LASKER FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Gilman Scholar and University Distinguished Service Professor
Al Sommer is a Gilman Scholar and University Distinguished Service Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Dean Emeritus and Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (where he was Dean from 1990-2005), and Professor of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was Dean from 1990-2005. Sommer received his MD from Harvard Medical School (1967) and his Master of Health Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (1973). He has received numerous awards including the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, and the Duke Elder International Gold Medal for Contributions to Ophthalmology. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. Sommer has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2004. He was Chair from 2008 to early 2014.
Tony Evnin joined Venrock in 1974 and built the firm's healthcare franchise, helping to shape the modern biotechnology industry until his retirement in 2021. He serves as a member of the Boards of Overseers and Managers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; as a Trustee Emeritus of The Rockefeller University, Princeton University, and The Jackson Laboratory; and as a director of the New York Genome Center. Evnin received his AB in Chemistry from Princeton University and his PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2013 and became chair of its Board in 2018.
Although she eventually became an assistant professor at the University of Missouri in the late 1930s, she watched less-accomplished male colleagues get promoted over her and was left out of academic meetings. (The chair of her department reprimanded her for getting married, which was not allowed for women faculty, after noticing the wedding of a different Barbara McClintock in the newspaper.
As Fedoroff recalls, it was jarring at first for McClintock, who was in her 80s by then and technically retired, to think of her intellectual construct in molecular biology terms. But, she added, McClintock always attended the CSH symposia and became very familiar with molecular biology concepts as the field rose to prominence.
McClintock was eager to strike up conversations with people who came to visit or train at CSH, as she did with Evelyn Witkin on her first day on the campus. The two women quickly became good friends, often discussing science and laughing together. "[McClintock] developed a habit of calling me whenever she had something especially exciting," as Witkin, recipient of a 2015 Lasker Award, told the CSH Oral History Collection.
Many scientists flocked to McClintock for insight and conversation, and during meetings at CSH, "there was always a line of people standing outside of Barbara's door wanting to get in and have a few words," recalls Mary-Lou Pardue, emeritus professor at MIT. McClintock was also supportive of her colleagues at CSH. "She was a person that people went to with their grievances and difficulties," Fedoroff says. Over the 10 years that Pardue taught a summer course at CSH on molecular cytogenetics in the 1970s, she was never able to convince McClintock to give a lecture about her work because McClintock doubted that students would understand it. "That was the part that most people thought was mystical," Pardue says.
McClintock intuited things, such as a belief that cells could sense and respond when they were under stress, which no one, not even McClintock, could explain at the time. (Pardue recalls how excited she was to see a paper in 2019 that provided molecular evidence for such a cellular response.) Nevertheless, McClintock generously gave her time, talking with Pardue's students about the wild plants on the CSH campus and the genetic phenomena behind their interesting traits. "She would often say, ‘Now this plant has a secret, I'm not going to tell you. You can look at it and see what you find out.' She knew how much fun it is to find an answer to a question," Pardue says.
Barbara McClintock shows Beth Alberts some basics of corn breeding in 1979. McClintock kept a small corn field for years after she formally retired. Courtesy of Bruce Alberts
Baruj Benacerraf (left) hit it off with Unanue during his visit to Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in the late 1960s and recruited Unanue to the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School where he was chair. Unanue calls this memory from 1976, when he and Benacerraf were both wearing braces because of neck strain, "priceless".
The encounter was as fateful for Unanue as was the trip to the airport with Humphrey: Benacerraf had just become chair of pathology at Harvard Medical School, with the mission of building up its immunology research, and he went on to recruit Unanue to start an assistant professorship there in 1970.
Chris Jones worked in marketing and advertising for 25 years, ultimately serving as the CEO and Chairman of J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. He has served on many Boards in private equity, financial services, management consulting, luxury goods and healthcare, where he is currently on the board of Becton Dickinson and Co. In not-for-profit, he currently serves on the Health Advisory Board at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University, the University Library at Cambridge University and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Jones has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2014.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Vantage Partners
Chris Brody is Chair of Vantage Partners, LLC, a private investment partnership. From 1972 to 1998, Brody was a partner of Warburg, Pincus, and, for over 15 years, served as a member of its Operating Committee which managed the private equity and venture capital activities of the firm. Brody has served on the boards of numerous not-for-profits, advisory boards, and corporations, and is currently a board member of the Safe Water Network, and Hypres Inc., Director Emeritus of Intuit, Inc., and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Brody has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 1975.
