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Our Team

At Zephyr we're building a team of highly motivated experts who:
  • Thrive in cross disciplinary environments
  • Revel in the continuous cycle of learning and teaching, fostering a culture of intellectual growth
  • Obsessively dedicate themselves to delivering transformative solutions that elevate patient outcomes
We're committed to maintaining an environment where technical and scientific rigor are extolled, decisions are data-driven, and bureaucracy is minimized.
Jeff Sherman
Co-founder, Interim CEO, and CTO
Jeff Sherman
Co-founder, Interim CEO, and CTO

Jeff Sherman is co-founder, Interim CEO, and Chief Technology Officer at Zephyr AI. He is also a Founding Partner at Red Cell Partners, an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology in Healthcare and Defense, and co-founder of Adaje Inc, a SaaS company in the financial services space that applies Machine Learning to bond, swap, and credit modeling.

Prior to his positions at Zephyr, Red Cell, and Adaje, he was a Machine Learning Architect at Rally Health (acquired by UnitedHealth Group), where he led the design and development of a state-of-the art Recommendation Engine leveraging healthcare and behavioral data at scale.

Before Rally, he worked as a Scientist at BBN Technologies from 2008 to 2012 where he performed on DARPA and IARPA sponsored R&D programs involving Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Sensor Fusion, and Graph Mining.

Mr. Sherman earned his Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Bachelor's degree, also in Computer Science, from George Mason University.

George Komatsoulis
Chief Data Officer
George Komatsoulis
Chief Data Officer
George Komatsoulis, PhD is the Chief Data Officer at Zephyr AI. From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Komatsoulis was Chief of Bioinformatics at CancerLinQ, a rapid learning healthcare company of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. During his time there, CancerLinQ grew to a resource that provided standardized representations of the Electronic Health Records for more than 2 million cancer patients for quality improvement and research purposes. Dr. Komatsoulis spent 12 years at the NIH, working at the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. At the NIH, he spearheaded the development of innovative biomedical informatics capabilities including the NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots, the NIH Commons Credits Model and semantic technology to support interoperability. From 1997 – 2004, Dr. Komatsoulis was a bioinformatics scientist at Human Genome Sciences, Inc. He has a BS in Microbiology from Cornell University and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and did postdoctoral work in the Departments of Biochemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Mathematics at the University of Southern California.
Rob Myers
Chief Operating Officer
Rob Myers
Chief Operating Officer
Rob Myers received a Bachelor of Science from the US Air Force Academy and spent 13 years as a US Navy SEAL. He has passion for helping other veterans, enjoys most everything about being in the wild outdoors and currently lives on the Central Coast of California with his wife and two young daughters.
Andrey Chursov
EVP of Science and Technology
Andrey Chursov
EVP of Science and Technology
Andrey Chursov, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Engineering and Data Science at Zephyr AI. Dr. Chursov has over 15 years of experience within the life sciences and AI sectors and has led multiple projects through various stages of development, ranging from idea generation to serving users and clinical patients. Before joining Zephyr AI, Dr. Chursov was the Head of Engineering and Data Management at PACT Pharma. He was responsible for software, bioinformatics, and cloud engineering and led the development of a scalable bioinformatics software platform. He was instrumental in PACT Pharma selling select assets to AmplifyBio and in the technology transfer process followed by the agreement. Previously, Dr. Chursov was the Chief Development Officer at CureLab Oncology, where he was instrumental in advancing an anti-cancer DNA vaccine from pre-clinical studies to completed Phase I/IIa clinical trials. He also gained experience running bioinformatics research projects at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Guardant Health, where he analyzed high-throughput sequencing data and built machine-learning models predicting various cancer biology phenomena. He has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers and filed several patent applications. Dr. Chursov received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the Technical University of Munich. He also holds an MS in Computer Science and Machine Learning and a BS in Applied Mathematics and Physics.
Chip Nash
VP/Head of Product
Chip Nash
VP/Head of Product
Chip brings more than 20 years of healthcare and digital Product leadership and has ultimate responsibility for developing and executing Zephyr AI's Product strategy. In 2010 Chip joined Audax Health as employee #3 where he founded several elite development teams whose built-from-scratch products were instrumental to the company's acquisition by United Health Group in 2014 (rebranded Rally Health). As the Product Architect of the Rally Rewards platform, Chip designed the strategy for scaling across the Employer, Commercial Payer, and Medicare markets enroute to becoming the largest incentives platform in healthcare with more that $2B of incentives processed. As a member of the Rally Executive Team he also led a portfolio of new product initiatives which included the development of AI/ML technologies for use in the Rally Personalization Engine and the United Healthcare IHR. Before that, Chip spent 10 years at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) leading the association's Business Advancement department, where he helped increase annual revenues by 1300% during his tenure. Chip has a passion for all things Digital Tech, Startups, and Building/Launching/Iterating Products from “Scratch to Scale”.
Jordan Lichay
VP, Growth
Jordan Lichay
VP, Growth

