Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization Board of Directors

MUSC-Appointed Directors

Terri Barnes | MUSC BOT Appointee

Ms. Barnes, a native of Rock Hill, was elected to the MUSC Board of Trustees in 2014 as the lay representative from the Fifth Congressional District.

Ms. Barnes graduated from Clemson University in 1981 with a BS degree in Therapeutic Recreation. She started her professional career with the National Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) as a patient service coordinator. Among her many responsibilities with MDA, she represented South Carolina at the annual Jerry Lewis Telethons. After working with MDA, Ms. Barnes began a new career path in the computer industry. She is Vice President of Applied Data Technologies which she co-founded in 1998, The company has grown into a leading top-tier reseller of Hewlett Packard products. Ms. Barnes has served on many panels and advisory boards with the Hewlett Packard Company. She is an active member of First Baptist Church of Rock Hill, where she serves as a youth Sunday school teacher. Ms. Barnes and her husband, Ruck, have three children and one grandchild.

Ramin Eskandari, M.D. | Faculty Appointee

Dr. Ramin Eskandari grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and received his bachelors in science in biology/neurobiology at the University of Michigan. After college Dr. Eskandari lived in Switzerland while working at a sports camp for kids. This was followed but two more years of international travel while receiving his Master's in Medical Science. He participated in research projects in artificial vision and hydrocephalus, fueling his future research interests in pediatric hydrocephalus and brain injury.

Ramin Eskandari is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. He holds adjunct positions in the Departments of Pediatrics (Child Neurology), Surgery (Plastic Surgery) and Immunology/Microbiology (Director of Pediatric Brain Injury and Hydrocephalus Research). His clinical expertise focuses on the surgical management of children with disorders of the brain and spine, minimally invasive methods for treating pediatric neurosurgical disorders, and endoscopic treatment of multiple disorders including complex hydrocephalus and brain tumors.

Dr. Eskandari has always had a very fervent desire to maintain basic science research alongside medical innovation and clinical therapeutics. He opened the first Pediatric Hydrocephalus and Brain Injury Research Laboratory in South Carolina in 2014 and has maintained active research through internal, state level and philanthropic grant funding. He is actively involved in medical device innovation, optimization and currently, his laboratory has invented a novel cell culture model of elevated intracranial pressure and has collaborated on a novel medical therapeutic to prevent progressive brain injury and hydrocephalus in neonates with brain hemorrhage.

Jesse Goodwin, PhD | Chief Innovation Officer

Dr. Goodwin is the Chief Innovation Officer for the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Dr. Goodwin is charged with serving as a catalyst for programs and initiatives that incentive a culture of innovation. She also provides oversight and coordination amongst MUSC's innovation ecosystem, developing intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial strategies to support a diverse innovation portfolio spanning all domains of the tripartite mission. Prior to this role, Dr. Goodwin was the Vice President of Development for the Zucker Institute for Applied Neurosciences, a technology accelerator at MUSC, and had also served as the Deputy Director of the MUSC Foundation for Research Development, the organization's technology transfer office.

Dr. Goodwin came to MUSC from a Boston-based intellectual property (IP) consulting firm where she was Director of the Medical Device division, providing insight to client companies on IP matters pertaining to a vast array of medical technologies. Dr. Goodwin completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Stony Brook.

Lori McMahon, PhD | VP of Research

Dr. Lori McMahon, having graduated summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University with a B.A. in biology/chemistry, earned a Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from the Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Science at Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center. She completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. McMahon is a federally funded basic and translational neuroscience researcher and has been investigating various mechanisms that modulate synaptic function and plasticity at hippocampal synapses in rodent models over the lifespan in health and disease for over 20 years.

As an expert synaptic physiologist, her lab uses electrophysiological approaches in acute brain slices, including extracellular dendritic field potential recordings, population spike recordings, and whole-cell voltage and current clamp recordings, to measure cell excitability, synaptic transmission, and plasticity. She has experience investigating synaptic transmission in all hippocampal subfields, many areas of the cortex, and dorsal striatum. Former dean of the Graduate School at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), Dr. McMahon joined the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) as Vice President for Research in November 2021.

At-Large Directors

James Chappell, PhD | SCBio President & CEO

James is the President and CEO of SCBIO. James, whose career also includes time with Chartic Management Consulting in Boston, joined Louisiana Economic Development (LED) in 2013 and held positions of increasing responsibility at the organization including Executive Director of State Economic Competitiveness before being named Executive Director of Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship for the organization in 2021.

During his tenure at LED, Dr. Chappell's numerous successes included designing and implementing the state's $100 million venture capital and small business funds, developing strategies to recruit globally recognized companies to the state , and joining the Louisiana MediFund board to develop strategies to increase the biosciences and healthcare industries in Louisiana. He also collaborated with bioscience and technology advocates to improve incentives to promote growth in the bioscience and technology industries.

Dr. Chappell earned his B.S. and M.S. in Plant Environmental Sciences from Clemson University, his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Stem Cell Biology focusing on cancer and diabetes from Harvard Medical School. A three-year varsity football letterman while at Clemson, he is married with two children. He began his new role with SCBIO on November 8, 2021.

W. Mark Crowell

Prior to launching Arkane Innovation, an international advisory services firm (based in Ireland, the UK and the US), Mr. Mark Crowell served as Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, Vice President for Business Development at the Scripps Research Institute in California and Florida, Founding Executive Director of UVA Innovation at the University of Virginia, Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology Transfer at UNC-Chapel Hill, and similar positions at North Carolina State and at Duke University. Mark holds a Master's degree in Regional Planning and B.A. in International Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill.

