Management

Strategic Advisory Board

 

Donald J. Abraham, Ph.D.
 Professor Abraham is an inventor of Aes-103. He is a Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He was Chairman of the Department from 1988-2002. Professor Abraham is also Director of VCU’s Institute of Structural Biology and Drug Discovery. In addition, Professor Abraham is a visiting research scientist at the Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. Prior to joining VCU, Professor Abraham was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh as well as Directory of the University’s Drug Design and Development Program. He has won numerous prizes including: American Chemical Society’s Innovator of the Year; Virginia Biotechnology Association’s Educator of the Year; and Virginia Science Museum – Virginia Outstanding Scientist of the Year.

Professor Abraham has authored numerous peer review publications and was Editor of the 6th Edition of Berger’s Medicinal Chemistry. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Abraham received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Purdue University, an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Marshall University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An influential scholar in the field of African American Studies, he is the author of 12 books and has produced and hosted 10 documentaries, including the acclaimed PBS films “Faces of America” and “African American Lives 1 and 2.” His next film, “The Black Americas,” will air on PBS in February 2011. Professor Gates is co-editor, with Professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, of the African American National Biography (an eight-volume biographical dictionary published by Oxford University Press in 2008), and his recent work has been instrumental in popularizing African American genealogical research and DNA testing. His book, In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past, won an NAACP Image Award in 2010. He is the recipient of 50 honorary degrees and many awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Bill Clinton. He was named to Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Americans” list in 1997, and to Ebony magazine’s “100 Most Influential Black Americans” list in 2005 and its “Power 150” list in 2009. Professor Gates is the first African American to have his genome fully sequenced, and is also half of the first father-and-son pair to have their genomes fully sequenced.

Professor Gates is Editor-in-Chief of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine focusing on issues of interest to the African American community and written from an African American perspective, and the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American and Africana Studies. An influential cultural critic, Professor Gates has written for Time magazine, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is the editor of several major anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (W.W. Norton, 1996). Professor Gates earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge. He received a B.A. in history, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1973. In 2006, he was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution after tracing his lineage back to John Redman, a Free Negro who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Lanetta B. Jordan, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.P.H.
Dr. Jordan is the Chief Medical Officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, a position to which she was appointed in 2008. In addition, Dr. Jordan is also Director of the Department of Sickle Cell Services at Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida, a position she has held since founding that department in 2004. As Director, she heads activities which focus on adolescent and adult acute pain care, comprehensive follow-up care, research and grants, community outreach education, genetic counseling and screening, and an adolescent transition program. In 2004, Dr. Jordan spearheaded the successful Joint Commission Disease Specific Certification of Distinction for Sickle Cell Disease at Memorial Regional Hospital. She also serves as Chair of the US Sickle Cell Disease Surveillance Workgroup and the Sickle Cell Disease United Voice Group, both of which were created out of the America Society of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology’s Sickle Cell Summit.

Dr. Jordan was appointed to the state of Florida’s Health Care Transition Task Force for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities. She is also a teacher and co-author of various articles, abstracts and policy briefs. Dr. Jordan completed a Doctor of Medicine Dual Degree Program, receiving her M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. She also has a Master of Science in Public Health in Medical Parasitology and Laboratory Practice. Her Master’s research focus was on antigenic variation in African Trypanosomiasis and the epidemiology of Sickle Cell Disease and Malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jürgen Venitz, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Jürgen Venitz is Associate Professor, Departments of Pharmaceutics, Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Sciences and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as Director of the Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Laboratory at the School of Pharmacy of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where he had taught for over 20 years. Prior to joining the faculty at VCU, Dr. Venitz completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. E.R. Garrett at the Beehive, School of Pharmacy, University of Florida. Previously, he was Director of Clinical Research and Development at the Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie (IKP) Bobenheim in Grünstadt, Germany where he was in charge of a Phase I Clinical Pharmacology Unit and responsible for design, implementation and data analysis of Phase I and PK/PD studies. Dr. Venitz has also been involved in the development of several allosteric modifiers of hemoglobin such as Aes-103.

Dr. Venitz has published and presented extensively in the area of quantitative pharmacology in early clinical drug development and optimal dose finding. He has been serving on numerous VCU, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP) and American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committees. He has been awarded ACCP and AAPS fellowship status. Dr Venitz serves as expert consultant in clinical pharmacology to several pharmaceutical companies, as well as to the FDA Office of Clinical Pharmacology; he is chair of the Advisory Committee in Pharmaceutical Sciences - Clinical Pharmacology (ACPS-CP). Dr Venitz received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in physiology from the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Linda Whitlock
Linda Whitlock is the Principal of The Whitlock Group, a consulting firm providing high-level management, strategy, investment, and governance consulting to CEOs and Boards of Directors. She is the immediate past Nicholas President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. She is currently serving as a Senior Fellow at Boston University’s School of Management and is a member of the Council of Advisors at Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government. She recently served as Senior Advisor to Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter in his role as CEO of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Ms. Whitlock served in the administrations of Massachusetts Governors Dukakis and King, and was appointed by Governors Romney and King as well as Boston Mayor Menino to serve on an array of boards, special commissions and task forces. Ms. Whitlock has taught at MIT, Tufts University and the University of Michigan. She has been named one of the Most Powerful Women in Boston by Boston Magazine and has been inducted into the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Academy of Distinguished Bostonians.

Ms. Whitlock currently serves on the boards of Brandeis University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, The Princeton Review, Cambridge Trust Company and Boston World Partnerships. She is a frequent lecturer on topics related to strategic leadership, effective governance and skilled philanthropy. Ms. Whitlock received an M.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College. She has also been awarded honorary doctorates by Suffolk University, Babson College and Pine Manor College.