Peter Hoehn
Chief Executive Officer
Peter Hoehn
Chief Executive Officer
Peter Hoehn is a proven healthcare business leader with 25+ years’ experience in a variety of commercial and strategy roles, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson. Throughout his career Peter has demonstrated the ability to develop insight driven strategies in complex markets and mobilize internal and external partners to achieve results. He brings broad-based commercial, strategy and leadership experiences across Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Digital Health and Precision Medicine, including brand positioning and messaging, reimbursement and market access, global launches, organizational capability building, business model innovation, new opportunity evaluation, business development, and policy.
Peter started his career as a corporate lawyer and entered the pharmaceutical industry as an attorney for Bristol Myers Squibb. After a short time as a lawyer Peter moved into various strategy, marketing and sales management roles at BMS before joining Johnson & Johnson in 2003. He started at J&J as Global Commercial Leader for Reminyl, an Alzheimer’s drug, and was then promoted to Global Marketing Leader, Neurology, where he had global commercial responsibility for in-line neurology products as well as products in late stage of development.
In 2008 Peter joined J&J’s Ortho Clinical Diagnostics organization as Vice President for WW Marketing and Strategic Marketing, responsible for long-term organizational strategy and a large global diagnostics business. In 2012 Peter moved back to J&J’s pharmaceuticals business as Precision Medicine Commercial Strategy Leader. In this role, Peter helped develop J&J’s Precision Medicine strategy, and built and led the Precision Medicine Commercial Team which was responsible for leading strategic marketing and market access for companion and complementary diagnostics across all Therapeutic Areas.
In his most previous role before joining CVB, Peter was Head, Commercial Strategy for J&J Science for Minds, a new organization focused on innovative development models and digital solutions to address Serious Mental Illness and dementia. In this position he developed the strategy, portfolio recommendations, investment approach, external collaborations, and business models for new mental health and brain health digital business ventures.
Peter received a BA in Government and Economics from the College of William and Mary, and a JD from New York University.
Nicole Harmon, PhD
President
Nicole Harmon, PhD
President
Nicole Harmon brings more than 18 years of experience in psychology, philanthropy, patient advocacy, public health, and clinical research, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff for Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), FDA’s partner for data standards. During her tenure there she transformed CDISC’s financial roadmaps, program management and global brand. Additionally, she developed and managed complex partnerships with leading U.S and International funding partners, U.S. FDA, Japan PMDA, European Medicines Agency, NIH, WHO, EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiatives, Global Patient Foundations and others to drive data standards and sharing initiatives and oversaw grants cultivation and management successfully achieving funding for and administering multiple large-scale projects. Prior to her time with CDISC, Dr. Harmon evaluated patients with Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychiatric conditions in a post-acute rehabilitation hospital. Nicole earned her doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision at Texas Tech University with dissertation focus on understanding the caregivers experience associated with acquired brain injury following discharge from rehabilitation.
Magali Haas, MD, PhD
Founder & Senior Advisor
Magali Haas, MD, PhD
Founder & Senior Advisor
Dr. Magali Haas is Founder and Board Chair and former CEO of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a non-profit biomedical and technology research organization based in New York City whose mission is to fast-track diagnostics and therapeutics to advance precision brain health with a focus on the “invisible wounds” of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries. She currently leads the National TBI Action Alliance and serves as a Senior Strategy & Science Advisor to the CEO. Dr. Haas is also Founder and Scientific Lead of the Brain Health Nexus, a global initiative to galvanize science and data collaboration, to optimize brain health across the life course and prevent and treat brain diseases and disorders, through the establishment of a brain health index. Dr. Haas has over 15 years of pharmaceutical executive experience, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson, where she assumed broad end-to-end leadership roles in early and late-stage neuroscience clinical development, translational medicine, diagnostics and integrative solutions. She serves on several international advisory boards including The European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases (EPND), VirtualBrainCloud, Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics (based in Canada), and IMEC for nanoelectronics. She is a frequent speaker and invited participant at conferences and symposia around the world. Dr. Haas earned her BS in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, and her MD and PhD in neuroscience with distinction from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Allyson Gage, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Allyson Gage, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Allyson T. Gage is a neuroscientist and drug development executive, who has over 18 years of experience leading teams in all phases of clinical development. She has been responsible for the overall strategic and clinical development of small molecules, biologics, and cellular therapies for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, including depression, alcohol dependence, Alzheimer’s dementia, neuropathic pain, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. Allyson has a proven track record in partnering with therapeutic area clinicians, US and International regulators, patient groups, and data scientists to translate pre-clinical information into human evaluation, to design informative clinical trial protocols, and ensure a regulatory path with approvable and clinically meaningful outcome measures. