Board Members

Nicholas Hall, Founder

Nicholas has had many different titles over the years, but the one he is most proud of is being Reece and Graham’s Dad.

Professionally, Nicholas is a Strategic Alliance Director for Ernst & Young. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Indiana University.

“When I saw all that we had going for us in the NICU…a marriage with a solid foundation, supportive employers, excellent health insurance, help from family and a wonderful NICU staff…yet we felt like we were barely surviving, I knew we had to leverage our experience and help make a difference for future parents of preemies.”

Xena Ugrinsky, Board Chair

Xena Ugrinsky is CEO of GenreX Consulting, a strategy consultancy specializing in Business Optimization through data. Formerly, she was a Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Vice President in the Civil Commercial Group. She is engaged in client initiatives to solve business issues through systems modernization that drive broader value across the overall technology portfolio, and helping clients link their advanced data analytics strategy and activity to those initiatives.

Prior to founding GenreX Consulting, Ms. Ugrinsky was a partner at KPMG’s US Advisory practice. She served as the global lead for Enterprise Performance Management and Analytics for KPMG and was part of a firm-wide innovation initiative around Data and Analytics/Big Data.

Ms. Ugrinsky has an MBA in Information Systems in Data from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Hofstra University. She is a Certified Data Scientist from Data Science Central and also a Hackett Certified Advisor and working on completion towards becoming a certified Data Scientist from Johns Hopkins University. Add to these accomplishments, her upcoming book “Enterprise AI – Your Field Guide to the New Business Normal”

Mia Wechsler Doron, MD

Dr. Doron is a neonatologist, co-author of the book, Preemies: the Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies, and co-creator of the MyPreemie app. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she has worked as an attending physician in the newborn intensive care unit; taught medical humanities; co-chaired the hospital-wide ethics committee; and conducted clinical research on decision making for critically ill infants. Dr. Doron received her medical degree from Duke Medical School and has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard Divinity School.

Marie Boone-Clark

Marie Boone-Clark has over thirty-five years of experience in infant nutrition, having held numerous positions at Mead Johnson Nutrition. This exposure led to her passionate support for organizations like Graham’s Foundation.

A Kentucky native, who now lives in Scottsdale (Arizona), Marie enjoys collecting fine art, gardening and travel. Most often, said travels are to visit her daughter, Grace who lives in New York City with her husband, Kenny Louis and to Chicago to spend time her healthy and happy godchildren, Jackson and Quinn.

Christopher Rand, CFA

Chief Executive Officer at AngelEye Health and Managing Director at TriStar Health Partners

Mr. Rand is CEO at AngelEye Health, which promotes bonding for families when they are unable to visit their baby in the nursery. He is also co-founder and Managing Director at TriStar Health Partners. Through his role at Tri-Star, he serves on the Board of Directors for Carrot Medical, InvisionHeart, WorkMeln LLC, Satchel Health, and Evermind, Inc. In addition, he is a Partner in TriStar Technology Ventures.

Prior to co-founding TriStar, Mr. Rand was the Manager of New Venture Development in Vanderbilt’s Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. That responsibility included licensing Vanderbilt intellectual property, assisting in the formation of new start-up companies and working with existing start-ups. Since beginning as the Chancellor’s Fund in 2000, Vanderbilt has invested a significant amount of capital into 30 different Vanderbilt-related companies. Mr. Rand was responsible for managing this portfolio and represented Vanderbilt on the boards of five of these companies.

Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Mr. Rand worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ valuation group, providing consulting and transaction support services. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of
Notre Dame and his MBA from Vanderbilt.

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, MD

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, MD, currently serves as Chief Quality and Innovation Officer at MEDNAX, providing oversight for quality and innovation initiatives across the enterprise, including Telehealth, AI, Genomics, Medical Simulation and Value-Based Care. Additionally, she provides leadership to the MEDNAX Center for Research, Education, Quality and Safety. She previously held leadership roles within the academic, corporate, and non-profit healthcare arenas – most notably VP-Education, Quality and Safety; Chief Patient Safety and Quality Officer; Chief of Compliance and Quality Assurance; Medical Director of Clinical Research Trials; and Medical Director, Managed Care.

In 2003, she completed her post-graduate residency and fellowship training at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She earned her Executive MBA in 2011. Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes is a member of many professional organizations and holds several certifications, such as AI and Bus. Strategy, and Blockchain Tech. and Bus. Innovation, MIT Sloan; Finance, Harvard Bus. School; Negotiation, Harvard Law School; Innov. and Entrepreneurship, Stanford Graduate School of Bus.; Cert. Professional in Healthcare Risk Mgmt.; Fellow, the Am. College of Healthcare Executives; Patient Safety Officer, the Int’l Board Federation of Safety Mgrs.; Master Black Belt in Lean and Six Sigma Mgmt.; Professional in Healthcare Quality, the Nat’l Assoc. of Healthcare Quality; and Mgr. for Quality and Organizational Excellence, the Am. Society for Quality.
Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes has been an active member or chair of numerous non-profit organizations including the American Heart Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and President/Founder of an agency serving the nutritional and fitness needs of children with chronic medical conditions.