Jordan Lichay has spent her career commercializing and launching pharmaceutical blockbusters around the world to HCPs, Consumers and Payers. She is dedicated to establishing new capabilities and driving consistent growth by fostering meaningful relationships, engaging collaborative, cross-functional teams and delivering tailored and strategic solutions for her customers. Prior to joining Zephyr AI, Jordan was part of the brand team for Allergan’s Vraylar where she helped advance its ambitions in the major depressive disorder category and led five indication launches for Merck & Co.’s Keytruda, including its cornerstone in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Before going client-side, Jordan established her career at Omnicom Health Group where she led business development and client success teams to an increased win rate of 60% for scopes of work ranging from $850k to $20M annually, including two of the company’s largest accounts. She has partnered with large cap healthcare organizations like Novartis, AstraZeneca and Bayer and high-growth start-ups like Advanced Accelerator Applications and Medicines360. Additionally, Jordan has helped build franchises for Johnson & Johnson and Seqirus. In 2016, Jordan was named a Future Famer by the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame.

A graduate of the University of Miami, Jordan holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication, with a double major in Biology and Public Relations and a minor in Business Administration, driven by her passion for finding unique ways to communicate complex scientific advancements in order to help improve healthcare outcomes. She enjoys all things competitive in nature, especially sporting events, and was a former Captain of the University of Miami Sunsations Dance Team. Jordan co-founded and served as Chair of Minds Ahead, a young professionals organization supporting Vibrant Emotional Health, and enjoys spending her spare time hosting dinner parties for friends and family and spoiling her Godsons.

Amy Sheide
VP, Data Platform and Partnerships
Dr. Justin Stebbing
Chairman, Scientific + Medical Advisory Board
Dr. Justin Stebbing
Chairman, Scientific + Medical Advisory Board

Dr. Justin Stebbing is the Chairman of Zephyr AI's Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. Justin is Editor of Nature’s cancer journal Oncogene and a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at ARU in Cambridge. He specializes in a range of solid malignancies (breast, GI, lung, others) including difficult cases with few conventional options and has published over 700 papers, the majority regarding new therapeutic and translational approaches including use of immunotherapies in clinical trials, including a large number as 1st/senior author in high impact factor journals. He was previously a student at Trinity College, Oxford, receiving a 1st class degree, prior to a residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore prior to a PhD in London, investigating the interplay between the immune system and cancer-causing viruses.

Many of his papers involve deciphering gene regulatory networks in normal tissues, cancer cells and stem cells including the roles of regulatory RNA molecules (Justin's laboratory discovered a new class of RNA termed 'two-tailed mirtrons'). He has also described a new kinase for the first time, now a target in a drug discovery program, and been principle investigator in a large number of clinical studies at all stages of drug development, from novel molecules to biosimilars. These efforts aim to translate basic research into clinically useful findings to help patients at the bedside.