As a 32+ year veteran of academic technology transfer leadership positions, Mark helped to launch more than 135 start-up companies and numerous products and services, while demonstrably growing innovation partnerships and ecosystems around these institutions. Currently, Mark is a Senior Innovation Consultant with the World Bank, and serves as Executive Entrepreneur in Residence for the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, a novel initiative focused on accelerating the translation of early stage academic biomedical innovations into products and companies. Mark is internationally known as a practitioner and consultant in areas related to university innovation and business development, proof-of-concept and translational research initiatives, research commercialization and spinouts, policy-strategy-management of technology transfer, seed capital development, innovation-based economic development initiatives, research campus planning, accelerator programs, innovation district planning, university-industry (and foundation) partnerships, economic development strategy, and innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem development strategies.

Mark's current and past consulting clients include the World Bank, San Diego Biomedical Research Institute, the Bahrain Ministry of Higher Education (via the AAAS Research Competitiveness Program), the Qatar Foundation, TEConomy Partners, the American University of Cairo, and a number of other universities and innovation districts. In 2013, Mark received the 2013 Bayh-Dole Award from the Association of University Technology Managers in recognition of his "untiring efforts to foster and promote intellectual property activities on behalf of the university and nonprofit community".

Lisa Drakeman, PhD

Dr. Lisa Drakeman is a wine writer and educator living in Hilton Head Island. Before moving to South Carolina, she was the founding CEO of Genmab S/A, an international biotechnology company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Under her leadership, the company completed a record setting IPO, raised over a billion dollars, and created FDA-approved medicines for cancer and Multiple Sclerosis. The company was named Scrip's Biotech Company of the Year, and received the James D. Watson Helix Award for leadership in scientific innovation, company growth and corporate citizenship. Dr. Drakeman is a member of the New Jersey Technology Hall of Fame, and received the Dr. Sol Barer Award for Vision, Innovation and Leadership from BioNJ.

Dr. Drakeman's goal has always been to ensure that medicines would be available to all who need them. Following that aim, she served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Volunteers in Medicine of Hilton Head (VIM), a free and charitable clinic that treats thousands of the most medically underserved patients in America. During her tenure, she pioneered a successful 2 Walking and Weight Loss Wellness program for the over 90% of VIM's women patients over 35 who either have risk factors for, or a diagnosis of, cardiovascular disease. This program combined healthy living education, downloadable pedometers, modest incentives, peer support, and a focus on patient accomplishments to build self-esteem.

Dr. Drakeman is currently President of Convivio, a wine education and consulting firm in Hilton Head. She is especially interested in how wine pairs with food, and also how it pairs with business. She has led wine education events for current and future executives at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and other universities. Named a Certified Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers, she has completed the rigorous Diploma in Wines (with Merit) from the world's leading wine education organization, the Wine and Spirits Education Trust in London, England. Dr. Drakeman holds dual U.S./Italian citizenship, and has lived in Scandinavia and the U.S. She graduated with honors from Mount Holyoke College, and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University, where she has served as a member of the faculty, and has co-chaired the Graduate Dean's Leadership Council.

Sherry Farrugia

As the CEO of Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), Ms. Farrugia leads all strategic initiatives associated with GCMI's mission in advancing medtech innovation. She is also charged with successfully executing key business initiatives to improve outcomes, efficiency, effectiveness and processes associated with medtech innovation working with researchers, industry, and entrepreneurs. She provides executive level leadership for business and operational functions including providing insight into the innovations, new technologies, and start-ups developed as a result of the partnership with GCMI.

Prior to her role as the CEO, Ms. Farrugia was the Chief Operations and Strategy Officer for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) at Georgia Tech. The PTC is supported through a public-private partnership between Georgia Tech and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta with a mission of providing extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics, creating breakthrough discoveries often only be found at the intersection of multiple disciplines. She has also successfully impacted healthcare in her role as the Managing Director of Health IT at Georgia Tech. In this role she was responsible for developing the health IT strategy specifically as it relates to digital health, connecting faculty to health IT/digital health industry partners, and mentoring health IT and digital health startups.

Before joining Georgia Tech, Sherry owned a successful consulting company where she worked with healthcare companies advising them on new market opportunities, launching new verticals, and worked with startups advising them on market strategy and business plan. She also co-founded and sold a health IT company to McKesson HBO & Company in the early '90s whose technology was focused on point-of-care documentation and tracking both clinical and financial outcomes – technology McKesson is still using in their systems today.

Ms. Farrugia is currently an advisory board member of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities; board member of MUSC Foundation for Research Development, International Society of Pediatric Innovation, Southeast Life Sciences, and MedTech Women @ SEMDA; active member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

William Himmelsbach

Bill retired as President and CEO of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), which is based in New York City, and is a not-for-profit academic research organization housing a pre-clinical lab, a clinical trials center and a medical education division. It is affiliated with Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to joining CRF, he was Senior Vice President at VHA and Executive Officer of its New York-based VHA Empire – Metro. VHA is a national health care alliance that provides supply chain management and clinical improvement services and supports the formation of regional and national networks to help members improve their clinical and economic performance. Before that, he held President and Chief Executive Officer positions at several hospitals and health care systems, including The Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, Saint Mary's Health Services in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Holy Cross Health System in South Bend, Indiana, Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health System in Detroit, Michigan. He is currently a guest lecturer in the MHA Program at MUSC and at the BSN Program at USC-Beaufort and also serves on the advisory boards of two small private healthcare companies: Bright Whistle and Intralign. Bill holds a B.A. in Labor-Management Relations/Economics from Penn State University and a Masters in Public Health in healthcare administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.