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Allyson’s most recent experience was focused in the field of regenerative medicine, working toward the development of a therapeutic for spinal cord injury. Allyson earned her BA from Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ and her MS and PhD in neuroscience from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
Lee Lancashire, PhD
Chief Information Officer
Lee Lancashire, PhD
Chief Information Officer
Lee Lancashire, PhD has over 15 years of experience in machine learning and statistics. His PhD was focused on the development of artificial neural network based methodologies where he was involved in many of the first applications of neural nets to high dimensional datasets in bioinformatics. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Lee spent over five years within the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters where he established and led the machine learning and statistical data analysis team. Here he held global responsibility for managing and delivering analytical projects, serving the majority of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, as well as government, academic and non-profit organizations. These projects focused on utilizing advanced machine learning approaches in the molecular profiling of disease for biomarker discovery, patient stratification and drug target identification. Lee completed his post-doctoral research in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, a Cancer Research UK core facility. He has also worked as a bioinformatics project lead in personalized medicine and diagnostics companies CompanDX and Almac Diagnostics. He has published in over 30 key industry journals and holds several patents around the use of neural networks in the biomedical domain. In his free time Lee devotes time volunteering as a trustee for the Ichthyosis Support Group, a charity that supports individuals and families affected by a group of rare skin disorders.
Eugene Rakhmatulin
Chief Technology Officer
Eugene Rakhmatulin
Chief Technology Officer
Eugene Rakhmatulin is launching a new department at Cohen Veterans Bioscience dedicated to highly sophisticated technology development. He has more than two decades of experience in Information Technologies (IT), including 15+ years in Life Sciences field. Eugene’s work has been largely focused on software development, systems architecture and management. Previously, Eugene was the Senior Director of Enabling Technologies and Informatics Delivery at Clarivate Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business. In this role, he led a global Professional Services Technology organization that was dedicated to designing and implementing data integration solutions, analytics tools and content services for major pharmaceutical companies, government, academia and non-profit organizations. Eugene joined Thomson Reuters in 2010 through an acquisition of GeneGo, the leading provider of software and content for Systems Biology. There, he served as the Head of IT and software Development. Eugene earned his MS in Computer Science and Engineering from the Moscow Aviation Institute (State Technical University) in Moscow, Russia.
Mark Zervas, PhD
Head of Discovery & Preclinical Research
Mark Zervas, PhD
Head of Discovery & Preclinical Research
Mark Zervas earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU School of Medicine, and was the Manning Assistant Professor of Biology in the MCB department at Brown University. Mark served as Senior Scientist at Amgen, where he led a research team that used human genetics to discover novel therapeutic targets and human iPSC-derived dopamine neurons for understanding target biology and mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s Disease, including mitochondrial dysfunction. Mark was then a Senior Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where he led a team using RNAi to treat ocular diseases. At CVB, Mark is responsible for identifying putative therapeutic targets and advancing biological understanding of PTSD and TBI using multiple modalities.
Ragini Verma, PhD
Head of Biomarkers & Clinical Development
Ragini Verma, PhD
Head of Biomarkers & Clinical Development
Ragini Verma, PhD, brings her expertise in neuroimaging, biomarkers, preclinical and clinical analytics and clinical translation. She has a double masters in math and computer applications, a PhD in computer vision and two postdoctoral fellowships, one in video-based computer vision, and the second in neuroimaging. Prior to joining CVB, Ragini was a tenured professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania (and is now an adjunct professor). At Penn, she led a team developing tools and conducting multimodal image analytics to create precision imaging solutions for clinical needs, and for biomarker discovery in disorders like autism, brain cancer and traumatic brain injury. She also led a translational center, that was tasked with deploying advanced AI-based solutions translating whole body medical imaging to real world clinical practice with the goal of empowering physicians and improving patient outcomes. As an adjunct professor, she will maintain her brain cancer, autism and TBI neuroimaging marker discovery portfolios to complement her work at CVB.