Most recently, his early work during the COVID-19 pandemic used artificial intelligence to identify a drug as having surprising anti-viral and anti-cytokine effects, data that led to Baricitinib’s FDA emergency approval as a once/day tablet in November 2020, as described in a book ‘Witness to Covid’. It has the highest mortality benefit of all drugs for hospitalised patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, and its simplicity lends itself for use in low- and middle-income countries. He has worked with a number of funds including Calypso, Atticus Capital, Lansdowne, and Vitruvian Partners, and he sits on the scientific advisory boards of a number of companies with innovative, transformational approaches to cancer, was elected a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and was previously appointed the UK’s first NIHR Translational Professor of Oncology. His emphasis is on increasing the cure rate and improving quality and quantity of life, and using a computer-to-bench-to-bedside-to-regulatory approval based approach which Zephyr's technology is ideally suited to.

Dr. Tom Maniatis
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member
Dr. Tom Maniatis
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member

Dr. Tom Maniatis is the Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Columbia University Medical Center where he is a member of the Zuckerman Institute of Mind, Brain and Behavior, and the founding Director of the Columbia University-wide Precision Medicine Initiative.

Dr. Maniatis leads the development of computational and experimental genomic methods and disease-focused research at the NYGC to better understand the genetic basis of cancer, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. He is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern molecular biology, having led the development and application of genomic methods to basic science and biotechnology. Dr. Maniatis’ research contributions have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science, and membership in the US. National Academy of Science, and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. Maniatis is also a pioneer in biotechnology, cofounding companies that produced several FDA approved drugs: Genetics Institute one of the earliest biotech companies (Factor VII, Factor IX, GM-CSF, BMPs, EPO now owned by Pfizer), ProScript (Proteosome Inhibitors – (Velcade) clinically developed by Millennium (bortezomid), Acceleron, (TGF-b inhibitors, Luspatercept (REBLOZYL) (now owned by Merck), and most recently, Kallyope Inc. a gut-brain axis company.

Dr. Richard L. Schilsky
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member
Dr. Richard L. Schilsky
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member

Dr. Richard L. Schilsky is the Former EVP and Chief Medical Officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Schilsky is an international expert in gastrointestinal malignancies and cancer pharmacology, having published more than 400 scientific articles, reviews, and commentaries. He has served on a number of peer review and advisory committees for the NCI including serving as a member and chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and as a member of the Clinical and Translational Research Advisory Committee. He joined the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2013 as Chief Medical Officer after a nearly 30-year career at the University of Chicago Medicine, where he served as chief of hematology/ oncology in the Department of Medicine and the deputy director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Schilsky is the Principal Investigator of the ASCO Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study and a former member and chair of the FDA Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee.

Dr. Alan Barge
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member
Dr. Alan Barge
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member

Dr. Alan Barge is the Chairman of Modra Pharmaceuticals, the founder of Carrick Therapeutics and the Co-Founder of ASLAN Pharmaceuticals. Alan is the former VP of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, AstraZeneca

Dr. Barge trained in medicine at Oxford and London and specialized in oncology and hematology. He joined Amgen in 1990, as European Medical Director, and was responsible for the European, and subsequently worldwide development of Neupogen® (filgrastim), and other hematopoietic growth factors. In 1999, he joined AstraZeneca, where he established a team responsible for early phase oncology drug development. In 2005, he was appointed Vice President of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, responsible for building and managing a large development group, and the execution of AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio globally.

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee
Scientific + Medical Advisory Board Member

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Mukherjee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer which earned the award in 2011 for general nonfiction and has been listed among Time magazine’s “All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books.” A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Mukherjee holds a BS in biology from Stanford University; a DPhil in immunology from Oxford University; and an MD from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mukherjee is a hematologist and oncologist who has published articles in the journals Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Cell. Dr. Mukherjee is the scientific founder of several biotech companies, including Myeloid Therapeut, Immuneel Therapeutics, and Vor Biopharma which has been given breakthrough status by the FDA for its anti-AML treatment strategy.

