Jenne Coler-Dark
Jenne Coler-Dark found out Huntington’s Disease was in her family in 2014. She tested positive for carrying the gene in 2015 along with her mom and sister and has two children who are at risk. After the news of her diagnosis settled, she wanted to get involved and became active in spreading awareness, advocating for patients, and fundraising for HDSA. She has served on the National Board of Trustees for HDSA since 2017 and has chaired multiple committees. She tries to stay positive and live by the great words of Dolly Parton, “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
Jenne graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in International Business. She has worked for almost 20 years at Experian, and currently heads Marketing for their Fraud and Identity business. Jenne resides in Southern California with her husband and two children and enjoys traveling, being a soccer mom, and getting into the ceramics studio whenever she can.
Angela Allen
Angela Allen has two children who are at risk of HD. The family was unaware of their at-risk status until her children’s grandmother became symptomatic and was diagnosed in the early 2000’s. Angela and her family found HDSA during this time as they sought help to learn how to support her children’s grandmother and their father who also died of HD in 2019. She finds HDSA invaluable as she and her children come to terms with what it means for them to be at risk.
Professionally, Angela Allen is an executive coach, leadership consultant and business advisor. She is passionate about helping leaders and organizations grow. She brings rich leadership and organizational development experience to her work having held executive roles in sales, human resources, operations and as interim CEO for several successful organizations in the human capital arena. Angela has a B.A. in Organizational Psychology from The University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Serving on the HDSA Board of Trustees and giving back to this wonderful community is a top priority to Angela and her family.
Chris DeCesaris
Chris is the Chief Finance & Business Officer at the American Society for Microbiology. His primary duties include oversight and management of all finance, meetings, and business development activities.
Prior to joining ASM, Chris was the Controller for National Public Radio (2011-2013) and VP, Controller & Assistant Treasurer for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (2003-2011). Chris initially joined PBS in 2003 as the Director of Internal Audit. Before joining PBS, he served as an Assurance Manager at Grant Thornton, LLP. As a member of Grant Thornton’s Not-for-Profit Solutions Group, he managed the audit engagements for more than 30 not-for-profit organizations.
Chris holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Maryland. Chris serves, or has served, in various volunteer governance roles with numerous not-for-profit organizations.
Dom Thomas
Ms. Dom Thomas joined Ochsner Health, as a Lead Medical Assistant in 2012 and currently works as Clinic Operations Manager for Our Community Health, partner site for Ochsner Health. Dom manages interdisciplinary clinics for Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Tourette’s Disease for adult and pediatric neurology patients. She also works closely with telemedicine team for acute management across the system for acute care areas.
Dom currently leads Ochsner’s Diversity and Inclusion Group ABLE (African Americans Building and Leading Equality) as Event Liaison Chair. She is also LEAN Yellow Belt Certified, IMPACT Certified Level 1 Training Instructor. She is also member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and a Member of Phi Beta Chi Society.
Dom is very involved in community outreach focusing on underserved populations in the Greater New Orleans Area.
In Dom’s free time, she is a Zumba® Instructor and has been for the past 7 years. She has a high passion for fitness and bringing health and wellness to the movement disorder’s communities.
Teresa Srajer
Teresa’s grandmother began battling HD before Teresa’s birth and the disease continues to impact her family including losing her Dad in 1998. Her family started supporting HD families during the CCHD days. Teresa supports her local chapter as a committee member for the Naperville Team Hope Walk and the IL Celebration of Hope. She also serves on the Center Programs Education and Advisory Committee. She participated on the Chapter and Affiliate Advisory Committee (CAC) 2018-2022 serving as the chair November 2019-August 2022.
Teresa earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and an MBA in her educational pursuits. She works as a Global IT Product Owner for an agricultural and construction manufacturing company. Teresa along with her husband, Craig, give back to HDSA and other charities to recognize their life contains more blessings than negatives.
Mark Coe
Mr. Coe is the CEO of CTI Meeting Technology, a global provider of workflow and virtual meeting application software to the meeting & event industry he has worked at for 38 years. Having watched HD take an aunt and a cousin, he is grateful for the work of the HDSA and eager to lend a hand to the fight. Mark is married to Kristen Coe and is the father of four children.
