Gregory C. Simon, J.D.

President, Biden Cancer Initiative

Greg Simon is President of the Biden Cancer Initiative, an independent nonprofit organization that builds on the White House Cancer Moonshot’s goals and is grounded on Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden’s firm commitment to ending cancer as we know it. Greg served as the Executive Director of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, created by President Barack Obama and led by Vice President Biden to double the speed of progress against cancer. Greg returned to the White House after serving as Vice President Al Gore’s Chief Domestic Policy Advisor between 1993 and 1997.

Greg was the CEO of Poliwogg, a financial services company creating unique capital market opportunities in healthcare and life sciences. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Worldwide Policy and Patient Engagement at Pfizer, co-founded with Michael Milken, FasterCures/ The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, and with Leon and Debra Black co-founded the Melanoma Research Alliance. Greg is a cancer survivor, having been recently successfully treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Greg received his law degree from the University of Washington.  A native of Arkansas, Greg attended the University of Arkansas, where he was awarded a B.A. in history summa cum laude, and attended the University of Vienna in Austria.

Danielle Carnival, Ph.D.

Vice President, Biden Cancer Initiative

Cecilia Arradaza

Senior Director of Communications, Biden Cancer Initiative

Lisa Simms Booth

Senior Director of Patient and Public Engagement, Biden Cancer Initiative

Lisa Simms Booth is the Senior Director of Patient and Public Engagement at the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping define the organization’s advocacy outreach and collaboration strategies. She also leads the design and coordination of the Biden Cancer Collaborative, mobilizing the cancer patient and advocacy community around key priorities, promoting, and sharing tried and tested approaches to addressing common problems.

Prior to joining the Initiative, Lisa was at FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, playing leadership roles in partnership development, external affairs and operations. Throughout her 14-year tenure at FasterCures, she created programs that brought together pharmaceutical, biotech, philanthropic, and non-profit communities.

Previously, Lisa worked for political and advocacy organizations including LISTEN, Inc., The Alliance for Justice, Time Dollar Institute, Children’s Defense Fund, Democratic National Committee and the National Rainbow Coalition. She is a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Michigan State University.  She is active in the music ministry and community outreach efforts for her church, Metropolitan AME, which recently celebrated its 180^th Anniversary.

Catharine Young, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Science Policy, Biden Cancer Initiative

Dr. Catharine Young is the Senior Director of Science Policy for the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping to foster discussion and collaboration within the biotech, technology, science, and academic fields to drive innovation solutions and breakthroughs against cancer.

Prior to this position, Catharine served as the Senior Science and Innovation Policy Advisor to the British Embassy and Head of the D.C. team for the Foreign Commonwealth Office where she

influenced science and innovation policies of both the U.K. and U.S. governments, industry, and academia.

Previously, Catharine was AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs. Here she led international engagements on eliminating biological weapons, improving biosafety and biosecurity, and establishing and enhancing biosurveillance capacity.

Catharine is a TED Fellow and was named Alexandria 40 Under 40 and Social Enablers top 100 most inspiring social entrepreneurs. Catharine is an advocate for women in STEM and has been a contributor to major social and media networks including TED-Ed, the Guardian and the U.K. Science and Innovation Network. She co-founded Blueprint International, a non-profit dedicated to providing novel technological solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social issues.

Catharine completed her Postdoctoral training at Cornell University in biomedical engineering, her doctorate degree in biomedical sciences from University of Missouri, and her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

Ariel Carmeli

Senior Director of Partnerships, Biden Cancer Initiative

Ariel Carmeli is Senior Director of Partnerships at the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping facilitate relationships with and convene private sector companies, non-profit organizations, academic and medical institutions, philanthropists, patient and advocacy foundations, and others to develop new or scale existing actions and collaborations to accelerate progress against cancer.

