Leadership
Strategic Advisory Council
Physicians and Scientists
Listed in alphabetical order
Dr. Paul Alexander
MSc, MHSc, PhD, Oxford University, University of Toronto, McMaster University, Former WHO/PAHO Washington DC Consultant and Senior Advisor to the US government in 2020 reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Paul E. Alexander
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Paul E. Alexander, an esteemed epidemiologist and a widely recognized global expert on COVID-19, is chief scientific officer of the Unity Project. He has previously served as senior advisor to the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services specializing in COVID pandemic policy during the Trump administration. Dr. Alexander has also worked with the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization as a COVID pandemic evidence-synthesis advisor and is a former assistant professor at McMaster University in evidence-based medicine and research methodology.
Previously, Dr. Alexander worked at the World Health Organization as a regional specialist/epidemiologist in the European Regional Office in Denmark, as an epidemiologist for the government of Canada, and as the evidence synthesis meta-analysis systemic review guideline development lead with the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Dr. Alexander earned a bachelor’s degree and Master of Arts degree from York University in Ontario, Canada. He received a Master of Health Science (MHSc) from the University of Toronto, a Master of Science degree (MSc) from the University of Oxford in England and earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He is widely published, serving as the primary or supporting author of more than 50 academic papers.
Dr. Keith Berkowitz
MBA, MD, Columbia University, New York Medical College Founder, Center for Balanced Health, Co-Founder, Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC Alliance)
Dr. Keith Berkowitz
Strategic Advisory Council
Dr. Keith Berkowitz is the founder and medical director of the Center for Balanced Health. He combines expertise in both traditional and complementary medicine. Prior to starting the Center for Balanced Health, he was the medical director and business director of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine. He was an associate of Dr. Robert C. Atkins since 1999. He is also a founding member of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC).
Before joining The Atkins Center, Dr. Berkowitz spent five years as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York. In this capacity, he was responsible for patient care, as well as supervising and teaching medical students as a clinical instructor at New York University School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Berkowitz consulted with Island Peer Review Organization in New Hyde Park, New York, overseeing quality management and has reviewed questions for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Berkowitz is also a diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and a member of the American College of Physicians, the Medical Society of State of New York, the Foundation for the Advancement of Innovative Medicine and the American College for Advancement in Medicine.
Dr. Berkowitz received his Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he majored in economics and graduated with honors. He then attended medical school at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York, receiving his Doctor of Medicine in 1995. Dr. Berkowitz did a combined internship and residency in internal medicine at North Shore University Hospital and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
While in medical school, Dr. Berkowitz was a program director for City College of New York and the United States Information Agency. In this role, he managed the first Central Asian/American Exchange Program for more than 100 students and teachers. He also developed an academic program and trained teachers and mentors to prepare inner-city youth for New York City's specialized high schools. Dr. Berkowitz is the co-author of The Princeton Review Medical School Companion (Random House, 1996).
Dr. Berkwoitz earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Columbia University Business School, in New York City, and became a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.
He has been interviewed by Newsweek, New York Magazine, Newsday, The Sunday London Times, Associated Press, CNN, INC Magazine, amNY, Wins 1010 online and The New York Post. Additionally, he has been featured on ABC News, WOR Radio, WCBS Radio and RAI TV and is a widely published author.
Dr. Aditi Bhargava
PhD, M.Sc, B.Sc, Professor of Center for Reproductive Sciences, Obstetrics, and Gynecology, University of California San Francisco
Dr. Aditi Bhargava
PhD Professor, UCSF
Leadership roles in various UCSF and University-wide Committees (Vice Chair, Institutional Animal Use Committee; Academic Planning and Budget Committee); UCSF Dean’s Differences Matters Initiative; The Endocrine Society’s Committees; Breakthrough in Biosciences Committee (FASEB). Chair for the writing group on the Endocrine Society’s Scientific Statement on Sex Differences in Clinical and Basic Research. Chair, Scientific Statement Committee, the Endocrine Society.
POSITIONS AND EDUCATION
Professor: Center for Reproductive Sciences (CRS), Obstetrics and Gynecology (Ob/Gyn), UCSF. 2016-Present. Associate Professor: Surgery, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, CRS, and Ob/Gyn, UCSF. 2010-2105. Assistant Professor: Surgery and Physiology, UCSF. 2003-2010. PhD (1995, Field: Molecular and developmental biology); M.Sc (1988, Field: Molecular biology); B.Sc (1986, Zoology Honors and Botany). Trained Surgery residents, postdoctoral fellows, medical and undergraduate students and junior faculty. Served on several UCSF and Scientific Society Committees in Leadership capacity. Serves on Editorial Board of leading Society journals, and reviews grants for foundations as well as for the National Institutes of Health. http://bms.ucsf.edu/directory/faculty/aditi-bhargava-phd
https://cancer.ucsf.edu/people/profiles/bhargava_aditi.7449
TOP AWARDS AND HONORS
Quest Diagnostic Young Investigator Award (2003); Bavaria California Technology (BaCaTe) Award (2006), Hellman Family Award (2007); New Investigator Award from the American Physiological Society (2010); FASEB MARC Mentor Award (2010); Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGAF, 2012), Nominated for the “Ernest Oppenheimer Laureate Award (2014) and Weitzman Award (2015).
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
MD, Georgetown University, Notre Dame, Professor at University of California Irvine, Chairman, UCI Hospital's medical ethics committees and at the California Department of State Hospitals
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
Aaron Kheriaty, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health. He serves as chairman of the medical ethics committees at UCI Hospital and at the California Department of State Hospitals.
Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, earned his MD degree from Georgetown University, and completed residency training in psychiatry at UCI.
He has authored books and articles for professional and lay audiences on bioethics, social science, psychiatry, religion, and culture. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Arc Digital, The New Atlantis, Public Discourse, City Journal, and First Things. He has conducted print, radio, and television interviews on bioethics topics with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox, and NPR. On matters of public policy and healthcare he has addressed the California Medical Association and has testified before the California Senate Health Committee.
Dr. Kheriaty is Senior Fellow and Director of the Program in Health and Human Flourishing at the Zephyr Institute, and Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute. He also serves on the advisory board at the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy. Dr. Kheriaty has consulted on Covid related ethical issues during the pandemic, such as ventilator triage and vaccine allocation, for the UC Office of the President, the County of Orange Healthcare Agency, and the California Department of Public Health.
Dr. Pierre Kory
MD, ICU Director, pulmonologist, one of the world's pioneers in ultrasound use in ICU settings, co-pioneer of leading research/treatment for septic shock, Co-Founder and President, Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC Alliance)
Dr. Pierre Kory
Pierre Kory is the former Chief of the Critical Care Service and Medical Director of the Trauma and Life Support Center at the University of Wisconsin. He is considered one of the world pioneers in the use of ultrasound by physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients. He helped develop and run the first national courses in Critical Care Ultrasonography in the U.S., and served as a Director of these courses with the American College of Chest Physicians for several years. He is also the senior editor of the most popular textbook in the field titled “Point of Care Ultrasound,” now in its 2nd edition and that has been translated into 7 languages worldwide. He has led over 100 courses nationally and internationally, teaching physicians this now-standard skill in his specialty.
Dr. Kory was also one of the U.S. pioneers in the research, development, and teaching of performing therapeutic hypothermia to treat post-cardiac arrest patients. In 2005, his hospital was the first in New York City to begin regularly treating patients with therapeutic hypothermia. He then served as an expert panel member for New York City’s Project Hypothermia, a collaborative project between the Fire Department of New York and Emergency Medical Services. This project created cooling protocols within a network of 44 regional hospitals – along with a triage and transport system that directed patients to centers of excellence in hypothermia treatment – of which his hospital was one of the first.
