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Management Team & Staff

Scott Johnson, President and Founder

Scott Johnson brings more than 20 years of experience in business, which includes serving as President and CEO of three startups. Scott led such companies as Thermatrix, a venture-capital-backed company that developed, patented and sold a highly-efficient thermal oxidation technology that destroyed hazardous air pollutants. He also served as President and CEO of Cinemation, an entertainment company headquartered in Hawaii.

Scott's first startup was SeparaSystems LP, a joint venture between DuPont and FMC that utilized advanced membrane technology for food processing. Before these entrepreneurial roles, Scott was an executive at FMC Corporation and in management consulting at the Boston Consulting Group. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Scott was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1976.

Scott is a patient advocate and thought-leader in improving a broken medical research system. This issue impelled him to create a website, Where Are The Cures?, to educate all patients about the barriers slowing the delivery of treatments and the innovators challenging the status quo. He speaks on this subject regularly at conferences and in the media and can be booked for interviews or speaking events by emailing Jennifer Chang, Director of Communications.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn

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Mike Gresser, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer

Mike Gresser received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1976 from Brandeis University, where his thesis research was done under the supervision of W.P. Jencks on the mechanism of ester aminolysis. He did postdoctoral studies at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA on the mitochondrial and chloroplast proton translocating ATP synthases, under the supervision of Paul D. Boyer.

In 1980 Dr. Gresser joined the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and progressed through the ranks of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Chemistry. While there Dr. Gresser received the Excellence in Teaching Award, and did research on the biochemistry of Vanadium V, and on the mitochondrial ATPase.

In 1988 Dr. Gresser joined the Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research in Kirkland, Quebec as Director of Biochemistry. Over the next twelve years he progressed through the ranks of Senior Director, then Executive Director of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His team worked on a variety of small molecule drug discovery programs, resulting in the introduction of numerous molecules into clinical trials. Two of these molecules, Singulair and Vioxx, became products.

In 2000, Dr. Gresser joined Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California, as Vice President Research for Inflammation, where he remained until April, 2006. For two years Dr. Gresser served as Head of Neuroscience Research as well as Inflammation Research. His team at Amgen worked on many molecular targets, introducing numerous small molecules, human antibodies, and other proteins into development.

Currently Dr. Gresser is a Visiting Scholar at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA, and works as a consultant with Clarity Therapeutics Consulting. He often consults jointly with Dr. David R. Fitzpatrick of Biotech Clarity Consulting.

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Denise St. Onge, Chief Financial Officer

Denise St. Onge joined the Myelin Repair Foundation in 2006 as the Chief Financial Officer. Her background is leading finance functions in technology and technology start up companies. She was most recently Chief Financial Officer of BA Venture Partners; prior to BA Venture Partners she was Chief Financial Officer of Amplitude Software. Denise spent six years in Paris, first serving as the Business Planning Manager for Apple Computer Europe and Apple Computer France, then as the International Controller for Sterling Software. She began her career at Deloitte and Touche in Chicago and held finance positions at American Hospital Supply and Trans Union Corporation in Chicago. Denise has holds a B.S. degree in accounting from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and is a certified public accountant.

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Jay Tung, Ph.D., Vice President of Drug Discovery

Jay Tung, Ph.D. has more than 20 years of experience with the drug discovery process in both the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors (Eli Lilly, Athena Neurosciences and Elan Pharmaceuticals). Most recently Jay served as Senior Director/Department Head of the Chemistry Department at Elan where he worked on developing therapeutics for a variety of neurological diseases. He is an author/co-inventor of more than 50 scientific publications and patent applications.

Jay earned a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Yale University.

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Michael A. Pleiss, Ph.D., Consultant (Business Development, Drug Discovery & Intellectual Property)

Michael A. Pleiss, Ph.D. is a medicinal chemist with more than 25 years of industrial experience in pharmaceutical research and has a proven track record in the design of novel small molecule drugs in several therapeutic areas. Compounds he has advanced into clinical trials or that are in predevelopment represent novel therapeutics for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain and Alzheimer’s disease.

