, was published by JPS in 2017.
Constance Minnett
Constance Minnett has been an attorney for over 45 years and is admitted to the state and federal courts in California and to the U.S. Supreme Court. She has spent the majority of her career in the entertainment industry – first at a law firm, next as the first in-house counsel for Screen Actors Guild, and then 35 years at Warner Bros., most of which were as SVP and General Counsel of Warner Bros. Distributing, Inc. and later as SVP of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. During the course of her career, she has supervised or personally handled in the United States and Canada: contracts and collective bargaining agreements (negotiation, drafting, and enforcement of same); litigation; legislative matters; regulatory matters; bankruptcy creditor matters; and advised business executives.
Connie is retired from Warner but retains her active bar membership. Her immediate family has commenced a wholesale mocha cookie business called “Milford’s Mochas” based on some recipes she created. She and her husband own that company, which is run by two of her children.
Connie serves on the Board of Directors of Kube-It, Inc., a technology start-up. She also had extensive experience advising the National Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild during her tenure there. She cares deeply about the necessity of funding for research that can lead to the cure or amelioration of medical conditions that have not yet attracted engagement by large pharmaceutical companies. She holds a B.A. in History from Scripps College, Claremont and a J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles.
Deborah Rose, MD
Dr. Rose is a psychiatrist in private practice in Palo Alto, California. She has over 40 years of experience in treating posttraumatic stress disorder, both acute PTSD and complex PTSD. She has developed and published a model for psychodynamic psychotherapy of PTSD and has published articles and book chapters on these subjects. She has taught extensively for professionals and for the lay public and has consulted to the National Centers for PTSD.
Dr. Rose’s interest in serving on our board stems from both her personal experience of having fibromyalgia and then Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS), and also from having patients in her practice with these illnesses. She is very excited about the pending revolutionary research and about current interventions that have brought her and her patients notable relief.
Vicki Schultz
Vicki Schultz is the Executive Vice President of Schultz Financial Group Inc.(SFG), located in Reno, NV. SFG is an independent, fee-only wealth management firm founded in 1982.
Vicki received her Bachelor of Science in Education from Temple University in Philadelphia before moving to Orange County, CA where she obtained her MBA from California State University, Long Beach. Vicki is a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and previously served on their board of directors. She is a member of the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada’s Professional Advisors Council and serves on the Investment Committee of the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation
Hany Zayed, PhD
Hany Zayed, Ph.D. is the head of Data Science Solutions group at Rigel Pharmaceuticals. He has more than 25 years’ experience in statistical analysis and consulting including design of clinical studies, data analysis and results interpretation. Hany has extensive experience in strategic clinical research including due diligence evaluations, post-approval clinical trials and disease/product registries. His special interest is in the development and analysis of patient reported outcomes, quality of life, treatment satisfaction and disease burden in areas including oncology, inflammatory/pain, cardiovascular, ophthalmology, endocrinology, infectious diseases, sexual dysfunction, central nervous system and several orphan/small populations.
Emeritus
Patti Linsley, Secretary
Before retiring, Ms. Linsley managed the Human Resources department for Crescent Capital Group LP and was also responsible for directing Crescent’s charitable giving activities. Ms. Linsley has been an active board member with Open Medicine Foundation since 2013 and remains involved as a parent of a daughter suffering with ME/CFS.
Previously, Ms. Linsley worked in the International Capital Markets Group and High Yield Bond Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc. Ms. Linsley studied Business Administration at Mesa College in California.
R.P. Channing Rodgers, MD
R.P. Channing Rodgers is currently a professor at UCSF with a focus on informatics research and training.
Previously, he was a clinical officer at the FDA in the office of Orphan Product Development, where he leveraged informatics to identify overlooked therapies for rare diseases, created a network-based course for small clinical trials, and reviewed grant and orphan drug applications.
Dr. Rodgers joined the FDA from the NIH, where he had the distinction of being the first physician to actively develop biomedical applications for the Web. At the NIH, he was the founding chair of the National Science Foundation’s Web Consortium, and he co-created the first large catalogued image archive for the Web and devised and directed an Internet-based multimedia course: “The Science of Small Clinical Trials.”
Dr. Rodgers received training at Harvard College and the University of Utah College of Medicine. He received postdoctoral training at the University of London, NCI’s Laboratory of Theoretical Biology, and the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology (Brussels). He completed training in Clinical Pathology within the Department of Laboratory Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Rodgers has published extensively and was formerly the editor-in-chief of the journal Computers in Biology and Medicine.
In Memoriam
In Memory of H. Kenneth Walker, MD, PhD
October, 1936 – February, 2018
H. Kenneth Walker, MD, was a founding member of OMF’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Walker was a professor of neurology at Emory University and the CEO of Partners for International Health, a non-governmental organization focused on providing advanced medical training to physicians and nurses in underdeveloped countries. The organization is funded by grants from the US Agency for International Development and the Georgia state government.
Dr. Walker was the director of the internal medicine residency program and director of the junior medicine clerkship and sophomore clinical methods at Emory. Dr. Walker was deeply involved in medical education, including organizing medical data and evaluating surgical patients. He wrote and edited books that focus on physical diagnosis.
Dr. Walker was particularly interested in applying computer technology to medicine. He was instrumental in establishing a pioneering electronic medical record at Grady Hospital in Atlanta and has been a member, chair, and senior consultant to the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine. From 1997-2008, he served on the White House Regional Fellowship Selection Committee and collaborated with Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yunus to develop an improved health care system for Bangladesh and other resource-challenged countries.
Dr. Walker was a wonderful and compassionate individual, who will be very much missed. May he be remembered for all of the help that he brought to millions of people around the world.