LEADERSHIP

WHAM Team Members

• 

  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.

• 

  Lori Frank, PhD

  President
  

  Lori Frank, PhD

  President

  Lori Frank, PhD is the inaugural President of WHAM. Her career has focused on incorporating community perspectives in health research and health policy to advance public health and health equity. She serves on the Board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and on the Medical, Scientific, and Memory Screening Advisory Board of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. She is Past President of the International Society for Quality of Life Research, a professional society devoted to health outcomes assessment. She completed her Health and Aging Policy Fellowship through the Congressional Fellowship Program; prior to that she served on executive leadership for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She has held research and teaching positions with Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry, the National Institute on Aging, the New York Academy of Medicine, MedImmune LLC/AstraZeneca, and the Veteran’s Administration. She completed postdoctoral training in health services research with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. Her PhD is in Human Development/Gerontology from the Pennsylvania State University and her MA is in biopsychology from the Johns Hopkins University.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  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.

• 

  Leah Golbert

  Strategic Initiatives and Communications Associate
  

  Leah Golbert

  Strategic Initiatives and Communications Associate

  Leah Golbert joined WHAM in 2024, after completing her Bachelor’s of Science in Public Health at the University of Maryland. During her time at UMD, Leah served as the Creative Development Captain for Terp Thon, Maryland’s largest student-run philanthropy, raising funds for Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. She was also the Social Media and Communications Chair for Yogi Terps, a popular yoga club on campus.

  Leah's hands-on experience in women’s health began on Long Island, where she worked as a Social Media and Marketing Intern with the Maurer Foundation for Breast Health Education. She then joined the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) as a Communications Intern, which broadened her understanding of the gender health gap and the importance of funding women’s health research.

  Leah is committed to using her experience and passion to drive impactful change in the women’s health space as a Strategic Initiatives and Communications Associate at WHAM.

Strategic Advisors

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  Elizabeth (Beth) Garner, MD, MPH

  Strategic Advisor to The WHAM Research Collaborative; Immediate Past President, American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA)
  

  Elizabeth (Beth) Garner, MD, MPH

  Strategic Advisor to The WHAM Research Collaborative; Immediate Past President, American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA)

  I am a seasoned, strategic-minded executive with a career-long focus on addressing unsolved issues and conditions that affect physical and mental health and quality of life. Born and raised in Nigeria, I bring a global world view to my work in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. With well over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, I have expansive expertise in drug development, including clinical trial design and conduct, US and ex-US regulatory affairs, FDA Advisory Committee strategy and execution, commercial launch planning, medical affairs, and pharmacovigilance. I am highly skilled in the medical and clinical assessment of early- and late-stage product candidates.

  My most recent was as the Chief Scientific Officer, Ferring US. Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, uro-oncology and in specialty areas within gastroenterology, including microbiome therapeutics and orthopedics.

  Prior to joining Ferring in 2022, I was the Chief Medical Officer of ObsEva, a biotechnology company focused on addressing serious unmet needs in women’s health. From 2014 to 2019, I was Chief Medical Officer of Agile Therapeutics, where I led the Phase 3 clinical development of Twirla®, Agile’s low-dose contraceptive patch.

  I am the Board Chair of NUA Surgical, a start-up company developing solutions for maternal health. I am also a member of the Boards of Directors (BOD) of Kezar Life Sciences (KZR), a publicly traded company developing novel therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, and Sermonix Pharmaceuticals, developing targeted therapies for breast cancer. I am the Immediate-Past President and serve on the BOD of the American Medical Women’s Association, whose mission is to advance women in medicine, advocate for equity, and ensure excellence in health care.

  I have extensive experience as a media spokesperson and am a frequent panelist and speaker on a range of topics including women’s health and women’s careers and leadership. I was a 2018 honoree at the Executive Women of New Jersey’s Salute to the Policy Makers gala, which recognizes executive women leaders across all industries. I am also a 2019 and 2023 awardee of the PharmaVoice 100 Most Inspiring Individuals in the life sciences industry and am the 2022 recipient of the Women in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association.

• 

  Jessica Federer

  Strategic Advisor to The WHAM Investment Collaborative; Chair NYSE Health of Women Investor Summit; Former Bayer Chief Digital Officer
  

  Jessica Federer

  Strategic Advisor to The WHAM Investment Collaborative; Chair NYSE Health of Women Investor Summit; Former Bayer Chief Digital Officer

  Jessica Federer is a global leader in digital health and biotechnology. She serves on both publicly listed and private company boards, including Sage Therapeutics and Aspivix in women’s health. She is a board member of Angelini Ventures, which also invests in women’s health. Previously, Jessica was the Chief Digital Officer for Bayer AG, and held leadership roles across the global life sciences company.

  She sits on the Yale Ventures Blavatnik board and Yale IRB, and chairs the NYSE Women’s Health Investor Summit, convening diverse investors to accelerate progress. She recently received the Rock Health “Icon” award for using technology to advance equity and impact. Federer is a well-known leader at the intersection of investment, technology and life sciences.

WHAM Board Members

Dale Atkins, PhD

Psychologist and Author

Gail Bassin

Managing Director, Gail D Bassin Foundation

Joanne Bauer

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

Virginia Bennett

Senior Advisor, WHAM

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Nelly Bly

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

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Diane Britz Lotti

Founding Partner, Circle Financial Group

Marilyn Chinitz

Litigator and Partner, Blank Rome LLP

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Maria Chrin

Partner, Circle Wealth Management

Meryl Comer

Vice Chair and Global Chair, WHAM Co-Founder, UsAgainstAlzheimers/ WomenAgainstAlzheimers Chair, Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health

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Gina Diez Barroso

President and CEO, Grupo Diarq Founder, DaliaEmpower

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Chaz Ebert

President, Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation

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Mary Foss-Skiftesvik

Board Member and Investor

Emily Gold Mears

Citizen Scientist, Research Analyst, Biohacker, Author and Former Attorney

Marsha Henderson

Former Associate Commissioner for Women’s Health, FDA

Anula Jayasuriya, MD, PhD, MBA

Vice Chair and Chief Scientific Officer, WHAM Founder and Managing Director, EXXclaim Capital

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Carolee Lee

Founder, CEO, and Chair, WHAM Founder and CEO, AccessCircles Founder and former CEO of CAROLEE

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Christopher Lee

Associate Vice Chancellor, UC San Diego

Sharon Love

CEO, TPN

Sheila Ann Mikhail

Cofounder and Advisor, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio)

Anne Lim O’Brien

Vice Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles

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Jim Roth

Vice Chair of the Board, Huron

Karen Segal

Board Member, UsAgainstAlzheimer's Founding Board Member, Children's Research Fund North Suburban Board, Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Ekta Singh-Bushell

Global Chair/Chief Operating Officer Board Member Non-Executive Director Public, Private, & Startup Advisor

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George Vradenburg

Founding Chairman, Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

Celia Weatherhead

Philanthropist

Donna Van Eekeren

Retired Executive Chairman of Land O’Frost, Inc

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