Mike is currently a private consultant with expertise in all aspects of drug design and development through Phase 1, including medicinal chemistry and outsourcing, computational chemistry, patent construction and breaking, DMPK, and CMC. He served most recently as Vice President of Chemistry and Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at Elan Pharmaceuticals. Mike has also held positions at Genentech and Syntex prior to joining Athena Neurosciences / Elan Pharmaceuticals.

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Kumar Hari, Ph.D., Director of Discovery Biology

Kumar Hari, Ph.D. has nearly 10 years experience in target validation, program management and business development through positions at Isis Pharmaceuticals and as Director and Co-founder of cBio, Inc., a bioinformatics consulting firm. Prior to founding cBio, Kumar served as Scientific Program Officer for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the State Stem Cell Agency, and as Associate Director of Business Development at Ibis Biosciences, a subsidiary of Abbott Molecular, Inc. During his career, Kumar has made scientific contributions to the fields of chromosome biology, functional genomics, and bioinformatics.

Kumar Hari received his B.S. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego through The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

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Gordon Y. Ng, BSc. Pharmacy, MSc., PhD., Director of Pharmacology

Gordon Ng has more than 15 years of small molecule drug and biotherapeutic research and development experience from Amgen and Merck Frosst. Most recently, Gordon served as a Scientific Director in the Inflammation Therapeutic Area at Amgen where he worked on developing therapeutics for a variety of autoimmune, inflammatory, and fibrotic diseases. During his tenure at Amgen, he led multi-disciplinary teams on the identification of two first-in-class clinical candidates from discovery research. Gordon has a track-record of establishing productive industrial and academic research collaborations, and has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and patents. Gordon received his BSc. Degree in Pharmacy from the University of British Columbia, and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in pharmacology from the University of Toronto. He conducted his post-doctoral research in neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Philip Seeman.

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Tassie Collins, Ph.D., Director, Translational Medicine

Tassie Collins, Ph.D., has 14 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry experience leading drug discovery and development teams in the fields of inflammatory diseases and immune disorders, including multiple sclerosis. During her tenure as Scientific Director at Amgen, she led three small molecule drug discovery teams through IND-enabling development and into clinical studies. She brings to Myelin Repair Foundation experience in the identification of biomarkers and surrogate markers for measuring drug efficacy, extensive experience guiding collaborative and contract research teams, and over two decades of immunology research. Tassie Collins received her B.A. in Biology from Saint Mary’s College of Maryland and her Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University.

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Jason Dugas, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist

Jason Dugas, Ph.D., previously worked at Stanford University in the lab of Dr. Ben Barres, where he investigated the molecular mechanisms regulating oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination. As a member of Dr. Barres' lab, Dr. Dugas has been a participating scientific member of the Myelin Repair Foundation since its inception in 2004, and in that time has authored and contributed to several high-profile peer-reviewed publications and two patents in association with the MRF. In 2010 Dr. Dugas formally joined the MRF to head our Translational Medicine Center, where he is responsible for developing and overseeing the various in vitro models that will be instrumental in our initial lead compound and therapeutic discovery efforts. Dr. Dugas received his B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Jennifer Chang, MPH, MSW, Director of Communications

Jennifer Chang, MPH, MSW joins the Myelin Repair Foundation with nearly 10 years of experience in healthcare and communications. Most recently, she worked in the public relations industry as a communications executive for medical and healthcare companies. With experience also in government relations and health policy, she has worked for various influential government, non-profit and healthcare organizations including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. Jennifer has two Master's degrees from Columbia University in public health and social work. She also holds a B.S. degree in biology from University of California, San Diego.

