Board of Advisors

As vice-chair of the Clinton Foundation, Dr. Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to help create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service across the United States and around the world.  In particular, Chelsea focuses on promoting early brain and language development through the Too Small to Fail initiative, and uplifting/empowering female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses around the world through initiatives like the Caribbean-focused Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network. She also serves on the boards of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea also teaches at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times–bestselling She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference, Don’t Let Them Disappear, and It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with her mom Hillary Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar. Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, a Master of Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc; their children Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper; and dog, Soren, in New York City.

Ms. Dina Dublon is a board member of PepsiCo and TRowe Price Group and is a member of IAQC at EY U.S. She is cochair of Columbia University Herbert Irving Cancer Center Advisory Council, and chair of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s Board of Advisors. She served on the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank 2013–2018, on the boards of Accenture 2002–2017 and Microsoft 2005–2014, and on the faculty of Harvard Business School 2011–2012. She was cochair of the Women’s Refugee Commission and on the board of Global Fund for Women. Ms. Dublon was, until the end of 2004, EVP and CFO of JPMorgan Chase, responsible for global financial management and related operations, strategy and acquisitions, corporate treasury, tax, and investor relations. She played a key role in negotiations and merger integration of Chemical Bank with Manufacturers Hanover, Chase, JPMorgan, and Bank One.

Dina Said Dwyer is the managing director of Eden Capital, a private equity firm focused in the professional and business services, education and training, and health care services sectors. Ms. Said has spent over 20 years in the private equity industry. She has served as a managing director at Unifund SA and an Analyst at the Blackstone Group in New York, and trained at the Carlyle Group in London. She also currently leads Brighter Vision, her family foundation dedicated to providing education and economic empowerment to women in Egypt through partnerships with Ashoka, Education for Employment, and other prominent groups. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Children’s Rights Division for Human Rights Watch. Ms. Said completed her MBA at Columbia Business School and her undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of Business.

Debra Fraser-Howze is the Founder of Choose Healthy Life, a sustainable, scalable, and transferable approach to address public health disparities through the Black Church, and the founder of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. Debra is also Principal of D. Fraser Associates. This consulting firm works with clients to establish successful partnerships that result in improved health outcomes for underserved populations while driving corporate value and revenue growth. Before launching D. Fraser Associates, Ms. Fraser-Howze was the senior vice president, government and external affairs, at OraSure Technologies, a leader in the development, manufacturing, and distribution of oral fluid diagnostic and collection devices and other technologies designed to detect or diagnose critical medical conditions. While at OraSure Technologies, Ms. Fraser-Howze played a critical role in launching the company’s OraQuick Rapid Ebola Test (2015), OraQuick In-Home HIV Test (2012), and the OraQuick Rapid HCV Test (2010). Before joining OraSure, Ms. Fraser-Howze served for 21 years as the president/CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), an organization she founded in 1987. Ms. Fraser-Howze has been widely recognized for more than three decades of global leadership to communities of color regarding teenage pregnancy, social welfare, and HIV and AIDS. She advised two U.S. presidents while serving on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995–2001. In 2009, she was the recipient of the National Medical Association’s (NMA) highest honor, the Scroll of Merit, and in 2010 she was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame for distinguished achievement. Ms. Fraser-Howze is currently a member of the board of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. 

Jennifer Gates Nassar, a Seattle native, began her medical journey at Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, specializing in Child and Adolescent Development. In 2019, she moved to New York to begin her Medical Degree (MD) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Jennifer is committed to contributing to the field of pediatrics, both clinically as a physician and through broader children’s health equity and philanthropic initiatives. During a scholarly year from her MD program, she received her Masters of Public Health Degree in 2023 from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. After matriculation from her MD program in 2024, Jennifer plans to utilize the education and knowledge garnered at the Mailman School to enhance her clinical practice during and beyond medical residency

Ellen Hukkelhoven is a managing director at Perceptive Advisors, a leading health care investment firm. She focuses on public and private development–stage therapeutic companies. Ellen serves on the boards of MeiraGTx, Kindbody, and Partner Therapeutics. Prior to Perceptive, Ellen received her PhD in Cancer Biology from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During her tenure at MSKCC, she founded and built the life sciences division of InSITE, a top graduate fellowship program that helps early-stage companies with their most pressing needs. This program includes students across various Columbia University graduate programs.  Ellen graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with degrees in molecular biology and finance.

