Stop the Spread Expands Advisory Board Membership to Accelerate Pandemic Response

BETHESDA, Md., November 19, 2020 /3BL Media/ – As U.S. coronavirus cases exceed 11 million and approach 250,000 deaths, Stop the Spread (STS), a nonprofit that was founded in March as a coalition of 1300+ volunteer business leaders working to catalyze the private sector response to COVID-19 and is now a program of ImpactAssets, announced that it will expand its Advisory Board to increase its ability to address the evolving needs of the pandemic, specifically the introduction of vaccines and widening health disparities in underserved communities.

“We are thrilled to add two new leaders who are influencers in their fields to the Stop the Spread Advisory Board at such a critical time in the pandemic,” said Sharon Knight, Executive Director, Stop the Spread.

Joining the STS advisory board are:

• Shoshanah Brown, MS, MBA, founder and CEO of AIRnyc, a community-based health justice organization headquartered in the Bronx that was formed to address the disproportionately high burden of asthma among Black and Latinx children. Since March, AIRnyc has pivoted to address COVID-19, connecting with thousands of vulnerable people since the outbreak to assess their needs, support self-directed care and link them to services. “As Stop the Spread has expanded its work to bring novel solutions to our nation’s hardest hit communities, we have been inspired by the work of Shoshanah Brown and her team at AIRnyc, and seek to learn from their successful community-based service,” Knight said.
   
• Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH, SM, an epidemiologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “We sought out Dr. Nuzzo, who has been widely quoted by national media for her expertise related to the implications of COVID-19 and for her insight into how health systems should manage testing and vaccinations,” Knight added.

Serving the American Public
The advisory board includes technical advisors who share scientific knowledge for opportunity, efficacy and feasibility diligence; pandemic advisors who provide insights from the frontlines and answer medical questions; strategic advisors who offer commercialization and strategy support for select STS partners; and now, with the addition of Shoshanah Brown, community advisors.

In addition to Nuzzo and Brown, advisory board members include:

• Sophie Allauzen, PhD, Full life-cycle diagnostics leader (Novartis, Gates Foundation, Bio-Rad, Sanofi)
• Andrew Easton, PhD, Professor of Virology at the University of Warwick, UK with a focus on acute respiratory infections
• Eric Evans, MBA, Life sciences executive (Targeted Cell Therapies, Abazyme, Lumos, Mulleris, Follica, Primatope Therapeutics, Pykus) currently advising NIH RADx
• Kevin Grimes, MD, Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and the Co-director of the SPARK Program in Translational Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine
• Kermit Jones, MD, JD, Internal medicine physician, lawyer and healthcare policy advisor
• L. Jasmine Kim, MBA, Customer experience and engagement leader, focused on digital innovation and analytics (Sutter Health, Johnson & Johnson, Expedia, Yahoo!, Procter & Gamble)
• June-Ho Kim, MD, MPH, Instructor at Harvard Medical School and attending primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, currently leading Ariadne Labs’ work on global lessons on COVID-19
• Kristina Lesiuk, RN, Cardiopulmonary critical care nurse (UCSF, Kaiser Permanente, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Trauma Center) focused on evolving standards of care in the ICU
• Syra Madad, DHSc and MSc, Epidemiologist in public health and special pathogen preparedness and response, currently overseeing system-wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health + Hospitals
• John Sninsky, PhD, Scientific executive (Roche, Celera, Quest Diagnostics, CareDx) and author currently advising commercial translation efforts at Stanford University (SPARK) and University of California, San Francisco (CATALYST) and serving on Coronavirus Standards Working Group
• Sheila Taube, PhD, Former Director of the Cancer Diagnosis Program at National Cancer Institute/NIH focused on diagnostic commercialization
• Aisha Terry, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Milken Institute School of Public Health focused on quality, access to care, and health equity in patient outcomes

The board is also supported by Strategic Advisors Rachel Romer Carlson and Ken Chenault, who co-founded STS following the publication of their New York Times Opinion article published March 18, along with Hamish Nairn, MBA and Emily Savage, who were founding members of the STS team.

Investing in Solutions
In June, Stop the Spread combined forces with ImpactAssets, a $1.2B nonprofit impact investment firm, bringing together impact investing and private and public sector resources to solve the immediate and evolving needs of this urgent public health crisis. Together, the two organizations provide research, thought leadership and resources on the leading edge of the evolving pandemic situation and its societal impacts.

The Advisory Board helps Stop the Spread identify and actively assist innovators in building capacity and increasing their reach and impact. In addition, the Advisory Board also provides critical evaluations to help ImpactAssets provide grant or equity capital to nonprofit and for-profit organizations with novel solutions that uniquely address the needs of underserved communities.

“The expertise that the Advisory Board delivers has allowed us to mobilize capital from the private sector and philanthropic investors to develop and deploy national and local solutions that help our nation to address the needs of our hardest hit communities,” said ImpactAssets CEO Margret Trilli.

About Stop The Spread
Stop the Spread fosters the private sector’s response to COVID-19. STS addresses the evolving critical needs of the pandemic by identifying and vetting novel solutions and providing innovators with capacity building support including access to impact investment and philanthropic capital through ImpactAssets’ COVID Response Funds. Through research, partnerships and coalition building, STS serves the communities hit hardest by COVID-19 with a focus on addressing the needs of historically underserved populations. STS’ partner network totals over 350 companies and organizations and has resulted in more than 170 value-added connections that have spurred the production of more than 40,000 ventilators and 20 million units of PPE, supported development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics, and promoted equitable allocation of resources.

About ImpactAssets
ImpactAssets is the leading impact investing partner for individuals, families and philanthropists tackling the world’s greatest challenges by investing in the world’s brightest ideas. We make it easy for our clients to “discover, connect and invest” in game-changing entrepreneurs and funds. Founded in 2010, ImpactAssets increases flows of money to impact investing with our 100% impact investment platform and field-building initiatives, including the IA50 database of private debt and equity impact fund managers. The ImpactAssets Donor Advised Fund is an innovative vehicle that empowers donors to increase the impact of their giving by combining it with strategic, sustainable and responsible investing to build a sophisticated philanthropic endowment. The Fund currently has more than $1.2 billion in assets in 1,400 donor advised funds, working with 350 wealth advisors across 60 financial services firms.  

Learn more at www.impactassets.org and www.stopthespread.org