Known as a Master Educator, Dr. Kory has won numerous departmental and divisional teaching awards in every hospital he has worked. He has delivered hundreds of courses and invited lectures throughout his career.
In collaboration with Dr. Paul Marik, Dr. Kory pioneered the research and treatment of septic shock patients with high doses of intravenous ascorbic acid. His work was the first to identify the critical relationship between the time of initiation of therapy and survival in septic shock patients – an aspect of the therapy that led to understanding all the failed randomized controlled trials that employed delayed therapy.
Dr. Kory has led ICU’s in multiple COVID-19 hotspots throughout the pandemic. Having led his old ICU in New York City during their initial surge in May for 5 straight weeks, he then travelled to other COVID-19 hotspots to run COVID ICU’s in Greenville, South Carolina and Milwaukee, WI during their surges. He has co-authored 5 influential papers on COVID-19, with the most impactful being a paper that was the first to support the diagnosis of early COVID-19 respiratory disease as an organizing pneumonia, thus explaining the critical response of the disease to corticosteroids.
Dr. Kory is a founding physician and serves as the president of the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC Alliance), which specializes in prevention and treatment protocols for COVID-19.
Dr. Tess Lawrie
PhD, MD, Founder, Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy LTD, Bath, United Kingdom, 10-year Senior consultant to the WHO supporting health policy recommendations for countries globally
Tess Lawrie, MD, PhD
Strategic Advisory Council
Dr. Tess Lawrie is the director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy Ltd and EbMCsquared CiC in Bath, UK. Dr. Lawrie has devoted her career to help improve the quality of healthcare globally through rigorous research.
Dr. Lawrie earned her medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1990. Thereafter, she worked in the field of obstetrics and gynecology at various teaching hospitals throughout South Africa. She obtained her MRCOG Part 1 designation in 1996 from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK). The MRCOG exam is internationally respected as the “gold standard” qualification for career progression in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1999, Dr. Lawrie obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 2009 she relocated to the United Kingdom where she founded the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy Ltd, an independent medical research company. In 2021, the community interest company EbMCsquared was established to address the public need for transparent and objective research related to Covid-19 therapeutics.
Dr. Lawrie’s research experience includes conducting systematic reviews, designing randomized trials, writing scientific manuscripts, and developing clinical practice guidelines. To date, she has published in excess of 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is among the top 5% of Researchgate members. She currently also holds an honorary research consultant position with the Cochrane Gynaecological, Neuro-Oncology and Orphan Cancer Group based at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, UK.
Dr. Robert Malone
MD, Northwestern School of Medicine, MS, UC San Diego and Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology Laboratories, Giannini Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UC Davis, Harvard Medical School fellow -- Global Clinical Research Scholar (2016), original Inventor of the mRNA vaccine platform used in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines as well as the DNA vaccine platform used by Inovio
Robert W. Malone MD, MS
Robert W. Malone MD, MS is a US-based physician-scientist who operates a consultant practice specializing in advanced development of medical countermeasures for infectious diseases (vaccines and drugs). He has served as an Assistant and Associate Professor of Pathology and Surgery at UC Davis, University of Maryland, and the Armed Forces University of the Health Sciences. Core competencies include clinical development, regulatory affairs, project management, and contract development. His medical degree is from the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed the Harvard Medical School fellowship as a Global Clinical Research Scholar in 2016, and was scientifically trained at UC Davis, UC San Diego, and at the Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology laboratories. Dr. Malone is an internationally recognized scientist (virology, immunology, molecular biology) and the original inventor of mRNA Vaccination, DNA Vaccination, and multiple non-viral DNA and RNA/mRNA delivery technologies. Dr. Malone holds numerous fundamental domestic and foreign patents in the fields of gene delivery, delivery formulations, and vaccines: including for fundamental DNA and RNA/mRNA vaccine technologies. He has approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications and published abstracts and about 12,000 citations of his peer reviewed publications (per Google Scholar with an “outstanding” impact factor rating). He has been an invited speaker at over 50 conferences, has chaired numerous conferences and he has sat on or served as chairperson on numerous NIAID and DoD study sections.
Dr. Malone has a history of assembling and managing expert teams that focus on solving complicated biodefense challenges to meet US Government requirements. He was instrumental in enabling the PHAC/rVSV ZEBOV (“Merck Ebola”) vaccine to move forward quickly towards BLA and (now recently granted) licensure. Dr. Malone got the project on track in support of DoD/DTRA and NewLink Genetics, recruited organizations to team with USAMRIID/WRAIR to develop the immunoassays, put WHO and Norwegian government philanthropic leadership in touch with Pentagon leadership to expedite the initial WRAIR clinical and ring vaccination trials, recruited a management team, recruited Merck vaccines to purchase the product candidate from NewLink, helped write and edit the clinical trials developed by the World Health Organization and lead the development of the BARDA and DTRA contracts - yielding over 200M$ in resources. Dr. Malone’s early involvement in this project allowed for the Merck Ebola vaccine to be developed very rapidly.
Currently, Dr. Malone has been leading a large team since January 10, 2020 focused on clinical research design, drug development, computational discovery and mechanisms of action for COVID-19 repurposed drug treatments. This work has included multiple manuscripts summarizing team findings relating to famotidine, mast cells, and the mechanism of COVID-19 disease. Manuscripts in review focus on clinical effects of celecoxib, famotidine, and dexamethasone in COVID-19. He developed and wrote the initial clinical trial design: A Single Center, Randomized, Double Blinded Controlled Crossover Observational Outpatient Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Oral Famotidine for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Non-Hospitalized Symptomatic Adults. Another project he has supporting is development and performance of a virtual COVID-19 outpatient clinical trial employing novel on-line patient centered outcomes research capabilities. He has participated on the NIH/FNIH ACTIV review panel for the last year and has also helped open an IND for famotidine use for treatment and prevention of COVID19 disease, an IND and protocols for clinical testing of famotidine + celecoxib for treatment of COVID-19 and has enabled teaming/pharmaceutical supply arrangements with two major pharmaceutical firms. His contract development and management efforts have resulted in over 130M$ US in federal research contract funding during the last year to support this work.
Dr. Chris Martenson
PhD, Duke University, pathology and toxicology, MBA, Cornell University, Founder and CEO, Peak Prosperity
Chris Martenson, PhD Bio
Dr. Chris Martenson has a PhD from Duke University (Pathology/Toxicology) and an MBA from Cornell. After being a scientist for 7 years, he worked in corporate finance for Pfizer and then as VP of SAIC. He is a published scientist, and now a successful entrepreneur.
His expertise spans toxicology, biology, financial markets and monetary policy, strategic and critical thinking, and influential communication.
His current mission is “Rescuing the future by empowering resilience” which he accomplishes by creating transformative content for a global audience.
In 2008 he launched The Crash Course, a 4 hour long on-line video series, that became a viral sensation with millions of views that was translated into 12 languages. The core of his work takes a ‘systems approach’ which offers insights into our future by aligning and spanning the diverse fields of economy, energy & the environment. His more recent Covid-19 coverage garnered many tens of millions of views in 2020 & 2021 positively influencing countless lives by providing essential information that was actionable.
His company, Peak Prosperity, LLC, now operates a diverse set of distribution platforms centered around his website, peakproperity.com, and has 500,000+ subscribers across multiple channels.
