In 2015, Brandi Dean founded the Dean Center for Tick-Borne Illness at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Her personal experience as a young mother with Lyme disease led her to identify a need for a multidisciplinary center to treat individuals suffering from persistent tick-borne illness. Acting as an advisor and advocate, she joined hands with both physicians and leadership at Spaulding Rehab to help open the first center embedded in a major academic medical institution focused on treating patients with chronic tick-borne illnesses. Brandi continues to serve as an active Advisory Board member for the Dean Center for Tick-Borne Illness. Her story has been featured in the Boston Globe, DoctorOz.com, Good Housekeeping, and WCVB.

Brandi has been a passionate advocate for patients with Lyme disease since 2011 and most recently for children and adolescents with PANS and PANDAS.

Brandi’s determination to make a positive difference in the lives of patients with Lyme disease is additionally demonstrated in her leadership of Ride Out Lyme, a charity event she designed and that raises financial grants for adults with the tick-borne illness. The event is held annually at SoulCycle in Boston, NYC, and Los Angeles with expansion into other cities.

Prior to her work in the field of Lyme disease, Brandi's professional life included a four-year tour of duty in the United States Coast Guard. Brandi also has a decade of experience in leadership in the hospitality industry and has a degree in Business from Boston University

In a consulting capacity as Principal of NVantage Consulting LLC, Nancy spearheaded communications and fundraising efforts for the Lyme Disease Research Foundation and helped achieve their goal of establishing a research center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the spring of 2015. She continues to consult for the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center, leading their education outreach and communications efforts. In addition, Nancy provides strategic communications consulting to innovative healthcare companies through her role as Senior Counsel for MacDougall Advisors, a Boston-based life sciences communications agency.

Previously, Nancy was Vice President-Investments for MFS, a Boston-based investment management firm. Nancy was MFS’ biotechnology and pharmaceutical equity analyst for over a decade. She also served as an officer of the Health Care Analysts of Boston and ran their speaker series for several years.

Nancy has served on the Advisory Board of the Dean Center at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston since 2015. She received the Massachusetts Outstanding Parent Arts Education Advocate Award presented at the State House in Boston in 2011 for her leadership in arts advocacy in the Commonwealth.

Nancy Dougherty holds a B.A. in economics from Williams College where she graduated Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. After raising 3 boys in the Boston area, Nancy and her husband, Don, now live in Portsmouth NH.

Sheilah Gauch is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW).  She also holds a Masters in Educational Organizational Management and is licensed as a Principal and Special Education Administrator. Sheilah has been working with children with significant mental health needs for over 20 years. She is currently the Principal of Dearborn Academy, a Chapter 766 Private Therapeutic Day School.

Sheilah serves as the Chair of her local Special Education Advisory Council (SEPAC). She has two children of her own who have required special education services. Both of her children were ultimately diagnosed with Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep (PANDAS).  Sheilah is an active advocate for PANS/PANDAS awareness. She co-founded the Massachusetts Coalition for PANS/PANDAS legislation. This group led the grassroots advocacy effort in Massachusetts that supported the passage of S2984, a health care bill that included both the creation of a PANS/PANDAS Advisory Council and a mandate that insurance companies must provide coverage for the disease.  Sheilah received the 2021 Commonwealth Heroine Award for her work with SEPAC and PANS/PANDAS.

Sheilah attended the University of Texas where she was an All-American swimmer as well as Olympic Trial participant. Her experience as a collegiate athlete reinforced for her the value and importance of teamwork, perseverance and resiliency – all values she feels are essential to her work in supporting children, and their families and systems, with complex mental health needs.

Christine received a BBA from New York University and a JD from Brooklyn Law School.  After working for the New York State Court of Appeals and a trial judge in Manhattan, Christine devoted her practice to appellate law and complex litigation.  Multiple moves with her family, including five years in Ireland, taught her the importance of community based upon common grounds and new discoveries.  When her younger son developed PANS, she put her research and advocacy skills to work to find answers for her son, find a new community, and help other families dealing with this diagnosis.  Christine and her family have settled in Rye, New Hampshire.  She is thrilled to be part of The Alex Manfull Fund to advance research and awareness.

Marina was born and raised in Michigan with her younger brother, Joseph. After growing up watching her brother suffer from PANDAS that was misdiagnosed for 12 years, she felt compelled to pursue a career in neuroscience. Marina received her BS from Carnegie Mellon University in cognitive neuroscience as a student-athlete, and her MS from Tulane University also in neuroscience. She dedicates both of her degrees in neuroscience not only to her brother, but to all PANS/PANDAS patients and their families.