Board of Directors

Jack Rowe
Former Chairman & CEO of Aetna, Inc.
Jack Rowe
Former Chairman & CEO of Aetna, Inc.

Dr. John W. Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, from 2000 until late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1998 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation's largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. He was Director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging and is co-author, with Robert Kahn, Ph.D., of Successful Aging (Pantheon, 1998). Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the MacArthur Foundation's Network on An Aging Society.

Dr. Rowe was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He was Chairman of the Board of Overseers of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School , and continues to serve on those Boards as well at the Board of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, was a founding Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (Medpac), and Chair of the Boards of Trustees of the University of Connecticut and the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Sol Barer
Founder & former Chairman, President, COO, and CEO of Celgene
Sol Barer
Founder & former Chairman, President, COO, and CEO of Celgene
Dr. Sol J. Barer is a founder and former Chairman, President, COO, and CEO of Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG). Dr. Barer currently serves as Board Chair for Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA), NexImmune (NASDAQ: NEXI), Centrexion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CNTX), and Aevi Genomic Medicine (NASDAQ: GNMX). He is also lead director for Contrafect Corp. (NASDAQ: CFRX) and a member of the Board of Directors for 3DBio Therapeutics. Dr. Barer is also the Founding Chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery & Innovation and is a co-founder of Barer & Son Capital, an investment fund focused on capitalizing early-stage breakthrough biotechnology companies. Dr. Barer received his Ph.D. in organic and physical chemistry from Rutgers University and his B.S. in chemistry from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
Ken Samet
President & CEO, MedStar Health
Ken Samet
President & CEO, MedStar Health

MedStar Health President and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth A. Samet is responsible for a $5.8 billion not-for-profit, healthcare delivery system. With more than 35 years of experience in healthcare administration, Samet provides strategic oversight and management for MedStar Health—the largest healthcare provider in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, comprised of 10 hospitals, a comprehensive network of health-related businesses that includes ambulatory, home health, a large multispecialty physician network, and an insurance product with approximately 160,000 members. MedStar Health has large research and innovation platforms and one of the largest graduate medical education programs in the country. In addition, MedStar Health is one of the region’s largest employers, with more than 31,000 associates and 4,200 affiliated physicians, serving more than a million patients and their families each year. MedStar Health is proud to be the long-standing clinical and medical education partner of Georgetown University.

Prior to becoming MedStar Health’s president and chief executive officer in January of 2008, Samet served as president and chief operating officer of MedStar Health from 2003-2008; and as the system’s first chief operating officer since MedStar Health’s inception in 1998.

Samet has dedicated his career to health care. He received his master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Michigan in 1982. Samet served as president of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, one of the nation’s largest tertiary care hospitals, in the District of Columbia from 1990 to 2000. From the mid-1980s to 1990, Samet held a variety of leadership positions with the Medlantic Healthcare Group, which merged with Helix Health in 1998 to create MedStar Health.

Samet is presently a member of the board of directors of a number of organizations to include: Greater Washington Partnership, Economic Club of Washington, and United Way of the National Capital Area; and serves on the Executive Committee of the boards of Georgetown University and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. He has held leadership positions on the boards of the American Hospital Association (AHA), District of Columbia Hospital Association (DCHA) and Maryland Hospital Association (MHA), and served on the board of visitors for the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Samet is also a past board member for the Greater Baltimore Committee and a past board member and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors, where he received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1980 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2012 following his commencement address to the school’s graduating class. In 1996, the American College of Healthcare Executives named Samet the national Young Healthcare Administrator of the Year. Most recently, Samet was honored with the Anti-Defamation League 2015 Achievement Award, which recognizes leaders who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to justice, pluralism and understanding.

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
Former President & CEO of TIAA, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, CIO Red Cell Partners
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
Former President & CEO of TIAA, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, CIO Red Cell Partners

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., is the Steven A Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields and a Fortune 100 financial services organization. Mr. Ferguson is the former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. He represented the Federal Reserve on several international policy groups and served on key Federal Reserve System committees, including Payment System Oversight, Reserve Bank Operations, and Supervision and Regulation. As the only Governor in Washington, D.C. on 9/11, he led the Fed’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the U.S. financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the U.S. economy would not be paralyzed.