Dr. Peter McCullough
FACC, FAHA, FASN, FNKF, FNLA, FCRSA, Chief Medical Officer, Truth for health Foundation, one of the most highly published medical specialists in practice today and an authoritative commentator for major media on COVID-19
Peter A. McCullough
MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, FASN, FNKF, FNLA, FCRSA
Chief Medical Advisor, Truth for Health Foundation, President, Cardiorenal Society of America, Editor-in-Chief, Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine
Senior Associate Editor, American Journal of Cardiology
Dr. McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist. He manages common infectious diseases as well as the cardiovascular complications of both the viral infection and the injuries developing after the COVID-19 vaccine in Dallas TX, USA. Since the outset of the pandemic, Dr. McCullough has been a leader in the medical response to the COVID-19 disaster and has published “Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection” the first synthesis of sequenced multidrug treatment of ambulatory patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the American Journal of Medicine and subsequently updated in Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. He has 51 peer-reviewed publications on the infection and has commented extensively on the medical response to the COVID-19 crisis in TheHill, America Out Loud, and on FOX NEWS Channel. On November 19, 2020, Dr. McCullough testified in the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and throughout 2021 in the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, Colorado General Assembly, New Hampshire Senate, and South Carolina Senate concerning many aspects of the pandemic response. Dr. McCullough has had 20 months of dedicated academic and clinical efforts in combating the SARS-CoV-2 virus and in doing so, has reviewed thousands of reports, participated in scientific congresses, group discussions, press releases, and has been considered among the world's experts on COVID-19.
Dr. Charles Penick
MD, Loma Linda University, integrative board-certified family medicine physician, expert in broad approaches to health optimization utilizing the latest scientific technologies and breakthroughs to restore a state of health by addressing root causes of disease
Charles Penick
MD
Dr. Charles W. Penick, MD is an integrative board-certified family medicine physician who is passionate about setting the trajectory for a strong and healthy life and promoting true vitality for each member of the family.
He is well versed in nutritional health, detoxification, medical fitness, and other approaches to health optimization, utilizing some of the latest scientific technologies and breakthroughs. Dr. Penick’s passion within the field of medicine is seeking to restore a state of health within the individual by addressing the root cause of disease. He is well versed in optimal lab interpretation and advanced diagnostics for an array of indications including genetic analysis, toxin accumulation, allergy testing, hormone and neurotransmitter balance, cognitive function, HPA axis balancing, and more. Services he offers include hormone balancing (including bio identical hormone pellet therapy), pain treatments, medical fitness coaching, and detoxification protocols. His treatments are individually tailored to correct the root causes of health imbalances.
Dr. Penick obtained his medical degree at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA, and completed his residency training with the University of California, Riverside. He currently practices an integrative approach to medicine in Idaho and virtually across the country.
Dr. Harvey Risch
BS, mathematics & biology, California Institute of Technology, MD, UC San Diego School of Medicine, PhD, biomathematics, University of Chicago, professor of epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health
Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology
Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Yale School of Public Health
Dr. Harvey Risch is a practicing epidemiologist with more than 30 years of experience researching the etiology of cancer, including ovarian cancer. Dr. Risch has been a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research since 1982, the American Society of Preventive Oncology since 1984, and elected Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology since 1991. Dr. Risch received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1972 and completed medical training at UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1976. He then completed a PhD in biomathematics in 1980 at the University of Chicago, where his dissertation work involved mathematical solutions for the general stochastic epidemic model, on which he has published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. In 1983, Dr. Risch moved to the University of Toronto, where he was Assistant and then Associate Professor, before moving in 1991 to Yale School of Public Health, becoming Professor of Epidemiology in 2001.
Dr. Risch has published more than 350 peer-reviewed original research papers in very well-regarded scientific journals and has an h-index of 96, with more than 41,800 publication citations to-date. Dr. Risch has served as peer reviewer for more than 50 scientific and medical journals. Dr. Risch has been Associate Editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute since 2000, Member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of Epidemiology from 2014-2020, and Editor of the International Journal of Cancer since 2008.
In May 2020, Dr. Risch published the seminal paper on early treatment of high-risk outpatients in the American Journal of Epidemiology (https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa093), which has been downloaded almost 90,000 times and viewed by 150,000. Dr. Risch was senior author on the out-patient treatment clinical trial study in Brazil (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101906), and has co-authored with Dr. Peter McCullough two papers that form the now-standard understanding of early outpatient Covid-19 management (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.07.003 and https://rcm.imrpress.com/EN/10.31083/j.rcm.2020.04.264).
In 2018, Dr. Risch received two prestigious awards for his cancer research: the “Best of the AACR Journals” award for “Aspirin Use and Reduced Risk of Pancreatic Cancer,” one of the most highly cited Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention articles published in 2016 (April 2018) ( http://aacrjournals.org/h-a-risch-bio ), and the international Ruth Leff Siegel Award for Excellence in Pancreatic Cancer Research, ( http://columbiasurgery.org/pancreas/ruth-leff-siegel-award ), $50,000 cash stipend prize. Dr. Risch is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, Community Leaders and Legal
Listed in alphabetical order
Mari Barke
President, Orange County Board of Education
Mari Barke
Mari Barke was elected to the Orange County Board of Education in June 2018 to represent the second district, comprised of Cypress, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, Stanton, Sunset Beach, Westminster, and portions of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove. She currently serves as president of the board.
Barke graduated from California State University, Northridge with a finance degree. She spent much of youth and college years selling Levi's at Starlite Drive-in in El Monte as part of a family business. Following her graduation from CSUN, Barke spent a dozen years in the insurance industry, progressing from underwriter to commercial business unit manager. Even though she enjoyed her career, she decided to return to the family retail business in order to be able to spend more time raising her children.
Since 2016 Barke has devoted much of her time to community work. While volunteering at a non-partisan California think tank, she discovered a passion for education. Barke wanted to make sure that every child in Orange County had the same educational choices that her children enjoyed. She became very interested in public charter schools, parent unions and parental choice. Mari believes that every child deserves access to a great education, and they should be able to choose whether they want to attend a traditional public school, a public charter school, a private school or be homeschooled. Every child is unique and therefore should have choices. She feels parents and family members are in the best position to decide what is best for their children.
Barke began helping the Parent Unions in Santa Ana by teaching English as a second language (ESL) to adults and supporting their events. At about the same time Mari decided she could really make a big impact on Education in Orange County by running for the Orange County Board of Education.
In addition to consulting at a non-partisan California think tank, Barke is an active member of her community, where she is an ambassador for the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce and sits on the board of directors for the Cypress Chamber of Commerce. She also donates time to Fisher House in Long Beach.
In addition to her bachelor’s degree in finance from California State University, Northridge, Barke holds chartered property casualty underwriter (CPCU), chartered life underwriter (CLU), and chartered financial consultant (ChFC) designations.
Kurt Belcher
Founder and CEO, STA Jets
Kurt Belcher
Kurt is the founder and CEO of STA Jets, and has overseen its growth from 2009, when he purchased the one-plane charter company at John Wane Airport. Today, with over 30 aircraft and counting, STA is the most flown private charter solution for Orange County. STA is founded on passion and a dedication to the future that is shared among link-minded team members.
Kurt's love of flight, like most, started young, developing into a profession after he received certification through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, together with a business degree. Kurt flew as a pilot, worked as an instructor, and operated an FBO jet center before taking on the development of STA Jets.
In addition to aviation, Kurt has an unwavering dedication to the future. He is a board member on the OC Chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, one of the strongest chapters in the nation.
As STA continues to grow, Kurt takes pride looking up to see more STA flights taking off, and knowing that the work he's doing is changing his community for the better.
