John T. Povlishock, Ph.D., is chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and director of the Commonwealth Center for the Study of Brain Injury. He is also a professor of neurosurgery at VCU. His research interests focus on traumatic brain injury in terms of its neuronal and vascular consequences and their potential therapeutic modifications. Dr. Povlishock's many honors include serving as president of the Neurotrauma Society, several awards for teaching excellence, and two Javits Neuroscience Investigator Awards. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Cindy Parseghian, M.B.A., is founder and president of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in Tucson, Ariz. - a volunteer, nonprofit organization that funds research on the fatal genetic disorder known as Niemann-Pick Disease Type C and related neurodegenerative metabolic disorders. She has helped raise more than $30 million dollars in research support and has directed the research program that has expanded the number of labs researching Niemann-Pick Type C from fewer than five to more than 55 worldwide since the foundation's inception in 1994. Previously she was president, chief financial officer, and controller of MCS Telecommunications in Tucson, and has also worked as a certified public accountant. Mrs. Parseghian earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and her master's in business management from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.


Vicky Holets Whittemore, Ph.D., is vice president and director of science at the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance in Silver Spring, Md. Dr. Whittemore has served as a member and chair of the National Tuberous Sclerosis Association board of directors, as well as vice president and medical director. She has also served on the board of directors of the Genetic Alliance and is currently vice-chair of the National Coalition for Health professional Education in Genetics. She is a member of the CETT Review Panel for the Office of Rare Disorders, NIH. She received her undergraduate degree in zoology from Iowa State University and a doctorate in anatomy from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Whittemore did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, and a Fogarty Fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an associate professor at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the Department of Neurological Surgery, at the University of Miami, Fla., before leaving to join the staff of the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance in 1994.

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