David Wholley, M. Phil.

Phone: (301) 594-6343
Email: 

David Wholley, Director of The Biomarkers Consortium at the Foundation for the NIH, provides overall strategic direction and management of the consortium. Included in this role is oversight of the committees in cancer, inflammation and immunity, metabolic disorders, neuroscience and other areas. 

Mr. Wholley has already served the foundation for two years as director of research administration and director of the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN), a large-scale public-private partnership dedicated to helping discover the genetic basis of common disease.  Prior to joining the foundation in 2006, Mr. Wholley's career spanned nearly 25 years in healthcare technology business management, including extensive experience in product development, sales, marketing, corporate strategy, and partnership and project development.  Mr. Wholley has held senior management roles in several venture-funded technology startup companies, including head of Global Marketing and Development for First Genetic Trust, Inc. which developed software for large-scale collaborative genetic research and personalized medicine.  During a 16-year career at IBM, he co-led the corporate strategy team that developed the company's Life Sciences industry organization and its first product, the DiscoveryLink database integration program. Mr. Wholley holds an M. Phil. from Rutgers University and a Certificate in Business Administration from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

David Lee, M.P.A.

Phone: (301) 496-1518
Email:

Mr. Lee, Deputy Director of The Biomarkers Consortium at the Foundation for NIH, provides oversight of all major fundraising and partner alliance activities, including fundraising for individual consortium projects and the consortium’s contributing membership program.

Prior to joining the Foundation for NIH, Mr. Lee served as director of program policy for Last Acts Partnership, a national non-profit dedicated to improving end of life care. He has also served as program and proposal manager at Eagle Design and Management, Inc., a health social marketing firm, and as director of programs and operations and executive vice president at the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, where he managed the organization, served as the liaison to its board of directors, and administered the organization's basic and clinical research grants program.

Mr. Lee also performed quality of care and outcomes research while serving as program services manager and research analyst at The Center for Clinical Quality Evaluation. Mr. Lee holds a Master of Arts degree in public administration (with an emphasis in policy analysis) from The American University in Washington, DC and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science (with an emphasis in international relations and history) from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.  

Sonia Pearson-White, Ph.D.

Phone: 301-435-4103
Email:

Dr. Sonia Pearson-White, Scientific Program Manager at The Biomarkers Consortium, is responsible for identifying, planning, and organizing the efforts of several project teams, reviewing their data and progress, and ensuring that those data are complete for presentation and external evaluation and that set milestones are being met.

As an Assistant/Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, Dr. Pearson-White directed the Transgenic Mouse Core Facility for 12 years, which created many hundreds of lines of mice and served more than 40 investigators. She also was Principal Investigator on two R01 grants and 3 Muscular Dystrophy Association Research grants.  Her independent research program was on the proto-oncogene, SNO, the close relative of SKI; both of these proteins negatively regulate TGF-beta signaling. Dr. Pearson-White also developed a new curriculum to add mammalian genetics to an Advanced Genetics course, and lectured in that course for ten years.

Dr. Pearson-White has also served as a Scientific Manager at Genentech, Inc, managing a group of 21 people in support of the mouse genetics research program, including over 500 different genetically modified lines of mice, the scientific investigators, and the animal data. Most recently, she held a position at NIH’s Office of Extramural Research, gaining exposure to the issues of design and management of clinical research studies, including complex, multi-site clinical trials, while reviewing human subjects concerns and participating in policy development.

Dr. Sonia Pearson-White earned a PhD in Biology from Johns Hopkins University Medical School.  Her dissertation research on SV40 T antigen was done in the laboratory of Daniel Nathans in the Microbiology/Molecular Biology department. She had been in the lab just 3 months when Dr. Nathans won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the co-discovery of restriction enzymes and the understanding that they would allow the cloning and sequencing of genomes (1978). Her postdoctoral research was in the laboratory Dr. Charles P. Emerson, Jr., at the University of Virginia, studying the regulation of skeletal muscle development.

Judith Siuciak, Ph.D.

Maria Vassileva, Ph.D.

Phone: (301) 594-6596
Email:

Scientific Program Manager on the Biomarkers Consortium, Maria Vassileva is responsible for identifying, planning, and organizing the efforts of several project teams, reviewing their data and progress, and ensuring that those data are complete for presentation and external evaluation as well as that set milestones are being met. Dr. Vassileva will staff the Metabolic Disorders Steering Committee and the Executive Committee. Maria received her Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Concord College, Athens, WV and completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. Her graduate thesis focus was on post-translational protein modification. At Johns Hopkins, she also received a vaccine science and policy certificate.

While in graduate school, she was awarded the National Academies Christine Mirzayan Science Policy fellowship and worked on the Board of Global Health at the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC. At the National Academies, Maria participated in the final stages of the writing of two reports on lowering birth defects in developing countries.

Prior to joining The Biomarkers Consortium Team, Maria worked for four years at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as a Senior Program Associate of the Research Competitiveness Program. At AAAS, Dr. Vassileva was involved in providing peer review and programmatic guidance services to research institutions across the US. During her years with RCP, she worked on expanding the program internationally as well. Her major responsibilities were recruiting technical experts for mail review, selecting and leading panels of renowned scientists, research administrators, technology transfer experts, entrepreneurs and policy specialists from government, academia and the private sector, on site during strategic planning visits and research institution evaluations, as well as writing proposals in the areas of science and policy, organizing multiple symposia at national meetings and giving presentations on the federal budget, research competitiveness issues, and the states’ interest in science and technology, at various conferences around the country. She was involved in many of the marketing efforts of her team and acted as a primary liaison between the AAAS consultants and clients. 

Paris L.A. Moore

301-443-2103
Email:

Partnership Development Officer for The Biomarkers Consortium, Paris L. A. Moore is responsible for cultivating, soliciting and stewarding corporations, foundations, nonprofit organizations and individuals interested in funding biomedical research initiatives.  Working with the Consortium’s Deputy Director and Program Managers, Ms. Moore conducts fundraising efforts and activities to execute projects of The Biomarkers Consortium.  Paris is also active in creating and implementing strategies that increase collaborations and alliances such as identifying opportunities for partnership and maintaining relationships with current organizations via the Consortium’s Contributing Membership Program. 

Prior to becoming of a member of The Biomarkers Consortium Team, Paris most recently served as Director of Development at the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research (AFER).  While at AFER, Ms. Moore was instrumental in expanding the Foundation’s donor base and fundraising efforts through targeted appeals, campaigns and several special events, in addition to assisting the Foundation’s Board of Directors to heighten the AFER’s visibility. 

With over 10 years of fundraising experience, Paris has been active in the field of health-related fundraising through her tenure at notable non-profit organizations such as The Endocrine Society and Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), where she has been able to develop a successful track record in not only securing funding for research initiatives, annual conventions/conferences, endowments and travel grant programs but also developing effective corporate partnerships and alliances. Ms. Moore received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications (with a concentration in Public Relations & Advertising) from Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland.

Cheryl Melencio

301-402-4970
Email:

Cheryl, Executive Assistant for The Biomarkers Consortium at the Foundation for NIH, provides administrative support to the director and deputy director of the consortium, and also supports the activities of the Executive Committee.   She also supports the program managers in the activities of the Immunity & Inflammation Steering Committee and Neuroscience Steering Committee.

Prior to joining the Consortium, Ms. Melencio served as Executive Assistant to the President of The National Industrial Transportation League.  She holds a Secretarial Associate of Arts degree from the Williamsport Area Community College.