Board of Directors

Joseph R. (Bob) Assenzo, PhD

Dr. Assenzo led the Drug Information Association from 1996 through 2004 as Executive Director. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Assenzo was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Project Management and Senior Advisor for Novo Nordisk in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Assenzo was also Executive Director of U.S. Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs, Medical Communications, and Pharmacovigilance at the Upjohn Company. Dr. Assenzo received degrees in civil engineering from Northeastern University and environmental engineering from Harvard University and completed his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma.

 

 

Thorir D. Bjornsson, MD, PhD

Dr. Bjornsson has held academic appointments at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  During his academic career, Dr. Bjornsson maintained an active research laboratory and clinical research unit, funded by federal and foundation grants, and industry support. In his biopharmaceutical industry career, Dr. Bjornsson led global early clinical development across all therapeutic areas, first at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, New Jersey, and subsequently at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.  At both companies, he led numerous cross-functional initiatives aimed at improving specific scientific, organizational, or operational issues, such as back-up compound strategies, translational medicine, biomarker laboratory, early development cycle times, and unmet medical need assessment. Dr. Bjornsson is the author or co-author of approximately 225 published papers, abstracts, and book chapters.  He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Nanaline Duke Scholar at Duke University, Samuel M.V. Hamilton Family Professor of Medicine at Jefferson, President's Award at BMS, and Team-of-the-Year Award at Wyeth.  He has served on numerous national selection committees, including the NIH Pharmacology Study Section and the PhRMA Foundation's Clinical Pharmacology Selection Committee. Dr. Bjornsson is a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Iceland.  After initial clinical training in hematology/oncology, he trained in clinical pharmacology at Stanford University Medical Center.  Dr. Bjornsson's specialties include early clinical drug development; clinical pharmacology; translational medicine and therapeutics; experimental medicine; preclinical candidate assessment and selection; drug development; pharmaceutical predictivity; biomarker applications; quantitative pharmacology; dose range selection; clinical safety margins; biological/clinical knowledge representation; portfolio strategies; and unmet medical needs assessment.

 

 

J. Lyle Bootman, PhD, ScD

Dr. Bootman has served as Dean of The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy since 1987. Dr. Bootman is Professor of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Public Health, and a fellow of several professional associations, including the American Pharmacists Association, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and the American College of Apothecaries. He is the Founding and Executive Director of The University of Arizona Center for Health Outcomes and PharmacoEconomic (HOPE) Research, one of the first such centers developed in the world. He is former President of the American Pharmacists Association and President Emeritus of the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Society. Dr. Bootman received his pharmacy education at The University of Arizona and his doctorate at The University of Minnesota. He completed a clinical pharmacy residency at the National Institutes of Health, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He has received numerous outstanding scientific achievement awards, most notably from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Research. Currently, he serves on several prestigious boards, including Critical Path Institute, Research Corporation Technologies, CMR Institute, and Madeira Therapeutics.

 

 

John L. Carter, MBA

John L. Carter joined the IBM Corporation in 1956 at Owego, New York. He held various jobs within the company prior to becoming Plant Manager of IBM's Rochester, MN operation in 1974. He came to Tucson in 1977 as General Manager to start up a 5000-employee facility, and retired from IBM in 1987. He has continued in executive positions or board of directors roles since that time. Mr. Carter is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering, and earned an MBA with a major in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Some of his current activities include being a member of the Tucson Airport Authority and The University of Arizona College of Science Dean's Board of Advisors. He is also on the Boards of Directors for Critical Path Institute, Unisource, Tucson Electric Power, the Thomas R. Brown Family Foundation, Research Park Development Corporation, and Global Solar, Inc. Previous board memberships include the University of Arizona Foundation, the Arizona Council on Economic Education, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, The Arizona State Chamber of Commerce, HealthPartners of Arizona, TMC Healthcare, the Arizona Bank, and the United Way of Tucson.

 

 

Peter B. Corr, PhD

Dr. Corr is Co-Founder and General Partner of Celtic Therapeutics Management LLLP. Dr. Corr retired from Pfizer, Inc., where he was Senior Vice President for Science and Technology. He also headed worldwide pharmaceutical research and development for Pfizer. Previously, Dr. Corr served as Executive Vice President, Pfizer Global Research & Development, and President, Worldwide Development. He also served as Senior Vice President, Discovery Research, at Monsanto/Searle, and then President of Pharmaceutical Research and Development at Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis. Dr. Corr, who received his doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine, spent 18 years as a researcher in molecular biology and pharmacology at Washington University in St. Louis. His research has been published in more than 160 scientific manuscripts. He is a Trustee of the Joyce Theatre Foundation in New York City, and a member of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice, the IOM Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, and the IOM Committee on Accelerating Rare Diseases Research and Orphan Product Development.

