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.
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.
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.
Jeffrey Brown, PhD
Dr. Jeffrey Brown is a seasoned biotech leader with deep experience in preclinical and IND-enabling research, with a particular focus on genetically defined disorders. Jeffrey has worked across multiple therapeutic areas, including neuropsychiatry, neurodegeneration, neuromuscular, and metabolic diseases.
He has led more than 20 preclinical programs, successfully advancing a number of these into clinical development. Throughout his career, Jeffrey has built several drug discovery platforms focused on small molecules and nucleic acid-based therapeutics across multiple organizations including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Alexion, Voyager Therapeutics, Wave Life Sciences, and Deep Genomics. Jeffrey received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Utah and an eMBA from Suffolk University. Following his Ph.D., Jeffrey completed post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Boston University Medical Center. Combining his drug discovery experience with his passion for helping patients affected with rare disease, Jeffrey founded Scientific Foundation LLC, an organization dedicated to helping families, patients, and biotech start-ups navigate the challenges of preclinical drug development.
Jeff Carroll, PhD
Dr. Jeff Carroll is an Associate Professor in the Behavioral Neuroscience Program and the Department of Psychology at Western Washington University. Dr. Carroll is CoFounder of HDBuzz.net and continues to serve as the site’s Editor-in-Chief. During his PhD he trained with Michael Hayden (University of British Columbia), his postdoctoral studies were conducted under the supervision of Marcy MacDonald (MGH, Harvard Medical School). As well as conducting research, Dr. Carroll is a member of an HD family and carries the mutation which causes HD.
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.
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.
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
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.
Jonathan Klein, Esq.
Jonathan Klein is Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at DLA Piper in New York City. He concentrates his practice in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate finance, securities matters and restructuring for both domestic and international clients.
Jonathan has represented public and private companies in negotiated domestic and cross border acquisitions and dispositions (including mergers, stock transactions, asset deals and divestitures), as well as bidders in contested transactions. Jonathan’s private equity experience includes domestic and international leveraged transactions for both financial and strategic parties. His corporate finance experience includes public and private offerings of equity and debt securities.
Jonathan’s general corporate practice includes advising public companies on SEC compliance and reporting issues, internal investigations, joint ventures, licensing and distribution agreements and providing general corporate advice and counsel to public and private companies, partnerships and individuals. He regularly counsels senior management, corporate boards and controlling stockholders with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, buyouts and general corporate and securities matters.
Jonathan has represented US and foreign clients in connection with cross-border acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, private financings, loan restructurings and workouts and general corporate matters.
Jonathan received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he graduated cum laude and his B.S. from Cornell University.
Mara Sifry Platt
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.
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.
