Partners

Jan acts as president of Baszucki Group. A former Silicon Valley fintech marketing executive, Jan is a writer, parent, mental health advocate and aspiring citizen scientist. She is the author of the national bestselling debut novel, A Small Indiscretion, which was a San Francisco Chronicle recommended book of 2015. Her essays have appeared in publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Writer’s Digest, and her short fiction has received numerous awards, including an O. Henry Prize for her first published story.

Sophia has over 20 years of experience with drug development, including clinical data analysis, and managing statistical programming teams to ensure successful delivery of clinical study analysis requirements. After losing her newborn daughter, Miriam, to a rare disease, Leigh syndrome in 2017, Sophia volunteered her time and experience to help the rare disease community. Sophia has been involved in multiple efforts with the goal of raising awareness in the mitochondrial disease community and general rare disease community regarding patient registries and what is involved with collecting high quality data that can be used for research. Sophia is proud to be a board member and a patient registry director for Cure Mito Foundation, where she is leading a global Leigh syndrome patient registry.

Kate has extensive experience working with early start-up businesses and pivoted into not-for-profit after founding her own national children’s charity – created after her son was diagnosed with a complex, chronic illness at the tender age of 5.

Kate joined MitoCanada in 2020 as CEO and President, leading their efforts in supporting mitochondrial disease research in Canada, connecting and engaging with mito patient and scientific communities, driving the creation of impactful support and education programming and advocating for the needs of Canadians affected by mitochondrial disease at both provincial and federal levels. Kate joined the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, working for this health organization for five years as Director of Business Development, Stakeholder Engagement Officer and Vice-President of Partnerships and Programs.

In a continued effort to give back to the healthcare community that supported her son, Kate volunteers her time in many different capacities at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She is a member of the Family Advisory Network, a member of the Diagnostic Imaging Committee, a Quality Management patient-partner and a member of the Interprofessional Patient Care Committee (IPPCC), which oversees the review of hospital-wide policies and patient care guidelines.

President and Founder of Newton Street, works with innovators seeking to change the world in big and surprising ways – especially in the areas of climate, health, education, economic opportunity and democracy. She believes that global cooperation, bold thinking, and disruptive solutions are required if the world is to address the most pressing challenges of our time.

Prior to founding Newton Street, Amy worked at the epicenter of global health and development for 14 years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, most recently as the head of media relations. She led a high-performing team of communications professionals around the world in support of over a dozen major resource mobilizations for global partnerships such as Gavi, the Global Fund, and COVAX. She drove top tier media engagement across annual events, including the World Economic Forum at Davos and the UN General Assembly.

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Volkmar Weissig, PhD,  Sc.D.., Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology (Tenured); Professor of Biomedical Sciences; President World Mitochondria Society; Editor-in-Chief J Liposome Research; SAB Chair MytoLyfe Therapeutics