Board Members
The Sabrina Cohen Foundation leadership and management team is a combination of passionate and determined professionals. They have vision, think outside-of-the-box, are well-connected and resourceful. Their expertise in their respected fields will help build and operate the organization in order to impact the landscape of stem cells research for the good of humanity.
SABRINA COHEN
Executive Director and President
Sabrina is the voice and face of the Foundation. A C5 quadriplegic, as the result of a spinal cord injury from a car accident in 1992, she has been an advocate for stem cell research since 2004. Sabrina firmly believes stem cells hold the key that will unlock the mysteries to some of the most fatal diseases that afflict mankind. With this goal in mind, she established the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research in 2006 to raise funds for research. It’s for this sole reason that she travels tirelessly and extensively — from schools and universities to scientific conferences and the United Nations — to speak in her capacity as motivational speaker and spokesperson about this cause.
DR. ANDREW AKERMAN
Vice President
Dr. Akerman is a physician specializing in Neuroradiology. He graduated magna cum laude from New York University with a double major in Biology and Political Science. At the age of 16, Dr. Akerman sustained a C6 spinal cord injury, which rendered him quadriplegic. The only quadriplegic in the country attending medical school at the time, he completed his medical education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He followed this achievement with a 5-year residency in Diagnostic Radiology at North Shore University Hospital, and then a sub-specialty fellowship in Neuroradiology at the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Medical Centre. Dr. Akerman is now in private practice, and has always embodied the importance of giving back through teaching, lectures, seminars and volunteer work.
JUAN BABANI
Treasurer
Juan is the Vice President and Sr. Business Lending Officer of Colonial Bank. He has over 13 years of valuable banking experience, including originating and processing loans in the South Florida market. He has worked at various South Florida financial institutions, including CNLBank, Beach Bank, SouthTrust Bank and Nations Bank. Juan also has an active Real Estate License. He owns, operates and maintains several investment properties throughout South Florida.
CINTHYA POREH
Director of Marketing / Business
Cinthya has a BSc in Architecture and Town Planning, and an MSc in Architecture from the Technion Institute in Israel; receiving an Academic Excellence Award and Dean Scholarship for 3 consecutive years. She brings 20 years of expertise in building, developing and leading companies throughout the different stages of the business. Cinthya has done vast volunteer work in the marketing and the strategic planning for the Jewish Community Day School, a Jewish Education non-profit organization in Boston. She has also been involved in a variety of research work for institutions such as the UNFV in Peru, the Technion Institute, the Ministry of Energy, and the Center of Urban and Regional Studies in Israel. Cinthya is currently the President and Senior Partner of Kadami Group LLC.
KATHRYN SULLIVAN
Director of Public Outreach and Sponsorship
Kathryn graduated from Sacramento State University, and went on to study at Santa Clara University and the Pacific School of Psychology in California. She spent her career as a professional recruiter with companies such as Korn/Ferry International, Cisco Systems and Seagate, and as Director of Human Resources at Marvell Semiconductor. Kate has over 25 years of experience as a fundraiser for the March of Dimes and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
Science Advisory Board
JOSHUA HARE, MD
Chief, Division of Cardiology, University of Miami
Director, Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine
Dr. Hare received his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his MD at Johns Hopkins University. He completed fellowships at Johns Hopkins University and, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He was a Research Fellow at Harvard University and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Among his many achievements, Dr. Hare is renowned for harvesting adult stem cells, multiplying them and then injecting them into a damaged heart; working on the theory that they would develop into new heart tissue that could heal the damage. He has finally gained the FDA’s approval to experiment with new ways to introduce stem cells.
OLE ISACSON, MD
Principal Faculty of Harvard Stem Cell Institute; Co-chair of Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair
Professor of Neurology (Neuroscience), Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for Neuroregeneration Research/Neuroregeneration Laboratories at McLean Hospital
Dr. Isacson is the Professor of Neurology (Neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Neuroregeneration Research/Neuroregeneration Laboratories at McLean Hospital. He is also an NIH Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence grant awardee. He received his Medical Bachelor (1984) and Doctor of Medicine (a research doctoral degree in Medical Neurobiology, 1987) from the University of Lund in Sweden. In 1989, after a 2-year postdoctoral position at Cambridge University, England, Dr. Isacson was invited by Harvard to be an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience. There, he established a small independent research laboratory for his work on neuroregeneration. Over the last decade, his original laboratory has grown to an internationally recognized academic research center for Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, funded by the NIH, DOD and private foundations. Dr. Isacson’s scientific models and studies of conceptually new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases have resulted in many new findings and clinical trials for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. Dr. Isacson is currently the co-chair of Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair, and the Principal Faculty of Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
HANS S. KEIRSTEAD, PhD
Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Co-Director of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California (Irvine) Reeve-Irvine Research Center
Dr. Keirstead received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada — His thesis concerned his invention of a novel method for regenerating damaged spinal cords. This formed the basis of several worldwide patents and the formation of a company. His work constituted the first demonstration of functional regeneration of the injured adult spinal cord. In 2000, Dr. Keirstead joined the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. Founded by the late Christopher Reeve and philanthropist Joan Irvine, the center investigates the cellular biology and treatment of spinal cord trauma, multiple sclerosis and other diseases of the nervous system. In order to bring his treatments to clinical trials, Dr. Keirstead has founded or partnered with biotechnology companies to fund and conduct pre-clinical and clinical development. In 2004, he led his team of researchers at UC Irvine to successfully develop a human embryonic stem cell-derived treatment for acute spinal cord injuries in rats. That treatment was approved in January 2009 by the FDA for clinical trials in humans with acute spinal cord injuries, which will be carried out by the Geron Corporation. It marks the first human embryonic stem cell trial ever approved in the U.S.
CAMILLO RICORDI, MD
Scientific Director and Chief Academic Officer, Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami
Dr. Ricordi’s one passion in life is to develop a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. He is renowned in the medical community for pioneering islet isolation techniques that are now used internationally. Commended with performing the first successful series of human islet allografts, Dr. Ricordi invented the machine that made it possible to isolate large numbers of insulin-producing cells from the human pancreas. He performed the first series of clinical islet transplants that reversed diabetes after implantation of donor-purified islets into the liver of recipients with diabetes. Recognized by his peers as one of the world’s leading scientists in cell transplantation, he has created highly innovative strategies in an attempt to transplant cells and organs without the continuous requirement for anti-rejection drugs. Dr. Ricordi’s coordinated efforts with the University of Miami Stem Cell, Cellular Therapies and Tissue Engineering Initiative have resulted in the establishment of the W. H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at the University of Miami.
Honorary Board
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Senator Dan Gelber
Fl. State Representative Richard l. Steinberg
Advisory Board
Bernie Siegel
Executive Director / Founder
Genetics Policy Institute
Alan T. Brown
President
Alan T. Brown Foundation
David Evensky
Executive Vice President
Evensky & Katz Wealth Management
