Maria Adler M.B.A.
Vice President, Finance

Maria Adler joined the foundation in 2002, after spending 10 years working in finance at JP Morgan Chase where she was the Business Manager for the electronic foreign exchange trading suite of products. At the foundation, Ms. Adler is responsible for all aspects of Finance and Human Resources. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Villanova University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Marta Benedetti Ph.D.
Associate Director for Research

Dr. Marta Benedetti joined the Simons Foundation in 2007. In her role as the Associate Director for Research, she contributes to the evaluation and management of the Foundation's research portfolio, as well as the planning of new research directions relevant to autism. Prior to joining the Simons Foundation, Dr. Benedetti worked for a number of other health-related foundations in various capacities, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (Scientific Manager) and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (consultant). Her scientific research, first at the University of Rome, and then as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Moses Chao at Cornell University Medical College, focused on the structure, function, and signal transduction mechanisms of the nerve growth factor receptor. Subsequently, as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Peter Scheiffele at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Benedetti studied the molecular mechanisms of synaptogenesis in the central nervous system. While earning her degree at the University of Rome, she also worked in the field of animal behavior and on the neuropharmacology and neurophysiology of the dopaminergic system. In addition, Dr. Benedetti's professional experience includes medical writing and editing, and she has translated a number of textbooks and monographs in child neurology, neurobiology and psychiatry from English into Italian.

Meghan Criswell
Administrative Assistant

Meghan joined the Simons Foundation in 2008 after working for seven years as an executive assistant at the American Institute of Mathematics in Palo Alto, California. Meghan enjoys being actively involved in community-based organizations and events such as the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, in which she has participated for the past 10 years.

David Eisenbud Ph.D.
Vice President for Mathematics

David Eisenbud received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1970 at the University of Chicago under Saunders MacLane and Chris Robson, and was on the faculty at Brandeis University before coming to Berkeley, where he became Professor of Mathematics in 1997. He served as Director of MSRI from 1997 to 2007. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Bonn, and Paris. In 2009 Eisenbud took the position of Vice President for Mathematics and the Physical Sciences at the Simons Foundation, a position he will occupy while maintaining some of his activities at Berkeley.

Eisenbud was President of the American Mathematical Society from 2003 to 2005. He is a Director of Math for America, a foundation devoted to improving mathematics teaching. He is Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Algebra and Number Theory, which he helped found in 2006, and serves on several other editorial boards. He has been a member of the Board of Mathematical Sciences and their Applications of the National Research Council, and is currently a member of the U.S. National Committee of the International Mathematical Union. In 2006 Eisenbud was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Eisenbud's mathematical work and interest has ranged over commutative and non-commutative algebra, algebraic geometry and topology, and computer methods. He is a member of the group developing the computer algebra system Macaulay2. His major research contributions have been focused on the study of algebraic curves and their moduli, and in the commutative algebra and algebraic geometry related to free resolutions.

Gerald D. Fischbach M.D.
Scientific Director

Dr. Fischbach joined the Simons Foundation in early 2006 to oversee the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Formerly Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences at Columbia University, and former Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the N.I.H. from 1998-2001, Dr. Fischbach received his M.D. degree in 1965 from Cornell University Medical School and interned at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle. He began his research career at the National Institutes of Health, serving from 1966 – 1973. He subsequently served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, first as Associate Professor of Pharmacology from 1973 – 1978 and then as Professor until 1981. From 1981 – 1990, Dr. Fischbach was the Edison Professor of Neurobiology and Head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine. In 1990, he returned to Harvard Medical School where he was the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology and Chairman of the Neurobiology Departments of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital until 1998.

Throughout his career, Dr. Fischbach has studied the formation and maintenance of synapses, the contacts between nerve cells and their targets through which information is transferred in the nervous system. He pioneered the use of nerve cell cultures to study the electrophysiology, morphology, and biochemistry of developing nerve – muscle and inter-neuronal synapses. His current research is focused on roles that neurotrophic factors play in determination of neural precursor fate, synapse formation, and neuronal survival. Dr. Fischbach is a past-President of the Society of Neuroscience and serves on several medical and scientific advisory boards.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the Institute of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a non-resident Fellow of the Salk Institute.

