Senior Management

Andrea came to LUNGevity through the merger with Protect Your Lungs, an organization she and her family started to fund lung cancer research following her mother’s death from lung cancer in 2008.

Before the merger, Andrea founded and built Protect Your Lungs, an organization dedicated to funding research into the early detection of lung cancer. Andrea was instrumental in building PYL’s Scientific Advisory Board and establishing its funding process, both of which followed her to the new LUNGevity organization.

In her for-profit career, Andrea has a wealth of management experience. Andrea was the Vice President of Strategy and Growth of Decision Lens, Inc. a company she helped launch in January 2005. Prior to joining Decision Lens, Andrea held a variety of management positions at Johnson & Johnson, including Director of Investor Relations, Manager Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions, and Plant Controller. She also spent several years at McNeil Consumer Products, a J&J subsidiary, in marketing and mergers & acquisitions. Prior to her time at J&J, Andrea worked for Lehman Brothers and Coopers & Lybrand in New York City in both Mergers and Acquisitions and as a CPA.

Andrea received her BS in Economics from Wharton with concentrations in Accounting, Decision Sciences, and Finance. She received her MBA from Wharton with concentrations in Finance and Latin American Studies. She served on Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center National Committee of Performing Arts and on the Board of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) of Metro DC. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for DC Metro Boys and Girls Club and has worked with the Ronald McDonald House and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Barb studied photography at the Illinois Institute of Technology's School of Design and began her professional career managing camera stores. She moved into nonprofit work several years ago and has managed finance and operations for the League of Chicago Theatres, Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. She has also been active in several political campaigns and volunteers for a number of nonprofits.

Barb is a lifelong Chicagoan and loves exploring her city.

In these roles, Upal oversees LUNGevity’s research awards program, including the monitoring and evaluation of the research projects as well as implementing and managing LUNGevity’s patient-focused research including Project Transform, a multi-year, multi-stakeholder patient preference study that LUNGevity is conducting with Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Upal has extensive experience in community-based participatory research (CBPR) methodology in health sciences research, specifically in projects involving immigrants and minority populations. His experience ranges from working with diabetes education for Asian immigrants in New York City to educating minority populations about breast cancer screening in Queens, NY.

Upal has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona, and an MPH in Global Health Policy and Management from New York University.

During her career at organizations including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, Suburban Hospital Foundation, and, most recently, the Arthritis Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Region, she has developed national fundraising events, cultivated and solicited major donor gifts, and managed volunteer board and special event committees.

Becky graduated from Hollins University and lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three daughters.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Jeanne served as the Senior Vice President of Community Engagement for National Minority Quality Forum’s Center for Sustainable Health Care and Equity and Chair of the Diverse Cancer Community Working Group (CWG), which has 25 active public and private partner organizational members who work together to optimize cancer care, treatment, and inclusion in clinical trials for racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved populations.

She is a founding member of Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD) and co-leader for two EU Innovative Medicines Initiatives (IMI) focused on standards for patient engagement in medicines and development. Jeanne recently co-founded and launched Patient Insights Inspire Innovation (Patient3i), which is positioned to transform the global patient engagement framework by focusing on the patient as expert with an innovative business model.

During her career, Linda has managed branding, marketing, and public relations strategy, and national campaigns for nonprofit organizations as well as high-profile companies, including Jewish National Fund, IBM, American Express, Barnes & Noble, and Time Warner. She has overseen rebranding, the design of websites, and new business acquisition and launches, and served as media spokesperson.

Linda graduated from University of Virginia and lives in Brooklyn, NY. She has two daughters.

Wendy is a versatile leader and business strategist who champions innovation, investment and growth initiatives that position organizations and workforces for the future. Prior to LUNGevity, Wendy served as Partner in KPMG’s office of the Chair for the past decade. In this role, she led special projects that significantly enhanced firm profitability and strengthened firm culture. Wendy’s earliest leadership roles helped springboard her to success at KPMG. She gained deep expertise in customer mindset and connection as a Brand Manager overseeing the business operations, product development and marketing strategy for several significant consumer packaged goods at Unilever.

Wendy earned an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA in English from Amherst College. She resides in Manhattan with her husband and daughter.

Her transition from the corporate world to nonprofit happened in November of 2002 shortly after her father’s small cell lung cancer diagnosis.

Katie is the founder and co-creator of Lung Cancer Support Community (LCSC). That message board was the first of its kind to provide active forums and an online lung cancer support network for lung cancer patients and their family members. Today it holds over 413,000 posts and is a service of LUNGevity.

She is the event founder of Breathe Deep Dallas-Ft Worth, founded DFW’s first in-person lung cancer support group at the Arlington Cancer Center Trophy Club, lobbied with Smoke Free Texas and for CPRIT, and has been a local and national delegate for Livestrong 2006-2010. Katie is on the editorial board of Conquer Cancer Magazine and the Community Engagement Chair of the North TX chapter of AONN.