Prior to joining the Biden Cancer Initiative, Ariel was an Engagement Manager in McKinsey & Company’s New York Office as part of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products practice. He led teams working on strategy and transformation efforts alongside senior management at pharmaceutical companies primarily focused on R&D and oncology, and also has experience in public health and regulatory affairs. He has bioinformatics research experience from internships at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Ariel currently splits his time between New York City and Washington D.C., graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Mathematics and Pre-Med from Cornell University, and is originally from the San Francisco bay area.

Katie Maguire

Administrative Manager

Katie Maguire is the administrative manager of the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping coordinate the organization’s operations.

Katie brings with her skills she has gained from both the finance and entertainment sectors to build effective administrative teams and stream-lined structures and workflows within them.

Katie studied classical arts at Ithaca London Center, and modern theater at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. She also has a passion for STEM, which is evident by her latest work – a documentary profile she produced on aerospace engineer and explorer – Natalie Panek. Originally from Washington DC, Katie has returned to her hometown after living in LA and NY. 

Jackson Frost

Communications Coordinator

Jackson Frost is the communications coordinator for the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping develop, design and implement communications efforts to support the organization’s programs and priorities. He handles digital campaigns, graphic design, and social media management. 

Most recently, he was a Junior Associate at Trippi, Norton, and Rossmeissl Campaigns, assisting in email programs, graphic design, video editing, and social media efforts for political campaigns and non-profits.  Before moving to Washington D.C, he worked in local politics in Orange County, CA aiding numerous campaigns with their digital and field efforts.

He received a Masters degree in Political Communication at American University, including a certificate from the nationally recognized Campaign Management Institute. A native of Fullerton, California, he graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelors’ Degree with Honors in History and Political Science.  

Felice Gorordo

Advisor, Biden Cancer Initiative

Felice Gorordo serves as an advisor on community participation to the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping organize and mobilize support from stakeholders in the cancer space – including industry leaders, patients, caregivers, advocates, community organizers and research professionals. In 2018, Felice led the organizing of more than 450 Biden Cancer Community Summits across the U.S. to focus national attention on the urgency of now to create actionable solutions in the fight against cancer.

Felice is a serial entrepreneur, advisor and organizer. Currently, he serves as CEO of eMerge Americas, a platform which fosters innovation and entrepreneurship across South Florida and Latin America, and organizes the largest annual tech event connecting the Americas. Previously, Felice was CEO of Clearpath, (acquired by L1BRE), a venture-backed tech company focused on revolutionizing the U.S. immigration filing process.

In the Obama-Biden Administration, Felice served as the White House Fellow to President Obama’s Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, and worked on Latino, immigration and business engagement. After losing his mom to pancreatic cancer and Vice President Biden’s call for a “moonshot to cure cancer,” he helped in the organizing of the White House Cancer Moonshot Summits.

Felice also co-founded and leads Roots of Hope, a non-profit focused on youth empowerment in Cuba through technology and entrepreneurship. He worked on the re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties, and served as an advisor to Grammy-winner Juanes to help organize the historic Peace without Borders concert in Cuba, which resulted in 1.2 million in attendance. Felice has served as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at StartUp Health and advisor to the President & CEO of Jackson Health System and Public Health Trust. Felice is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he also served as Senior Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation.

Martin Naley

Program Lead, Clinical Trials Acceleration, Biden Cancer Initiative

Martin Naley serves as Program Lead, Clinical Trials Acceleration at the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping establish cross-sector cooperation to double the rate of clinical trial participation among cancer patients, by addressing and eliminating barriers that make it difficult for patients and trials to find each other.

Martin has created and led technology-based businesses in the fields of consumer health engagement, clinical trial matching, real-world data, precision medicine, and pre-approval access. Cure Forward, a company that Martin created, made it possible for individuals to obtain their health record data and use it to connect to clinical trials. Through his entrepreneurial experience, Martin has developed deep knowledge about health data access and technology platforms, while also gaining insights into the interests of patients, health care providers, drug developers, and researchers.

Martin began his career with over 15 years in management and executive positions at Life Technologies (now part of ThermoFisher Scientific), one of the world’s leading providers of scientific tools powering personalized medicine.