Marina currently lives in Washington D.C. and is an advisory member of the POND Brain Bank at Georgetown and is the Post-Mortem Core Manager for Target ALS. She is currently applying to medical school and hopes to specialize in neurology. In her free time, she loves playing tennis, volunteering, traveling, running, cooking, and spending quality time with friends and family.

Marina first learned about the Alex Manfull Fund at the Autoimmune Encephalitis Post-Streptococcal Evaluation & Treatment Conference in 2019, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue advancing awareness and research of PANDAS as a member of the board.

Daniela Sosa-Sarkar is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as a Licensed Psychologist in Caracas, Venezuela. She received her degree and license in psychology from the Venezuelan Catholic University in 1996 and obtained her Doctorate in Psychology (Psy.D.) from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in 2000. 

During her doctoral studies, she worked at The Latino Mental Health Program and Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where she participated in different capacities for the length of her studies. 

Daniela has years of experience working/training in different settings: hospitals, psychiatric emergency services, community mental health centers, and private practice. She has also worked as a teacher at the Catholic University in Venezuela, developing and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in Violence and Trauma as well as Cognitive Behavioral Interventions.

In her private practice, she specializes in individual psychotherapy for adults. Her clinical focus is on trauma and stress-related disorders, as well as mood, anxiety, and behavioral disorders. In 2021 she obtained a Certificate in Integrative Mental Health to expand her understanding of the biological correlates to Mental Illness. That same year, her 11-year-old son August was diagnosed with tick-borne illness, and subsequently with PANS. 

Her personal and professional experiences have provided her with a profound sensitivity and respect toward individual differences and an understanding of mental illness within a broad and integrative framework, where the mind cannot be dissected away from the biological body it inhabits nor from the social environment that surrounds it. 

As a mother of a child with post-infectious neuroimmune disorder and a mental health practitioner and advocate, Daniela has a unique understanding of human suffering from different perspectives and vantage points. 

She is a founding member of the Virginia Alliance for Pans/Pandas Action, an advocacy group advancing legislation for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the post-infectious neuroimmune disorder (PANS/PANDAS)

Daniela was born and raised in Caracas Venezuela. She relocated to the United States in 2002. She lived in Miami, Florida for over 7 years. In 2010 she moved to Virginia, where she lives with her husband Sonny, and her three children Mila, August, and Sofia. She is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Bill Stadler began his career in mental health services in the Boston area, developing highly individualized program models of residential support for people with mental health as well as cognitive and physical issues. Bill and his wife Christine lived in the Portsmouth area when they were first married. During that time, Bill co-founded a "Theatre in Education" company using theatre and group discussion to address multiple social challenges in students' lives including: Living with a Learning Disability, Child Abuse, Teen Suicide, Peer Pressure, and Substance Abuse. Performances took place in schools and public settings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Along with family growth, Bill’s career focus changed as he spent several years working for Fidelity Investments, eventually as a Financial Planning Consultant in the Portland, ME and Greenwich, CT offices. Bill is a Certified Financial Planner®, and a Registered Life Planner® through the Kinder Institute of Life Planning. He’s currently developing a niche financial planning practice focused on the transitions of “Senior Life” and the aging process, while working for Post University in Waterbury, CT.

In his roles at Post, Bill guides international students through the maze of the student visa process and teaches personal financial planning. Bill and Chris traveled to China in the early 2000s to adopt their daughter, who is now a Junior at The George Washington University. Bill, Chris, Annika, their dog Coco and cat Libby, currently make their home in Trumbull, CT.

Having known Alex since her birth, I consider it a privilege to honor her life in this way.

Barbara Erban Weinstein has been a health care executive in the private and public sectors for over thirty years.  Most recently, Ms. Weinstein has served as a consultant to UMass Memorial Health where she previously held senior management positions.

She served as the Commissioner of the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a position appointed by the Governor.  Barbara held executive vice president and senior vice president positions in Southern California for two financial institutions; prior to that she worked as a consultant for Bain & Company in Boston.

Ms. Weinstein earned an MBA from Harvard University and a BA in Economics and a certificate in Russian Studies from Princeton University. She served on the boards and as treasurer of several organizations including the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium and the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.

Her connection to The Alex Manfull Fund is deeply personal – Alex and Barbara’s son were high school and college classmates, competitive rowers together, and devoted friends.  Alex’s parents and Barbara and her husband spent many happy times manning the parent food tent at their children’s crew races.