OUR PEOPLE
meet our team!
Board of Directors

Eli Soto
Board Chair
Eli has been working in medical sales for 20 years in the US as well as internationally. Currently, he is a Vice President of an infertility company based in Sweden for North and South America. He has a BS in Biochemistry and an MBA and previously did research in fetal alcohol syndrome, breast cancer and polymer chemistry. In 2013, he was diagnosed with Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome (RCVS) after experiencing his first of many cerebral adrenal events. Physicians were unknowingly treating the symptoms of a pheochromocytoma instead of the underlying disease itself. Like many other patients, the symptom management was unsuccessful. Eli continued to experience cerebral events throughout the years. In 2018, while training at a gym, the cerebral events occured in a much higher frequency to where he needed immediate attention to his illness. A friend suggested searching PubMed and finding who published the latest paper on RCVS and flying to wherever that physician was for an evaluation. Serendipitously, the latest research was a physician in Denver, 2 miles from his business. Even more fortuitous, this neurologist had already diagnosed a pheochromocytoma in his lifetime and suspected a pheo on the first visit. Coincidence or Providence? Eli is estimated to have had a pheo for 10+ years slowly growing inside him. It was ultimately characterized as a Stage III Metastatic Pheochromocytoma. Having previously survived childhood Acute Lymphatic Leukemia, Eli knew the kind of determination it would take to beat this. It took two complex surgeries to remove it all. He is grateful for the team of physicians and healthcare providers at the University of CO that helped him finally achieve remission status in 2019. Without them, and the strong support of his sister and close friends, he would not be able to be the father that his only son deserves today. Eli now hopes to help others like him find the support and resources they need to in order to treat their pheo or para illness.

Matthew Capogreco
Past Chair
Matthew is the Program and Events Coordinator for the Upstate Cancer Center. Having started as a public school teacher Matthew is determined to bring awareness and support to those who share in his disease and those who have yet to learn about it. He was first diagnosed with bi-lateral carotid paragangliomas asymptomatic at the age of 25 after insisting on testing due to a familial history.
During the course of treatment a third tumor was discovered behind the ear near the brain. Both carotid tumors were successfully removed and the brain tumor was treated both surgically and with Gamma Knife radiation. A few years later elevated heart rate and palpitations lead to the discovery of pheos on both adrenal glands and a heart paraganglioma. All three were treated surgically at the NIH and Matthew is currently tumor free. There have been nine documented cases of this disease in Matthew’s family including his father, who lost the battle due to complications with a heart paraganglioma in 2009, and his brother.
Matthew has long lived by the motto “Seven times down, eight times up” and hopes to help relay that to the fight for all pheo para related diseases and the efforts of the Pheo Para Alliance.

Mark Pilkenton
Treasurer
My name is Mark Pilkenton. I’m an executive in a managed IT organization. I was pulled into the world of “rare cancers” with my own diagnosis of paraganglioma in March 2018, just days after my 39th birthday.
Following surgery removing the tumor from my chest and after a year of healing, I wanted to become involved in a community with which I now belonged. After reaching out to the PheoPara Alliance to learn how to become involved, I was asked to consider being a part of the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) as a consumer reviewer. After consideration, I decided to jump in head first. With the nomination letter and application completed, I was interviewed and accepted to fill the role of a survivor member on the review panel. I, alongside, researchers and other rare cancer advocates, were to review and provide feedback on grant applications requesting funding for rare cancer research. With that, I was immediately given approximately two months to review several research funding requests and formulate my understandings and potential impact on the community at large to then share with various researchers, doctors and other scientists to discuss the proposed research. Though I learned quickly my understanding pales drastically in comparison with others on the board, my goal was to provide input from someone who has understood what staring into the face of hopelessness felt like. My input may not have come from a rich understanding of medical science, but feedback wrapped in the hope that ideas to overcome rare cancers offered a tremendous amount of hope for the future for all those impacted by rare cancer.
My time volunteering with this review panel has confirmed that I made the right career choice, primarily, but has also granted me insight into the world of medical research and how things get done. Grant requests for medical research go through an arduous process examining every detail major and minor. The individuals involved from conceptual creation to drafting, review to implementation, are interested in solutions and curing rare cancers. This offers hope for a future relieved of certain unknowns we have today. As a patient, I now more clearly understand that researchers are working very hard on finding answers to improve the lives of those living with rare cancer. I look forward to more experiences with the CDMRP and am excited to represent my community of survivors with paragangliomas and other rare cancers.
In the spring of 2020 I joined the Board of Directors for Pheo Para Alliance.

