Board of Directors

David Mitchell

President and Founder

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David Mitchell

President and Founder

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 david@patientsforaffordabledrugs.org

Cal LaRoche

Director and Treasurer

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Cal LaRoche

Director and Treasurer

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

Director

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Charles Hurley

Director

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

Director

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Tomi Fadeyi-Jones

Director

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.

Our Staff

Jesse Aguirre

Bilingual Organizer & Program Assistant

Jesse Aguirre

Bilingual Organizer & Program Assistant

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

Advocacy & Organizing Director

Temi Amoye

Advocacy & Organizing Director

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

Executive Director

Merith Basey

Executive Director

Merith’s commitment to health equity began nearly two decades ago working alongside young people living with type 1 diabetes in Ecuador. Her formative grassroots organizing combined with a master’s degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine motivated her to co-found the 100 Campaign in 2012, aimed at reframing the narrative around insulin access as a human rights issue and reducing the barriers to access.

Most recently, Merith served for eight years as executive director of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in North America, an international, student-driven organization that seeks to improve access to and affordability of life-saving medicines researched and developed at universities. In March 2020, she launched the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign via UAEM and, in conjunction with the Center for Artistic Activism, to advocate for equitable access to COVID tests, treatments, and vaccines.

Merith is a connector, a movement-builder and a creative. She also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the ACCISS study addressing the Challenges and Constraints of Insulin Sources and Supply. She speaks French, Spanish and Portuguese.



Wendy Chew

CFO/COO

Wendy Chew

CFO/COO

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

Intern

Jacqueline Garibay

Intern

Jacqueline Garibay is originally from Austin, Texas, and is now in her last year of study at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. In May she will be receiving her dual BA in Political Science and Economics. Jacqueline began her involvement in health advocacy when she was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) at nineteen and came face to face with the steep prices of her medication. Since then, she has worked as an advocate with P4AD on Capitol Hill and back home in Texas.

Emma Sands

Media & Communications Director

Emma Sands

Media & Communications Director

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

Communications Coordinator

Ian Seepersaud

Communications Coordinator

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 healthcare and tax justice campaigns. He is a graduate of UNC Charlotte, where he studied English and Political Science.

Lisa Ann Trainor

Social Media Assistant

Lisa Ann Trainor

Social Media Assistant

After experiencing the consequences of exploitative prescription drug pricing firsthand, Lisa (she/her) started working with Patients For Affordable Drugs as a patient advocate in 2020. Since then, Lisa’s story has been featured by CBS New York, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and BBC Arabic. A writer and social media strategist, Lisa specializes in digital advocacy to create change through content.
Eileen Garcia

Communications Consultant

Eileen Garcia

Communications Consultant

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.

OUR STORIES

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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on achieving policy changes to lower the price of prescription drugs.