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WHAM Team Members

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  Anula Jayasuriya, MD, PhD, MBA

  Vice Chair & Chief Scientific Officer
  

  Anula Jayasuriya, MD, PhD, MBA

  Vice Chair & Chief Scientific Officer

  Dr. Anula Jayasuriya has worked at the leading edge of life science innovation in the US, Europe, and India, where she co-founded the first health care private equity fund.

  Dr. Jayasuriya has been investing in life sciences and health care since 2001, first with TVM and Skyline Ventures and subsequently with funds she co-founded or founded. She combines successful investment expertise and industry operating experience together with scientific and medical knowledge. Most recently, Dr. Jayasuriya formed EXXclaim Capital to capture the compelling yet under invested business opportunity in women’s health.

  Anula received a BA from Harvard summa cum laude, and an MD and PhD (in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) from Harvard Medical School. She interned in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Anula also holds a M. Phil. in pharmacology from the University of Cambridge, in England.

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  Carolee Lee

  CEO & Founder
  

  Carolee Lee

  CEO & Founder

  Carolee Lee is an innovative trailblazer dedicated to transforming the health of women. In 2020, she founded WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters), a non-profit organization. WHAM is committed to accelerating research and investment in women’s health and implementing strategies to eliminate the inequities and bias in research and enterprise, while accelerating scientific discovery and economic impact. Carolee assembled a board of 25 leading businesswomen to launch this initiative and commissioned the Rand Corporation to create The WHAM Report, which quantified the economic benefits of investing in woman’s health research.

  As a well-recognized, highly respected leader, she has shifted the dialogue on women’s health by looking at the ethics, empirical data and economic impact of women’s health while coalescing others to spearhead effective change.

  As an entrepreneurial thinker, Carolee believes that convening and motivating thought leaders from all parts of the ecosystem will be key in creating the needed sustainable and lasting change to drive innovation, action and address the inequities which still exist today.

  Prior to founding WHAM, as a creative force and visionary leader in the fashion world, Carolee built a preeminent global brand and successfully sold it to Luxottica in 2001.

  Carolee has served on numerous public and private boards and currently serves on the boards of: The La Jolla Institute for Immunology; The Women’s Health Advisory Board, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and The Women’s Leadership Board at The John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a past president of the Committee of 200 and served as the Chair of its Foundation Board. Carolee also was a director on the board of DSW, Inc., the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation for twenty years.

  Throughout her career, Carolee has embraced mentoring and leadership roles in many diverse business organizations and is active in numerous civic, philanthropic and educational organizations.

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  Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik

  Chief of Staff & Strategic Partnerships
  

  Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik

  Chief of Staff & Strategic Partnerships

  Marianne Foss-Skiftesvik was appointed Chief of Staff of WHAM in 2021 when it was launched as a 501c3. Marianne started working on this initiative in 2018 after joining AccessCircles, a global, by-invitation network founded by Carolee Lee committed to bringing women access to leaders, resources and experiences that can help transform their lives. Marianne is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications. Prior to joining AccessCircles, Marianne was an Analyst for Axtria, a global management consulting firm providing cloud software and data analytics to leading pharmaceutical companies.

  Marianne graduated from Bucknell University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. At Bucknell, she was selected to join the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars Program. Marianne is also a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

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  Meryl Comer

  Vice Chair & Global Chair
  

  Meryl Comer

  Vice Chair & Global Chair

  Meryl Comer is a Co-Founder/Board Member of UsAgainstAlzheimers, and former Chair, Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health (2018/2020). For more than a decade (2007-2019), Ms. Comer served as President and CEO of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative, a catalyst funder targeting early diagnosis through spirited public campaigns, early assessment technologies, support of the first “virtual registry”, and pre-clinical AD research to modify disease risk. She served on the NIH National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA). In 2012, she led the formation of the 21st Century BrainTrust® (21CBT), a non-profit partnership to advance mobile brain health technologies. Comer was also a co-Principal Investigator for the PCORI Alzheimer’s Patient/Caregiver Research Network in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. In 2009, she served on the bi-partisan Alzheimer's Study Group that presented a National Strategic Plan to Congress. A former veteran broadcast journalist, 100% of Comer’s New York Times bestseller, “Slow Dancing with a Stranger” (HarperCollins), supports Alzheimer’s research.

Board Members

Joanne Bauer

Global Corporate Executive and Board Member Former President of Kimberly-Clark’s Global Health Care Business

Nelly Bly

Vice Chair, The Center for Discovery Board of Directors Trustee, Dwight-Englewood School Author

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Maria Chrin

Partner, Circle Wealth Management

Marilyn Chinitz

Litigator and Partner, Blank Rome LLP

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Dale Atkins, PhD

Psychologist and Author