Linda Rose-Krasnor
Secretary
Linda Rose Krasnor is currently a Professor Emeritus at Brock University, which is located in southern Ontario, Canada. She is a developmental psychologist, with particular research interests in social development and youth engagement. In addition to her teaching and research responsibilities, Linda served as President of the Brock faculty union and was active in the University Senate, serving terms as Chair of the Senate’s Governance and the Planning, Priorities, and Budget Advisory committees. Since becoming involved in the Pheo Para Alliance, Linda has been part of the peer support initiative, helping to develop the peer support training module and facilitating the monthly peer support calls.
Although asymptomatic, in 2009 Linda was assessed for pheocromocytoma/paragangliomas following the diagnosis of multiple paraganglomia in three close family members. Linda’s testing indicated bilateral neck paragangliomas, which subsequently were determined to be glomus vagale tumors. One was been surgically removed in 2016, with accompanying vagal nerve damage resulting in a paralyzed vocal cord and Horner’s Syndrome. With further surgery and extended speech therapy, Linda’s voice has recovered and she is being monitored yearly for growth in the remaining tumor. Linda and her family have the SDHD mutation.
In her role as a Board member, Linda is looking forward to helping advance the important and much needed educational, support, and empowerment functions of PPA and to strengthen its critical role in promoting research into prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. She is specifically interested in increasing our understanding of the socio-emotional implications of living with pheo/para, especially for children and youth.
Linda received her B.A. in psychology from Boston University and her M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Waterloo. In addition to her work with PPA, Linda volunteers as a leader of adult and children’s bereavement groups for Hospice Niagara.

Emily Collins
Board Member
Emily Collins joined the PheoPara Alliance Board of Directors in 2007 to further her commitment and dedication towards achieving increased awareness and research of Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma. In addition to her service on the PheoPara Alliance Board, Ms. Collins has long advocated and participated on behalf of various public interest organizations in the Washington, DC area. While Ms. Collins plays an active role in multiple community initiatives, she has made the advancement of Pheochromocytoma research a primary objective. As both the wife and mother of Pheochromocytoma patients, Ms. Collins understands the far reaching effects of this disease and pledges to work with the Board towards achieving a national awareness of this disease and eventually a cure. Ms. Collins received her Bachelor’s degree from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and resides in Washington, DC. She is married and has three children.

E. Allen Wilson
Board Member
Allen Wilson is a business graduate with over 20 years experience in both the financial and manufacturing sectors. He is Managing Director of the Wilson Group of Companies, based in Belfast, N. Ireland since 1998, which remains on an expansionary path within the chemical manufacturing and specialist recycling markets throughout Ireland and Europe. An avid sportsman, qualified instructor and Hatha yoga tutor, Allen has a zest for life and energy that he is keen to put to good use. He was diagnosed with sporadic metastatic paraganglioma in October 2006 and was appointed to the Board of the Pheo Para Alliance in 2009.
Allen is passionate about using his experience, networking and managerial skills to increase awareness of the work of the all forms of patient support through Pheo Para Patient Initiative. His emphasis is to reach out to patients throughout the world by promoting the pursuit of earlier and better detection and diagnosis of Pheochromocytoma whilst helping to develop improved treatments and ultimately pursue a cure for this rare and orphan group of diseases.

