Edward L. Snyder, M.D., Chair
Rebecca A. Lewis, Esquire, Vice Chair
Becky McCullough, Secretary
Gordon Bryan, Treasurer
Barbara Peterson Burwell
Jeffrey W. Chell, M.D.
Dennis Confer, M.D.
Christine Fleming
Robert D. Lorentz, Ph.D.
Bernadette Murray-Fertel
Jiro Okochi
Susan N. Rossmann, M.D., Ph.D.
Edward L. Snyder, M.D., Chair
Dr. Edward L. Snyder is the director of the Blood Bank/Apheresis Service at the Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., and a professor of laboratory medicine at Yale University Medical School. He joined the NMDP board of directors in January 1999 and is a past chair of the NMDP's Strategic Planning and Nominating committees. He is also a past chair of the AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks. Snyder is on the editorial board of Transfusion and Blood journals and has published more than 225 articles in the field of transfusion medicine. Snyder graduated from New York Medical College.
Rebecca A. Lewis, Esquire, Vice Chair
Rebecca A. Lewis received an unrelated donor transplant through the NMDP in 1997. She serves on the NMDP's Executive Committee. Lewis is chair and a member of the Patient Services Committee, and a past chair of the Board Development and Compensation committees. Lewis is chief bar counsel for the Wyoming State Bar Association and a former adjunct professor of law at the University of Wyoming College of Law. Lewis has served on a number of boards, including the boards of the Ivinson Memorial Hospital Foundation and the Wyoming State Bar Foundation. Lewis earned a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor from Duke University.
Becky McCullough, Secretary
As director of the Marrow Program at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston, Texas, McCullough oversees the education and recruitment of donors, with a primary focus on minority donors. McCullough developed the Gulf Coast Marrow Donor Program in 1991, and her efforts include expanding an initial $220K grant to a program supported by ten full-time staff. She also presides over a community-based volunteer executive advisory board, volunteer committees, and fundraising as well as conducts public and individual presentations. McCullough served previously on the NMDP Donor Recruitment and Minority Affairs committees and as an NMDP Council officer. McCullough received her bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University.
Gordon Bryan, Treasurer
Chief Financial Officer, National Marrow Donor Program®
Gordon C. Bryan has been with the NMDP since 1991. He served first as controller and was promoted to chief financial officer in 1994. Bryan is responsible for all financial aspects of the NMDP, including planning and allocation of available resources and overseeing of government contracts compliance. He also manages the finance, contracts, human resources and administrative services departments.
Barbara Peterson Burwell
Barbara Peterson Burwell is a long-time philanthropist and dedicated community servant. The 1976 reigning Miss USA, Burwell has been recognized as one of America's Outstanding Women of Achievement and has been honored by the University of Minnesota as one of twenty-five Distinguished Women in Minnesota. Burwell serves on several boards, including the Minnesota Orchestral Association, YMCA of Minneapolis, University of Denver Parent Council, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, United Way Women in Leadership, American Swedish Institute, the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center Community Advisory Board, Children's Theater and the Godfrey House. She graduated from St. Olaf College with triple majors in Speech Communication, American Studies and Political Science. Her extensive travel experience and outstanding public speaking have added a key dimension in her pursuits in the world of public relations.
Jeffrey W. Chell, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, National Marrow Donor Program®
Dr. Jeffrey Chell, a native of Minnesota and a University of Minnesota graduate, came to the NMDP from Allina Health System where he most recently served as president and chairman for the board of the Allina Medical Clinic, a medical practice of more than 600 health care providers with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. He also served concurrently as the system vice president for clinical services of the Allina Health System.
Chell graduated cum laude from the University of Miami (Florida) with degrees in science and privileged studies. He earned a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Minnesota and performed his internship and residency at the University of Wisconsin. He earned his boards in internal medicine in 1982. Prior to his roles at Allina, he practiced internal medicine with the United States Air Force and in private practice in the Twin Cities.
Dennis L. Confer, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, National Marrow Donor Program®
Dr. Dennis L. Confer began a consulting role with the NMDP as interim medical director in 1991. His title change to medical director in 1993, and in 1996, be began a full-time appointment with the NMDP. He was promoted to the position of chief medical officer in 1999.
Confer was the director of marrow transplantation at the University of Oklahoma from 1991 to 1996. Currently, in addition to his work at the NMDP, he is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. He attended medical school and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and performed his fellowship training in hematology and oncology at the University of Minnesota.
Christine Fleming
President, Be The Match Foundation®
Christine Fleming was appointment president of Be The Match Foundation in November 2008. She has been in political, academic and/or scientific fundraising for nearly twenty years. From 2003 until she joined Be The Match Foundation, Fleming served as vice president of the TGen Foundation, Scottsdale, Ariz., raising funds for the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research institute. There she helped design and develop programs in major gifts, planned giving, corporate and foundation relations, annual fund, memorial giving and the Ambassador Program, through which volunteers across the United States help raise funds to advance translational research in cancer, neurologic and metabolic diseases.
Previously, Fleming served as assistant dean of development of The University of Texas at Austin (UT) College of Natural Sciences, and before that she ran the UT Business School Foundation. Fleming holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
Robert D. Lorentz, Ph.D.
Robert D. Lorentz's son Robert received an unrelated donor transplant through the NMDP in March 1997 for myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myelogenous leukemia. Lorentz is the laboratory manager for systems integration in the Software, Electronics and Mechanical Systems Corporate Research Lab at 3M in Minnesota. Lorentz previously chaired the NMDP Strategic Planning, Nominating and Compensation committees. He received his Bachelor of Arts in physics from Cornell University and his Master of Science and Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University.
Bernadette Murray-Fertel
Bernadette Murray-Fertel was diagnosed with an aggressive form of acute myelogenous leukemia in May 2005 and matched with a donor through NMDP, which she credits as saving her life. Murray-Fertel is founder and executive director of DonorRevolution.org, whose sole mission is "to create Awareness, Empathy and Action for the cause of saving more lives through bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplants." She is a senior marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience in the advertising and publishing sectors. She is also an active board member of other philanthropic initiatives, including the New York Stem Cell Foundations Leadership Council and Alpha Workshops, an organization dedicated to retraining people living with HIV in the decorative arts.
Jiro Okochi
As a Japanese American and the father of a multi-racial child who needed a bone marrow transplant, Jiro Okochi is keenly aware of the need for more diversity on Be The Match Registry. Okochi is CEO and Co-founder of Reval, a hedge accounting, derivative valuation, and risk management company headquartered in New York. Reval provides an award-winning Web-based platform that automates corporate financial risk management for a wide range of interest rate, foreign exchange, commodity and credit derivatives. Mr. Okochi is a published writer on issues from treasury management to derivative accounting under both FASB and IASB and is a frequent speaker at domestic and international industry conferences. Mr. Okochi is a charter member of the New York Area Board of Directors for the national music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkley, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics.
Susan N. Rossmann, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Susan L. Rossmann is a past president of the NMDP Council, representing donor centers. She is the chief medical officer of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston; an adjunct associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine; and on the pathology staff at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. Rossmann serves as chair of the Scientific, Medical and Technical Committee of America's Blood Centers. She is a member of the Donor History Questionnaire Task Force and several ad hoc committees of the AABB, an international association of blood banks. Rossmann is also a delegate from the Harris County Medical Society to the Texas Medical Association (TMA) and a member of the Blood and Tissue Usage Committee of the TMA. Rossmann received her Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College, her Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan and Doctor of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine.