Advisory Board
Dedication to changing the lives of millions of concussion sufferers through scientific advancement
Mark Iwicki
Mark Iwicki is an advisor of Oxeia Biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Iwicki has 25 years of experience as a pharmaceutical industry leader managing all stages of drug development and commercialization in multiple therapeutic areas.
Mr. Iwicki has extensive experience building businesses and has been instrumental in the success of a number of multi-billion dollar products. Mr Iwicki is Chairman and CEO of Kala Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Kala, Mr. Iwicki was CEO of Civitas Therapeutics, which was sold to Acorda Therapeutics in 2014. Before joining Civitas, he was President and CEO of Blend Therapeutics. He also served as President and CEO of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, where he provided leadership for the successful launch of that company, which was created following the acquisition of Sepracor by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Iwicki previously held key senior leadership roles with Sepracor and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Aimmune Therapeutics, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Pulmatrix, Nimbus Therapeutics, Merus and Taris Biomedical.
Mark H. Corrigan, MD
Dr. Mark Corrigan is the Chairman of Blackthorn Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted treatments for neurobehavioral disorders.
Prior to BlackThorn, Mark was as CEO of Zalicus, leading them through their merger with Epirus. Mark joined the specialty pharmaceutical company Sepracor in 2003 and served as their executive vice president of research and development until December 2009, where he was responsible for the clinical development of several successful CNS programs, including Lunesta. Prior to joining Sepracor, Mark spent 10 years with Pharmacia & Upjohn, where he was most recently group vice president of Global Clinical Research and Experimental Medicine.
Before Mark entered the pharmaceutical industry, he spent five years in academic research at the University of North Carolina focusing on psychoneuroendocrinology and maintains an adjunct faculty appointment as in the Psychiatry Dept. He is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
Mark serves on the Board of Cardiome Pharma Corporation, Quartet Medicine, Synereca Pharmaceuticals, and Pamlico Biopharma (both Acele Biopharma companies). He had served on the board of directors of CoLucid, and at Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Avanir Pharmaceuticals where he also chaired the scientific advisory committees.
Mark holds a B.A. and M.D. from the University of Virginia and received specialty training in psychiatry at Maine Medical Center and Cornell University.
Ross Zafonte, DO
Dr. Ross D. Zafonte is Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as Vice President Medical Affairs Research and Education at Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.
Dr. Zafonte’s textbook is considered one of the standards in the field of brain injury care. Dr. Zafonte’s work is presently funded by the NIH, DOD and NIDRR, and he is currently directing several large clinical treatment trials. His laboratory work has focused on understanding mechanisms of recovery after Brain and Spinal Cord Injury. Dr. Zafonte also served on the Board of Governors of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
He has published extensively on traumatic brain injuries, spasticity, and other neurological disorders, as well as presented on these topics at conferences nationally and internationally. He is the author of more than 300 peer review journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.
In addition, he is on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurotrauma. He has previously served on the editorial board of as PMR. In 2006, Dr. Zafonte was selected to receive the Walter Zeiter award and lectureship by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and, in 2008, he was the recipient of the Association of Academic Physiatrists Distinguished Academician Award. In 2012, Dr. Zafonte received the William Caveness award for outstanding clinical care and research from the Brain Injury Association of America, and, in May 2013, he received the Joel DeLisa Prize from the Kessler Foundation. In 2014 Dr. Zafonte received the Robert L Moody Prize in Brain Injury from the University of Texas, Galveston.
Gerald Grant, MD, FACS
Dr. Gerald Grant, MD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Neurology at Stanford University. He is a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Child Health Research Institute and Bio-X at Stanford and is the Division Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Stanford Children’s.
Dr. Grant received his B.S. degree in Neurosciences and German from Duke and his MD from Stanford University. He also served active duty with the US Air Force and was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his deployment, Dr. Grant was the Consultant for Neurosurgery, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 30th Med Brigade, US Army and developed the first prospective study in a combat zone on blast concussive injury. The conclusions from this study in part were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Dr. Grant attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal prior to his separation. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and is also board certified in Pediatric Neurosurgery by the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
Dr. Grant was recruited from Duke to Stanford in 2013. He has a specialized clinical interest in head trauma and concussion and his translational laboratory efforts focus on molecular characterization of the blood-brain barrier currently funded by the NIH (NINDS). Dr. Grant was Director of Neurotrauma at Duke and is the Principal Investigator for the Duke Site on a Department of Defense Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Consortium. Dr. Grant holds several executive positions in national organizations, which include the National Committee on Trauma in the American College of Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Pediatric Neurosurgeons, and the Joint Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery. He is on the editorial board for Neurosurgery and Surgical Neurology International.
