Our Board Members
Dr. John M. Cameron, PhD
Dr. Cameron has a long and distinguished career in nuclear physics, medical technology, applications of accelerators and R&D administration. Dr. Cameron recently retired from Indiana University where he was Professor of Physics and Director of the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility from 1987 to 2004. While at Indiana University, he played a pivotal role in the conception of the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute leading it from initial funding through construction. Prior to his position at Indiana University, Dr. Cameron was Professor of Physics and Director of the Nuclear Research Center at the University of Alberta and served as technical Director for the Medical Accelerator Research Institute of Alberta, a heavy ion radiotherapy project. Dr. Cameron has directed major multidisciplinary research and development institutes for the past 20 years and has received over $200 million in grants and contracts. He has served on numerous advisory and review boards for U.S. and foreign research agencies. Dr. Cameron received his undergraduate degree from Queens University, Northern Ireland with first class honors and his PhD from UCLA. In 1988, Dr. Cameron was elected to a fellowship in the American Physical Society. Dr. Cameron is also the Founder, Chairman, President & Director of ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., serves on the Board of SpheroSense Technologies Inc., and is a past Board member of Jill’s House, a not for profit foundation that provides accommodation for patients being treated at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute.
Susan Ralston
Susan Ralston is the President/CEO of Bank @LANTEC headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The National Association of Federal Credit Unions selected her as the “1997 Professional of the Year” and @LANTEC as the “2001 Credit Union of the Year.” Ms. Ralston has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Washington & Jefferson College (Washington, PA) and a Masters degree in Business Administration from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA). She serves as an active board member with the United Way of South Hampton Roads, Hampton Roads Navy League, Virginia Bankers Association (VBA) Management Services Board, and the Better Business Bureau of Hampton Roads. Ms. Ralston also acts as a committee member for VBA Governmental Affairs Committee, American Bankers Association’s Credit Union Committee, and Old Dominion University’s Real Estate Education Foundation & Audit/Finance Committee. After her 2-year old son’s diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma cancer in 2007, she has become a dedicated advocate for children’s cancer initiatives and specifically pediatric proton treatment. Ms. Ralston is the Founder and Executive Director of the Pediatric Proton Foundation, a Virginia non-profit corporation.
Michael Weiner, MD
Dr. Weiner, certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology, is the Director of the Herbert Irving Child & Adolescent Oncology Center at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center and the founder of the Hope & Heroes Children’s Cancer Fund. He has devoted his career to children afflicted with cancer and their families. His particular interests include patients with Hodgkin’s Disease and acute leukemia, and he has been a leading clinical investigator in the development of treatment regimens for patients with these diseases. Dr. Weiner received his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center in Syracuse, New York. His postgraduate training was at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York University and the Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
Michelle Lipton, JD
Michelle Lipton is the Director of Regulatory Compliance for Electric Insurance Company, an affiliate of the General Electric Corporation. Electric Insurance Company operates nationwide and in the European Union and Canada. Prior to her employment at Electric Insurance Company, Ms. Lipton was a junior partner, specializing in the field of health care, at the Boston law firm Nutter, McClennen & Fish. Ms. Lipton has a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law. In 2004, Ms. Lipton was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (grade IV), which recurred in 2009 and for which she received treatment at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center. Ms. Lipton has mentored many brain tumor and other cancer patients through their difficult journeys, and speaks at fundraising events for cancer research.
George B. Foussianes
Mr. Foussianes is a Managing Director in J.P. Morgan Securities’ Consumer & Retail Investment Banking business in New York City. Prior to his employment at J.P. Morgan, Mr. Foussianes worked at Goldman Sachs in a variety of areas including Corporate Finance, Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions. He received a BA in 1980 from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University (Kellogg School) in 1988. While at the University of Michigan, he played baseball and entered the amateur baseball draft in 1980. He was selected by the Detroit Tigers and spent 6 years in the minor leagues also playing for the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. Mr. Foussianes is an active member of the Board of Directors of Youth, I.N.C. (Improving Nonprofits for Children), a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of America’s youth by strengthening the organizations that serve them.
Bertha Kao, MD
Dr. Kao is a neonatologist and pediatrician. She recently joined the Holtzman Twins Newborn Intensive Care Unit as the Associate Medical Director at the Pacific Northwest’s largest newborn delivery service. Prior to her current position, Dr. Kao was the Division Chief of Newborn Medicine at the Framingham Union Hospital Special Care Nursery where she supervised the transition of the unit to a higher level of care. Dr. Kao served on a task force of the Board of Registration of Medicine in Massachusetts involved in patient safety. She was a member of the Perinatal Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. As a patient who received proton beam therapy, she brings both physician and patient perspectives to tumor treatment. She is a practitioner of acupuncture and Qigong. Dr. Kao graduated from the Boston University, and trained at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University Hospital and Children’s Hospital, Boston. She was also a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Peter Chavkin, JD
After serving as a law clerk to United States District Judge James Lawrence King, Peter began his practice by participating in a voting rights case before the United States Supreme Court and a class action on behalf of Haitian refugees. He then was appointed Special Assistant to the head of the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Division in Washington, D.C. during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, where he served as one of the Division’s liaisons to the Solicitor General’s Office, and helped to manage litigation involving the American hostages taken in Iran, as well as challenges to the termination of the Taiwan Treaty, the imposition of an oil import tariff, and the publication of a former CIA agent’s book. He subsequently was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York where, under United States Attorneys Edward Korman and Raymond Dearie, he conducted over a dozen felony trials and investigated major tax, fraud, and corruption matters. He also argued a dozen cases before the Second Circuit. Later, he was a senior partner at Stillman & Friedman, where he practiced law from 1985 to 2006 before moving to Mintz Levin’s New York Office. Peter is on the Board of Directors of the American Friends of the Hebrew University and spends Saturday mornings working with specially challenged kids through the Long Island Junior Soccer League.
Peter received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Gregory P. Taxin
Mr. Taxin is the founder and Managing Member of Spotlight Advisors, LLC (and was previously a co-founder of Spotlight Capital Management, LLC), an investment management firm focused on investing in small- and mid-cap stocks in the United States on behalf of pension funds and high net worth families. Previously, Mr. Taxin was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Glass, Lewis & Co., an independent research firm that analyzes the corporate governance and accounting practices of more than 15,000 public companies in 65 countries. Mr. Taxin was previously a senior investment banker at Banc of America Securities and Epoch Partners, both in San Francisco. Mr. Taxin was also a Vice President in the investment banking department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and was an attorney with the New York corporate law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Taxin is Chairman of Soundboard Review Services, LLC, a firm that independently reviews corporate board actions and processes.
Elizabeth Wahab
Elizabeth Wahab is currently the Global Head of Finance and Funds for the Merchant Banking Division. She joined Goldman Sachs as a banker in the Leveraged Finance Group in 1998, served as COO of the Goldman Sachs Foundation from 2004-2005, and was COO/CFO of the Mezzanine Debt Group within MBD from 2005-2009. Elizabeth has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Iana Dimkova
Iana Dimkova graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations. After working for Mintz Levin, a corporate law firm specializing in intellectual property and biotechnology, she joined the Business Development Group of ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. Ms. Dimkova serves as a volunteer initiative coordinator for Sunflower Children, a non-profit organization providing healthcare and educational services to disadvantaged children in 17 countries. Previously, she held the position of Director of Development for a charity that offers university scholarships to vulnerable young adults in Rwanda.