Ryan Gallagher
Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Space Investment Partners
Ryan Gallagher
Ryan has 23 years of experience in sales, marketing, and finance. Prior to starting Space Investment Partners, Ryan spent eight years as a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of the Orange County Office at HFF. While at HFF he was responsible for leading the firm’s investment sale efforts in Southern California for office product and overseeing the firm’s investment sale practice for office, retail, industrial, and net lease product in Orange County. Ryan was also part of the firm’s leadership team, and a standing member on the National Presentation Team which dealt with the firm’s largest and most high-profile assignments.
Prior to HFF, Ryan spent nine years at Grubb & Ellis Company (fka NYSE: GBE) as a Senior Vice President in the firm’s Institutional Investment Group where he led a nationally ranked team that specialized in institutional investment sales in the Western U.S. Prior to Grubb & Ellis, Ryan worked at Deutsche Bank/RREEF assisting in the portfolio management of a twenty million square foot office and industrial portfolio in the Southwestern U.S. Ryan was responsible for portfolio underwriting, and assisted with overall portfolio strategy.
Over his career as an advisor, Ryan has executed transactions on over $16 Billion (USD) of commercial real estate in office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use transactions representing high net worth individuals, fortune 100 companies, and top-tier real estate investment funds including: AEW, American Realty Advisors, Bank of America, Blackrock, Blackstone, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Carlyle, Fidelity Investments, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Kilroy REIT, Mass Mutual, Manulife, MetLife, Prudential, Rockwood, TIAA-CREF and US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Zurich Insurance.
Mr. Gallagher obtained a B.A. in Finance from James Madison University. His current and previous board affiliations include: Board of Directors University of California Irvine Real Estate School, Founding Member and Board of Directors of the CHLA Heart Ambassadors, Board of Directors NAIOP SoCal Chapter.
Sam Gallucci
Senior Pastor at Embrace, Church in Oxnard, California
Sam Gallucci
Sam Gallucci is the senior pastor at Embrace! Church in Oxnard, California. He is also founder and chief executive officer of The Kingdom Center, which provides emergency shelter and transitional living assistance for at-risk women and children, and Embrace! Ministries, which provides aid to migrant field workers and their families.
Gallucci’s career began in 1981 when he was hired after college by IBM. The internet was in its infancy and Sam changed jobs and became a pioneer and leader in the burgeoning field known as “software.” He rose to executive vice president and general manager of PeopleSoft, one of the largest makers of customer relationship management (CRM) software. In 2004 PeopleSoft was acquired by Oracle for $10.3 billion in a deal that helped make Oracle a key player in the Silicon Valley boom that quickly and forever transformed the California economy.
Gallucci soon realize that material wealth left him unfulfilled, and he embarked on a path to help others. In 2006 he became associate pastor of Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, California and in 2009 he founded The Kingdom Center Ministries. Through his pastor work, Gallucci saw how homelessness ruined lives and government programs could actually make the problem worse. The creative business executive wanted to try a revolutionary new approach to the crisis, and to this day Gallucci is the CEO of The Kingdom Center as it continues to battle homelessness by encouraging, equipping and empowering Ventura County women and children caught in the struggle. Since its founding, The Kingdom Center has provided emergency shelter and transitional living centers for more than 1,000 women and their children. Gallucci founded Embrace! Ministries in 2014 to address the suffering in other marginalized communities, providing food and other much-needed resources for migrant farm workers and their families.
Gallucci is a featured speaker in the areas of business, travel and faith. He has authored two books, including Road Warrior published in 2008, which teaches how to protect one’s faith, integrity, and relationships when you travel for work. More than Animals was published in 2021 and chronicles his service to those experiencing homeless. He is a member of the Missionary Church denomination and the HIM network of churches and has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Christian Foundation of America and the national board of directors (GOC) for the Missionary Church.
Alysson Hartmann
Founder, Reopen San Diego
Tracy Henderson
Trial Attorney, Founder, California Parents United
Tracy Henderson
Tracy is a trial attorney who is passionate about the law and the freedoms it provides. She takes her oath she swore to the constitution seriously. Tracy currently focuses on protecting civil liberties for parents and employees but spent many years helping organizations and companies solve their business problems and mitigate their legal risk. Her marketing and communications background coupled with legal experience also gives her the business acumen to be a true business enabler and partner. Her high-stakes litigation and trial experience on the administrative, mutli-state and federal levels, truly give her the ability to aid leadership in their efforts to actually spot, mitigate and fight risk. In this era focusing on constitutional freedoms, Tracy has successfully interfaced with government regulatory agencies up to the top cop. And, for Tracy, integrity is a core value that is not for sale.
Most importantly, Tracy does NOT live by "this is the way it is always done" because, if doing things the way they are always done was helpful, there wouldn't be challenges or problems that require a lawyer. Tracy has a visceral disdain for drama and liars and seeks to simply get things done - whatever it takes. In short, Tracy is a true problem solver with a proven track record of success who makes a meaningful impact in dynamic, fast paced, or growing organizations.
Tracy is the founder of www.californiaparentsunited.org where she works tirelessly to empower parents to advocate for their right to choose what is best for their children. For fun, she volunteered as an on air legal expert on a local TV station and now has a monthly radio show on http://healthylife.net/ called "Make it Legal."
Tiffany Justice
Co-founder of Moms for Liberty, one of the largest grass-roots movements in the nation, 152 chapters across 32 states with over 60,000 members
Tiffany Justice
Tiffany Justice is co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a national non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to the empowerment of parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.
Justice is a wife and mother of four school-aged children. In 2016 she was elected to the first of two terms as a member of the Indian River County School Board (Florida). In January 2001 she co-founded Moms for Liberty, which has quickly grown to more than 60,000 members in 152 chapters across 32 states, with more chapters being added every week.
Moms for Liberty encourage their members to act as “joyful warriors” for children, focused on positive advocacy of parental rights with a focus on public education.
Ginny Merrifield
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Parent Association, with chapters across 119 districts throughout 26 counties in California
Ginny Merrifield
Ginny Merrifield is the executive director of the Parent Association, Inc., a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to helping parents take a leadership role in advocating for the best interests of all children in public schools. The organization was founded in January 2021 to support the full reopening of K-12 schools in California. The Parent Association sponsored a successful lawsuit against the State of California regarding Governor Gavin Newsome’s rules that prevented schools from reopening. The organization continues to advocate for putting the needs of students first and empowering parents to have a meaningful voice in school policies.
Prior to the founding of the Parent Association, Merrifield was the chief operating officer of CONNECT, the first non-profit business accelerator in San Diego, focused on the growth of life science and technology companies. Prior to her role at CONNECT, she was the executive director of the Gary and Mary West Foundation, the second largest private foundation in San Diego County. As executive director, Merrifield oversaw a $20 million per year grant portfolio comprised of approximately 50 nonprofit organizations in San Diego and Omaha.
In 2002, Merrifield co-founded the Pacific Ridge School, an independent middle and high school in North County San Diego, focused on academic excellence, ethical responsibility, and global engagement. California State Senator Mark Wyland selected her as California Woman of the Year, representing the 38th Senate District in recognition of her achievements and commitment to quality education in San Diego. Merrifield currently serves as a founding trustee on the board of e3 Civic High, a charter school co-located in the new San Diego Central Library building. She recently served on the board of governors of The San Diego Foundation, chairing strategic planning and serving on the CEO search committee and policy committee.
After graduating from college, Merrifield worked for The First Boston Corporation, an investment bank in New York City, and a high-tech startup in San Francisco. In 1990, she and her husband moved to San Diego after purchasing a privately held national distribution business in the security hardware industry, where she served as a director and a majority shareholder until the company was sold in 2010. Merrifield earned a bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from Princeton University.