 

 

M. Wainwright Fishburn, Jr.

M Wainwright Fishburn, Jr. is a partner in the Cooley Godward Kronish Business department. He joined the Firm in 1992 as a founding partner in the San Diego office and currently serves on the Firm's Marketing Committee. Mr. Fishburn has been counsel to public and private companies operating in a variety of environments, including biotechnology, information technology, internet, computer hardware and software, communications, composite materials, retail, service and manufacturing industries. Mr. Fishburn received a J.D. degree in 1981 from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and served as President of the Hastings Board of Governors. He received a B.A. from the University of Arizona and has served on the University of Arizona Technology Advisory Committee. Mr. Fishburn completed post-graduate study at the Australian National University and was appointed as a Senior Fellow of Bergmann College affiliated with the A.N.U. Mr. Fishburn is admitted to practice before the State Bar of Arizona and the California State Bar and is a member of the American Bar Association.

 

 

Jeffery E. Jacob, SM

Mr. Jacob is the principal of Tucson Pharma Ventures LLC, an Arizona-based biopharmaceutical development, consulting, and investment firm. Throughout his career, Mr. Jacob has created technology-based startup companies and supported the expansion of existing companies in both the physical and life sciences. He currently serves as the CEO of Cancer Prevention Pharmaceuticals, a development stage company pioneering preventative therapeutics in Oncology. Mr. Jacob is a founding Board Member and previously served as the Chief Program Officer of Critical Path Institute (C-Path); he was responsible for creating C-Path's business plan and initial programs. On behalf of C-Path, Mr. Jacob currently serves as Interim President of the National Biosignature Laboratory initiative, which aims to create analytical standards for biomarkers and assays used in Healthcare research. Between 1987 and 2004, Mr. Jacob worked with Research Corporation Technologies (RCT), most recently as its Senior Vice President. During this time, he led the transformation of the company from a patent development and licensing organization to an early-stage technology incubation and venture development firm. Mr. Jacob has a Master's degree in engineering and a Master's degree in Technology and Policy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

 

Shaun A. Kirkpatrick, MA

Mr. Kirkpatrick is president and chief executive officer of Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) in Tucson, Ariz., and serves on the company's Board of Directors. Kirkpatrick oversees RCT's BioVentures investment portfolio and technology development and licensing activities in North America, Europe and Australia. In addition to overseeing company-wide matters, he manages a portfolio of technology investments and companies in the biomedical sciences for RCT. He also plays an active role in creating new companies around novel therapeutics and biomedical platforms, and serves as executive management during the incubation phase. Mr. Kirkpatrick received his master's degree in international economics and science/technology in international economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and Bologna, Italy. He graduated summa cum laude from The University of Arizona in Tucson with a dual major in economics and ecology/evolutionary biology. He also studied at the London School of Economics, the University of Kansas and Eastern Michigan University. RCT is a technology investment and management company that provides early/seed-stage funding and development for promising biomedical companies and technologies originating in the world's universities and research institutions.

 

 

The Honorable James T. Kolbe

Mr. Kolbe currently serves as a Senior Transatlantic Fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Mr. Kolbe advises on trade matters as well as issues of effectiveness of US assistance to foreign countries, on US-EU relationships, and on migration and its relationship to development. He is co-chair of the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development with Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation. He also serves as an adjunct Professor in the College of Business at The University of Arizona, and serves on a part time basis as strategic consultant with McLarty Associates. For 22 years, Mr. Kolbe served in the United States House of Representatives, elected for eleven consecutive terms (1985 to 2007). He represented the Eighth congressional district, comprising the southeastern part of Arizona with Tucson as the main population area. While in Congress, Jim served for 20 years on the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives. He was Chairman of the Treasury, Post Office, and Related Agencies subcommittee for four years, and for the last six years in Congress, he chaired the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Agencies subcommittee. Kolbe graduated from Northwestern University with a BA degree in Political Science and then from Stanford University with an MBA with a concentration in economics.

