Board of Directors
David Mitchell
President and Founder
David Mitchell, 68, is a patient with an incurable—but treatable—blood cancer called multiple myeloma. He was diagnosed in 2010. He relapsed in 2014. He depends on drugs 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 says drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them. David has 40 years of experience working on health care and public health policy as a communications specialist. He has worked to reduce teen smoking, increase use of seat belts, to fight drunk driving and improve child health and safety. He helped build and run for more than 30 years GMMB—a cause-oriented, public policy communications firm in Washington, DC. He retired in 2016 to focus his full energy and attention on helping bring about policy change to lower drug costs.
You can follow him on Twitter here.
Email him at [email protected]
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
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
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
Audrey Baker
Communications Director
Audrey (she/her) has worked in advocacy communications for over five years, most recently at M+R, where she led earned media strategy for reproductive rights, criminal justice, housing, food advocacy, and humanitarian campaigns. She has also worked as an organizer for local, state, and federal campaigns across the country. Originally from the Bay Area, California, Audrey is a graduate of University of California Berkeley (Go Bears), where she double-majored in Sociology and Theater Performance studies. She is passionate about making health care accessible to all Americans, and believes in the power of uplifting patients’ voices in the news in order to influence legislation.
Wendy Chew
Chief Operations Officer
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.
RaeAnn Ensworth
Digital Associate
RaeAnn Ensworth (she/her) joins Patients For Affordable Drugs as a digital associate. Before working at P4AD, RaeAnn had a wide range of experiences from working in the Senate Democratic Media Center to coordinating sorority recruitment at her undergrad, Ohio University. She believes in creating a more equitable system for all and is passionate about elevating other people’s voices.
Danny Finley
Organizing Manager
Danny Finley (he/him) works to recruit, grow, and organize the Patients for Affordable Drugs’ patient community. Before working for P4AD, Danny worked on several political campaigns as an organizer and spent a year in Brazil as an English Teaching Assistant through a Fulbright grant. His belief in the possibility of an equitable health care system where patients can afford the drugs they need brought him to P4AD and inspires his daily work. He is a graduate of Tulane University, where he studied Economics and Finance through the Altman Program in International Studies.
Sarah Kaminer Bourland
Legislative Director
Sarah (she/her) has six years experience working as a registered nurse in community health and critical care nursing. She decided to enter health policy after seeing the many barriers encountered by her patients as they tried to access affordable health care. While studying health policy, Sarah became disturbed about the realities of the pharmaceutical industry and eager to make an impact on drug pricing policy.
Sarah received her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from UNC Chapel Hill and her MPH in Health Policy from Harvard University.
Juliana Keeping
Chief Writer-Editor
Before landing at Patients for Affordable Drugs, Juliana spent more than a decade as an investigative journalist. Juliana is a mom to two, including Eli, who has cystic fibrosis. Her son was hospitalized after her family could not afford a medication, which led her to serve as a volunteer patient advisor to P4AD starting in 2017. She agreed to move her family to Washington to continue her work on behalf of this cause as communications director and is excited to help elevate the patient voice in the media to policymakers and the public.
You can follow her on Twitter here.
Natalie Litton
Policy Analyst
Natalie has worked in health care policy both at the state level and on Capitol Hill. She is excited to bring her combination of advocacy and legislative experience to the fight for lower drug prices. Natalie graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in political science and history and is committed to increasing access to high-quality, affordable, equitable health care for all.
Tori Saylor
Digital Director
Tori (she/her) has worked in advocacy and digital communications for over five years, most recently as Deputy Digital and Creative Director for Governor Gretchen Whitmer. After she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2019, Tori became a patient advocate herself and is thrilled to have the opportunity to amplify patient voices through her role at P4AD.
Lauren Stanford
Community Organizing Director
A diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes at the age of six led Lauren to become a lifetime patient advocate who, as a volunteer and in her career, has fought for everything from research funding to drug and treatment affordability. Prior to joining the team at Patients for Affordable Drugs, Lauren worked on grassroots digital advocacy and public policy in the nonprofit sector. Lauren received her Bachelor’s Degree in Political and Persuasive Communications and American Government from George Mason University in Northern Virginia, and was born and raised in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She looks forward to working at P4AD where she can make a real difference in drug pricing.
Jema Stubblefield
State Advocacy Manager
Jema works closely with P4AD patients to bring their stories to the forefront of the fight to lower drug prices. She believes in holding drug companies accountable and making sure every patient has the access that they need.
Jema received her Bachelor’s Degree at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.V. She is passionate about the amplifying patient voices and stories in the fight for affordable drugs.
Lucy Westerfield
Deputy Executive Director
Over the last few years, Lucy has worked with the P4AD team in a variety of roles to bring the patient voice to the fight for lower drug prices. She additionally brings policy, communications, and organizing experience to P4AD from her time on Capitol Hill and on political campaigns.
Originally from Denver, Colorado, Lucy graduated with a degree in biology from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is passionate about the power of patient and constituent voices (and well-designed spreadsheets) in the fight for affordable and accessible health care.
Hattie Xu
Program and Communications Manager
Hattie’s experience with a childhood autoimmune disease and passion for building a more equitable health care system motivated her to join P4AD as a program assistant. Before P4AD, she served as a senior editor for her college newspaper and as a writer for several other publications, including The Sacramento Bee. Hattie graduated with a degree in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University in 2019.
Advisory Panel
Clayton McCook
Father to daughter with diabetes and husband to breast cancer patient
Nicole Solomon Mitchell
Co-founder and breast cancer patient