Jacques Lenders, MD PhD FRCP
Chair
Chair, Medical Advisory Board
Jacques Lenders received his MD Degree in 1975 at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. After his training as internist he served as staff member of the Department of General Internal Medicine of the Radboud University Medical Centre. He was deputy-chair of the department from 2005 until he retired at the end of 2012. Since 2008 he works also as a part-time affiliate staff member of the Department of Internal Medicine III, University Medical Center Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany.
In 1988 he defended his thesis ‘Blood pressure and catecholamine reactivity to adrenergic stimulation in essential hypertension’. From 1-8-1991 to 31-12-1992 he worked as a visiting associate in the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the NINDS at the NIH in Bethesda, USA, under supervision of Dr. I. Kopin. There he developed, together with Prof. Graeme Eisenhofer, an assay for measurements of plasma free metanephrines as a diagnostic test for pheochromocytoma. On his return to Nijmegen as staff member, he focused his research on diagnostic and clinical aspects of catecholamine-producing tumors. In Nijmegen he was one of the founders of the Radboud Adrenal Center. He initiated the Working Group on Endocrine Hypertension of the European Society of Hypertension and he is a member of the executive board of the Pheochromocytoma Research Support Organization. He has (co-)authored over 260 research articles, reviews and book chapters. Recently he served as chairman of the Pheochromocytoma/Paraganglioma Clinical Practice Guideline Task Force of The Endocrine Society.
Medical Advisory Board

Jacques Lenders, MD PhD FRCP
Chair
Chair, Medical Advisory Board
Jacques Lenders received his MD Degree in 1975 at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. After his training as internist he served as staff member of the Department of General Internal Medicine of the Radboud University Medical Centre. He was deputy-chair of the department from 2005 until he retired at the end of 2012. Since 2008 he works also as a part-time affiliate staff member of the Department of Internal Medicine III, University Medical Center Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany.
In 1988 he defended his thesis ‘Blood pressure and catecholamine reactivity to adrenergic stimulation in essential hypertension’. From 1-8-1991 to 31-12-1992 he worked as a visiting associate in the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the NINDS at the NIH in Bethesda, USA, under supervision of Dr. I. Kopin. There he developed, together with Prof. Graeme Eisenhofer, an assay for measurements of plasma free metanephrines as a diagnostic test for pheochromocytoma. On his return to Nijmegen as staff member, he focused his research on diagnostic and clinical aspects of catecholamine-producing tumors. In Nijmegen he was one of the founders of the Radboud Adrenal Center. He initiated the Working Group on Endocrine Hypertension of the European Society of Hypertension and he is a member of the executive board of the Pheochromocytoma Research Support Organization. He has (co-)authored over 260 research articles, reviews and book chapters. Recently he served as chairman of the Pheochromocytoma/Paraganglioma Clinical Practice Guideline Task Force of The Endocrine Society.

Justin Annes, MD PhD
Member
Justin Annes received his MD PHD degrees from New York University Medical School (2004) where he studied the regulation of Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-β) activity with Dr. Daniel Rifkin. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine and Clinical Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) / Harvard Medical School (2004-2009). During this period, he worked with Dr. Douglas Melton at Harvard University on understanding the molecular pathways that govern islet β-cell growth. His laboratory interest in Neuroendocrine Cell Biology led him to develop Neuroendocrine Tumor (NET)-focused clinical programs at BWH and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute while a Harvard Medical School Instructor (2009-2012). In 2012, Dr. Annes moved to Stanford University (Assistant Professor) where his Laboratory explores the growth-control of islet β-cells and develops novel animal models of the hereditary Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma (hPPGL) Syndrome. The goals of this research are to understand the molecular mechanisms that control NET development, identify growth-associated cellular weaknesses that may be therapeutically leveraged and prove the benefit of these therapeutic targets in a pre-clinical mouse disease model. Accordingly, Dr. Annes’ laboratory has incorporated the power of medicinal chemistry to explore novel therapeutic approaches to hPPGL-related tumors. Clinically, Dr. Annes has run a hereditary NET-focused clinic at Stanford (Endocrinology) since 2012, which cares for pre-symptomatic and symptomatic NET-affected patients and families. He is Head of Stanford’s Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma Program within the Endocrine Oncology Cancer Program (2018).