Murray Stein, MD, MPH
Murray B Stein MD, MPH, FRCPC is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine & Public Health, and Vice Chair for Clinical Research in Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He is also a Staff Psychiatrist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
Dr. Stein graduated from the University of Manitoba and completed his residency and post-residency fellowship at the University of Toronto and at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He subsequently completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. Stein’s research interests include the epidemiology, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety disorders especially social phobia, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. He is also very interested in the relationship of mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) to mental disorders. He has written or co-written over 500 peer-reviewed scientific articles on these topics, including in journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, American Journal of Psychiatry, and JAMA Psychiatry. He is co-editor, with Martin Antony PhD, of the Oxford Handbook of Anxiety and Related Disorders (2009). His federally funded research has included studies of interventions for anxiety disorders in primary care, pharmacological approaches to treatment-resistant anxiety and stress-related disorders, and functional neuroimaging research in anxiety and trauma-related disorders. He is Principal Investigator and Director of the Department of Defense-funded (2008-2016) INjury and TRaumatic STress (INTRuST) Consortium, which studies treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. He is also Co-Principal Investigator (with Robert Ursano MD) of Army STARRS, an NIMH-funded project (2009-2015) investigating risk factors for suicide, PTSD, TBI and other deployment-related disorders. This project is now entering a longitudinal follow-up phase as STARRS-LS (2015-2019).
Dr. Stein is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), Co-Editor-in-Chief for UpToDate in Psychiatry, and Deputy Editor for the journal Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Stein chaired the American Psychiatric Association Workgroup to Revise the Panic Disorder Treatment Guidelines (2006-2008), and is past Scientific Chair of the NIMH Interventions in Mood and Anxiety (ITMA) Review Group (2006-2009). Dr. Stein was a member of the DSM-5 Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum, Posttraumatic, and Dissociative Disorders Work Group (2009-2013). He is currently a member of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) (2011-2016) and a past member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Board on the Health of Select Populations (2012-2015). Dr. Stein is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Traumatic Brain Injury Endpoints Initiative, launched in 2014.
Christopher Nowinski, PhD
Chris Nowinski is the co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the sports concussion crisis through education, policy, and research.
He is also a co-founder of the Boston University (BU) CTE Center, where he serves as the Outreach, Recruitment, Education, and Public Policy Leader, and has led the growth of the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, a partnership with BU and the US Department of Veterans Affairs and now the largest CTE brain repository in the world. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Behavioral Neuroscience at Boston University School of Medicine.
Nowinski’s passion for brain trauma research and advocacy stems from personal experience. He was All-Ivy defensive tackle for the Harvard University football team and performed for WWE before post-concussion syndrome forced him to retire in 2003. After learning about concussions and their serious consequences from his treating physician Dr. Robert Cantu, he wrote the book Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis in 2006, in an effort to educate the world about this under recognized public health issue. In 2012, the book was adapted for the documentary film of the same name, Head Games, directed by Steve James.
Nowinski is committed to rapidly expanding the public’s understanding of the effects of concussion and brain trauma through the media and other educational platforms; for example, he holds the record for original features on HBO Real Sports with seven, and provides the voiceover for the US Centers for Disease Control concussion education videos.
Nowinski serves on the NFL Players Association Mackey-White TBI Committee, the Ivy League Concussion Committee, Positive Coaching Alliance National Advisory Board, is a consultant to Major League Lacrosse, and is an Eisenhower Fellow.
Photo credit: Boston University Photography
Richard Sherman
Richard Sherman is an All-Pro Cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) and a member of the NFL Player's Association Executive Committee.