Nicole Bjorklund, PhD
Director, Translational Research & Development
Nicole Bjorklund, PhD
Director, Translational Research & Development
Nicole Bjorklund, PhD, brings her expertise in biochemistry, translational neuroscience and biomarker development to the RAPID-Dx program, focused on advancing biomarker discovery and validation in post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Prior to joining CVB, Nicole led the development and management of the Diagnostics Accelerator initiative at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, which supports the advancement of biomarkers for use in drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Nicole started her career as an Assistant Research Professor and Operations Director of the Biomarker and Biorepository core facilities at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her laboratories, as part of the CTSA-supported Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, supported the large number of clinical research studies at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. Nicole completed postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she investigated molecular resistance mechanisms to Alzheimer’s disease. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boise State University and a doctorate in biochemistry at Washington State University.
Sanjiv Bhave, PhD
Senior Program Manager, Translational Research & Development
Sanjiv Bhave, PhD
Senior Program Manager, Translational Research & Development
Sanjiv Bhave, Ph.D. is an experienced neuroscientist and all throughout his professional journey, across different continents, he has worked, in academia and industry, in a wide range of fields in neuroscience, molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics and proteomics. His background, a unique blend of disciplines such as neurosciences, genetical genomics, transcriptomics/proteomics and bioinformatics, enables him to quickly take the lead on any type of project – “traditional” hypothesis driven projects or “global” hypothesis driven projects such as those designed to assess “candidate genes or biomarkers”. He has worked at the University of Colorado School of Medicine for twenty plus years on a number of different aspects of neuroscience including developing a database, and associated data analyses tools, for the whole transcriptome in the whole brain of close to hundred different strains of mice and rats. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the MS University of Baroda, India and did postdoctoral studies at the Downstate Medical Center, SUNY, Brooklyn and Wayne State School of Medicine Detroit.
Kevin Urban, PhD
Director, Data Science
Kevin Urban, PhD
Director, Data Science
Kevin began his career developing space weather prediction models using a diverse range of complex data sets stemming from NASA and NOAA spacecraft missions in Earth’s ionosphere, magnetosphere, and interplanetary space, as well as from large-scale networks of ground-based instrumentation. During this time, Kevin also published on space mission design and dynamical system modeling of granular fluid systems. After receiving his PhD in physics from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Kevin worked as a data scientist at WWE, where he built predictive models for subscriber behavior on the WWE Network (a monthly, direct-to-consumer, video streaming service averaging ~2 million daily active subscribers) and led various data engineering efforts, such as the collection, ingestion, and harmonization of WWE fan data across a host of social media and online platforms. At Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Kevin has worked with wearable sensor datasets in effort to identify “digital biomarkers” that might be used to track health status and disease progression.
Andrew Thompson, PhD
Associate Director, Data Science
Andrew Thompson, PhD
Associate Director, Data Science
Andrew is a data scientist leading the RAPID-Dx program advance biomarker discovery and validation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Previously, he worked at PatientsLikeMe where he led analyses of patient-reported health data and multi-omic biological data to define predictive biomarkers and characterize disease sub-types. During his graduate degree training in neurobiology, Andrew focused on plasticity in the developing visual system, investigating a role for feedback projections in the fine-tuning of circuits during development. Prior to his PhD, Andrew worked with the discovery group at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, where he performed pharmacogenomics research in support of a phase 3 clinical trial and expression profiling studies – all in an effort to elucidate common gene signatures and repurpose existing drugs for new indications. Andrew earned his BS in biology from the University of Maryland and his PhD in biological and biomedical sciences from Harvard University.
Emanuele Libertini, PhD
Associate Director, Data Science
Emanuele Libertini, PhD
Associate Director, Data Science
Emanuele has a background in bioinformatics, network biology, genomics, metagenomics and epigenomics. He has worked in the academic field at University College London and Institut Pasteur Paris before moving to the private sector with Thomson Reuters and Clarivate. His interests lie in integrating and interpreting biological datasets representing multiple levels of regulation of molecular mechanisms with quantitative methods suited to capture resolution-dependent signals. His experience includes exposure to modelling plant signalling networks, host-pathogen relationships in the infection of human cells, and epigenomic regulation in humans. In the last five years he has focused on modelling molecular mechanisms of disease in a broad range of pharma projects, including pathologies of the brain and the nervous system.