Steve McClurkin
Founder, SIDNEY INC.
Steve McClurkin founded Sidney Inc
With over 20 years of experience in retail, Mr. McClurkin offers a deep skill set in marketing, merchandising, trade area analysis, management & negotiations in all facets of commercial real estate. Through the strength of his tenant relationships, he has a proven successful record in both Tenant and Landlord representation.
Steve McClurkin founded Sidney Inc. in 2004. Starting in 2013, Steve consulted with EB Development for 5 years, assisting on managing & leasing of over 1 million sq ft in outlets around the country. He was successful in completing leases with: H&M, Nike, Restoration Hardware, F21, Tilly’s, PacSun, J Crew, Nordstrom’s Rack and Agaci. The majority of those leases were done at Assembly Row, Tejon Outlets, The Pike Outlets, Outlets at the Border and Empire Outlets.
For over 20 years, Steve has been growing retail brands across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, and Mexico. His focus has been on national retailers & restaurants with expansion coast to coast. Notably, Mr. McClurkin serves as Master Consultant for Nike and the roll out 200+ stores in the US & Canada.
Prior to Steve’s association with EB Development, Mr. McClurkin was the Senior Managing Partner at NGKF. Preceding NGKF, Mr. McClurkin’s team opened the retail office for SRS Real Estate Partners in Newport Beach in 2011. Prior to SRS Real Estate Partners, Mr. McClurkin was a partner with Main & Main, where he focused on tenant representation and consulting on lifestyle centers. Mr. McClurkin began his retail real estate career in 1997 at Grubb & Ellis in Newport Beach, CA.
Leading Tenant Advisory Clients – Past & Current
Nike, H&M, Francesca’s, Planet Fitness, Amazon Books, Hollister, Hyatt, Whole Foods, Banana Republic, Chico’s, Piattis, Chili’s, Gap, Sephora, Coldwater, Creek, Chase Bank, COS, Kona Grill, PF Changs, & Other Stories, Buffalo Wild Wings, Abercrombie, Costco, Select Comfort, WHBM, Ann Taylor, Macaroni Grill, Soma, Agaci, Old Navy, Union Bank, Panera Bread, Apricot Lane, Luxottica
Leading Landlord Clients
Sudberry Properties – The Watermark www.thewatermarksandiego.com Mountain Mile Pigeon Forgewww.mountainmilepigeonforge.com
DDR – The Pike Outlets www.sitecenters.com Centercal Properties
- The Village at Meridian centercal.com/village-meridian
- Station Park shopstationpark.com Empire Outletswww.empireoutletsnyc.com Tejon Outlets www.tejonoutlets.com
Federal Realty – Assembly Row www.assemblyrow.com
Education
Mr. McClurkin holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Management from James Madison University, Virginia.He was on the Dean’s List at JMU College of Business and won its John C. Wright Award, while working part time to pay for school and playing football.
Carina Powers
Co-Founder, Latinos for Medical Freedom, actively engaging the Latino community on human rights issues, nearly 2,000 members strong
Carina Powers
Carina Powers is founder of Latinos for Medical Freedom, a grassroots organization committed to ending the exploitation of Latino communities in California and beyond. Having grown up in Salinas, California’s “salad bowl,” she saw firsthand the struggles of the Latino community when it came to farming and workers’ rights. As a young girl, Powers marched with her father alongside Cesar Chavez while they fought to protect California’s vital farming communities. As a founder of LMF she grew up understanding the power in uniting to stand up against injustice.
Powers was inspired to form Latinos for Medical Freedom after witnessing the violation of informed consent in Latino communities. A primary focus of Latinos for Medical Freedom is ensuring that complete and up-to-date medical literature on pharmaceuticals and environmental toxins is provided in Spanish. Latino communities are sick. Latino children are sick. We have questions and we want answers. It is the mission of Latinos for Medical Freedom to right this wrong.
While working boots on the ground in California, LMF found a climate of discrimination and barriers to the position of reason around complex health conditions. California leaders speak often of a “California for All,” “Health for All,” and a strong commitment to protecting the disenfranchised. Latinos for Medical Freedom has identified glaring gaps in this inclusive policy that politicians claim to embrace. LMF works to cast a light on these failures and believe that awareness brought to these inconsistencies will bring meaningful solutions in alignment with the values that are universally shared. It is LMF's mission to hold corporations, regulatory agencies, and elected officials at all levels of government accountable to the people.
Latinos for Medical Freedom is not exclusive to the Latino Community. It is an inclusive, non-violent, peaceful organization whose objective is to collaborate and move forward in unity with people of all ethnic backgrounds. They fight for medical freedom for all people, while bringing the plight of the Latino community out of the shadows.
Lawrence Sanchez
Co-Founder, California Educators for Medical Freedom, over 800 teachers and school employees represented, LAUSD, 2nd largest school district in the nation
Lawrence Sanchez
Lawrence Sanchez is an educator, student holistic health and wellness advocate, social activist, musician, and practicing astrologer in Los Angeles, California. He has been in education for 14 years, 12 of those years spent serving the special education community of the Los Angeles harbor area, and currently works as a guest teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He recently started and sponsors a student club, Calm Club, dedicated to empowering youth through the exploration and practice of self-care modalities, including mindfulness, breathwork, and meditation.
Sanchez is a co-founder of California Educators for Medical Freedom (CAEMF), a diverse and inclusive non-partisan grassroots coalition of California education employees. Initiated in January 2021 by a small group of LAUSD educators, organizing resistance to the LAUSD vaccine mandate for all employees as a condition of employment, CAEMF has grown significantly to include the full spectrum of education employees, with members, allies, and partners across the Golden State. CAEMF strongly opposes medical mandates of any kind and stands firmly in asserting that no human being should ever be forced to take a medical intervention against their will.
Aside from his passion as an educator and activist, Sanchez enjoys spending time with his wife of 16 years, communing with nature every chance they get. He is a consummate “student of life” with a voracious appetite of interests and subjects, including but not limited to, the arts and music, explorations in consciousness, metaphysics, philosophy, shamanism, and spirituality. Sanchez has a counseling astrology practice, dedicated to serving others in their exploration of the mystery of Self, and on their paths toward healing and wholeness.
Sanchez earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in human services with a concentration in mental health recovery, graduating with honors from California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a certified Level II Usui Reiki practitioner and is pursuing a Master of Social Work degree.
Troy Skabelund
Founder and CEO, Advisory Zone, former Fortune 100 experience, Walt Disney Company executive
Troy Skavelund
Troy Skabelund, Founder and CEO of Advisory Zone, has served as a financial consultant, leader, and CFO for over 24 years, including direct experience in the private equity, venture capital, family office, angel investor, and corporate M&A sectors. He has worked with companies ranging from early stage startup to global conglomerate in a variety of industries, including 12 years of Fortune 100 experience as an executive for the Walt Disney Company, where he served on the Financial Talent Advisory Board.
Troy’s experience includes financial modeling, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and accounting, as well as operational and deal-related projects ranging from $25k up to $4 billion. He has extensive consulting experience, including revenue maximization, valuation, due diligence, operational benchmarking, process improvement, organizational design, restructuring, turnaround, system implementation, R&D tax credits, compensation planning, and pricing strategy.
A CPA and former public accountant (PwC), Troy has a wide array of industry experience, including health care, technology, entertainment, manufacturing, and services. He also has meaningful board experience, having served as an independent director, Board Vice President, Audit Committee Chair, and Advisory Board member for multiple organizations.
