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Advisory Council

Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati

Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati headshot

Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati is Associate Dean for Community Initiatives and a tenured Professor in Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of USC. She is a Faculty Advisor to Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC).  She is also the Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California. She holds a Courtesy appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is the Director of the KSOM Center for Health Equity in the Americas and of the Immigrant Health Initiative, and Principal Investigator of the Los Angeles Lazarex Wellness Hubs at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is in charge of community outreach and engagement at USC Cancer Center.

Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati is the Executive Producer of the Tamale Lesson, a video that transformed the way we deliver cancer knowledge through narrative to populations, winning awards from APHA and the 10 Year NIH Common Fund. She is also the Director of Es Tiempo, an award winning public education campaign to deliver culturally developed cervical cancer screening messages and monitors increases in information and in screening in Hispanic communities.

Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has a long history of successful NIH funded grants and impactful publications in scientific journals.

Read Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati’s full bio…

Burt Bassler

Burt Bassler headshot

Prior to retiring, Burt was the president of Bassler Associates, Inc., a human resources consulting firm he established in 1982. His clients included such companies as Mattel, Viacom, Reader’s Digest, Universal Studios, Lear Siegler, Alcan Aluminum, and Showtime Networks. For the five years immediately prior to establishing his company, he was Vice President of Human Resources for the DiGiorgio Corporation, a NYSE company headquartered in San Francisco.  Before joining DiGiorgio, Burt was with Eastern Airlines for ten years in a variety of human resources positions, including Director of Employee Relations and Corporate Director of Training and Development.  Prior to Eastern, he headed a personnel unit for the Exxon Corporation.

In addition to serving on Lazarex’s Finance Committee for years, Burt has been on the Board of Hospice of the East Bay for 30 years, serving on the Finance and Investment Committees, and as the founding president of the Hospice of the East Bay Foundation. He has also been on the Board of Save Mount Diablo for 20 years, serving as the Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee. He is also on the Executive and Governance Committees.

Burt received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois and did his graduate work at that school’s Institute of Labor and Employee Relations.

David Dornsife

David Dornsife

Dave Dornsife is Chairman of the Board of the Herrick Corporation (and its subsidiaries), a Stockton, California based steel fabrication and installation company. He is a 1965 graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business. Dave is a USC trustee and is active with the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He is Vice President of the Hedco Foundation, whose mission is health and educational improvement. Dave is a board member for the Yosemite Conservancy. 

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, Dave and his wife, Dana, are active with the Dornsife School of Public Health, Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, Dornsife Center for Experiential Business Education, and the Dornsife Global Development Scholars.

Through World Vision, an international humanitarian agency, Dave and Dana are supporting activities to bring water, sanitation and hygiene to people in 25 countries in Africa. The Dornsifes are also working on sustainable agricultural production in West Africa through the Echo Foundation in Burkina Faso.

Robert G. Johnson, Jr. MD PhD, Chief Medical Officer

Robert G. Johnson, Jr. MD PhD, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Johnson, an MD/PhD (Biochemistry and Biophysics) graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine received his clinical training at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital then joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an Associate Investigator while on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he was recruited as an Associate Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Physiology to UPenn while still a Howard Hughes investigator. Dr. Johnson joined Merck & Co. during the “most admired” years where he ran and expanded several basic science laboratories along with a pre-clinical whole animal group and was a member of a number of clinical project teams. Interested in biotech, Dr. Johnson joined Chiron as VP of Pharmacology and Pre-clinical Affairs and a standing member of the Clinical Development Committee. While at Chiron, he focused on identifying pipeline drug candidates, building pre-clinical development, and led several project teams before moving to the Corporate Development group to assist with licensing and M&A efforts. Dr. Johnson joined Kosan Biosciences as the VP in charge of pre-clinical, clinical, and corporate development when Kosan was a platform and pre-IPO company and helped build a strong portfolio of oncology drug candidates across Phase 1 to 3 clinical trials along with leading significant licensing deals. After Kosan became a public company, Dr. Johnson advanced to Chief Medical Officer and ultimately CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. He has a particular interest in novel targets and delivery systems and in streamlining and restructuring the drug discovery and clinical development process particularly in oncology. Dr. Johnson is presently the COO and an Advisory Board Member of GenVivo, Inc. He is married to Dr. Margaret Liu, and they have two children, Ariana and Matthew.

Kelly Milligan

Kelly Milligan

Co-founded the Barry & Milligan Group at Merrill Lynch in 2000. He works primarily with corporate executives, business owners and professionals to provide holistic, comprehensive wealth management services. He also works with a number of publicly traded and privately held companies on the administration of various corporate benefit programs, including 401(k) and profit-sharing, non-qualified deferred compensation, equity-based compensation, target benefit, split-funded defined benefit and 10(b)5-1 plans. Kelly holds a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPCSM) designation, a Certified 401(k) Professional (C(k)PSM) designation, a Masters in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate from UCLA, as well as a degree in Economics from UC Berkeley. Kelly is a frequent speaker on wealth management topics and has lectured at the San Francisco and San Mateo County Bar Associations, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Anderson School at UCLA, the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He has served as a coach in Merrill Lynch’s Practice Management Development Program and is a current member of the national faculty of Merrill Lynch’s OPM training platform.

Roger Schwab

Roger Schwab

Roger has lived in the San Francisco bay area his entire life. He graduated with honors from both Bellarmine Prep in San Jose and the University of Santa Clara where he earned a Bachelor of Science and Commerce degree, with a minor in philosophy. After college Roger joined the international accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. (AA & Co.) where he became a manager in the audit division, working on a range of clients, including some SEC reporting companies. In 1975 Roger left AA& Co. to become the Vice President and CFO of a company which is today part of The Herrick Corporation (THC). During these last 38 years, Roger has held various offices within the group of companies that comprise THC, including President of the parent company. He was the Vice-Chairman of THC for over fifteen years and retired in 2019.

Roger enjoys golf, travel and finding nice restaurants with good wine lists. Over the years Roger has volunteered at several nonprofit organizations including Goodwill of Santa Clara County, the American Heart Association, the HEDCO Foundation and Lazarex Cancer Foundation.