Clearity Foundation Appoints New Director and Board Co-Chairs to Advance Personalized Treatment of Women with Ovarian Cancer
La Jolla, Calif., January 24, 2013 - The board of directors of The Clearity Foundation has appointed John Crawford and Wendy Johnson as co-chairs of the board. Mr. Crawford has been a director of The Clearity Foundation since 2010, serving as Clearity’s Chief Financial Officer through 2012. Ms. Johnson joined Clearity’s board in 2011 and currently serves as CEO of Aires Pharmaceuticals. In addition, the board has named Ellen Marks as a new director of the non-profit organization.
“As Clearity enters its fifth year, we are rapidly evolving and expanding. This is a pivotal time for the organization and I appreciate Wendy’s and John’s commitment to our mission and their willingness to assume a leadership role on the board,” said Hillary Theakston, executive director of The Clearity Foundation. “Clearity’s board members participate actively in advancing our mission and each director brings unique skills and expertise to the team. With Ellen's appointment to the board, we will benefit from her extensive non-profit experience and strong relationships in the San Diego community.”
The Clearity Foundation helps women with ovarian cancer to make more informed treatment decisions with personalized diagnostic information. Ovarian cancers are very different from patient to patient, which means they are likely to respond differently to FDA-approved and investigational drugs. By identifying the alterations in each tumor’s information pathways, molecular profiling enables the individualization of a patient’s treatment by matching those tumor alterations with one or more drugs. The Clearity Foundation has developed a process for generating this personalized diagnostic information using commercially-available molecular profiling technologies and then analyzing the results using its Diane Barton Database.
Mr. Crawford has been an executive officer and director for more than a dozen life sciences firms over the past 30 years. Five have had significant cancer drug development programs. Since 2006 he has been chief financial officer of Phenomix Corporation and three other San Diego-based biotechnology firms acquired by larger firms during his tenure: NovaCardia, Inc. (acquired by drug giant Merck); Cabrellis Pharmaceutical Corporation (Pharmion); and Conforma Therapeutics (Biogen-Idec). Starting in the biotechnology industry in 1981, he took two firms in the eighties and nineties as first executive employee through initial offerings of stock to the public. Mr. Crawford holds a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
Ms. Johnson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Aires Pharmaceuticals and a Venture Partner at ProQuest Investments. Prior to joining ProQuest, she served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Salmedix Inc., where she led the effort to license their lead cancer therapeutic; the company was successfully sold to Cephalon in June 2005. Ms. Johnson has additional experience with device, diagnostic and drug discovery and development and regulatory affairs. She held senior business and corporate development positions at several biotechnology companies in San Diego and abroad. Additionally, Ms. Johnson served as Assistant Director at the Food and Drug Administration. She holds an M.B.A from Loyola University, an M.S. in Clinical Microbiology from the Hahnemann Medical School and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Maryland. She also previously served on the board of the UCSD Moores Cancer Center.
Ms. Marks brings more than 30 years of national and local non-profit board experience to The Clearity Foundation. Currently, she is a member of the Vision Team for Reality Changers, a member of the grants committee for Women Give San Diego, and the Western Region Chair, Jewish Committee on Scouting for Boy Scouts of America. In her previous roles, she has provided leadership to organizations such as Interfaith Community Services, Jewish Federation of San Diego, Jewish Women’s Foundation and Poway Center for the Arts by ensuring accountability of financial resources, developing strategic plans, and monitoring plan progress.