Job Titles:
- President
- Meet President
- President and CEO of the Foundation
Claire Pomeroy is president and CEO of the Foundation since 2013. She received her medical degree from the University of Michigan and completed her residency (internal medicine) and fellowship (infectious disease) at the University of Minnesota. She earned an MBA from the University of Kentucky. She serves on the boards of Morehouse SOM; Science Philanthropy Alliance; Science Communication Lab; Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Science; Sierra Health Foundation; Haemonetics; and Embecta Corporation. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and received honorary degrees from University of Massachusetts SOM (2016) and the University of South Florida Morsani SOM (2022). Previous positions include chief of infectious diseases and associate dean for research at the University of Kentucky. She was vice-chancellor and dean of the University of California, Davis SOM from 2005 to 2013.
Job Titles:
- Administrative and Program Manager
E. Albert Reece is Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, the John Z. and Akiko Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He received his education from New York University (MD); Columbia University Medical Center (Residency, Ob/Gyn); Yale University (Fellowship, Maternal-Fetal Medicine); the University of the West Indies, Jamaica (PhD, Biochemistry), and Temple University's Fox School of Business & Management (MBA). Reece oversees an NIH-funded laboratory that studies the bio-molecular causes and consequences of diabetes-induced birth defects. He has published extensively in the scientific literature - 12 books and more than 500 publications. Reece has received numerous special awards and honorary degrees in recognition for his distinguished leadership, and contributions to science and medicine. He joined the Board of the Lasker Foundation in 2021.
Elias Zerhouni is Professor Emeritus Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Zerhouni was most recently the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi from 2011 to 2018. He was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. In November 2009, President Obama appointed Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. He also served as senior fellow to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2009 to 2010. He has assumed positions on several Boards, including most recently Research!America and the NIH Foundation. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He received the prestigious Legion of Honor medal from the French National Order in 2008, and was elected in 2010 as a member of the French Academy of Medicine and appointed as Chair of Innovation at the College de France in 2010. Zerhouni has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2009.
Job Titles:
- EVP for Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics
Betsy Nabel is EVP for Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics in Boston. Prior to this role, she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2010 to 2021. From 2005-2009, she directed the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. One of her signature advocacy efforts was the Red Dress Heart Truth campaign, which raises heart awareness in women through unprecedented industry partnerships. An accomplished physician-scientist, Nabel's work on the molecular genetics of cardiovascular diseases. Her honors include the Distinguished Bostonian Award, the Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the American Heart Association, and eleven honorary doctorates, among others. She is a member of the American Academy of the Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. Nabel serves on the boards of Medtronic, Moderna Therapeutics, the Broad Institute, and the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. She joined the Board of the Lasker Foundation in 2020.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Jordan U. Gutterman is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas, where he has done clinical and laboratory cancer research since 1971. Gutterman received his BA from the University of Virginia and his MD from the Medical College of Virginia. He did his post-medical school training in medicine and hematology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Gutterman served as a member of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury between 1978 and 1989 and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1983.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics
Joseph L. Goldstein is currently Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the Regental Professor at the University of Texas. Goldstein and his colleague, Michael S. Brown, discovered the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor and worked out how these receptors control cholesterol homeostasis. Goldstein and Brown shared many awards for this work, including the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research (1985), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1985), National Medal of Science (1988), and Albany Center Prize in Biomedical Science (2003). Goldstein is a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and The Rockefeller University, and the Board of Directors of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Goldstein has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2007, and Chair of the Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury since 1996.
Lucy Rinaldi - Chief Investment Officer
Margaret A. Hamburg recently completed her term as the Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She continues to represent NAM as a co-Chair and Steering Committee member for the InterAcademy Partnership for Science, Health, and Policy. She also served as President/Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Prior to this, Hamburg served for six years as the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, she conducted neuroscience research at Rockefeller University, completed an Internal Medicine residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center, studied neuropharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health, and undertook HIV/AIDS policy and research as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Hamburg has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2020.
