Leadership Team
Laura Lott, MBA, Executive Director
Laura Lott has two decades of experience building programs that expand access to knowledge, improve clinical care, and foster faster translation of scientific research. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of VectorWise CME, a nonprofit that delivers free, accredited continuing medical education on vector-borne diseases. Laura has led cross-disciplinary initiatives at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and MIT Hacking Medicine Institute, where she built clinical programs, organized national research efforts, and helped launch early-stage health startups. She specializes in translating complex science into engaging educational resources and events, with a track record of producing high-quality digital learning and securing strategic partnerships. Laura holds an MBA from Simmons College and a BA from the University of Virginia.
In addition to her professional work, Laura plays the trumpet and also makes art rooted in nature, using materials like paper and clay. Her vibrant, process-driven creations aim to spark joy, invite curiosity, and draw viewers back to the enchantment of the natural world. Contact Laura >
Elizabeth Maloney, MD, Education Director
Dr. Maloney is a Minnesota family physician whose current focus is on vector-borne diseases education and policy. She began providing comprehensive, evidence-based, continuing medical education courses for physicians in 2007 and subsequently founded Partnership for Tick-borne Diseases Education, a non-profit providing evidence-based continuing medical education programming and materials on tick borne diseases. She has authored several peer-reviewed papers and treatment guidelines on Lyme disease and was a member of the federally mandated Tick-Borne Diseases Working Group (TBDWG). She is currently the Education Director at VectorWise CME.
Board of Directors
Amanda Elam, PhD, Board Member
Dr. Amanda Elam is a distinguished scholar, entrepreneur, and advocate at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, and life sciences. She is a Research Fellow at the award-winning Diana International Research Institute at Babson College where she conducts research on entrepreneurship and innovation around the globe. As cofounder and board director of Galaxy Diagnostics, an early-stage medical diagnostics company advancing diagnostics and clinical discovery for emerging infectious diseases linked to chronic illness, Dr. Elam brings deep expertise in commercial strategy, venture development, and healthcare advocacy. A sought-after speaker and thought leader, she regularly advises startups, corporations, and policymakers on driving innovation in high-growth sectors.
Amy Fox, Board Member
Amy Fox is the Owner and Managing Partner of Fox and Fink Consulting LLC, a client accounting services provider. With a background as a former financial consultant for small businesses and as a Chief Financial Officer for a not-for-profit organization, Amy brings a unique and well-rounded perspective to her work. Her experience spans a variety of industries, allowing her to deliver strategic insights and customized solutions that help clients navigate complex financial and operational challenges.
Outside of her professional life, Amy enjoys running, biking, and spending quality time with her family.
Rhonda Shrader, MBA, Board Member
Rhonda Shrader is the Executive Director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program and the Bay Area Node for NSF I-Corps. She teaches two graduate-level Innovation & Entrepreneurship courses: Lean Transfer and Startup Disco.
As an entrepreneur, Shrader was an early team member of MIT-spinout Organogenesis, one of the first publicly traded regenerative medicine companies. She has founded—or was an early stage team member at—startups in biotech, behavioral health, nonprofit, retail, and AI. She was a long-time mentor for UCSF’s Idea-to-IPO course, and is an active advisor for NASA spinoff BrainAid. Shrader serves as a faculty member for UC LAUNCH’s Accelerator, the NSF’s National I-Corps program, and the U.S. State Department’s GIST program. She earned an undergraduate degree in neuropsychology and pre-medical studies from Harvard and an MBA from Berkeley-Haas.
Advisory Board Members
Catherine Brissette, PhD, University of North Dakota
Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences
Faculty Fellow, School of Graduate Studies
MPI, Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Host-Pathogen Interactions
Vice Chair, Institutional Biosafety Committee
University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
https://med.und.edu/research/labs/brissette/index.html
Catherine (Cat) Brissette received her B.S. in Zoology from Louisiana State University, her M.S. in Microbiology with Dr. Paula Fives-Taylor at the University of Vermont, and her Ph.D. in Pathobiology from the University of Washington with Dr. Sheila Lukehart. Her postdoctoral work at the University of Kentucky was focused on outer surface adhesins and regulation of virulence factors in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Cat is now Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences where she continues work with pathogenic Borrelia species. Cat’s lab is broadly interested in bacterial-host interactions and is particularly interested in those bacterial and host factors that impact colonization and immune responses in the central nervous system during infection with Lyme and relapsing fever spirochetes. She enjoys gardening and animal husbandry on the family hobby farm, exercise, art, and playing clarinet in a community band.
