David Mitchell

David Mitchell, 73, is a patient with an incurable — but treatable — blood cancer called multiple myeloma. He depends on drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for his survival, and expects to be in continuous treatment until he dies. Myeloma is smart and finds its way around drugs, so David is a strong supporter of innovation and new drugs to extend his life, and the lives of other patients. But he adamantly believes drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them. The Washingtonian called David “an integral player in forcing the prescription-drug provision into the Inflation Reduction Act.” STAT News reported, “Mitchell has filled an important void as a politically savvy patient advocate who was well-funded but didn’t take a penny from the pharmaceutical industry.” David has more than 40 years of experience working on health care and public health policy as a communications specialist. He helped build and run for more than 30 years GMMB — a cause-oriented, public policy communications firm in Washington, DC. There he worked to reduce teen smoking, increase use of seat belts, fight drunk driving and improve child health and safety. He retired in 2016 to focus his full energy and attention on helping bring about policy change to lower drug costs, launching Patients For Affordable Drugs in February, 2017.

You can follow him on Twitter here.

Email him at [email protected]

Cal LaRoche

Calvin C. LaRoche is a proven leader with 35 years of management experience including significant general management responsibilities. Cal was Chief Operating Officer at The Orkand Corporation, a marquee federal information technology services provider. Later, Cal was a Director of Strategic Development for IBM at the company’s headquarters in Armonk, New York. During a 24-year career with IBM, he directed an information systems sales and marketing organization consisting of 1,200 professionals. Cal later had worldwide responsibility for IBM’s advertising and promotion. Cal was chairman of the Board of Trustees of Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD. Cal is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for Norwood School, an independent K-8 school in Bethesda, MD where he served as Chair from 2012-2015. He is also an active member of the Advisory Board for the Ron Brown Scholars Program.

Charles Hurley

Charles A. (Chuck) Hurley has a long and successful career in public health and safety. After serving in U.S. Naval Intelligence, he was the special assistant to the mayor of Wilmington, Delaware from 1970-71. He worked for Republican Congressman William A. Steiger, coauthor of OSHA, as his legislative director from 1971-74. During that period, Chuck was very involved in the early days of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. He headed the Washington Office for the National Safety Council from 1977-1989, and was senior vice-president of communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety from 1989 to 1996. He led the development of the Click It or Ticket campaign in North Carolina and then its national expansion. He also served as CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving from 2005-2010. Chuck has deep knowledge and experience on moving public policy issues at the state and federal levels.

Tomi Fadeyi-Jones

Tomi Fadeyi-Jones is an accomplished Senior Human Resources Professional with 20 years of experience, including program and project management. She’s held varying leadership roles developing and guiding HR strategy and operations for Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations. In honor of her mother, a breast cancer survivor, Tomi started and captains a team that annually runs and fundraises to support continued research for breast cancer treatment options and drugs. Tomi also serves on the Board of Directors for Horizons Greater Washington, a nonprofit organization designed to empower economically disadvantaged students to realize their full potential.

Jesse Aguirre

Jesse (he/him/él), originally from Southern California, is a recent Boston College graduate with a BA in Political Science and a minor in International Studies with an overall thematic concentration in Ethics and International Social Justice. With local community non-profit work experience during his summers in his hometown, Jesse has worked on helping children and families enjoy resources addressing youth development, family wellness, MFT and counseling services. He is passionate about all things social justice, which includes healthcare reform and believes in the ability to unite and strengthen all patients in America by being able to connect with them via intercultural competence.

Temi Amoye

Temi has worked on political campaigns across the Southeast, most recently at ActBlue. She brings years of experience of advocacy, organizing and coalition building through strategic alignment to P4AD. Temi is a first-generation Nigerian American who received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Frostburg State University and her J.D from Howard University.

Merith Basey

Merith Basey is a passionate advocate for health equity and social justice with deep roots in language and Latin American communities. Her journey began through grassroots organizing in type 1 diabetes communities across Latin America and the Caribbean, where she empowered youth-led initiatives and gained firsthand insights into systemic challenges to medication access. Inspired by this work, she co-founded the 100 Campaign in 2012 to reframe insulin access as a fundamental human right and remove barriers to this life-saving medicine.

With a Master’s degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Merith spent nearly a decade leading student-driven advocacy at Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM). During her time there, she championed a reimagined approach to drug research and development that puts people over profit – a vision underscored by her role in launching the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign in March 2020 in conjunction with the Center for Artistic Activism and UAEM.

Merith joined Patients For Affordable Drugs in 2022 to further the fight against high drug prices in the U.S., bringing her expertise in mobilization, creative problem-solving, and coalition-building to the forefront. As a connector and movement-builder, she serves on the Board of the Center for Artistic Activism and on the Technical Advisory Committee of the ACCISS Study, which addresses global challenges in insulin access. Speaking French, Spanish, and Portuguese, Merith has lived in eight countries across four continents, enriching her global perspective on healthcare.

Wendy Chew

Wendy is a seasoned operations professional in the health care sector with a primary focus in HR administration, lobbying compliance, and finance/budget tracking. Her experience includes five years as VP of Operations at the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO) and 10 years as Sr. Manager, State Government Affairs & Operations at CVS Health.

Jacqueline Garibay

Emma Sands

Emma Sands has spent her career in the realm of issue advocacy and political communications. At BerlinRosen, Emma’s work focused on health and human rights where she orchestrated and led influential issue advocacy campaigns for critical causes related to health equity. Prior to her time at BerlinRosen, Emma played integral roles as the Communications Director and Communications Advisor for gubernatorial campaigns in Minnesota and New Hampshire.

A graduate of Boston University with a degree in communications and political science, Emma has dedicated her career to championing pressing issues and is committed to harnessing the power of personal stories to create long term transformative change.

Ian Seepersaud

Ian (he/him) is interested in creating equitable change through storytelling and lifting up marginalized voices. Before coming to P4AD, Ian worked as a field organizer in rural North Carolina for the 2020 election and interned at The Hub Project, working on health care and tax justice campaigns. He is a graduate of UNC Charlotte, where he studied English and Political Science.

Lisa Ann Trainor

Eileen Garcia

Eileen (she/her/ella) was born and raised in Miami, FL where she obtained her BA in Political Science from Florida International University. Eileen has worked to build Latino influence in politics by helping elect more Latinos to office up and down the ballot, as well as by engaging with BIPOC communities through her work for issue-advocacy nonprofit organizations, political campaigns, and grassroots advocacy. Eileen was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was 23 months old, which began a long journey navigating the U.S. healthcare system and would ultimately lead to her passion for health equity.

Alejandra Borbolla Diaz

Alejandra (she/her/Ella), a native of Cancún, México, holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in business from Widener University. Her passion for bridging language barriers and facilitating access to healthcare led her to volunteer as a translator at a clinic in Philadelphia. Alejandra is eager to leverage her experience in marketing to tackle the challenge of high prescription drug prices and make a tangible impact in making medicines affordable.

Alyson Bancroft