Erin Furr-Stimming, MD
Dr. Furr-Stimming is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School. She is passionate about treating the underserved and as a result, she served as the Chief of Neurology at Lyndon Baines Johnson Hospital for seven years. She is the Founder and Director of the HD clinic at UTHealth, McGovern Medical School which has been designated as the Huntington’s Disease Society America (HDSA) Center of Excellence. She is an active member of the UTHealth Movement Disorders division, UT MOVE. She serves as the Neurology Clerkship Director and has received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching award every year since 2009. She has received the Dupont Master Clinical Teaching Award and she is a member of the Academy of Master Educators and a McGovern Society leader. She continuously strives to enrich the educational experience of the students, residents and fellows. She is the Chair of the American Academy of Neurology Consortium of Neurology Clerkship Directors. She has been named a Super Doctor by Texas Monthly and a Top Doctor by Houstonia magazine for the past several years. She received her medical degree from The Chicago Medical School in 2003 and completed her post graduate training, including a neurology residency and Movement Disorders fellowship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where she became an Assistant Professor of Neurology in 2007.
Dr. Furr-Stimming is actively engaged with the Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease community. She is the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for the Houston Area Parkinson’s Society and a member of local HDSA affiliate and frequently volunteers for both nonprofit organizations. She previously served as the President for the Texas Neurologic Society, the largest state neurologic society in the country. She is currently the Vice President of the Houston Neurologic Society and Chair of the Education Committee for the Texas Neurologic Society. Dr. Furr-Stimming is the PI of multiple HD clinical trials and collaborates closely with basic scientists at UTHealth, McGovern Medical School to enhance and optimize treatment for individuals living with Huntington’s disease.
Jaime Hatcher-Martin, PhD
Jaime Hatcher-Martin, MD, PhD is a movement disorders neurologist. She completed her undergraduate training at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She then completed her medical and graduate neuroscience degrees, Neurology residency, and Movement disorders fellowship training at Emory University in Atlanta where she remained as faculty for several years. She currently serves as a Clinical Research Medical Director in Neuroscience at Novartis.
She has been actively involved in the HD community for more than 20 years and formerly served as a co-director of the Emory University HD Center of Excellence, is involved in multiple committees at the Huntington Study Group, and works as a neurologist for Synapticure and HD Genetics. She also helped launch the clinical program at Synapticure, a telemedicine practice that provides wrap-around care for patients and families living with neurodegenerative diseases. She is passionate about improving access to care and has been involved at the local, national, and international level in advancing telemedicine for the care of patients including starting the first telemedicine clinic for Movement Disorders patients in Georgia in 2016. She has served on numerous committees focused on telehealth for the American Academy of Neurology and the International Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Society.
Beth Hoffman, PhD
Dr. Beth Hoffman is the Founder and CEO at Origami Therapeutics, Inc. At Origami, Dr. Hoffman is leveraging lessons learned during 20 years of CNS drug discovery to create a novel, precision medicine approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases by “fixing broken proteins”. Dr. Hoffman served on the Board of Directors at HDSA’s San Diego Chapter and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tau Consortium. Dr. Hoffman received an AB in Molecular Biology from Wellesley College, a PhD in Cell Biology from the Johns Hopkins University and was Chief of the Molecular Pharmacology Unit at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Jay Hughes
An at risk individual from a large HD family, Jay has served on the HDSA Board of Trustees since 2019. Being as close as possible to the cure and providing assistance along the way was the motivation. He is so thankful to have discovered HDSA and the people that make it so special.
Jay is the EVP of Sales and Marketing at MGIC, a Milwaukee based insurance company where he has held a variety of business development roles over 35 years. He also serves as treasurer on the board of the Marcus Performing Arts Center. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the Villanova School of Business. Jay and wife Diana are avid runners and plan to tackle the 550 mile Camino Santiago pilgrimage in Spain in the summer of 2023.
