Senior Management

Andrea came to LUNGevity through the merger with Protect Your Lungs, an organization she and her family started to fund lung cancer research following her mother’s death from lung cancer in 2008.

Before the merger, Andrea founded and built Protect Your Lungs, an organization dedicated to funding research into the early detection of lung cancer. Andrea was instrumental in building PYL’s Scientific Advisory Board and establishing its funding process, both of which followed her to the new LUNGevity organization.

In her for-profit career, Andrea has a wealth of management experience. Andrea was the Vice President of Strategy and Growth of Decision Lens, Inc. a company she helped launch in January 2005. Prior to joining Decision Lens, Andrea held a variety of management positions at Johnson & Johnson, including Director of Investor Relations, Manager Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions, and Plant Controller. She also spent several years at McNeil Consumer Products, a J&J subsidiary, in marketing and mergers & acquisitions. Prior to her time at J&J, Andrea worked for Lehman Brothers and Coopers & Lybrand in New York City in both Mergers and Acquisitions and as a CPA.

Andrea received her BS in Economics from Wharton with concentrations in Accounting, Decision Sciences, and Finance. She received her MBA from Wharton with concentrations in Finance and Latin American Studies. She served on Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center National Committee of Performing Arts and on the Board of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) of Metro DC. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for DC Metro Boys and Girls Club and has worked with the Ronald McDonald House and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In these roles, Upal oversees LUNGevity’s research awards program, including the monitoring and evaluation of the research projects as well as implementing and managing LUNGevity’s patient-focused research including Project Transform, a multi-year, multi-stakeholder patient preference study that LUNGevity is conducting with Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Upal has extensive experience in community-based participatory research (CBPR) methodology in health sciences research, specifically in projects involving immigrants and minority populations. His experience ranges from working with diabetes education for Asian immigrants in New York City to educating minority populations about breast cancer screening in Queens, NY.

Upal has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona, and an MPH in Global Health Policy and Management from New York University.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Meriam was the grants manager at Prevent Cancer Foundation and, preceding that, worked for a pediatric cancer initiative.  She also worked at a Washington, DC, think tank as an assistant director in charge of list management and membership.

Meriam received her M.A. in International Trade and Policy from George Mason University and her B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University. She lives in Lake Ridge, Virginia, with her husband, daughter, and son.

Ann spent over 30 years working in oncology nursing, patient care policy, and clinical operations. As a thoracic nurse/nurse navigator at the University of North Carolina, she became attuned to patient needs along their lung cancer journey, and as the former director of clinical operations at Biologics at McKesson, Ann directed and implemented patient management programs.

Multidisciplinary care of cancer patients became Ann’s passion and she published and spoke nationally to groups on establishing, staffing, and maintaining multidisciplinary cancer clinics for 14 years.

She went on to serve as Volunteer Coordinator of the Breathe Deep NYC Walk from 2008 to 2010. She served on the Board of Directors from January 2009 to May 2010. In December of 2010 she joined the staff as Director of Grassroots Events.

Previously, Diana served as a Conference Service Manager in hotels in New York City, including Omni Berkshire Place and the Essex House, where she worked with both Fortune 500 Companies and non-profits putting together well-rounded meetings and conferences.

Leah is a healthcare market strategy professional with expertise in oncology early detection, precision medicine, and multidisciplinary care. She earned a Bachelor of Science in biology and journalism from George Washington University and later earned her MBA from the Berkeley Haas School of Business. She has a background in nonprofit and for-profit settings, where she gained experience in business development, strategic marketing, and program development and implementation in the healthcare space.  Leah comes to LUNGevity from GO2 For Lung Cancer, where she oversaw the Centers of Excellence Program.

Carol joined LUNGevity in 2013 and is responsible for special events, including LUNGevity's annual galas, as well as donor and volunteer cultivation.

Carol, a graduate of Clark University, lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and is the mother of three sons.

Marci brings more than 20 years of experience leading strategic marketing and communications for mission-driven healthcare and nonprofit organizations. Before joining LUNGevity, she served as Director of Program Marketing Strategy at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), where she led global marketing initiatives supporting the organization's strategic priorities.

Marci holds a Bachelor of Science in Media Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

In this role, Nikki promotes the critical need for biomarker testing in lung cancer to ensure that the newly diagnosed and those at progression have the most information possible about their unique lung cancer in order to access the appropriate therapies or clinical trials.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, Nikki worked in Alliance & Advocacy Relations at Genentech, where she championed awareness of unmet needs and driving change in the patient community. She led advocacy outreach around next-generation sequencing and CMS' 14-day rule and expanding collaboration between CME providers and advocacy groups on provider and patient education on shared decision making.

Previous to Genentech, Nikki held two roles at Grifols/Novartis Diagnostics, first as associate director, global communications, and later as associate director, global public affairs. In those roles, she worked with global partners including sickle cell disease, hemophilia, and thalassemia patient advocacy groups, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to educate the public, policy makers, and other stakeholders on improving transfusion safety. She started her career in Japan, where she worked at Cosmo PR managing AdvaMed (a medical device trade organization) public affairs activities in the Japanese market.

She earned her MA in International Trade Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and a BS in Anthropology and BA in Spanish from Santa Clara University.  Nikki lives in Davis, CA, with her wife and two dogs, Mia and Stuart.

Prior to joining LUNGevity, she worked at the US Food and Drug Administration Oncology Center of Excellence on the Patient Focused Drug Development team. There, Dr. King-Kallimanis worked on the development and launch of Project Patient Voice, a resource for patients and caregivers along with their healthcare providers to look at patient-reported symptom data collected from cancer clinical trials.

Dr. King-Kallimanis also has experience in industry and academia and has published over 60 peer reviewed papers that cover disease areas like lung cancer, depression, cognitive impairment and multiple sclerosis.  She received her bachelor of social science and her master of science in applied statistics from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and her PhD in psychometrics from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Before joining LUNGevity, Brandon served as Associate Director of Congressional Relations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), where he led the organization’s outreach to Congress and managed multiple legislative activities. Previously, Brandon served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Men’s Health Network, leading policy and advocacy activities for the organization. He has also held positions with the Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Office of the Governor of Virginia.

Brittany directs the Transforming Clinical Trials Initiative, fosters relationships with regulatory agencies, drug sponsors, clinicians, and patients, and leads the foundation’s efforts in developing regulatory policy frameworks.

Before joining LUNGevity, Brittany worked for Friends of Cancer Research as director of regulatory affairs, where she supported the development and implementation of the organization’s research and policy agenda. She also previously worked at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) as a policy fellow.

A childhood cancer survivor, Brittany is actively involved as a patient research advocate with multiple organizations, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a past member of the NCI Council of Research Advocates (NCRA), the current chair of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Patient Advocacy Advisory Board, and on the board of the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. 

Brittany received her PhD in molecular biology and genetics from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and dual BS degrees in biochemistry and genetics from Clemson University.

Michelle has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing as well as a dual degree—Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Business Administration. Prior to joining LUNGevity, Michelle worked as a registered nurse, 10 years of which were in the emergency department. She most recently spent eight years at Virginia Commonwealth University as a lung cancer screening program coordinator.