 

 

Walter H. Moos, PhD

Dr. Moos joined the non-profit research institute, SRI International, in 2005, as Vice President of its Biosciences Division. At SRI, Dr. Moos leads a unique pharmaceutical team of more than 200 people, with all of the resources necessary to take research from initial discoveries to the start of human clinical trials. SRI Biosciences is an integrated R&D organization, carrying out basic research on disease mechanisms like a university, drug discovery like a biotech venture, and preclinical services like a contract research organization. From 1997-2004, Dr. Moos was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MitoKor (now Migenix). From 1991-1997, he was a Vice President with Chiron (now Novartis). From 1982-1991, he rose to the level of Vice President at the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research Division of Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer). Dr. Moos has held adjunct faculty positions at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has been adjunct full professor since 1992 at the University of California, San Francisco, and since 2007 at James Madison University. Dr. Moos holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.

 

 

Cindy Parseghian

Cindy Parseghian is President of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. Along with her husband, Michael, she is co-founder of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, which they started in 1994 in an effort to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease, a rare and fatal genetic disorder that struck three of their four children. As President, Mrs. Parseghian has spearheaded a successful fundraising campaign raising more than $36 million in 16 years. Of the more than 400 rare disease organizations in America, the Parseghian Foundation has raised more funds than perhaps any other. Cindy Parseghian serves on a number of community and state and national boards including among others the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Advisory Council, University of Notre Dame College of Science Advisory Council, Translational Genomics Inc. (TGen), The Critical Path Institute (C-Path), San Miguel High School. Prior to founding the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, Mrs. Parseghian worked for 7 years as President, CFO, and Controller of MCS Telecommunications in Tucson. She earned a BBA in Accounting at the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters of Management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Mrs. Parseghian has also successfully passed the CPA exam.

 

 

Leslie P. Tolbert, PhD

Dr. Tolbert, a faculty member at The University of Arizona since 1987, is a Regents' Professor in the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. Dr. Tolbert became Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development in 2005. She has chaired the campus-wide Committee on Neuroscience, and has been a member of the steering committee for the Program in Applied Mathematics since 1998. Dr. Tolbert received her AB in applied mathematics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and her PhD in anatomy from the Division of Medical Sciences of Harvard University. She is currently the incoming president of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. Dr. Tolbert served as president of the Arizona Society for Electron Microscopy and Microbeam Analysis in 1990-1991, and was a member of the NASA advisory team for the design of insect accommodations for research in space from 1996-2000.

 

 

Alastair J.J. Wood, MB, ChB

Dr. Wood received his medical degree from St Andrew's University and Dundee Medical School in Scotland. He joined the Faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1978 where he became tenured Professor of both Medicine and Pharmacology, and Attending Physician at Vanderbilt Medical School. He was Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research (1999-2004), and Associate Dean, Vanderbilt Medical School (2004-2006) before being appointed Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology in 2006. His current academic appointments are Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. Dr. Wood has served on a number of Editorial Boards. He was a member of The New England Journal of Medicine Editorial Board (2004-2006); he was the Drug Therapy Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine from 1985 to 2004, and is currently on the Editorial Board of The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and The Scientist. He has previously served on the Editorial Boards of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition. He authored the Chapter in Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine on Adverse Drug Reactions from the 9th through the 15th edition.

 

 

Janet Woodcock, MD
Liaison Advisory Member

Dr. Woodcock is the Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research within the United States Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Woodcock has served the FDA as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer, Deputy Commissioner for Operations, and Chief Operating Officer. In these roles, she oversaw scientific and medical regulatory operations. Dr. Woodcock served as Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research from 1994 to 2005. She previously held other positions at the FDA including Director, Office of Therapeutics Research and Review, and Acting Deputy Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Dr. Woodcock received her MD from Northwestern Medical School, and completed further training and held teaching appointments at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California in San Francisco. She joined the FDA in 1986.

 

 

Raymond L. Woosley, MD, PhD

Dr. Raymond Woosley is the founding President and Chairman of the Board of The Critical Path Institute (C-Path). Dr. Woosley is also the Director of the Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics that is funded by a grant to C-Path from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Prior to founding C-Path, Dr. Woosley was Vice President for The University of Arizona (UA) Health Sciences Center and Dean of the UA College of Medicine. He was Associate Dean for Clinical Research and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Woosley was a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical School and the first US scientist for Glaxo's initial US operations. Dr. Woosley earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Louisville, his M.D. from the University of Miami and completed post-doctoral training in pharmacology, internal medicine and clinical pharmacology. His research has been published in over 265 peer-reviewed publications and 50 book chapters. He is a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine's Drug Forum.