Prior to joining TIAA in April 2008, Mr. Ferguson was head of financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee. From 1984 to 1997, he was an Associate and Partner at McKinsey & Company. He began his career as an attorney at the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and co-chairs its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. He serves on the boards of Alphabet, Inc.; Corning, Inc,; Blend Inc., and International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. Mr. Ferguson is also active as an advisor and board member with various private fintech companies. He serves on the boards of The Conference Board, the Institute for Advanced Study, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Columbia University’s Teachers College and other non for profits. He is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of Thirty, and the National Association for Business Economics. Mr. Ferguson served on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness as well as its predecessor, the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and he co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population.

Mr. Ferguson holds a B.A., J.D., and a Ph.D. in economics, all from Harvard University.

Grant Verstandig
Co-founder & Executive Chairman Zephyr AI, Founder, Chairman and CEO Red Cell Partners
Grant Verstandig
Co-founder & Executive Chairman Zephyr AI, Founder, Chairman and CEO Red Cell Partners

Grant Verstandig is a Co-Founder at Red Cell and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He is also the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Zephyr AI, DEFCON AI, TARA Mind, and Red Cell incubations.

Mr. Verstandig is an accomplished entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and seasoned executive who has founded and scaled numerous businesses including Rally Health, a consumer centric digital health company acquired by UnitedHealth Group; Epirus, an AI-enabled power management company focused on directed energy defense applications; Spycraft Entertainment, a production company focused on intelligence and military operations, and Zephyr AI, a high-growth healthcare technology company committed to radically reshaping traditional approaches to drug discovery and precision medicine. From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Verstandig served as Chief Digital Officer of UnitedHealth Group where he was responsible for the strategic direction, governance, and performance expectations of digital platforms and capabilities; he now serves as Senior Advisor to the CEO.

Mr. Verstandig is a civic leader, philanthropist, and advisor to many public, nonprofit, and government organizations. He serves as a senior advisor to the National Security Agency on advanced analytics, technology, and artificial intelligence and holds several patents in these fields. Mr. Verstandig is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity Group, the nation’s leading cross-sector public-private cybersecurity forum that aims to translate pressing cybersecurity topics into action. He is a member of the National Council for American Enterprise and serves on the boards of Third Option Foundation, the International Spy Museum, and the Greater Washington Partnership, where he is a founding member. Mr. Verstandig is an active supporter of the Greater Washington area hospitals: Children’s Hospital, Inova, and MedStar-Georgetown. He is the Founder and Chairman of Verstandig Family Foundation (VFF) which has been a longtime supporter of VETS®, Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, Seton Hill University and the Grant Scholars Program, The Aspen Institute’s Foreign Ministers Program, and the new Aspen Global Digital Program.

Yisroel Brumer
Co-founder & Executive Vice Chairman Zephyr AI, President, Red Cell Partners
Yisroel Brumer
Co-founder & Executive Vice Chairman Zephyr AI, President, Red Cell Partners
Dr. Yisroel Brumer co-founded Zephyr AI and Red Cell Partners following an extensive career of executive leadership in the Department of Defense (DoD) culminating as Acting Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE). Reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, he led the annual program review process that built the five-year defense program totaling over $3.5 trillion. He also led CAPE’s oversight of all major investment programs, emphasizing analyses of alternatives, investment strategies, and programmatic tradeoffs. He led the SecDef-directed studies on high-stakes issues known as Strategic Portfolio Reviews that drove the strategic direction of the Department for the last decade. He was a member of DoD’s most senior decision bodies, including the Nuclear Weapons Council, the Missile Defense Executive Board, and the Deputy Secretary’s Management Action Group, among many others. During that time, Yisroel worked on innumerable “impossible problems” ranging from fixing disaster response after Katrina to rebuilding cultures in massive organizations to helping military personnel deal with mental health impacts of combat. Yisroel holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a M.Sc. in Chemistry from Harvard University and has published a number of works in the applications of physics to biological systems and cancer. He has received the highest civilian medal awarded by DoD, the Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, along with honors like the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award and numerous other medals and awards for civilian service.