Ryan Wales, PhD
Data Engineer
Ryan Wales, PhD
Data Engineer
Ryan Wales, PhD has 10 years of experience in neuroscience research, including 4 years studying PTSD models in rodents and 6 years studying functional neuroimaging in humans. Prior to joining CVB, he used structural and functional MRI to study how the brain and cognition change with age and disease. Specifically, Ryan is interested in biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. His dissertation focused on the effects of Alzheimer’s-related proteins, amyloid-beta and tau, on functional network connectivity among individuals without dementia. Ryan earned his BS in Neuroscience and a minor in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside and his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from Stony Brook University.
Zhanna Rozenberg
Senior Director, Technology Development
Zhanna Rozenberg
Director, Technology Development
Zhanna received her BA at Cornell University where she triple majored in Economics, Comparative Literature, and an College Scholars major that tread on philosophy, critical theory, and sociology. She completed a minor in East Asian Studies. She later went to study statistics, econometrics, and machine learning at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Universität Mannheim, and the Metis’s data science bootcamp. Zhanna is interested in making technology that helps people live more meaningful lives, using data to improve human performance. Zhanna is active in NY’s meetup culture focusing on data science, neuroscience, wearables, IoT, and habit design. Zhanna’s major individual project, “Hindsight”, explored the interaction between subjective and objective measures of human performance.
Matthew Springer
Senior Manager, Technology Operations
Matthew Springer
Senior Cloud Engineer, Technology Development
Matthew Springer has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry. He has extensive experience in computer manufacture, IT infrastructure management, database administration and cloud engineering. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, he was a Senior Development Operations Engineer in the Life Sciences division of Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business. He was responsible for the design and implementation of the cloud infrastructure within the Professional Services organization. He was also responsible for the management of their database infrastructure and the automation of their software deployments. Matthew joined Thomson Reuters in 2011 as a Senior Database Engineer. Matthew is involved in various California-based initiatives to feed and support the homeless community. He also has a keen interest in Cinematography, Videography and Photography.
Isabel Curro
Senior Manager, Technology Development
Isabel Curro
Senior Manager, Technology Development
Isabel is working with the Digital Health team on device validation, data analysis and protocol development for internal testing and Sleepwell projects. Previously, she completed an engineering internship with VERO Biotech, a medical device start-up based in Atlanta. Isabel also conducted research on how to combat antibiotic- resistant bacteria and how to develop nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery at the Lab for Synthetic Immunity at Georgia Tech. She also interned with Siemens in Erlangen, Germany. Isabel received a BS in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology where she participated in the honors program and international plan. In addition, Isabel studied abroad at UC3M in Madrid, Spain.
Maryan Zirkle, MD, MS, MA
Executive Director, BRAINCommons
Maryan Zirkle, MD, MS, MA
Executive Director, BRAINCommons
Maryan Zirkle MD, MS, MA is an accomplished professional with more than 10 years of experience working in the research industry. She has expertise in research network infrastructure development and sustainability, Big Data, patient-centered outcomes research, healthcare delivery and medicine, mental health, interdisciplinary-based team management, contract management, and active research portfolio management.
Before joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Dr. Zirkle was the Associate Director of the Research Infrastructure team at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She was responsible for providing intellectual and organizational oversight for the development and regulation of PCORI’s National Patient-Centered Clinical Data Research Network, PCORnet. Zirkle has also worked as a research health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She gained considerable experience in polytrauma, traumatic brain injury (TBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and medical informatics research at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers in Tampa, Florida, and Portland, Oregon. She completed a three-year advanced fellowship in clinical informatics at the VA in Portland. She also received two bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Florida, a master of arts in rehabilitative and mental health counseling from the University of South Florida, a master of science in biomedical and clinical informatics from Oregon Health and Science University, and a medical degree from Spartan Health Sciences University.