Chris Fleisch B.S.
Technology Manager

Chris Fleisch started at the Simons Foundation in 2007. Prior to joining the Foundation he was the Webmaster for the Greenwood Publishing Group. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2003, where he studied Information Technology.

Andrea Gallego B.A.
Executive Assistant to Marilyn Simons

Andrea Gallego joined the Simons Foundation in 2008. Prior to joining the Foundation, Andrea spent four years interning for Lehman Brothers and a year working full time. She spent three years at Stony Brook University and one year at the London School of Economics. She is an active volunteer with Imentor and an alumnus of Inroads, Inc. She is also a participant and Team USA member of the USA triathlon association.

Adrienne Greenberg B.S.
Business Manager

Adrienne Tauro-Greenberg joined the Simons Foundation in 2008. In her role as Business Manger she is responsible for vendor and contract management as well as the financial and operational aspects of grants management. Adrienne has over 22 years of experience in business and operations management. Prior to joining the Simons Foundation, she was an Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase, working on the North American Currency and Commodities Trading desk. Adrienne received a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education and Psychology from Springfield College.

Marion Greenup M.P.H., M.Ed.
Vice President, Administration

Marion Greenup joined the Simons Foundation in 2007 as Vice President for Administration. She is responsible for developing and managing administrative systems and policies to support the Foundation's programs. Ms. Greenup earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Harriet Sophie Newcomb College, a Masters of Arts in Education in Early Childhood Development from Tulane University, and a Masters of Public Health from Columbia University School of Public Health. She has worked in health and university administration for over 20 years. Most recently, Ms. Greenup was the Administrative Director of the New York University Child Study Center and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Previous appointments include Assistant Vice President of Administration at Columbia University Health Sciences and Department Administrator of Pediatrics at Columbia University. She also served as Senior Vice President of Education and Health Promotion at the March of Dimes, where she led the development of educational programs for consumers and health professionals.

Fang Han B.B.A, C.P.A.
Accounting Manager

Fang joined the Simons Foundation in 2009. She previously worked as a senior auditor at American Express, where she was responsible for risk assessment, audit planning and execution of the corporate treasury, financial reporting and regulatory reporting functions. Prior to American Express, she worked as a senior consultant at Deloitte & Touche. While at Deloitte, she assisted clients in assessing and enhancing their risk/control framework as well as led and performed annual financial audits in the financial service sector. She is a certified public accountant in the state of New York and earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from Baruch College.

Stephen Johnson Ph.D.
Informatics Director

Dr. Johnson completed his doctorate in computer science at New York University. He is currently an associate professor in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University. His role at the Simons Foundation is to develop and coordinate information systems to support collaborative research in autism. He has spent the last 20 years researching information systems that support collaboration in patient care, clinical research and basic research. Early research focused on creating online medical record systems that enable clinicians to share information during the process of patient care. Currently, Dr. Johnson directs the informatics resource for the Irving Institute at Columbia, developing a large scale system to support collaboration among investigators engaged in clinical and translational research. These projects combine research interests in the sociology of science, linguistics applied to scientific discourse and methods for diffusing new innovations into scientific practice.

Apoorva Mandavilli M.S., M.A.
Executive Editor

Apoorva Mandavilli joined the Simons Foundation in 2007. In her role as Executive Editor, she manages an interactive website for the Foundation with the latest news and information on autism research. For the five years prior, Apoorva was senior news editor for the leading biomedical journal Nature Medicine. She has also worked as US news editor of the online publication BioMedNet, as health editor of the website About.com, as a reporter for a weekly newspaper and dabbled in radio journalism. She has a master's in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a second master's in science journalism from New York University. Her work has been featured in a variety of media outlets including Nature, Discover, Technology Review, Women's Health, O The Oprah Magazine and National Public Radio's Science Friday.

Amy Millette B.A.
Manager, Conferences & Events

Amy Millette joined the Simons Foundation in 2007. Prior to joining the Foundation, Amy spent three years working in finance, first at Citigroup Smith Barney in their Private Wealth Management division and then at Renaissance Technologies Corp. in their marketing group. Amy received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dave Mosher B.S., B.A.
Web Editor

Dave Mosher joined the Simons Foundation in 2009. Prior to joining the Foundation, Dave assembled, launched and produced the Discovery Channel's exclusive website about space. His work also appears at USAToday.com, MSNBC.com, nature.com, ScienceNOW.org, SPACE.com and LiveScience.com and other online outlets as well as within DISCOVER and symmetry magazines. Dave graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.A. in Journalism from the Ohio State University.

