Medpedia Board of Advisers
Joseph B. Martin, M.D., Ph.D.
Joseph B. Martin was appointed the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School in July 2007.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Martin served for ten years as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University. At Harvard, he helped establish, in 1999, the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, an innovative collaboration which brings together seven Harvard-affiliated institutions intent on reducing the burden of cancer. In 2001, with the support of an anonymous donor, Dr. Martin formed the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair, a virtual community of over 500 neurology and neuroscientist faculty and researchers working together on understanding the prevention, causes, and treatment of neurodegereative diseases. In 2003, Dr. Martin dedicated Harvard Medical School's New Research Building. This 525,000 square foot structure, the largest building ever constructed at Harvard, is designed to cultivate scientific collaboration between the basic and clinical sciences.
From 1989-1993, Dr. Martin served for four years as Dean of the School of Medicine at UCSF. During his tenure as Dean, he established the W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neurosciences dedicated to combining studies of the brain and behavior, the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology dedicated to AIDS research, and began planning for a Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 1993, he was appointed Chancellor of UCSF. During his tenure he prepared a long-range development plan for the renewal of the campus, obtaining a commitment from the City of San Francisco to expand the UCSF Campus to a second major site in Mission Bay.
Dr. Martin served on the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal from 1970-1978. Following his tenure at McGill, he was Chief of the Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at HMS from 1978-1989. Dr. Martin's early research centered on the hypothalamic regulation of pituitary hormone secretion. At the Massachusetts General Hospital, he led the development in neurogenetics and neurodegenerative disorders, leading to the discovery of the gene for HD.
Dr. Martin was born in Bassano, Alberta, Canada in 1938. He received his premedical and medical education at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, earning the M.D. degree in 1962. He completed a residency in neurology in 1966 and fellowship in neuropathology in 1967 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and received his Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Rochester in 1971. Dr. Martin is married to Rachel (Wenger) Martin. They have four children and six grandchildren.
Linda Hawes Clever, M.D., M.A.C.P.
Linda Hawes Clever M.D., Master of the American College of Physicians, is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. She is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and Founding Chair of the Department of Occupational Health at California Pacific Medical Center. She is president of RENEW, a not-for-profit aimed at helping devoted people maintain and regain enthusiasm, effectiveness, and purpose as they resolve the competing imperatives of work and life. Her husband is an internist as is their daughter, who is on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Dr. Clever is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern California Presbyterian Homes and Services and the Buck Institute for Age Research. She served on the Stanford University Board of Trustees for 14 years and was editor of the Western Journal of Medicine; she also chaired the Board of the public broadcasting station, KQED. Dr. Clever speaks nationally and internationally and has many publications on topics including health promotion, occupational health, personal and institutional renewal, volunteerism and leadership.
Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D.
Gilbert Omenn is Professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health and director of the UM Center for Computational Medicine & Biology and the Proteomics Alliance for Cancer Research at the University of Michigan. He served as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Michigan Health System from 1997 to 2002. He was Dean of the School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine and Environmental Health, University of Washington, Seattle, 1982-1997. His research interests include cancer proteomics, chemoprevention of cancers, public health genetics, computational biology, science-based risk analysis, and health policy. He was principal investigator of the beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) of preventive agents against lung cancer and heart disease; director of the Center for Health Promotion in Older Adults; and creator of a university-wide initiative on Public Health Genetics in Ethical, Legal, and Policy Context while at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He served as Associate Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget, in the Executive Office of the President in the Carter Administration.
He is a director of Amgen Inc. and Rohm & Haas Company. He leads the Plasma Proteome Project for the international Human Proteome Organization. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2006. He was elected an Ambassador of the Research!America Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research, serves on the advisery board for the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School and the Salzburg Global Seminar, and is active in numerous international health and science policy initiatives.
Omenn is the author of 439 research papers and scientific reviews and author/editor of 18 books. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the American College of Physicians. He chaired the presidential/congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management ("Omenn Commission"), served on the National Commission on the Environment, and chaired the NAS/NAE/IOM Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy. He received the John W. Gardner Legacy of Leadership Award from the White House Fellows Association in 2004.
He is active in cultural and educational organizations, a musician and tennis player. Omenn received his B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton, M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School, and Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington.
Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor is a pioneer of the personal computing revolution and has been at the forefront of information technology for 30 years as an entrepreneur, software designer, activist, and investor. He is widely known as founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the "killer application" which made the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. He is a co-founder of The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which protects freedom and privacy on the Internet; the founding-Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, maker of the open source web browser Firefox; and a board member of the WikiMedia Foundation, the organization which manages the open source software that powers Wikipedia and other wikis. Kapor is on the cutting edge of exploring the way technology companies can blend the benefit of social missions with the power of traditional corporate structures.
In 1997 Kapor created and endowed the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, a private foundation which works to ensure fairness and equity, particularly for low-income communities of color. Areas of focus for the foundation include responses to the global climate crisis, protecting the integrity of the electoral process, and affording greater access to college education for poeple from under-represented ethnicities.