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Founder, President, and CEO of Vera Therapeutics
Marshall Fordyce is the founder, president, and CEO of Vera Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing transformative treatments for patients with serious immunological diseases. He has over 15 years of experience leading teams in clinical translation, development, and commercialization of new treatments. Earlier in his career, Fordyce served as Gilead's senior director of clinical research where he contributed to seven new drug approvals and served as project lead for Gilead's tenofovir alafenamide development program that led to five antiviral products now part of the standard of care. He received his Bachelor's degree and MD from Harvard University and completed training in Internal Medicine at New York University/Bellevue Hospital, where he served as Senior Chief Resident. His subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital focused on acute HIV infection and novel therapeutics. Fordyce serves as Medical Director and volunteer physician of the RotaCare Coastside Free Clinic in Half Moon Bay, California. He is a grand-nephew of Mary Lasker and became a member of the Board of Directors of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation in 2012.
Mary Woodard Lasker (1901-1994) was a champion of medical research. She and her husband, pioneer advertising executive Albert Davis Lasker (1880-1952), established a legacy of advocacy and philanthropy in support of science and health.
Mary Lasker was one of the country's best known and most effective activists in the cause of increased public funding for medical research. For decades, she tirelessly persuaded the American public that the national investment in medical research would yield invaluable benefits for human health. Her simple warning was, "If you think research is expensive, try disease!" Mrs. Lasker's early efforts focused on developing public support to advance research on cancer. She founded the Citizens Committee for the Conquest of Cancer and took her cause to Congress and the American public as a leading proponent of the National Cancer Act, which was signed by President Nixon in 1971. Her ardent advocacy for greater government funding of all the medical sciences contributed to increased appropriations for the National Institutes of Health as well as the creation of several NIH institutes.
Mary Lasker's work transformed the medical research enterprise, which earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. As a permanent monument to her efforts, in 1984 Congress named the Mary Woodard Lasker Center for Health Research and Education at the National Institutes of Health.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of BlackRock Private Equity Partners
Russell Steenberg is the Chairman of BlackRock Private Equity Partners (PEP) within BlackRock Alternatives (BA). He is a member of BA's Executive Committee. He is also a member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee, BlackRock's Alternative Solutions Investment Committee, and BlackRock Investment Council. Steenberg's service with the firm dates back to 1999, including his years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, which merged with BlackRock in 2006. Prior to joining BlackRock, he was a co-founder and Managing Director of Fenway Partners, a middle-market buyout group. Steenberg has and currently serves on many private equity fund advisory boards. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). He received his MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, an MPA from American University, and a BA from St. Lawrence University. Steenberg has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2010.
During almost 30 years in the motion picture business, Sherry Lansing was involved in the production, marketing, and distribution of more than 200 films, including Academy Award winners Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Titanic. In 1980, she became the first woman to head a major film studio, when she was appointed President of 20th Century Fox. She was Chair and CEO of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005. The Sherry Lansing Foundation, devoted to cancer research, public education, and encore career opportunities, was formed in 2005. Lansing is also a co-founder of the Stand Up To Cancer initiative and the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program. In addition, she serves on the University of California Board of Regents, and on the boards of the Broad Museum, the Carter Center, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the WM Keck Foundation, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the Scripps Research Institute. She graduated cum laude with a BS degree from Northwestern University in 1966. Lansing has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2013.
Sol Snyder received his undergraduate and medical training at Georgetown University in 1962; Research Associate training with Julius Axelrod at the NIH (1963-1965); and psychiatric training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1965-1968). In 1966, he joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1980 he established the Department of Neuroscience and served as Director (1980-2006). He is presently Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Psychiatry. Snyder is the recipient of numerous professional honors, including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research (1978) and the National Medal of Science (2005). Snyder received Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from many Universities in the US and abroad. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Snyder has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation since 2012.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Investment Management at at & T Services Inc
William H. Hammond is Vice President, Investment Management at AT&T Services Inc. He and his team are charged with the investment and administration of more than $100 billion of employee benefit plan assets. Before working at AT&T, Hammond held managerial positions at Mobil Oil Corporation (now ExxonMobil) and the systems consulting division of Arthur Anderson & Co. (now Accenture). Hammond graduated from Princeton University, cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He received his MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Hammond serves on the boards for the Turrell Fund, the Continuo Arts Foundation, and the Princeton Nassoons Alumni Association. He became a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation in 2020.