Abby Levy is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Primetime Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on improving the quality of living of older adults. Abby has spent her career helping businesses and consumer brands grow as an operator, entrepreneur and advisor, most notably in the wellness sector. Prior to Primetime Partners, Abby was a senior executive at SoulCycle, where she oversaw business development and new digital products. Abby has also been a Founder herself, teaming with Arianna Huffington as the Founding President of Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company focused on employee productivity and wellness. Abby began her career at McKinsey & Company then led product development at OXO International. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

(Ex-Officio Member): Dr. Kyle MacDonald is chief science & program officer at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation leading program innovation and evaluative strategy to advance equitable whole child health. A licensed physician with training in pediatrics and public health, Dr. MacDonald has held positions at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and KPMG, where he advised government clients on proven strategies for treating opioid addiction and other population health crises. Dr. MacDonald serves as Alumni Board President of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and as a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors. He is also a mentor to graduate students in Columbia Mailman’s General Public Health program and previously served as a member of Healthier Generation’s Board of Directors.

Dr. MacDonald grew up in Prince Edward Island, Canada and holds a Bachelor of Science from Queen’s University, a Doctor of Medicine from Memorial University, trained in pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, and holds a Master of Public Health from the Mailman School. He lives in New York City and is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Josh Mailman is an active investor in the most game-changing for-profit and nonprofit enterprises he can find. He believes we must assist in advancing a reimagining of how finance can advance positive societal change. Currently, Mr. Mailman is Managing Director of Serious Change L.P., a $70 million impact investment vehicle started in 2006. Serious Change invests in early-stage companies committed to environmental sustainability, diversity, advancing social justice, and meeting human needs. He also founded Social Venture Network with Wayne Silby of Calvert Group in 1987 as well as the Threshold Foundation (1981) and Business for Social Responsibility (1992). Mr. Mailman’s other nonprofit board activities include Echoing Green, the Fund for Global Human Rights, and the Calvert Foundation.

As senior vice president of innovation at the Partnership for NYC, Stacey Matlen partners with New York governmental agencies to understand their challenges and recruits innovative solutions to solve these challenges. Of note, she oversees three programs with missions to make New York the global leader in transportation, water, and buildings: the Transit Tech Lab, Environmental Tech Lab, and Buildings Tech Lab, respectively. Through the Transit Tech Lab, Stacey works with the four of the largest transit agencies in North America to make their systems more accessible, responsive, efficient, and resilient. Through the Environmental Tech Lab, launched in May 2023, in partnership with New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Stacey works to enable the largest municipal water/wastewater utility in the country to source, pilot, and evaluate new technologies to better prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change. In July 2024, Stacey led the launch of the Buildings Tech Lab, a public-private innovation lab to help New York City Department of Buildings quickly identify and test new technologies to help the largest building regulator in the country keep construction costs and times low, while prioritizing building safety and sustainability across the 1.1 million New York City buildings.

Stacey has a public sector, startup, and public health background: She led multiple initiatives with the City of Detroit’s Office of Mobility Innovation and founded an award-winning startup that increased healthy food access for low-income residents. Stacey holds a master’s in public health and a bachelor’s degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan.

Stacey has been recognized by Crain’s New York 40 under 40, City & State New York Power Transportation 100, and Crain’s Detroit 20 in their 20s.

Lila Preston is a partner at Generation Investment Management, a global investment management firm focused on long-term sustainable investing (www.generationim.com), where she joined in 2004. At Generation, she coheads the firm’s growth equity strategy, helping to scale sustainable solutions businesses. Prior to joining Generation, Lila was a director of finance and development at VolunteerMatch in San Francisco, and also a consultant for clients such as Save the Children (YouthNoise). Prior to joining VolunteerMatch, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Southern Chile, where she worked on community-based forestry and conservation projects. Lila graduated with honors from Stanford University with a BA in English and Latin American Studies. She also received an MBA from the London Business School. Lila is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Lila speaks fluent Spanish. Lila serves as a Board Director for CiBO Technologies, Recyclebank, and Seventh Generation’s Social Mission Board, as well as Board Observer for Optoro and Toast.