Alan Packer Ph.D.
Associate Director for Research

Dr. Alan Packer joined the Simons Foundation in 2009 as an Associate Director for Research. He earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Genetics from the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. His graduate work, with Rosemary Bachvarova, focused on germ cell development using the mouse as a model system. With Debra Wolgemuth at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, he carried out postdoctoral work on developmental control genes (Hox genes) and the mechanisms of their regulation in the mouse embryo. In 2000 Dr. Packer joined the editorial staff of Nature Genetics, the leading journal in the field of genetics, where he was involved in all aspects of the journal's production. His responsibilities included overseeing peer review of submitted manuscripts, with an emphasis on the genetics of human disease, as well as commissioning reviews, writing press releases and editorials, updating the journal's website, and preparing special issues of the journal. He served as acting editor in 2002-2003. During his tenure at Nature Genetics he established a wide range of contacts in the genetics community through attendance at meetings and visits with scientists in their labs. Dr. Packer has also done freelance writing on a number of topics for Nature and other scientific publications.

Lauren Rath B.A.
Grants Associate

Lauren joined the Simons Foundation in 2007. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and French Literature from Rutgers University in 2006.

John Spiro Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director for Research

Dr. John Spiro joined the Simons Foundation in 2007 as an Associate Director for Research and is involved in all aspects of the Foundation's research initiatives in the field of autism. He earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from Haverford College and his PhD from the University of California at San Diego. His thesis was based on work in the laboratory of the late Walter Heiligenberg and his postdoctoral work was with Richard Mooney at Duke University. His research interests were in cellular and systems neuroscience, and he focused on preparations where it was possible to forge links between cellular neurobiology and behavior. In 2000 Dr. Spiro joined Nature Publishing Group as an editor at Nature Neuroscience, a leading neuroscience journal, where he was involved in evaluating research findings across the field of neuroscience, including autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. In 2004 he joined the prestigious general science journal Nature as a Senior Editor on the biology team, where he oversaw a group of editors responsible for editorial decisions and peer review of manuscripts across all areas of neuroscience — ranging from molecular development to functional imaging and behavior. In addition he gained experience in communicating science with both professional scientists and the public through his involvement in commissioning, editing and writing editorials, book reviews and other material for the journal and related web based resources. Throughout his time as an editor he maintained close ties to the research community by regularly attending meetings and making laboratory visits in the US and abroad.

Sherrie Vassallo M.B.E.
SFARI Project Manager

Sherrie joined the Simons Foundation in 2009 and holds a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from Syracuse University and a Masters Degree in Biomedical Ethics from the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as a research facilitator at the Clinical and Translational Science Center at Weill-Cornell Medical College, where she was responsible for serving as a liaison among researchers and clinicians in an attempt to create multi-disciplinary collaborations. She also developed translational research teams consisting of researchers from the various CTSC member institutions and assisted with the development of research protocols and regulatory related documents. In addition, she serves on the Institutional Review Board at Weill-Cornell Medical College. Prior to this she was a research coordinator in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the research lab at the Molecular Cardiology Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Society of Clinical Research Associates and is a Certified Clinical Research Professional. Sherrie also serves on the Jr. Board of the National Eating Disorders Association as well as the Program Committee of the New York Penn Club, and volunteers with the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation.

Patricia Weisenfeld M.P.A.
Director of Family Giving

Patty's work at the Simons Foundation involves working with Board, staff, community members and grantees to manage, and enhance, the personal philanthropy of Simons' family members and the discretionary grant making of the Foundation. Patty brings a broad range of experience in not-for-profit management with a focus in public health and organizational development. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2008, she spent ten years based in southeast Asia on assignment with international non-governmental organizations including Pathfinder International, Planned Parenthood, the Asian Development Bank, the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Patty holds a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of Stony Brook and a Masters of Public Administration from New York University's Wagner School of Public Service.