Advisors

Dr. Franziska Michor
Founding Advisor
Dr. Franziska Michor
Founding Advisor
Dr. Fanziska Michor is a Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Data Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Michor obtained her undergraduate training in mathematics and molecular biology from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her PhD from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Afterwards, she was awarded a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 2007 until 2010, she was an Assistant Professor in the Computational Biology Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Michor is the director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Physical Sciences-Oncology Center and the Center for Cancer Evolution. She has been the recipient of the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Alice Hamilton Award, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the 36th Annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research, and others. Dr. Michor's laboratory investigates the evolutionary dynamics of cancer initiation, progression, response to therapy, and emergence of resistance.
Dr. George Miller
Founding Advisor
Dr. George Miller
Founding Advisor
Dr. George Miller is a surgical oncologist with Trinity Health of New England where he specializes in cancers of the liver, pancreas, and GI tract. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and was educated at Columbia College where he graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and received his MD from McGill University Faculty of Medicine. He completed his residency training in General Surgery at NYU and a trio of fellowships at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Surgical Oncology, Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic Surgery, and Experimental Immunology. Dr. Miller was on the faculty of NYU School of Medicine for 13 years where he was the inaugural HL Pachter Professor of Surgery and Cell Biology and principal investigator of one of the world’s most productive cancer research laboratories. His lab was awarded ~20 grants from the NIH and Department of Defense and more than 70 grants in total. He is the recipient of prestigious awards from organizations such as the Society of University Surgeons, the American Liver Foundation, and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and in 2017 was awarded the Ruth Leff Siegel Award given annually to scientist making the most important contribution to pancreas cancer research. He has been the keynote speaker at AACR and other prominent national meetings. His research has been published in leading journals including multiple papers in Nature, Cancer Discovery, Nature Medicine, and Cell and his work has been translated to 4 Phase I clinical trials. He has also partnered with industry to develop 5 new cancer therapeutics that have entered clinical testing and has co-founded a successful start-up company focusing on the development of novel immune-based therapies. His seminal work includes contributions to the roles of the microbiome, innate immunity, and inflammatory cell death in oncogenesis. Dr. Miller was the leader of NYU’s 35-member Tumor Immunology Program, co-leader of NYU’s GI Disease Management Group, and director of the nation’s only T32 NCI Training grant in Gastrointestinal Oncology. Dr. Miller was awarded the 2018 Mentor of the Year Award from NYU School of Medicine and was twice nominated for university-wide medal of excellence for teaching. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Oncogene. Dr. Miller is a member of the American Surgical Association and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He sees patients with liver cancer, pancreas cancer, and stomach cancer and has performed more than 300 major liver resections and 200 pancreatectomies.
Dr. Harry Phillips
Advisor
Paul Selva
Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Paul Selva
Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Gen. Selva retired from the United States Air Force in July 2019 as the 10th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the United States Air Force and the second highest-ranking military officer in the nation, a position he held from July 2015 until his retirement.

Prior to this assignment, Gen. Selva was appointed commander of United States Transportation Command, responsible for overseeing all global air, land, and sea transportation systems for the entire Department of Defense. Prior to that, he was commander of Air Mobility Command.

During his 39-year career in the Air Force, Gen. Selva has held numerous positions of staff, leadership, and command in nearly every operational tier of the Air Force, from squadron to group, wing, and major command. He has performed a wide range of duties in various assignments, including working as an analyst in the Office of Net Assessment, director of Strategic Plans on the Air Staff, and assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (a role in which he served as the primary liaison between the Joint Staff and the Secretary of State).