Over the course of his career, Troy has leveraged his combined skills and expertise to help entrepreneurial founders and management teams of public companies grow, capitalize, enhance, and divest their businesses. This work has involved companies ranging from pre-revenue to over $48 billion in revenue.
Stephen Thames
Attorney, Former Chair of the Orange County Litigation Department for a prominent law firm
STEPHEN R. THAMES, ESQ.
Stephen R. Thames is an attorney practicing exclusively as a trial lawyer in complex civil business disputes for over 35 years, formerly as partner in a major California law firm. Steve has represented Fortune 50 retailers, state and county governments, institutional lenders, commercial and residential developers, and nonprofit charitable organizations in both state and federal courts.
Steve received his J.D. degree in 1982 from the UCLA School of Law and his B.A. degree in 1978 from the University of California, Davis.
Steve has been Martindale-Hubbell AV Rated "Preeminent" by both his peers and the Judiciary for over 20 years and selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Commercial Litigation.
Henry Walker
President, Financial Services Firm
William H. Walker
William H. Walker is the president of a billion dollar financial services firm and an executive officer of a holding company which has a multi-tiered investment strategy including a focus on real estate. He has worked in financial services for over 30 years and was born and educated in Southern California.
Royce White
Entrepreneur, Former NBA Player
Royce White
Royce White is an author, activist, entrepreneur and professional athlete. He is currently the founder and CEO of Vitruvian, Inc. A science, technology, and engineering company. White says Vitruvian’s initial focus is healthcare, nutrition and water. Current projects include Anxious Minds, Inc. The goal of Anxious Minds is advancing mental health care access and efficiency. White is also the founder of WING, Inc. A media and electronics company. Its subsidiaries include The Last Renaissance & Free People Radio.
Royce White was born in the Twin Cities, MN. He was an All-American athlete in both high school and college basketball before being drafted 16th overall in the 2012 NBA draft. Ahead of being drafted he spoke openly about being diagnosed with anxiety disorder or (GAD) as a teenager.
After being drafted, White publicly voiced concerns about the NBA having no concrete mental health policy. He advocated for a mental health reform within the NBA, all sports and the greater society. Since then he has not been on an NBA roster, even though he was likened to players such as Charles Barkley and LeBron James. Despite his absence from the NBA, it is clear that his advocacy has caused movement in the way the league is handling mental health. Recently NBA spokesperson Kathy Behrens stated that the NBA has great respect for White sharing his struggles and says that the league has a “growing understanding of the importance of the mental health subject.”
In May 2018, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) hired it’s first mental health director. Dr. William D. Parham credited White, amongst other players, as having been instrumental in moving the needle forward.
White says the need for sensible conversation and problem solving is more paramount than any other time in known human history. White believes the human psychology must be the anchor of society’s overall health, stability, and progression.
Board of Directors
Jeff Hanson
Chairman of the Board, Independent Director
Jeff Hanson
Jeff Hanson serves as the executive chairman of American Healthcare REIT, a public-reporting healthcare real estate investment trust that owns an international portfolio of medical office buildings, skilled nursing facilities, senior housing communities and hospitals totaling approximately $4.9 billion in value across 38 states, the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.
He previously served as chairman and ceo of Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV, and was a founder of American Healthcare Investors (“AHI”), the sponsor of both REITs.
American Healthcare REIT was formed in October 2021 through a tri-party corporate merger between the two Griffin-American Healthcare REITs and the acquisition of AHI. Hanson and his two business partners founded AHI in 2011 and grew it into the largest privately-held healthcare real estate investment firm globally prior to the tri-party merger.
Hanson also served as chairman and ceo of AHI’s prior REIT, Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, which built an international real estate portfolio valued at approximately $3 billion. The REIT was sold in December 2014 to NorthStar Realty Finance (NYSE: NRF), now DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG), in a public M&A transaction valued at $4 billion.
Prior to founding American Healthcare Investors, Hanson served as one of five executive officers of Grubb & Ellis Company (NYSE: GBE). In this role, he operated in a dual-capacity as ceo of the firm’s investment management subsidiary, Grubb & Ellis Equity Advisors, and as chairman and ceo of Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II (later renamed Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II). He led this 600-employee national investment management platform, comprised of public non-traded REITs, institutional joint ventures, separate accounts, and private syndications, from 2006 to the point at which American Healthcare Investors was founded to absorb Grubb & Ellis’ healthcare REIT business in 2011.
Hanson earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a dual emphasis in corporate and real estate finance from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in Laguna Hills, California with his wife and four children.
Current Board Roles
- American Healthcare REIT (executive chairman)
- The Unity Project (chairman of the board)
- Fountain of Life – Antioch, international inner-city church planting organization (board member)
Previous Board Roles
- Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II (chairman of the board)
- Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III (chairman of the board)
- Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV (chairman of the board)
- Fuller Theological Seminary (trustee)
- Forum of Christian Business Leaders (chairman of the board)
- Sterling College (trustee)
- YPO (board member)
- YPO Gold (board member)
Laura Sextro
CEO, COO, Director
Laura Sextro
Chief Executive Officer
Laura Sextro brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience to her role as chief executive officer of the Unity Project, including senior roles with purpose-driven organizations that include Bennufit Health, Ambry Genetics, Quantgene, Konica Minolta, and CoreLogic.
Her diverse experience in multiple industries including healthcare, bioinformatics, data analytics, non-profit, real estate, and technology has given her the opportunity to experience many different business models. She has been responsible for managing budgets of varying sizes up to $300 million in organizations ranging from small business to Fortune 500, where her decisive leadership, strategic planning and ability to execute have helped companies achieve efficiencies that resulted in rapid and profitable growth.
Sextro is an active member of many volunteer organizations. She presently works with the American Red Cross as a professional rescuer instructor, Unchained at Last (the only nonprofit in the US dedicated to helping women escape or resist arranged / forced marriages and rebuild their lives) as a finance and career planning counselor, and Junior Achievement (an organization dedicated to teaching economic success courses for underserved children in grades K-12). She has a background in public speaking as a keynote speaker at several industry symposiums. Laura is a former contributor to the Forbes Business Council.
Sextro earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of La Verne.
Heather Puhek
Marketing Specialist, Corporate Secretary, Director
Heather Puhek
Heather Puhek is one of the founding mothers of Moms on the Ground. She provides marketing experience, knowledge of social media platforms, and artistic talents to the movement. She has worked over 20 years in the wedding industry as a stylist. She was a co-owner of an online start-up and is also a soon to be published author of her first children’s book. She is the wife of a Fire Chief and mom to 3 children. Her initial spark to activism was lit last summer when she went to the state capital to protest mandates for First Responders. She recognized the negative impact the vaccine mandates would have on her family and her San Clemente Community. When the mandates were announced for schools, she knew she had to act by building a substantial network and executing calls to action through a grassroots movement.
Charmetra Chatmon
Independent Director, Teacher Liaison
Charmetra Chatman
Charmetra Chatmon is an educator at the LAUSD and has been in education for over 20 years. She has taught 8th grade for the duration of her career and loves this age group for their energy and curiosity. She has a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Biola University and a master’s degree in Teaching, Learning, and Technology from Point Loma Nazarene University.
Her passion has been educating children in both academics and character and she enjoys being a part of their growth and development during their transition from middle school to high school. Her goal is to give students the tools they need to navigate an increasingly polarized world while learning how to contribute to conversations in a meaningful and logical way.
Although she has no biological children of her own, she is a primary caretaker for 5 nieces and nephews, from ages 10 to 17, who have lived in her home on an ongoing basis since they were babies.