External Affairs
Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD
Senior Director, External Affairs
Chantelle Ferland-Beckham, PhD
Senior Director, External Affairs
Dr. Chantelle Ferland-Beckham is a translational neuroscientist by training, with over 15 years of experience in preclinical models of neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury models. She is also an experienced public policy and advocacy professional, having spent nearly 10 years working on advocacy and public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels. After earning her PhD in Neuroscience from Tulane University, she went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships in both traumatic brain injury and clinical and preclinical models of comorbid addition and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She was later selected to be an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. In this role as a Health Science Policy Analyst, she evaluated research programs and developed policies to promote progress in biomedical research and ensure the effective use of taxpayer funds to conduct research for the benefit of human health. She also assisted with Congressionally mandated reporting and liaison activities to strengthen the relationship between the NIH and Congress. Additionally, she worked on the Fellows in Innovation initiative, spearheaded by the Obama administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, to analyze current strategies and provide policy recommendations for suicide prevention in current and former members of the US military. In 2017, she joined Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), serving in a capacity that bridged her scientific and public policy backgrounds and supporting both the programmatic and policy initiatives of CVB.
Operations
Lauren J. Goldsmith
Senior Director, Contracts and Grants Management
Lauren J. Goldsmith
Senior Director, Contracts and Grants Management
Lauren is a contracting professional with over 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry with specialized expertise in outsourcing and contracting for all R&D activities for clinical and preclinical trials. She also has experience in supporting corporate agreements, research collaborations with academic institutions, and vendor relationship management.
Before joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, she was the Global Head of Site Contracts leading an international department of over 25 people globally.
Lauren graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and holds a Paralegal Certificate from Northeastern University. She has also holds a Certificate in the Fundamentals of the Bioscience Industry from The Center for Biotechnology from Stony Brook University.
David Gordon
Operations Manager
David Gordon
Operations Manager
David Gordon was born and raised in Orange County, California. In 2017, he came to New York City to attend university for politics and public policy. Beginning in 2018, David has worked in various political and electoral roles including director of field organizing, campaign manager and policy analyst. He has also worked as an aide to the top staff of foundations, community organizations and consultancies in both California and New York. He is a passionate advocate for affordable housing in New York City, and yet he maintains his California roots as a diehard fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Communications
Michael Carson
Head of Communications
Michael Carson
Head of Communications
Michael Carson is the Head of Communications of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, the New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to advancing brain health.
Prior to Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), Michael served as chief marketing officer of the Alzheimer’s Association leading strategic initiatives that drove the global conversation of early detection, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, and awareness initiatives in support of brain health. Michael’s role supported organizational advancements in advocacy and research.
Michael led the Association’s organizational branding, global communications and digital revenue streams. In addition to publishing initiatives Michael oversaw alz.org, social platforms, global media relations, celebrity engagement, advertising and internal communications for all staff.
Under Michael’s leadership, the Association has grown concern about Alzheimer’s disease and awareness of the organization and its programs and services. Reach among the public has significantly increased and Michael made significant social media gains in reach, engagement and revenue growth. Michael’s forward-thinking approach to new programs and initiatives has heightened concern, reduced stigma and advanced the cause.
Prior to joining the Alzheimer’s Association, Michael led marketing and operations as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for an ad- supported tech-based start-up venture. He also held marketing leadership roles at FTD.com, Ogilvy & Mather, Orbitz Travel and FCB.
He served on the Google App Developer Council, the Discover Financial Services Merchant Advisory Board and the Meta Social Good roundtable.
Michael received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Marquette University.
CEO/Finance Office
Elinor Litwack, CPA
Finance Comptroller (Contract)
Elinor Litwack, CPA
Finance Comptroller (Contract)
Elinor Litwack is Partner at GRF CPAs and Advisors’ outsourced accounting and advisory team. Over the past decade she has specialized in providing financial and organizational solutions to nonprofit organizations, utilizing state of the art technology combined with deep industry expertise. She is proficient in systems design, cloud computing, audit readiness and accounting best practices. As contract finance manager, Elinor leads the finance team at CVB.
Elinor serves as Treasurer of I Support the Girls, a nonprofit organization that facilitates donations of bras and menstrual hygiene products to women and girls experiencing homelessness. A graduate of George Washington University, Elinor was nominated for the Greater Washington Society of CPAs’ Women to Watch Awards in 2015. Additionally, Elinor was recognized in NYN Media’s 2021 Nonprofit 40 under 40.
Elinor is a member of the American Institute of Public Accountants, the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of CPAs, where she serves on the Chief Financial Officer committee. Additionally, Elinor participated on the planning committee for the 2021 Better Business Bureau of New York’s Charity Effectiveness Symposium and is serving as the 2021 Digital CPA Advisory Board Chair. Elinor lives in Englewood, New Jersey with her husband and four kids.
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