Roderick Clifton-Bligh, BSC MB FRACP PhD FFSc
Member
Associate Professor Roderick Clifton-Bligh is Head of the Department of Endocrinology at Royal North Shore Hospital, and conjoint associate professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney. He completed a PhD in the genetics of thyroid disorders at the University of Cambridge. He now supervises dual research groups, one of which focuses on the genetics of endocrine neoplasms, and the other on metabolic bone disease. The Cancer Genetics Unit studies the molecular bases of thyroid cancer, phaechromocytoma/paraganglioma syndromes, adrenal cancer, and pituitary neoplasms. The Metabolic Bone Research Unit studies calcium-sensing receptor gene mutations and FGF23 biology. His scope of clinical practice remains broad. He has co-supervised 8 completed PhDs, including five Endocrinologists. He maintains a strong involvement in teaching and mentoring young physicians.

Lauren Fishbein, MD PhD MTR
Member
Lauren Fishbein, MD, PhD, MTR is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes with a secondary appointment in the Division of Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Vassar College and earned her MD, PhD degree from the University of Florida with a PhD in Molecular Genetics. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and her Endocrinology Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where she also completed a Master’s in Translational Research. Her research and clinical interests are in neuroendocrine tumor genetics with a special focus on pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. Dr. Fishbein has a strong interest in personalized medicine including understanding the impacts and implications of germline predisposition genetics, as well as understanding tumor development and transformation to aggressive and metastatic disease. Among her contributions to the field, she was the first to report the association between somatic ATRX mutations and aggressive pheochromocytoma, and she was the data coordinator for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) integrative genomics study on pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma which revealed potential new markers for aggressive disease. She has served and continues to serve on committees for the Endocrine Society and the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society.

Camilo Jimenez, MD
Member
Dr. Jimenez is a Professor of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. He has performed extensive clinical research in the field of endocrine cancer with a particular interest in pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. Dr. Jimenez was one of the first clinicians to describe the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients affected with sporadic and hereditary malignant pheo and paras. His observations led to the development of prospective multi-institutional and international clinical trials. Dr. Jimenez also characterized inherent complications related to excessive hormonal secretion and tumor burden distinctive of this disease.

Karel Pacak, DSc, MD, PhD
Member
Dr. Pacak is a board-certified endocrinologist and an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, especially pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma. He graduated summa cum laude from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic in 1984. In 1990, he began his postdoctoral fellowship at NINDS. In 1995, Dr. Pacak began his residency in internal medicine at the Washington Hospital Center under Dr. L. Wartofsky, followed by a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at NIH. In 1998, he established a new Program for Neuroendocrine Tumors focusing on pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma at NICHD. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 and his D.Sc. in 1998 in the field of neuroendocrinology from Charles University. In 2006, he was awarded a lifetime professorship in Internal Medicine at Charles University.
Dr. Pacak established the International Symposia on Pheochromocytoma. He also helped co-found a new Asian Alliance for the Study of Neuroendocrine Tumors in 2010. He is a recipient of numerous awards including the Peter Heimann Memorial Award at Yale University, International Association of Endocrine Surgeons; NIH Director’s Mentor Award, Award for Cure from Pheo Para Alliance, NICHD Director’s Award of Merit, Pincus Taft Memorial Lecture the Highest Award from Endocrine Society of Australia, and Jessenius Gold Medal from Slovak Academy of Sciences. Dr. Pacak is the author of more than 305 scientific peer-reviewed articles, 98 book chapters, and 5 books.
Staff
Stephanie Alband
Executive Director
Stephanie Alband, MSBA, joined Pheo Para Alliance in March of 2019. She has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit industry, with ten years working exclusively for rare disease organizations, including the Huntington’s Disease Society of America and Angioma Alliance. Her experience with her daughter’s rare illness has helped her better understand and successfully navigate the unique challenges faced by the rare disease community. Stephanie’s experience in patient advocacy, education, and fundraising is instrumental in growing Pheo Para Alliance to support the patient community and find better treatments and a cure for PPGL.
She lives in San Diego county with her husband and two girls. She enjoys hiking and the outdoors.