Beyond the Summit: Built on grit. Driven by insights. Focused on patients.

Inspiring.

That’s how people often describe me.

But inspiration only matters if it leads to action. That’s been the through-line in every chapter of my life, whether I was pitching TV pilots at Warner Bros., climbing mountains with myeloma patients and doctors, or leading an 80- person cross-functional team through a multiple myeloma patient journey workshop at GSK.

During my 13 years at Warner Bros. and HBO, I learned how to get decision-makers in the room, deliver value, and—most importantly—help them believe in what was possible. Whether it was a show, a mission, or a movement, I shaped stories that moved people, and turned that momentum into action.

Later, as a young mom, I began running marathons to show my two daughters what strength and perseverance look like. That grit led to my first nonprofit pitch—to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF)—where I launched an international marathon fundraising program. I—and later we—executed a plan to diversify our endurance events portfolio which resulted in the MMRF Endurance Program becoming the most successful fundraising channel for the organization, raising $25 million over my tenure. Moving beyond marathons, we fundraised by getting Wall Street execs to scale the Empire State Building. We biked across America. We became the first charity to partner with IRONMAN. We took on the most epic peaks across five continents through the program I founded, Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma (MM4MM). We got on the Today Show, on CNN, in the WSJ and NY Times. We raised hope, awareness, and a lot of money for myeloma research.

I took on most of these physical challenges alongside patients, care partners and health care providers. Not just to lead, but to listen, to learn, and to be there with them every step of the way.

They’ll Donate More to Charity if You Try to Climb Everest -WSJ 8-13-2018

Dr. Saad Usmani, head of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s myeloma program, and MM4MM team member, said it best: “We will go to the ends of the Earth to find a cure for myeloma.”

With that success, the MMRF asked me to take on more. I restructured their pharmaceutical grant strategy—transforming a chaotic process into a focused, strategic engine that resulted in increased funding to support important programs and research.

I joined the MMRF shortly after Velcade and Revlimid were approved—marking the start of a new era in multiple myeloma. I was there as the field shifted from decades of limited progress to a wave of innovation, witnessing firsthand the rapid acceleration of drug development that began to change everything for patients. I watched the treatment landscape evolve. I witnessed patients living longer. 

I came to know the key players driving progress and served as the liaison to more than 15 biotech and pharmaceutical companies, gaining a clear view of what effective partnerships and patient advocacy look like in practice.

Then in 2020, after 13 years at the MMRF, I made the leap to GSK, joining the myeloma team in Global Medical Affairs as Director of Patient Engagement to help launch the company’s oncology franchise. Today, I work across clinical, medical, and commercial teams to embed the myeloma patient perspective into every part of the development process, living our promise to start with the patient.  I led my colleagues in discovering how understanding the patient experience and embedding insights into our work leads to better science, better business, and better outcomes for patients.

But it wasn’t enough to focus only on the U.S. and Europe. I championed local patient journey research in China and Japan, a process that was, surprisingly, more enlightening for the Global team than the country level ones.

Frontiers in Myeloma mid-year meeting, ASH 2023

Coming from patient advocacy into pharma gave me a different lens. When it came time to engage the myeloma community at major congresses, I didn’t want another feel-good luncheon or a speaker who inspired but didn’t drive change.

That idea drove us to create Frontiers in Myeloma—a global, patient-centered forum funded and convened by GSK, but led by the voices of the patient advocacy community. Too often, we only hear from clinicians about what patients need. Frontiers flips the script, creating a space where we hear from patients what they need—through 40 advocates from 22 countries around the world.

I bring a rare combination of strategic leadership, cross-sector expertise, deep patient engagement and 19 years of myeloma experience to the efforts to find a cure.

My career bridges business, advocacy, fundraising and pharmaceutical experience, giving me a 360-degree view of what it takes to drive meaningful progress in multiple myeloma.

Transforming hope into scientific advances for people living with myeloma.

Transforming vision into results.

This is the kind of leadership that I can bring to the IMF.