Royce White
Independent Director, Former NBA Player
Royce White
Royce White is an author, activist, entrepreneur and professional athlete. He is currently the founder and CEO of Vitruvian, Inc. A science, technology, and engineering company. White says Vitruvian’s initial focus is healthcare, nutrition and water. Current projects include Anxious Minds, Inc. The goal of Anxious Minds is advancing mental health care access and efficiency. White is also the founder of WING, Inc. A media and electronics company. Its subsidiaries include The Last Renaissance & Free People Radio.
Royce White was born in the Twin Cities, MN. He was an All-American athlete in both high school and college basketball before being drafted 16th overall in the 2012 NBA draft. Ahead of being drafted he spoke openly about being diagnosed with anxiety disorder or (GAD) as a teenager.
After being drafted, White publicly voiced concerns about the NBA having no concrete mental health policy. He advocated for a mental health reform within the NBA, all sports and the greater society. Since then he has not been on an NBA roster, even though he was likened to players such as Charles Barkley and LeBron James. Despite his absence from the NBA, it is clear that his advocacy has caused movement in the way the league is handling mental health. Recently NBA spokesperson Kathy Behrens stated that the NBA has great respect for White sharing his struggles and says that the league has a “growing understanding of the importance of the mental health subject.”
In May 2018, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) hired it’s first mental health director. Dr. William D. Parham credited White, amongst other players, as having been instrumental in moving the needle forward.
White says the need for sensible conversation and problem solving is more paramount than any other time in known human history. White believes the human psychology must be the anchor of society’s overall health, stability, and progression.
Ryan Gallagher
Compensation Committee Chairman, Treasurer, Independent Director
Ryan Gallagher
Ryan has 23 years of experience in sales, marketing, and finance. Prior to starting Space Investment Partners, Ryan spent eight years as a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of the Orange County Office at HFF. While at HFF he was responsible for leading the firm’s investment sale efforts in Southern California for office product and overseeing the firm’s investment sale practice for office, retail, industrial, and net lease product in Orange County. Ryan was also part of the firm’s leadership team, and a standing member on the National Presentation Team which dealt with the firm’s largest and most high-profile assignments.
Prior to HFF, Ryan spent nine years at Grubb & Ellis Company (fka NYSE: GBE) as a Senior Vice President in the firm’s Institutional Investment Group where he led a nationally ranked team that specialized in institutional investment sales in the Western U.S. Prior to Grubb & Ellis, Ryan worked at Deutsche Bank/RREEF assisting in the portfolio management of a twenty million square foot office and industrial portfolio in the Southwestern U.S. Ryan was responsible for portfolio underwriting, and assisted with overall portfolio strategy.
Over his career as an advisor, Ryan has executed transactions on over $16 Billion (USD) of commercial real estate in office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use transactions representing high net worth individuals, fortune 100 companies, and top-tier real estate investment funds including: AEW, American Realty Advisors, Bank of America, Blackrock, Blackstone, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Carlyle, Fidelity Investments, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Kilroy REIT, Mass Mutual, Manulife, MetLife, Prudential, Rockwood, TIAA-CREF and US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Zurich Insurance.
Mr. Gallagher obtained a B.A. in Finance from James Madison University. His current and previous board affiliations include: Board of Directors University of California Irvine Real Estate School, Founding Member and Board of Directors of the CHLA Heart Ambassadors, Board of Directors NAIOP SoCal Chapter.
Kurt Belcher
Audit Committee Chairman, Independent Director
Kurt Belcher
Kurt is the founder and CEO of STA Jets, and has overseen its growth from 2009, when he purchased the one-plane charter company at John Wane Airport. Today, with over 30 aircraft and counting, STA is the most flown private charter solution for Orange County. STA is founded on passion and a dedication to the future that is shared among link-minded team members.
Kurt's love of flight, like most, started young, developing into a profession after he received certification through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, together with a business degree. Kurt flew as a pilot, worked as an instructor, and operated an FBO jet center before taking on the development of STA Jets.
In addition to aviation, Kurt has an unwavering dedication to the future. He is a board member on the OC Chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, one of the strongest chapters in the nation.
As STA continues to grow, Kurt takes pride looking up to see more STA flights taking off, and knowing that the work he's doing is changing his community for the better.
Amber Smith
VP, Operations, Director
Amber
Amber has 21 years of experience in sales, marketing and real estate. She previously owned and operated her own real estate brokerage and was consistently in the top 10% of all of North America in sales for the franchise. She also owned a title company and real estate transaction coordinating company. She oversaw sales and marketing for the companies, training employees and agents and the accounting for the company. She sold the company before the crash of the real estate market and stayed home with her children for a few years afterward. When she got back into real estate, she joined a large company and worked her way up from an agent to a recruiter, mentor and eventually sales manager of a new branch within the company. Her role consisted of management of employees, as well as hiring, training, mentoring, and monitoring the sales agents for the branch. Amber is also one of the founders of Moms on the Ground. In 2017, her family moved from Florida to Costa Rica for a year and from there they relocated to California. She currently has been living in Orange County, Ca for 3 years. She has been married to her husband Mike for 21 years and has 2 daughters that are both in high school.
Executive Team
Laura Sextro
CEO, COO
Laura Sextro
Chief Executive Officer
Laura Sextro brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience to her role as chief executive officer of the Unity Project, including senior roles with purpose-driven organizations that include Bennufit Health, Ambry Genetics, Quantgene, Konica Minolta, and CoreLogic.
Her diverse experience in multiple industries including healthcare, bioinformatics, data analytics, non-profit, real estate, and technology has given her the opportunity to experience many different business models. She has been responsible for managing budgets of varying sizes up to $300 million in organizations ranging from small business to Fortune 500, where her decisive leadership, strategic planning and ability to execute have helped companies achieve efficiencies that resulted in rapid and profitable growth.
Sextro is an active member of many volunteer organizations. She presently works with the American Red Cross as a professional rescuer instructor, Unchained at Last (the only nonprofit in the US dedicated to helping women escape or resist arranged / forced marriages and rebuild their lives) as a finance and career planning counselor, and Junior Achievement (an organization dedicated to teaching economic success courses for underserved children in grades K-12). She has a background in public speaking as a keynote speaker at several industry symposiums. Laura is a former contributor to the Forbes Business Council.
Sextro earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of La Verne.
Parisa Fishback
President, General Counsel
Parisa Fishback
President and General Counsel
Parisa Fishback serves as the president and general counsel of the Unity Project. She is also the founder and principal attorney at Fishback Law Corp, a legal firm that specializes in bankruptcy law in Orange County and throughout Southern California, helping individuals and businesses find effective debt relief through Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Fishback’s career as a bankruptcy attorney in Orange County began with an extern clerkship to the Honorable John E. Ryan, chief judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court, from which she learned the perspective of the court and judge in bankruptcy law matters. She later joined Pite Duncan, LLP, one of the largest creditor law firms in the nation, from which she learned bankruptcy law from the perspective of the creditor.
As a bankruptcy attorney in Orange County representing debtors, she has helped save hundreds of homes from foreclosure and assisted individuals and businesses alike in finding relief from overwhelming debt and the harassment of creditors.
Fishback has developed extensive relationships with judges, courts, trustees and other bankruptcy attorneys, which ultimately serves to enhance the representation she is able to provide her clients in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Fishback is a graduate of Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California, where she was a two-time recipient of the CALI award, and participant in Moot Court and the Appellate Law Clinic. She is also a member of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Loyola Marymount University.
