Board Of Directors
Terry Heiman-Patterson, MD (President)
Terry Heiman-Patterson is Director of Neurodegenerative Disorders at Temple University. She is also the Director of the MDA/ALS Center of Hope, including the clinical and laboratory research programs, and active with the Northeast ALS Consortium. A leader in her field, she has published more than 90 papers, abstracts, and chapters on ALS and related motor neuron diseases. She has dedicated her career to optimizing clinical care for people living with ALS and conducting research toward a treatment and cure.
Lawrence Corrigan (Vice President)
Larry Corrigan serves as the Vice President of the ALS Hope Foundation Board of Directors. After losing his brother Tom to ALS in 2009, Larry became involved with the ALS Hope Foundation. He served as a member of the Out and Back Run, a key past fundraising event for the ALS Hope Foundation. Larry is employed by Shire, PLC where he is responsible for commercial data analytics for rare disease therapies. He resides in West Chester, PA, with his wife Jenny and their three boys, Will, Patrick, and Brendan.
Michael McCool (Treasurer)
Paul Schiller (Co-Treasurer)
Paul Schiller became involved with the ALS Hope Foundation as the bookkeeper in 2021 before transitioning to the Board of Directors in 2024. Working for the foundation gave Paul the opportunity to serve the ALS community in memory of a friend who he watched courageously battle ALS. Paul has been an educator in the School District of Philadelphia for almost 30 years where he has had the opportunity to work with children in PreK through 8th grade. Paul currently resides in Glenside with his wife Rhonda and his son Zach.
Gary Kurtis
Gary Kurtis is the Principal of "Sales Tips 101" that provides group workshops and individual coaching. In addition to his sales career he is very involved in various Philadelphia networking groups and also a committee member of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, PA. Gary lost his father to ALS in 2002 and wanted to support finding a cure for ALS. He joined forces with the ALS Hope Foundation in 2019 when he volunteered to chair the inaugural Run for Hope. He is an incredibly active advocate and in addition to the run, he participated in the CRLI Research Ambassador program, volunteers with I AM ALS, and is on the Leadership Committee.
Wendy Kaplan Nickel
Wendy K. Nickel, MPH is a passionate champion and advocate for health equity. She has spent her professional life working towards improving the conditions that impact health, including social needs, quality and safety of care, and patient and clinician engagement.
Wendy joined Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF) as President in May 2020. HCIF is an organization committed to improving the health and lives of the community through collaborative solutions. In this role, she is responsible for overall organizational management and strategic vision. She leads HCIF in a variety of programs to improve social determinants of health and quality of care. Current program topics include: food security, social needs screening, maternal health, health literacy, and health needs assessments across the Philadelphia region.
Prior to joining HCIF, she launched a major program to improve disparities in colorectal cancer screening, forming a stakeholder coalition of healthcare institutions, community-based organizations, employers, religious institutions and others to tackle this vexing issue.
She built a first-of-its kind center for patient partnership for a physician membership organization, leading efforts to engage patients and families in shared decision- making, physician education, policy development, research, and communication. Wendy also has significant experience in leading national education, quality, and safety improvement initiatives addressing issues such as heart disease, diabetes, adult immunization, and chronic pain. During her work in the hospital setting for nearly a decade, she developed several programs to improve patient experience and quality. She has won prestigious awards for national innovation in safety and quality, as well as health literacy and was recently named a Philadelphia Healthcare Power Player.
Wendy serves as a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties, Advisory Board of Patient-and Family-Centered Care Partners and is also an Ambassador with the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She has authored several publications about patient partnership, quality, and safety and has served as an expert panelist for organizations across the country. Wendy earned undergraduate and Master in Public Health degrees from Emory University.
Lyle Ostrow, MD, PhD
Dr. Ostrow received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, followed by Medicine Internship, Neurology Residency and Neuromuscular Medicine Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
He joined the faculty of the Neuromuscular Division in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins in 2010, developing a clinical practice and research program focused on ALS. He also attended on the Neurology Inpatient Ward and Consult services at Johns Hopkins Hospital, supervised Neurology Residents’ and Neuromuscular Fellows’ Clinics, performed open muscle and nerve biopsies and interpreted and taught nerve and muscle pathology, as Assistant Director of the Clinical Neuromuscular Pathology Lab, and was Director of the Neuromuscular Medicine Fellowship.
