Meet the Pacific Meso Center Board of Directors
Hal Lieberman MHA - Chair
Hal Lieberman, MHA has been Chief Executive Officer and President of Hemo Therapeutics, Inc. since 2006 and served as its Vice President Of Strategic Development and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Lieberman has over thirty years of experience in health care management, marketing and consulting, in the areas of hospital administration, medical services, medical devices, diagnostic imaging, pharmaceuticals and bioinformatics.
From 1998 to 2006, Mr. Lieberman acted as a consultant, provided interim management. He was the Chief Executive Officer and President of HemaCare Corporation, a publicly-held blood products and services company since 1988. Mr. Lieberman acted as the vice president for MEDIQ Imaging Services from 1981 to 1988. He has been Director of China Yongxin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., since March 3, 2010. He served on the Board of Directors of HemaCare, Atopix Pharmaceutics and BioDiscovery, Inc. He served as a Director on the boards of a variety of health care and medical device companies. Mr. Lieberman is an Advisor to the U.S. Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which awards grants to biomedical research projects that benefit national defense and is a Senior Association of EXCEleration Management, a business development company.
Mr. Lieberman is also a Member of American College of Health Care Administrators, The Entrepreneurship Institute, and Southern California Biomedical Council. Mr. Lieberman has an Undergraduate degree from the City University of New York and a Master's degree in Health Care Administration from The George Washington University.
Kristi M. Wade - Treasurer
Kristine Wade is the Senior Director of University Relations Services at Loyola Marymount University. In her current position she oversees finance for the division, donor relations and manages special projects. Prior to her employment at LMU, Kristine was Deputy Executive Director for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Greater Los Angeles Chapter where she managed the chapter’s administration and fundraising campaigns. She has over 10 years of nonprofit management experience that she gained after transitioning from a successful career in sports management where she worked for ABC Sports and ESPN, Washington State University Athletics, and the Portland Fire and Trailblazers.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Washington State University in Communication with a minor in Health. She is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys spending time with her family and friends.
Geri Lepore - Secretary
Geri Lepore is originally from New Mexico where she attended school. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from New Mexico State University in 1977 in Elementary Education.
Geri has worked for the last 35 years with the Department of Navy and continues to work as Business Operations Manager to the Director of the Center.
Geri was married to her husband, Gene Lepore for nearly 33 years, when he passed away May 2010 with mesothelioma. She has two adult children, Kristin and Michael.
In 2011, Geri was a guest speaker at the First International Symposium on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. As a volunteer, she has supported the Break-away from Cancer event in Dana Pt, CA. and continues to support fundraising for The Pacific Meso Center at PHLBI.
In 2000, Geri organized the 4th Annual Women’s Retreat 2000 in San Barbara, CA with team of ten individual ladies for a 3 day spiritual retreat.
In 1986, Geri was instrumental in establishing the initial Civilian Employee Assistance Program (CEAP) through Dept of Navy, HRO, Labor / Employee Relations Department. She worked with comptroller to obtain funds and contracts office for first annual contract. The free and confidential benefits of the program provide services to help civilian employees with personal problems that may affect their personal life, job or family. It continues to be a tool for employees and management.
Brian Deagon - Director
Brian Deagon reports and writes news and analysis on business and technology as a journalist for Investor’s Business Daily, based in Los Angeles.
His writing career began with a four-year stint as a photo-journalist and broadcaster for the U.S. Army. This included time as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and providing news and entertainment to U.S. troops doing nuclear cleanup work on South Pacific islands.
After his military service Deagon returned to college to acquire a BA in Journalism at California State University, Northridge. He attended school while working as a full time journalist for the Los Angeles Business Journal. After graduating, Deagon then worked as a Los Angeles bureau correspondent for various technology publications.
He’s a senior reporter at Investor’s Business Daily, which produces and distributes a national daily newspaper and Website covering business, economic and political issues.
Deagon focuses on national issues and has reported on every major sector of the technology industry. His current beats include digital media and entertainment, social networking, Internet, cellular and computer technologies. Deagon also reports on the venture capital industry and entrepreneurship, private space enterprise, the tech economy and the broad field of information technology.
Douglas Gamble - Director
Douglas Gamble is the international vice president of the western states conference of the heat and frost insulators and allied workers international union (formerly referred to as the Asbestos Workers union). His father started working as an Asbestos Worker in October 1941 in the naval shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. Douglas first worked in the Asbestos Worker trade in June of 1968 as a helper. He has personal experience with asbestos exposure, having lost both his father to mesothelioma in 1980 and his brother in-law in 1996. Many of his co-workers and friends have faced mesothelioma with courage and a will to fight for their life. He is totally committed to assisting in any way possible to raise awareness, increase research and making the latest treatment options accessible to those affected with mesothelioma.
Dr. Warren S. Grundfest - Director
Dr. Warren S. Grundfest is the former Chair of Biomedical Engineering at UCLA where he holds appointments as Professor of Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering and Surgery. He serves as the Senior West Coast Clinical Advisor and Portfolio Manager for Nanomedicine and Biomaterials for TATRC (the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center of the U.S. Army). He serves as a Panel Member for several NIH Study Sections, and FDA and DoD review committees. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts on image-guided therapies and medical device development. His research interests include minimally invasive surgery, optical diagnostics, medical robotics, and advanced medical imaging technologies. Dr. Grundfest is past President of IMBISPS, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the AIMBE, and SPIE. He holds 15 patents, has 5 more pending, and has authored 200+ papers and 46 book chapters. He has been involved with multiple corporate and venture technology development programs.
