PRESIDENT: SHELLEY ROSS

is an Emmy award-winning television producer/executive who has worked at NBC, CBS and ABC News where she is best known for her tenure as executive producer of Good Morning America. She is also an author and patient advocate.

SECRETARY: DR. F. CHARLES BRUNICARDI

Dr. Brunicardi brings more than three decades of experience in academic medicine and patient care, serving on the faculty at three medical schools and as Chair of two
departments of Surgery and Vice-Chair of another.

Dr. Brunicardi is currently Senior Vice President and Dean of the College of Medicine at
SUNY Downstate where he serves as the head of the COVID-19 task force. He
joined SUNY in December 2019 from the University of Toledo where he served as
Chair of Surgery and Academic Chief of Surgery for the ProMedica Health System,
roles in which he still serves. Additionally, he has served as Director of the Cancer
Program since 2017 and was named the John Howard Endowed Professor of
Pancreatic Cancer Research in 2018. Since 2018, he has been serving as a medical
director of the Ebeid Social Determinants of Health Institute at ProMedica; he previously
was the Department of Cancer Biology Interim Chair during 2018-19, as well as the
Department of Cancer Biology Professor in 2018.

Before joining the University of Toledo, Dr. Brunicardi was the Jerry Moss Professor of
Gastrointestinal Surgery and Vice-Chair of Surgery at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA. His other notable past appointments include serving as the
DeBakey-Bard Professor and Chair of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery,
George Jordan Professor and the Founding Chief of the Division of General Surgery,
Founder and Director of Elkins Pancreas Center at the Baylor College of Medicine, and
as Chief of Surgical Services, Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Brunicardi also served as the Founding Director, Human Islet Program, UCLA/VA
Medical Center, Chief, General Surgery Group, and Vice-Chair for Surgical Services,
UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital. He was Surgical
Director, UCLA Center for Gastrointestinal Diseases, UCLA-Santa Monica Center and
Orthopaedic Hospital, and Founder and Executive Director of the UCLA Santa Monica
Breast Center.

Dr. Brunicardi has been a continuously funded researcher since 1992. His research has
been supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute as well as
by a variety of foundations, including the Jerry Moss Foundation and most recently the Hal Federman Foundation and the Mel and Jeannie Miller Foundation, as well as the
Ohio Department of Medicaid where he serves as PI on a Medicaid Equity Simulation
Project. His research has broadly focused on genomic translational medicine and
surgery and specifically on pancreatic cancer. He holds several patent applications related to early detection and targeted treatment of pancreatic cancer and neuroendocrine tumors, among others.

His clinical expertise includes GI surgery, precision therapy for pancreatic cancer, and
hernia repairs using minimally invasive and robotic surgery. Dr. Brunicardi has published 304 papers and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery since 2000. The 11th edition of Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery, considered the world’s leading surgical textbook, was published in March 2019.

Dr. Brunicardi earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry with Honors at the Johns
Hopkins University and his medical degree at Rutgers University School of Medicine.
Dr. Brunicardi has been perennially listed among the nation’s “Top Doctors” by Castle
Connolly, Ltd. and is a member of numerous professional and medical associations. He
is often invited as a speaker for visiting professorships and medical and scientific
presentations.

TREASURER/FOUNDER: DR. CAMILLO RICORDI

is the Stacy Joy Goodman Professor and Director of the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI; www.diabetesresearch.org) and the Cell Transplant Center at the University of Miami.

Acknowledged as a leading scientists in diabetes cure-focused research and cell transplantation, Ricordi is known for inventing the method that made it possible to isolate large numbers of insulin-producing cells from the human pancreas and for performing the first series of successful clinical islet allotransplants that reversed diabetes. The procedure is now used worldwide and in 2017 the first NIH funded, FDA Phase 3 multicenter trial was successfully completed by the NIH Clinical Islet Transplantation Consortium (Ricordi SC Chairperson). Ricordi’s research interests include reversal of autoimmunity, transplant tolerance, modulation of immunity and inflammation and regenerative medicine, to prevent or treat chronic degenerative disease conditions, and to prolong healthy lifespan (healthspan). In 2020 he lead the international team that successfully completed the first FDA-approved controlled trial to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19 with stem cell infusions. The unprecedented results allowed for 100% patient survival at one moth in subjects treated who were less than 85 years old, compared to 42% survival in the control group. Ricordi and his collaborators have recently launched the program www.fit4pandemic.com to help the general population become resistant to the most severe forms of viral infections through nutrition, fitness and selected protective substances. These strategies are now also studied to prevent or halt progression of autoimmune diseases and age-related chronic degenerative conditions, to prolong healthy lifespan (Healthspan).

Ricordi has received numerous honors and awards, including the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award by the American Diabetes Association (2002). Knighted by the President of the Republic of Italy in the highest Order of the Republic (the Order of Merit), in 2018 Ricordi was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, and ranked as #1 world expert in transplantation of insulin producing cells for treatment of diabetes among over 4,000 surgeons, physicians and scientists evaluated (2008-2018). He is also serving on the Supreme Council of Health (Consiglio Superiore di Sanita’) of Italy.

Ricordi is author of over 1,150 scientific publications that have been cited over 45,700 times (H-index 100) and as an inventor, he has been awarded 27 patents.