In 2012, he founded an ALS Postmortem Research Core at Johns Hopkins, which integrates de-identified clinical, pathological, and genomic data with autopsy tissue samples and slides – all made broadly available to academic and industry ALS researchers around the world. Since 2021, the ALS Postmortem Core has been supported by a collaboration with the CDC National ALS Registry, and is in the process of transitioning to Temple University.
Dr. Ostrow also is Chair of the Programmatic Panel for the Department of Defense ALS Research Program (ALSRP), presently the largest dedicated annual funder of ALS therapeutic discovery and validation. He led recent ALSRP efforts to develop and refine funding mechanisms to help novel treatments move though the drug development pipeline, emphasize biomarker development, and encourage open data and resource sharing. He serves on several ALS steering committees and review panels, and has given 30+ invited talks, grand rounds, and keynote lectures on ALS research, biomarker development, postmortem tissue biobanking, and harmonizing multicenter research efforts and core resources.
Ronald J. Patterson, Esq
Ron Patterson is an attorney and partner in Philadelphia law firm Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LP, and is Co-Chair of the firm’s Land Use and Zoning Department. Ron specializes in zoning and land use law, representing an array of real estate developers and business operators in the Philadelphia area. His practice also involves interaction with local politicians and community civic groups. Ron also holds a chemical engineering degree from Drexel University, and has experience in environmental engineering, regulatory and permitting in the areas of air pollution contaminants and hazardous substances. Ron has a personal interest in the enhancement of the awareness, fundraising, clinical services of the Foundation, and the treatment of people living with ALS.
Gary Romano, MD, PhD
Gary Romano is the Head of Clinical Development for Alzheimer’s disease and Neurology at Janssen R&D (Johnson & Johnson). Prior to his present appointment, Gary held other leadership positions at Janssen, including head of the neuroscience biomarkers, and head of early clinical development. Gary received his PhD in Molecular Neurobiology from the Rockefeller University, and his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his post-graduate training in neurology and neuromuscular disease at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College, Hartford and is the author of numerous refereed articles and textbook chapters. He currently holds an adjunct faculty position in the department of Neurology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, is an industry co-leader of the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease research initiative, and was the industry co-chair of the Coalition Against Major Diseases from 2011-13. Gary is a Board Member of the ALS Hope Foundation and Alpine Home Care.
Deborah Santarpio Stanfa
Deborah Stanfa has served on the ALS Hope Foundation Board of Directors since 2003, after her brother died of ALS. She worked in the medical field for quite some time, licensed in radiology and ultrasonography. She also worked as the controller of a concrete and concrete pumping business for commercial properties. She has done property management along with buying and selling real estate, including large commercial properties. She was property and rental manager of condominium complexes that she and her brother built in various seashore areas. She is currently Financial Chair and Lay Member of the United Methodist Church and a licensed cosmetologist. She has an insurance and financial services company in New Jersey as she continues to lease and sell various properties.
Mary Kay Turner
Mary Kay Turner has spent her professional career in the biopharma industry in Government Affairs, Advocacy and Health policy. Her most recent position was the head of Public Affairs for Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America leading the commercialization of a compound for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). Mary Kay joined BrainStorm in August of 2017 as Vice President of Patient Advocacy and Government Affairs. She is a government affairs executive with political action and legislative/advocacy /regulatory expertise.
Mary Kay’s most rewarding experiences throughout her career have been in working in areas of high unmet medical need. During her work in ALS, she was struck by the people and caregivers she met with ALS. She is inspired by the healthcare practitioners and researchers who have dedicated their lives to changing the course for this devastating condition.
In 2016, Mary Kay was appointed to the Arizona Biomedical research Commission by Government Doug Ducey and served a one-year term. She is also on the Board of Advisers for the International Cancer Advocacy Network. Prior, Mary Kay served on the Board of Directors for Mental Health America for 5 years. Mary Kay has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from the University of Oregon.