Dr. Paul Alexander
Chief Scientific Officer,
The Unity Project
MSc, MHSc, PhD, Oxford University, University of Toronto, McMaster University, Former WHO/PAHO Washington DC Consultant and Senior Advisor to the US government in 2020 reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Keith Berkowitz
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Paul E. Alexander, an esteemed epidemiologist and a widely recognized global expert on COVID-19, is chief scientific officer of the Unity Project. He has previously served as senior advisor to the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services specializing in COVID pandemic policy during the Trump administration. Dr. Alexander has also worked with the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization as a COVID pandemic evidence-synthesis advisor and is a former assistant professor at McMaster University in evidence-based medicine and research methodology.
Previously, Dr. Alexander worked at the World Health Organization as a regional specialist/epidemiologist in the European Regional Office in Denmark, as an epidemiologist for the government of Canada, and as the evidence synthesis meta-analysis systemic review guideline development lead with the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Dr. Alexander earned a bachelor’s degree and Master of Arts degree from York University in Ontario, Canada. He received a Master of Health Science (MHSc) from the University of Toronto, a Master of Science degree (MSc) from the University of Oxford in England and earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He is widely published, serving as the primary or supporting author of more than 50 academic papers.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
Chief of Medical Ethics,
The Unity Project
MD, Georgetown University, Notre Dame, Professor, University of California Irvine, Chairman, UC Irvine Hospital's medical ethics committees and at the California Department of State Hospitals
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
Aaron Kheriaty, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health. He serves as chairman of the medical ethics committees at UCI Hospital and at the CA Department of State Hospitals.
Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, earned his MD degree from Georgetown University, and completed residency training in psychiatry at UCI.
He has authored books and articles for professional and lay audiences on bioethics, social science, psychiatry, religion, and culture. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Arc Digital, The New Atlantis, Public Discourse, City Journal, and First Things. He has conducted print, radio, and television interviews on bioethics topics with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox, and NPR. On matters of public policy and healthcare he has addressed the California Medical Association and has testified before the California Senate Health Committee.
Dr. Kheriaty is Senior Fellow and Director of the Program in Health and Human Flourishing at the Zephyr Institute, and Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute. He also serves on the advisory board at the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy. Dr. Kheriaty has consulted on Covid related ethical issues during the pandemic, such as ventilator triage and vaccine allocation, for the UC Office of the President, the County of Orange Healthcare Agency, and the California Department of Public Health.
Dr. Robert Malone
Chief Medical & Regulatory Officer, The Unity Project
MD, Northwestern School of Medicine, MS, UC San Diego and Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology Laboratories, Giannini Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UC Davis, Harvard Medical School fellow - Global Clinical Research Scholar (2016), original Inventor of the mRNA vaccine platform used in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines as well as the DNA vaccine platform used by Inovio
Robert W. Malone MD, MS
Robert W. Malone MD, MS is a US-based physician-scientist who operates a consultant practice specializing in advanced development of medical countermeasures for infectious diseases (vaccines and drugs). He has served as an Assistant and Associate Professor of Pathology and Surgery at UC Davis, University of Maryland, and the Armed Forces University of the Health Sciences. Core competencies include clinical development, regulatory affairs, project management, and contract development. His medical degree is from the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed the Harvard Medical School fellowship as a Global Clinical Research Scholar in 2016, and was scientifically trained at UC Davis, UC San Diego, and at the Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology laboratories. Dr. Malone is an internationally recognized scientist (virology, immunology, molecular biology) and the original inventor of mRNA Vaccination, DNA Vaccination, and multiple non-viral DNA and RNA/mRNA delivery technologies. Dr. Malone holds numerous fundamental domestic and foreign patents in the fields of gene delivery, delivery formulations, and vaccines: including for fundamental DNA and RNA/mRNA vaccine technologies. He has approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications and published abstracts and about 12,000 citations of his peer reviewed publications (per Google Scholar with an “outstanding” impact factor rating). He has been an invited speaker at over 50 conferences, has chaired numerous conferences and he has sat on or served as chairperson on numerous NIAID and DoD study sections.
Dr. Malone has a history of assembling and managing expert teams that focus on solving complicated biodefense challenges to meet US Government requirements. He was instrumental in enabling the PHAC/rVSV ZEBOV (“Merck Ebola”) vaccine to move forward quickly towards BLA and (now recently granted) licensure. Dr. Malone got the project on track in support of DoD/DTRA and NewLink Genetics, recruited organizations to team with USAMRIID/WRAIR to develop the immunoassays, put WHO and Norwegian government philanthropic leadership in touch with Pentagon leadership to expedite the initial WRAIR clinical and ring vaccination trials, recruited a management team, recruited Merck vaccines to purchase the product candidate from NewLink, helped write and edit the clinical trials developed by the World Health Organization and lead the development of the BARDA and DTRA contracts - yielding over 200M$ in resources. Dr. Malone’s early involvement in this project allowed for the Merck Ebola vaccine to be developed very rapidly.
Currently, Dr. Malone has been leading a large team since January 10, 2020 focused on clinical research design, drug development, computational discovery and mechanisms of action for COVID-19 repurposed drug treatments. This work has included multiple manuscripts summarizing team findings relating to famotidine, mast cells, and the mechanism of COVID-19 disease. Manuscripts in review focus on clinical effects of celecoxib, famotidine, and dexamethasone in COVID-19. He developed and wrote the initial clinical trial design: A Single Center, Randomized, Double Blinded Controlled Crossover Observational Outpatient Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Oral Famotidine for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Non-Hospitalized Symptomatic Adults. Another project he has supporting is development and performance of a virtual COVID-19 outpatient clinical trial employing novel on-line patient centered outcomes research capabilities. He has participated on the NIH/FNIH ACTIV review panel for the last year and has also helped open an IND for famotidine use for treatment and prevention of COVID19 disease, an IND and protocols for clinical testing of famotidine + celecoxib for treatment of COVID-19 and has enabled teaming/pharmaceutical supply arrangements with two major pharmaceutical firms. His contract development and management efforts have resulted in over 130M$ US in federal research contract funding during the last year to support this work.
Amber Smith
VP, Operations
Amber Smith
Amber has 21 years of experience in sales, marketing and real estate. She previously owned and operated her own real estate brokerage and was consistently in the top 10% of all of North America in sales for the franchise. She also owned a title company and real estate transaction coordinating company. She oversaw sales and marketing for the companies, training employees and agents and the accounting for the company. She sold the company before the crash of the real estate market and stayed home with her children for a few years afterward. When she got back into real estate, she joined a large company and worked her way up from an agent to a recruiter, mentor and eventually sales manager of a new branch within the company. Her role consisted of management of employees, as well as hiring, training, mentoring, and monitoring the sales agents for the branch. Amber is also one of the founders of Moms on the Ground. In 2017, her family moved from Florida to Costa Rica for a year and from there they relocated to California. She currently has been living in Orange County, Ca for 3 years. She has been married to her husband Mike for 21 years and has 2 daughters that are both in high school.
Heather Puhek
Marketing Specialist, Corporate Secretary
Heather Puhek
Heather Puhek is one of the founding mothers of Moms on the Ground. She provides marketing experience, knowledge of social media platforms, and artistic talents to the movement. She has worked over 20 years in the wedding industry as a stylist. She was a co-owner of an online start-up and is also a soon to be published author of her first children’s book. She is the wife of a Fire Chief and mom to 3 children. Her initial spark to activism was lit last summer when she went to the state capital to protest mandates for First Responders. She recognized the negative impact the vaccine mandates would have on her family and her San Clemente Community. When the mandates were announced for schools, she knew she had to act by building a substantial network and executing calls to action through a grassroots movement.