Carlos E. Sanchez, MD, is the director of pediatric skull base surgery at Children’s National Hospital and a principal investigator in the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at George Washington University. As a neurosurgeon-scientist, Dr. Sanchez has dedicated his career to improving the health of children and adults with brain tumors. He is a consultant for the Cellular Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee of the FDA. Dr. Sanchez serves as a CEO for Insurgiac Corporation, a health tech company focusing on bridging the health equity gap between academic medical centers and community hospitals. He was nominated as a cross-disciplinary fellow at Harvard Business School by Clayton Christensen, completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed his neurosurgical training at UCSD and the University of New Mexico. Dr. Sanchez is married to Christina Rosenberger and lives in Bethesda, MD with their three children.

Rajiv Singh is an investor and strategic advisor in the food and agribusiness sector, serving corporations, funds, entrepreneurs, and professionals with a focus on innovation, value creation, and corporate finance. He serves as the cochairperson for FoodShot Global, a moonshot-style challenge program he helped found, designed to address key problems in the food sector to make it more healthy, sustainable, and equitable. He formerly served as CEO of Rabobank North America, where he established deep relationships with leaders, owners, and management at companies in the food, agribusiness, commodities, and energy sectors, collaborating with them in investments, financing, capital markets, and corporate transformation transactions. As CEO, Rajiv was responsible for corporate banking, private equity and venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, specialized products, food and agribusiness research, and capital markets activities, as well as all operational and support functions. He launched a number of innovation platforms while at the bank, focused on addressing challenges in the food sector. He has been the chair or member of principal risk committees focused on equity, credit, compliance, and reputation. As a special focus on food sector innovation, he led the launch of platforms like Foodbytes and MIT Food Prize (pitch competitions in the food and agribusiness sectors), and Terra (a science and technology–focused accelerator program for food/ag entrepreneurs with large corporates as sector partners). Prior to Rabobank, Rajiv had a career in investment banking and special situations investing at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse and in corporate strategy and project operations at United Technologies and Nestle, Rajiv is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School.

Jody Mailman Wolfe is the president of the Mailman Foundation. Retired after nearly 25 years in professional law enforcement, Ms. Wolfe has served on a number of nonprofit boards in New York and Miami with a range of interests, including child welfare, foster care, substance abuse prevention, independent school education, and the arts. Ms. Wolfe has long been involved in higher education and currently serves on the Board of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni based in Washington, DC. In addition to Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the Mailman Foundation has also been an important benefactor to institutions such as the Mailman Research Center in Psychobiology at Harvard’s McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, the Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

James (Jim) Harden served for over 15 years as the founding chairman of the Board of Advisors for the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and is now chair emeritus. He also created two doctoral fellowship funds for the history of medicine and public health. As a 1983 alumnus of the School’s Health Policy and Management Program, Jim was a leader in the creation of the National Advisory Board for Health Policy and Management. He is also a 1978 graduate of Columbia Business School.

Having served the maximum term of twelve years as a trustee of Columbia University, Jim is now trustee emeritus. He served as chair of the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee, as well as a member of the Finance Committee and the Health Sciences Committee. A retired health care executive, Jim served a total of 30 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. For nine years until his retirement, Jim was the CEO of Catholic Health Services on Long Island, the second largest nongovernmental employer in the region.

The Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., is senior minister emeritus of The Riverside Church and president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation. Forbes, who was installed as the fifth senior minister of Riverside on June 1, 1989, and retired on June 1, 2007, was the first African-American to serve as senior minister of this multicultural congregation. He is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches and the Original United Holy Church of America. He earned a doctor of ministry degree from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, a master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, and a BA from Howard University, and has received numerous honorary degrees.