Lisa Kjer-Mooney, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
Lisa has been working with the Northern California HD Community and HDSA Center of Excellence at UC Davis since 2010. Lisa has had the privilege to work with many caring, dedicated and inspiring HD professionals as well as HD community advocates and families which drive her compassion for this community. She enjoys working directly with HD persons and families to solve problems, access resources, and navigate life with HD. She enjoys facilitating both local and national support groups, providing education locally and nationally, and attending HD fundraising events. She is honored to be part of the HD community and part of the HDSA Board of Trustees as she is passionate about supporting the HD community and raising HD awareness and support any way she can. Lisa received her Master’s of Social Work from California State University, Sacramento in 2006 and her Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in 2010. But she found her professional passion when she started working with the HD community and plans to stay as long as the HD community will have her. As a Northern California native, Lisa lives in Roseville, California and outside of her HD work she spends time with her husband and daughter and two nutty dogs, traveling, attending sporting events, and enjoying her favorite places: Lake Tahoe, Bodega Bay and Disneyland.
Aaron Lasker, MD
Dr. Aaron Lasker is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center and director of the Penn Huntington’s disease Center of Excellence. He specializes in the treatment of Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related disorders. He has a special interest in the non-motor symptoms of movement disorder and the incorporation of palliative care into the routine clinical care of patients living with neurologic disease. He is involved with multiple clinical trials for Huntington’s disease.
Dr. Lasker graduated Magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in neuroscience and completed his medical education at Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed a neurology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the Harvard Neurology Program, where he served as chief resident and where he went on to complete a joint fellowship in movement disorders and cognitive neurology.
Hiren Patel
Hiren Patel is a technology entrepreneur and community leader with over 15 years of experience founding and managing businesses in software development, digital marketing, and asset management. He is the Founder and CEO of Teqtivity, an asset management software company trusted by leading global enterprises.
Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Hiren moved to California with his family in 1998 and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. His leadership philosophy centers on treating people well, valuing teamwork, and creating environments where ideas thrive.
Hiren’s connection to the Huntington’s disease community began in 2005 when his brother was diagnosed. He began volunteering with HDSA in 2011 and has since served as President of the HDSA Los Angeles Chapter (2019–2024) and Chair of the Team Hope Walk (2022–2024). He and his wife co-founded Hoops for HD, a community basketball event supporting HDSA’s mission, and he also runs half and full marathons to raise awareness and funds for HD.
Mara Sifry
Mara Sifry has been involved with the HD community for over 20 years as a genetic counselor and clinic coordinator thanks to Dr. Vicki Wheelock sparking her interest. Mara developed the Kaiser Permanente multidisciplinary clinic in the Northern CA Region that is now an HDSA Partner Center of Excellence with UC Davis. She has also been working as the genetic counselor at the UC Davis Center of Excellence since 2008 assisting people with genetic testing, providing education around HD, and addressing any other genetics questions that arise. Mara is passionate about helping patients and their families get the best care possible and supporting those with HD so they can live as well as they can for as long as they are able.
Mara earned a biology degree from UC Irvine and her masters in Genetic Counseling from UC Berkeley. After navigating through many different specialties in genetics including prenatal, metabolic, cariology, neuromuscular, cancer, and general genetics she found HD 20 years ago and hasn’t left. She is excited to serve the HD community through the HDSA Board of Trustees. Although she is retiring from Kaiser in 2025, Mara remains energized around improving access for care and genetic counseling/testing.
In her free time, you’ll find Mara playing pickleball, paddleboarding, biking, traveling, hiking, engrossed in a book, or watching cooking shows.
Amber Southwell, PhD
Dr. Amber L. Southwell, Associate Professor, Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Neuroscience, has been working in preclinical therapy development for Huntington disease (HD) since 2002. In 2009 she earned her PhD at the California Institute of Technology working with Dr. Paul Patterson to develop an intrabody gene therapy for HD. From 2009-2016, she did postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia with Dr. Michael Hayden where she developed several novel mouse models of HD, a selective mutant huntingtin gene silencing therapy, and a CSF biomarker for brain huntingtin. She began her laboratory research group at UCF in January 2017.