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Carola Barton, Vice President of Resource Development

Carola Barton joined the Myelin Repair Foundation in 2010 after consulting for various clients including a global philanthropic advisory firm and an international television network. She previously lived in Hong Kong where she served as Director of Commitments for the Clinton Global Initiative – Asia, a project of the Clinton Foundation. While living in Asia she also was Executive Director of Global Institute for Tomorrow, a Hong Kong non-profit organization promoting the voice of Asia in the world community. Carola previously served as Vice-President of Affiliate Relationships at Saga Foundation, a global philanthropic enterprise working to support organizations of former heads of state and government in furthering their goals of social change. She was First Vice President at Morgan Stanley until 2003, where she provided advisory and asset management services to individuals and institutions over a period of 13 years. Carola’s career in finance was preceded by her experience in non-profit management, consultation, and training. She earned a B.A. and M.S. in Psychology from San Jose State University. Her experience includes service on the boards of numerous domestic and international public and private sector organizations.

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Sarah (Sally) Bachman, Development Associate, Research

Sarah (Sally) Bachman has worked in several areas of communications, including academic research, grant writing, news reporting, copy-editing, opinion writing and teaching. Her writing has been published in academic journals and popular news media in the United States and Japan. She received a B.A. from Yale, a degree in Asian Studies from University of Hawaii, where she was a Gannett Fellow, and an MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow.

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Kathy Hansen Sweeney, Manager, Institutional Partnerships

Kathy joined the Myelin Repair Foundation in 2011, after consulting for various social enterprises in the San Francisco Bay Area including Medicines360 and the Institute for OneWorld Health for the past four years. Previously, she lived in New York, where she worked for international aid organizations that included the International Rescue Committee and the U.N. World Food Program. Prior to New York, she lived in Colorado and Arizona where she worked for several community-based organizations. She brings over 15 years of experience in building strategic funding partnerships with corporations, foundations, and government agencies. She has a Masters in Public Administration in Nonprofit Organizational Management from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a BFA from the University of Arizona.

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Beylah Redke, Development Coordinator

Beylah Redke brings to Myelin Repair Foundation her experience and passion for non-profit work. Most recently, she worked in development at Upward Bound House, a social service agency that supports homeless families and low-income seniors in Los Angeles. She also interned with the Family Focus Resource and Empowerment Center providing outreach and supportive services to families with deaf children. Beylah is very active in the community; she has worked as a caregiver for senior citizens and has been involved with organizations such as Humane Society, In2Books, and Tree People.

Beylah also has experience working with deaf communities in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and holds a B.A. in Deaf Studies from California State University, Northridge.

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Helen Solinski, Manager, Donor Relations

Helen Solinski has a passion for developing a treatment for multiple sclerosis. She also has a history of making things happen. Solinski brings over 25 years of sales and upper management experience to the Myelin Repair Foundation and an extensive background in fundraising as a volunteer with numerous non-profits. As a testimony to her volunteer commitment and abilities, Solinski was nominated to be a part of California’s largest School Bond Oversight Committee. She is also a two-term President of Northern California’s largest Neighborhood Association. 

In 2003, Solinski was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She continued to work in sales, but directed more of her volunteer and fund-raising efforts toward multiple sclerosis. Solinski had been an active volunteer and integral member of the Myelin Repair Foundation team for five years prior to joining the staff.

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Karen Dua, Executive Administrator

Karen joined the MRF in 2007 and manages our executive office, operations and technology. In addition to her exceptional organizational and administrative skills, Karen has over 20 years of marketing and sales experience ranging from collateral development to big ticket sales in excess of $1M. In the mid-90s Karen served as the U.S. Consulate Citizen Services Representative in Bangalore, India. During this time she was also instrumental in growing the Bangalore Overseas Women's Club by fivefold, and consulted with potential expat families considering assignments in India. After returning from abroad Karen has been an active community volunteer, focusing her efforts to benefit causes such as Toys for Tots, One Warm Coat, Second Harvest Food Bank, The Gift of Reading and Habitat for Humanity. In 2007 she was named Union School District Volunteer of the Year.

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