Mary Ann Comunale, EDD, MS, Drexel University
Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
Director, Center for Scientific Communications and Outreach
Drexel University College of Medicine
https://drexel.edu/medicine/faculty/profiles/mary-ann-comunale/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryann-comunale-11a8b628/
Dr. Comunale is an Associate Professor and program director for the MS in Molecular Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Institute for Molecular Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Comunale is an expert glycobiologist, and her lab is focused on developing diagnostic methods for Lyme disease based in glycoproteomics and machine learning. She is working to confront the issues in Lyme disease testing including the lack of a reliable diagnostics in acute infection and for Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS). She also investigates immune modulation and evasion of the Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete. She is participating in the LymeX Innovation Accelerator, established through a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. As a native resident of the Lyme endemic area of eastern Pennsylvania, her work is driven by the profound impact of Lyme disease on family and friends. She has also worked collaboratively on other infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hemorrhagic fever viruses, herpes, and malaria.
George Dempsey, MD
Family Medicine Practitioner
https://www.easthamptonfamilymedicine.com/meetourproviders
Brian Fallon, MD
Columbia University Medical Center
https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/profile/brian-fallon-md
Rajesh Ghosh, PhD
University of California Los Angeles
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajesh-ghosh/
Dr. Rajesh Ghosh is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), specializing in microfluidics and bioengineering to develop novel tools for biomedical research. His work focuses on developing diagnostic platforms for point-of-care testing, particularly for Lyme disease and other Tick-borne infections. Rajesh received his PhD at UCLA, where he developed a rapid, single-tier assay for Lyme disease detection, offering a potential alternative to the conventional two-tier, lab-based testing approach. This platform leverages synthetic peptides to detect Lyme antibodies and uses a machine learning-based algorithm to classify disease from patient immune signatures. Currently, Rajesh is advancing this technology to detect additional tick-borne illnesses and identify co-infections prevalent in endemic regions using a single multiplexed test.
Erin Lashnits, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM)
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine
https://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/lab/lashnits/about-me/
Dr. Lashnits is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Small Animal Internal Medicine at University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. She received her MS in biology from Stanford University, DVM from Cornell University, and PhD in comparative biomedical sciences from North Carolina State University. She spent a few years in general practice and emergency medicine before completing her internal medicine residency at NC State University. Dr. Lashnits’s current research focuses on the epidemiology of zoonotic vector-borne diseases and other infectious diseases affecting underserved veterinary populations in a One Health context.
Anna Schotthoefer, PhD
Marshfield Clinic
https://www.marshfieldresearch.org/profiles/800
Brian Stevenson, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
https://medicine.uky.edu/users/bstev0
For over 30 years, my research has focused on the biology of Borrelia bacteria that cause Lyme disease and other infections, and on both bacterial and host factors that are responsible for infection and patient symptoms. I received my Ph.D. in molecular biology/bacteriology from Stony Brook University, followed by postdoctoral studies on Borrelia burgdorferi at Yale University and Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIH. I joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 1998, and am currently a Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, with a secondary appointment in our Department of Entomology.
Rafal Tokarz, PhD
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Columbia University Medical Center
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/center-infection-and-immunity/rafal-tokarz-phd
Dr. Tokarz’s research focuses on microbial discovery and the epidemiology of human infectious diseases. His primary interests center on investigating respiratory and tick-borne pathogens and understanding their roles in human disease.
Dr. Tokarz’s work in the field of tick-borne disease has been driven by two main hypotheses: 1) co-infections in human-biting ticks are common and can result in human poly-microbial infections; and 2) viral infections represent a proportion of undiagnosed tick-transmitted infections. He designed and implemented one of the first multiplex PCR assays that targeted tick-borne agents and was one of the first scientists to document high rates of pathogen co-infections in ticks within New York State. Recent work has focused on exploring the diversity of the tick virome. He performed the first investigation of the virome of the three main human-biting ticks in New York State and thus far has discovered 20 novel tick-associated viruses. He is now examining the potential for transmissibility and pathogenesis of these viruses.
In an effort to understand the etiology of respiratory diseases, Dr. Tokarz has participated in pathogen surveillance studies on specimens originating from Asia, Africa, Europe, South and North America. As part of this work, he used cutting edge molecular platforms to identify and characterize novel viral agents. Dr. Tokarz identified and characterized the first defined cluster of one such virus, enterovirus D68, an emerging agent implicated in a severe outbreak of pediatric respiratory disease in the US in 2014. He performed the first comprehensive phylogenetic characterization of this virus, identified the three main clades circulating worldwide and developed a classification system now employed by investigators in this field. In his current work, Dr. Tokarz is examining the pathogenesis of this virus and how its genetic variation influences the severity of disease.