Born in Compton, California, Mr. Sherman excelled both on the field as a football and track star, and in the classroom as salutatorian with a 4.2 GPA at Dominguez High School. After a stellar career at Stanford University, the outstanding cornerback was picked by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round in the 2011 NFL Draft. Mr. Sherman anchored the defense and helped lead the Seahawks to back-to-back NFC Championships in 2013 and 2014, as well as their first Super Bowl title in 2014. Mr. Sherman is a 4x Pro Bowler, 4x All-Pro, and took home the NFC Defensive Player of the Year title in 2014. Mr. Sherman has been an NFLPA Player Representative since September 2014.
Off the field, he started his charity – Blanket Coverage, The Richard Sherman Family Foundation – in 2013 in order to provide students in low-income communities with clothing and supplies to help them work towards achieving their goals. Mr. Sherman was nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2015 because of his efforts in the community.
Isaiah Kacyvenski
Isaiah Kacyvenski’s diverse background includes playing in the National Football League for 8 years for the San Francisco 49ers, St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the not-for-profit, Concussion Legacy Foundation.
Mr. Kacyvenski has a very deep background in wearable sensor technology as the former Global Head of Business Development at MC10, a cutting-edge conformal electronics company. Mr. Kacyvenski is currently the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Sports Innovation Lab, the leading market research and advisory firm delivering insights on intersection of sports and technology. Isaiah is also an investor in, and advisor to, several companies in technology, sports, biotech, consumer, media and sports medicine.
Mr. Kacyvenski is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Sports and Fitness Industry Leaders Scholar, PETA Compassionate Action Award, 1st Team AP All-American, Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award given to "best, most academically talented" football player in New England. He was also the subject of an NFL Films profile about his rise from poverty to the NFL that received an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Long Feature. He was also recently named one of only eight members of the Law and Ethics Advisory Panel for the $100 Million Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. Mr. Kacyvenski is also a member of the NFLPA Health and Safety Committee and was also recently inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
Mr. Kacyvenski holds a Cum Laude Pre-Medicine Bachelor degree from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Anjan Chatterji
Mr. Anjan Chatterji has over 10 years’ experience in the life sciences and biotech industries in several capacities and is the founding manager at Horatio Washington Ventures LLC (“HWV”). At HWV, Mr. Chatterji runs a mid-sized private and public equity long-short fund, focused mainly on pre-revenue healthcare businesses.
Mr. Chatterji has also published several white and peer-reviewed papers, one of which was cited in the final decree for reverse settlements in the Supreme Court’s decision in FTC v. Actavis et. al. Anjan earned his MBA and JD, as well as an LLM from Northwestern University. Mr. Anjan Chatterji’s professional, commercial and academic experiences have allowed him to understand where to find areas of stable growth in the healthcare and technology fields, and to truly relate to the needs of the companies his fund supports.
Darius Naigamwalla
Darius Naigamwalla is currently a Partner with CEEK Enterprises, an emerging firm focused on the development of next generation products and technologies for women's health.
Prior to co-founding CEEK, Darius was President of Campbell Alliance, an inVentiv Health company and an industry leader in biopharmaceutical and medical device consulting. In his role, he also oversaw the firm’s two subsidiary companies, Encuity, a full-service market research provider, and the Pharmaceutical Institute, focused on providing training, learning and development solutions. During his career, Mr. Naigamwalla successfully completed hundreds of engagements for dozens of clients ranging from small and emerging companies to the established leaders of the healthcare industry. The nature of his work has spanned across therapeutic and functional areas, including new product planning, commercial strategy, launch excellence, franchise/portfolio strategy, capability development and business development / licensing.
Mr. Naigamwalla, a native Canadian, holds an MBA from the University of Victoria, an MS in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Western Ontario, and a BS (with honors) in biochemistry from McMaster University. He currently resides in Boston.
“A concussion derailed my life almost twenty years ago. I had no idea how devastating a concussion could be, and since then I’ve dedicated my career to concussion education, research, and care. We can no longer accept a rest-and-wait approach to recovery. Every day of work, school, or normal functioning we can get back through active interventions is crucial to patients and families. We need to apply advances in neuroscience and breakthroughs in our understanding of brain injury to advance therapies that can improve, and save, lives. I am excited about Oxeia’s approach to fulfilling this urgent need.”
Chris Nowinski, Ph.D.
Co-founder and CEO, Concussion Legacy Foundation