She is the author of the books Co-Surviving Cancer and Navigating Advocacy.

Katie shares a home in Texas with her husband, two children, and three dogs.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Meriam was the grants manager at Prevent Cancer Foundation and, preceding that, worked for a pediatric cancer initiative.  She also worked at a Washington, DC, think tank as an assistant director in charge of list management and membership.

Meriam received her M.A. in International Trade and Policy from George Mason University and her B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University. She lives in Lake Ridge, Virginia, with her husband, daughter, and son.

She went on to serve as Volunteer Coordinator of the Breathe Deep NYC Walk from 2008 to 2010. She served on the Board of Directors from January 2009 to May 2010. In December of 2010 she joined the staff as Director of Grassroots Events.

Previously, Diana served as a Conference Service Manager in hotels in New York City, including Omni Berkshire Place and the Essex House, where she worked with both Fortune 500 Companies and non-profits putting together well-rounded meetings and conferences.

Before joining LUNGevity, Dr. Moore served at the Go2 Foundation as the Director of Science and Research, where she oversaw the foundation’s portfolio of scientific programs. During her tenure, Dr. Moore facilitated new research initiatives and collaborations and also vetted new technologies and partnerships for Go2 Foundation’s sister organization, the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute. She also served as primary liaison with oncogene-driven lung cancer patient groups.

With extensive experience in academia, Dr. Moore has published seven peer-reviewed papers, covering topics such as biomarker testing for non–small cell lung cancer and T-cell factors. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from Furman University in Greenville, SC, where she graduated summa cum laude. She obtained her PhD in microbiology and immunology from  Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.

Carol joined LUNGevity in 2013 and is responsible for special events, including LUNGevity's annual galas, as well as donor and volunteer cultivation.

Carol, a graduate of Clark University, lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and is the mother of three sons.

As senior director of public policy initiatives for LUNGevity Foundation, Kristen is focused on breaking down barriers to patient access to high-quality care and treatment innovation. In her role, Kristen participates on a variety of committees and advisory boards to represent the interests and perspectives of lung cancer patients, presents at Capitol Hill briefings, submits letters to legislators, regulators, and independent organizations seeking patient input, and convenes multi-stakeholder meetings to resolve complex issues that hinder patient access to diagnostics and the most advanced therapeutics. In Kristen’s previous positions include senior director, policy & advocacy for the Cancer Support Community; director, strategic initiatives & outreach for C-Change; and positions with TAP and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Kristen earned a Master’s of Science in Health Promotion Management at American University and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Language Pathology from The George Washington University and is driven by a strong personal desire to impact the health status and quality of life of individuals through strategic alliance development and advocacy.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Dr. Barksdale served as the Assistant Director for Regulatory Science and Policy at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), where she led efforts aimed at increasing understanding of the regulatory ecosystem and enhancing the development of oncology products. Before joining the AACR, she was with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), where she focused on policies related to clinical research and biomedical research training.

Dr. Barksdale received her BS in biology from Hope College and a PhD in molecular medicine from The George Washington University. She sought out experiences in science policy while conducting postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).  

Prior to joining LUNGevity as Director of Patient-Focused Research, she worked at the US Food and Drug Administration Oncology Center of Excellence on the Patient Focused Drug Development team. There, Dr. King-Kallimanis worked on the development and launch of Project Patient Voice, a resource for patients and caregivers along with their healthcare providers to look at patient-reported symptom data collected from cancer clinical trials.

Dr. King-Kallimanis also has experience in industry and academia and has published over 60 peer reviewed papers that cover disease areas like lung cancer, depression, cognitive impairment and multiple sclerosis.  She received her bachelor of social science and her master of science in applied statistics from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and her PhD in psychometrics from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In this role, Nikki promotes the critical need for biomarker testing in lung cancer to ensure that the newly diagnosed and those at progression have the most information possible about their unique lung cancer in order to access the appropriate therapies or clinical trials.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Nikki worked in Alliance & Advocacy Relations at Genentech, where she championed awareness of unmet needs and driving change in the patient community. She led advocacy outreach around next-generation sequencing and CMS' 14-day rule and expanding collaboration between CME providers and advocacy groups on provider and patient education on shared decision making.

Previous to Genentech, Nikki held two roles at Grifols/Novartis Diagnostics, first as associate director, global communications, and later as associate director, global public affairs. In those roles, she worked with global partners including sickle cell disease, hemophilia, and thalassemia patient advocacy groups, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to educate the public, policy makers, and other stakeholders on improving transfusion safety. She started her career in Japan, where she worked at Cosmo PR managing AdvaMed (a medical device trade organization) public affairs activities in the Japanese market.

She earned her MA in International Trade Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and a BS in Anthropology and BA in Spanish from Santa Clara University.  Nikki lives in Davis, CA, with her wife and two dogs, Mia and Stuart.