Dr. David Harris has had a long-standing career in the medical field. He was the vice president of medical affairs for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health, the associate director of Mount Sinai Hospital, and deputy commissioner of NYC Department of Health. He attended Cornell University, where he was selected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received his MD from New York University. Dr. Harris is a 1965 alumnus of the Columbia Mailman School and a recipient of Columbia’s Alumni Federation Medal for Conspicuous Service. In addition to his 40 years on the board of Public Health Solutions, Dr. Harris serves on the boards of several organizations that address issues of medicine, health, home health and hospice care, disposal of low-level radioactive waste, and protection of community water supplies. As a member of the New York State Board for Medicine and the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct, Dr. Harris now focuses his professional interests on physician licensure and discipline.

Frank R. Jimenez leads the Office of General Counsel of Raytheon Technologies, where he oversees a variety of legal and regulatory affairs, including corporate governance and transactions, ethics and compliance, litigation, contracts, and intellectual property. His career includes legal leadership positions in military agencies, civil government, and public companies in the private sector. Most recently he was vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Raytheon Company prior to its merger with United Technologies Corporation in 2020. Jimenez previously served as general counsel of three S&P 500 Companies: ITT Corp., Xylem Inc., and Bunge Ltd. Before that, he served as the 21st General Counsel of the Navy, where he was one of seven U.S. Senate–confirmed Pentagon civilians of four-star equivalent rank overseeing the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. He was also the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense, chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and deputy chief of staff and acting general counsel to the governor of Florida. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, a juris doctorate degree from Yale Law School, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. 

Leonard Tow is the founder and chairman of The Tow Foundation and chief executive officer of New Century Holdings, LLC. Dr. Tow was previously chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens Utilities Company and founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Century Communications Corp., a cable television company. Dr. Tow was also the founder and director of Centennial Cellular Corp. He graduated from Brooklyn College and holds doctoral and master’s degrees from Columbia University, and has taught economics and economics geography at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, Brooklyn College, and Hunter College. Dr. Tow also served for several years as distinguished adjunct professor at New York University’s School of Business. Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and the University of New Haven have awarded Dr. Tow Doctorates of Humane Letters. Dr. Tow serves on the boards of several organizations, including Lincoln Center Theater, Educational Broadcasting Corp., and The Tow Foundation. He is a trustee of Brooklyn College Foundation, a senior advisor of the Board of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and is also a director of AMC Networks.

Cyrus Massoumi is managing partner and founder of humbition, an early-stage venture firm focused on NYC startups. Prior to humbition, Cyrus founded Zocdoc, where he led the company for 8 years as CEO. Earlier in his career, he worked at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he gained extensive experience in health care technology and new product development. Cyrus is a graduate of Columbia Business School, where he earned an MBA with honors and received the Heffernan Award for Outstanding Service and the Exemplary Leadership Award, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science with honors. Cyrus has been recognized by both Fortune and Crain’s on their 40 under 40 lists and by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business.

E. Eric Tokat is a partner and a founding member of the Healthcare Practice at Centerview Partners, a leading independent investment banking firm specializing in general advisory, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and principal investing, with offices in New York, London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Mr. Tokat has advised numerous clients on a broad range of strategic advisory assignments and transactions exceeding $200 billion in value across developed and emerging markets. He serves on the Board of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and is a member of the Global Leadership Council at The Brookings Institution. Mr. Tokat is also a vice chair of the Child Health Initiative under the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals. Mr. Tokat received his BA from Bogazici University and MA from Columbia.

Mary Lake Polan served as the chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford’s School of Medicine and is currently a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology Reproductive Medicine at Yale University. Dr. Polan served on the board of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and currently serves on the boards of Quidel Corp and several privately held life sciences companies. She chairs the Scientific Advisory Board on Women’s Health and Hygiene for Proctor & Gamble and several other advisory boards of private life sciences companies. She is a managing director of Golden Seeds, an angel investing group which invests in women-led companies. A member of the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Polan has a long-standing interest in women’s health research and international public health. She founded The Eritrean Women’s Project to repair fistulas resulting from traumatic births. She received her BA from Connecticut College, her PhD in molecular physics and chemistry and MD from Yale, and her MPH from the University of California, Berkeley.