Our Team

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.

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.

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 39^th 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 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.

Heather Steinman, Ph.D., MBA, is Vice President for Business Development and Executive Director of Technology Transfer at The Wistar Institute, the nation’s first independent research institution devoted solely to biomedical science and a world leader in cancer, immunology, virology and infectious disease research.

Dr. Steinman brings more than 18 years of experience in technology transfer and commercialization of early stage-life science discoveries. She previously served as Director of the Penn Center for Innovation, Perelman School of Medicine Office at the University of Pennsylvania. There, she played an essential role in supporting Penn’s UPstart program. Before that, Dr. Steinman spent more than a decade in roles of increasing responsibility as a technology licensing professional in the Office of Technology Management at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Dr. Steinman holds a doctorate in biomedical sciences from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and an MBA from the university’s Isenberg School of Management. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Baldwin-Wallace College with dual degrees in biology and psychology in the honors program.

Dr. Steinman is passionate about bringing her own experience with cancer research to find answers for pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma patients, such as her husband.

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.