The Clearity Foundation Board of Directors

Laura K. Shawver, Ph.D.

Dr. Shawver is a biotechnology entrepreneur with 25 years of scientific experience. Her primary focus is in cancer research and drug development. Currently, Dr. Shawver is Chief Executive Officer of Cleave Biosciences which is focused on developing novel drugs for difficult to treat cancers. Prior to joining Cleave, she was Executive-in-Residence at 5AM Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to building and actively creating value in early-stage life science companies. Previously, Dr. Shawver was Chief Executive Officer of Phenomix Corp, a company developing drugs in areas of unmet medical needs including diabetes and HCV infection. Prior to joining Phenomix, she was President of SUGEN, Inc which was focused on identifying molecular pathways of cancer cells. The emphasis on kinases and their role in cancer led to the development of SutentT for the treatment of kidney cancer and gastrointestinal tumors as well as PalladiaT for the treatment of mast cell tumors in dogs. In addition, Dr. Shawver serves as an advisor to the biotech industry in the area of drug development. Her research career focused on oncogenes, growth factors and signal transduction pathways and she has published a number of research articles and book chapters in scientific journals. Dr. Shawver is Deputy Editor of "Molecular Cancer Therapeutics" and serves on other editorial boards. She is an active member in the American Association for Cancer Research currently serving on the Science Policy and Legislative Affairs committee and on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Hollywood's Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign.

Susan Atkins

A veteran of more than 20 years in the biotechnology industry, Susan Atkins was most recently Chair and Senior Counselor of Porter Novelli Life Sciences, one of the most successful biotechnology public relations agencies in the country. Atkins founded Atkins + Associates in the late 1990s and sold the company to Porter Novelli. Atkins started in the biotechnology industry as Director of Communications for Genentech, where she helped to launch biotechnology’s first product. She has been a corporate officer and Vice President of Communications for Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Rorer Group (now Sanofi-Aventis), and Group Vice President of Ketchum Public Relations. She was also Director of Communications for SRI International, and taught at the University of Tulsa. Atkins is a Library Commissioner of the City of San Diego, and Chairman of the Board of the Victory Fund, a national PAC. She has been a member of the Executive Committee of the BIOCOM Board of Directors, as secretary of the Board, an active member of several philanthropic organizations, and is active in the international Biotechnology Industry Organization. Atkins holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Oklahoma, and an MBA from Pepperdine University in California.

John E. Crawford

John Crawford has been an executive officer and director for more than a dozen life sciences firms over the past 28 years.  Five have had significant cancer drug development programs.  Since 2006 he has been chief financial officer of Phenomix Corporation and three other San Diego-based biotechnology firms acquired by larger firms during his tenure:  NovaCardia, Inc., (acquired by drug giant Merck); Cabrellis Pharmaceutial Corporation (Pharmion); and Conforma Therapeutics (Biogen-Idec).  Starting in the biotechnology industry in 1981, he took two firms in the eighties and nineties as first executive employee through initial offerings of stock to the public.  Mr. Crawford holds a B.S. in mathematical sciences from Stanford University and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Linda Holland

Linda Holland is currently the Volunteer Chair for the Make the Hope Happen fundraising initiative for the Patient & Family Support Service (PFSS) at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Ms. Holland created and is implementing short- and long-term, tiered, sustainable fundraising initiatives for PFSS, which significantly relies on private philanthropy to maintain and expand its services for patients and their loved ones at the Cancer Center. She has a BA in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and a MA in Healthcare Law and Policy from UC San Diego/California Western School of Law.

Jennifer Jarrett

Jennifer Jarrett is Managing Director in Citigroup’s Healthcare group and directs Citigroup’s West Coast healthcare effort. Ms. Jarrett joined Citigroup in 2010. Prior to Citigroup, Jennifer was the Head of U.S. Biotech at Credit Suisse where she spent 12 years. She has led numerous banking transactions in the healthcare sector, including initial public offerings, follow-ons, private placements, licensing deals and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Jarrett received her BA from Dartmouth College and MBA from Stanford University.

Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Aires Pharmaceuticals and a Venture Partner at ProQuest Investments. Prior to joining ProQuest, she served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, at Salmedix Inc., where she led the effort to license their lead cancer therapeutic; the company was successfully sold to Cephalon in June 2005. Ms. Johnson has additional experience with device, diagnostic and drug discovery and development and regulatory affairs. She held senior business and corporate development positions at Women First, Prizm Pharmaceuticals, Cytel Corp., Symbiotics Corp., and Murex Corp. (Cambridge U.K.). Additionally, Ms. Johnson served as Assistant Director with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration. She holds an MBA from Loyola University, an MS in Clinical Microbiology from the Hahnemann Medical School and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Maryland.

Aimee Jungman

Aimee Jungman currently runs the Healthcare Innovation Strategy Group at frogdesign.com focused on mobile and new media applications in healthcare. She began her career at Accenture as a senior director of Healthcare Strategy followed by a role at pharmaceutical company Pfizer in its Corporate Strategy and Business Development Group. At Pfizer Ms. Jungman led the Strategic Innovations Team, which incubated new businesses. She completed her MBA at Stanford University where she also completed a fellowship with Stanford’s Healthcare Economic Team and former California Governor Pete Wilson. She has over 15 years experience in the development of technology-based medical businesses, many of which have been start-ups such as Scient and RevolutionHealth that went public or were acquired by Fortune 500 companies.

Kerry Kelly, JD

Kerry Kelly has more than 25 years as an attorney both in private practice and in the biotechnology industry. She currently serves as a consultant to a number of biotech companies. Ms. Kelly was most recently Vice President and General Counsel at Ambit Biosciences, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of small-molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. She came to Ambit from The Scripps Research Institute, one of the country’s largest non-profit research organizations where she served as Associate General Counsel. Prior to joining Scripps, Ms. Kelly served as the head of Corporate and Legal Affairs for the biotechnology company SUGEN which developed Sutent™ for renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. (SUGEN was later acquired by Pfizer.) Prior to SUGEN, Ms. Kelly was a partner in the Palo Alto law firm of Bialson, Bergen and Schwab. She received her J.D. from Santa Clara University and her B.A and M.A. from Stanford University.

Rachel Leheny, Ph.D.

Dr. Leheny is a Managing Director and founder of the Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in late-stage private and micro-cap public biotechnology companies. Prior to Caxton Advantage, Leheny headed the biotechnology research group at Lehman Brothers which provided research coverage for over 50 companies in the biotechnology industry. From 1998 to 2000, she was the senior biotechnology analyst at UBS, and from 1993 to 1998, she was a biotechnology analyst at Hambrecht and Quist where she was also a Managing Director. Leheny was named a Wall Street Journal All-Star Analyst in 1996, 1998, and 2002. In January 2001, Leheny was the author of a research report put out by the Lehman research department entitled “The Fruits of Genomics”. This report was based on a collaborative study done by Lehman research and McKinsey consulting. It predicted that genomics was approximately a decade away from providing significant breakthroughs in healthcare and that breakthroughs would come first to certain areas like cancer. Leheny has done extensive work with companies working in genomics and individualized medicine. Leheny holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Harvard College and a PhD in chemistry from Columbia University. She was an NIH postdoctoral fellow and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. Rachel currently lives in Rancho Santa Fe, California, with her husband and two sons.

David Nelson, Ph.D.

Dr. Nelson is Founder, President and CEO, Epic Sciences, Inc. He has over a decade of business experience in the life sciences industry, having founded multiple companies and served in executive roles in another three. He also has a robust scientific background, with extensive lab experience at the University of Minnesota, the National Institutes of Health, and Aurora Biosciences Corporation. With a doctorate in genetics and expertise in oncology and other diseases, Dr. Nelson is a member of the Molecular Diagnostics Technical Working Group at the Center for Medical Technology Policy, an organization that designs and implements prospective, real world studies to inform healthcare decisions.

Michael Pollock

Michael Pollock currently serves as the President of Reynolds Pollock & Associates, a health outcomes research and market access strategy consulting company. Immediately prior to founding Reynolds Pollock & Associates, Mr. Pollock was vice president of Global Health Economics at Biogen Idec, with worldwide responsibility for health economics strategy and research, across the entire portfolio of marketed and pipeline products. He began his career in Ireland and first became responsible for health economics 20 years ago at Glaxo Canada, where he was instrumental in founding the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Canada’s Healthcare Economics Committee.