Grady Grant, III

Mr. Grant is a retired Executive in Sales and Marketing with over 35 years of leadership experience in the biotechnology industry. He and his family recently relocated to the Atlanta area where he plans to assist students prepare for the next phase of their lives, making the best of a career opportunity. Grady began his journey as a sales representative in Baltimore, Maryland with Eli Lilly and Company and navigated his way to the executive level at multiple organizations including Mead Johnson Nutrition.

Grady looks forward to sharing his skills and expertise with Graham’s Foundation. He also serves on the board of APTEVO Therapeutics, and works as a consultant to Evolve BioSystems, assisting in the development of sales and operations strategy for a recent product launch.

Past Board Members

Chris Becker

Chris is President of Bionix Development Corporation, a local Toledo medical device company that designs, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices to a variety of market segments including Pediatrics and the NICU. With a growing presence in the NICU department of hospitals across the country, Chris and Bionix were introduced to Graham’s Foundation and the tremendous work they do. Since the initial introduction Bionix has supported Graham’s Foundation and as a member of the Board Chris is excited to join a great team of people with a common purpose to help parents of premature babies.

Chris attended the University of Toledo where he received an undergraduate degree in Marketing. He later received a Masters of Business Administration degree, also from the University of Toledo, with a focus in Finance.

Jason Hart

Jason P. Hart is a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager with more than $180 billion in assets under management. Mr. Hart is focused on U.S. real estate opportunities and is based in New York. Since joining Carlyle in 2005, Mr. Hart has been involved with more than $4.0 billion of U.S. real estate transactions including the acquisition, financing, and development of more than 1,300 condominium and 800 rental units, and the re-zoning of over 3.0 million square feet in Manhattan. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Hart was a Vice President of The Praedium Group, LLC in New York where he was responsible for acquisitions in the southwestern United States.

Mr. Hart graduated cum laude from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University with a B.S.B.A. in finance. Mr. Hart currently serves on the Advisory Board for Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Real Estate Finance Initiative.

Mr. Hart currently lives in New York, NY with his wife Amy and their two daughters Allison and Reagan.

“Having spent 130 days in two different NICU’s, including one more than 100 miles from home, we know how trying a period this is for any family. No matter the number of doctors and nurses, and there were plenty, this can be an extremely isolating and lonely time for Mom and Dad. It is my hope that through Graham’s Foundation we can make a difference for other families struggling to make it to the other side of life in the NICU.”

Dr. Alan R. Spitzer

Alan R. Spitzer, MD, recently retired from Pediatrix Medical Group where he served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Center for Research, Education, and Quality. Dr. Spitzer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1972 and did his residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After completing his Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco, he returned to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a Staff Neonatologist. Dr. Spitzer became Chief of the Division of Neonatology and Professor of Pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1989 and subsequently served as Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. In 1999, he left Philadelphia to become Chief of Neonatology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

He joined Pediatrix Medical Group in July 2004, where he oversaw the programs in research, quality improvement, and website and live educational programs. He was a member of the American Board of Pediatrics for 16 years, and a member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at the Department of Health and Human Services from 2011-2014. In 2015, he received the Fanaroff National Education Award from the Neonatal-Perinatal Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics for life-long contributions to pediatric education and research. He remains the Director of the NEO/ Specialty Review Conference, one of the largest gatherings for neonatal medicine in this country, held annually in Orlando, Florida, each February.

Dr. Spitzer has published extensively, with nearly 300 papers, editorials, and book chapters, in the field of Neonatal Medicine. Dr. Spitzer is also an established landscape photographer, and an exhibition of his botanical photographs will be forthcoming at the Evansville Museum of Art from May-July 2017. His photographic work can also be seen on his web site at arsphotos.com.

Jason Zajac, Organizational Development 

The Chief Development Officer at Allegheny Health Network, Jason has worked in volunteer-management, institutional fundraising, and consulting to not-for-profit organizations for 20 years. During this time, Mr. Zajac has served numerous clients in every market sector and assisted worthy causes in their efforts to raise in excess of $700 million.

In his role as a consulting partner to not-for-profit clients, he has distinguished himself in leading the formation of highly customized fundraising plans for complex regional and national organizations. Some of the organizations served in his career include: Adopt America Network, American National Red Cross, Families of Flight 93, National Outdoor Leadership School, Maumee Valley Country Day School, ProMedica Foundation, USA Swimming Foundation, and Yellowstone National Park Foundation.

Mr. Zajac received a B.A. degree from Fordham University where he studied as a member of the Honors Program. He is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and serves as a Trustee of The Toledo Hospital Foundation and as a member of the Development Committee of the Board for St. John’s Jesuit High School and Academy.

“After a difficult pregnancy, we felt both fortunate and overwhelmed when we ended up in the NICU following the delivery of our twin sons at 36 weeks. Looking back almost 8 years later, we are grateful for the support we received from friends, family, and the incredible NICU staff. Because we know how far a little help can go for families in that moment, we are happy to support Graham’s Foundation.” 

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