Patricia Frustace is the Senior Director of Awards and Diversity Programs for the American Society of Hematology. Patricia is responsible for the management and oversight of recruitment, retention, and recognition award programs across the Society. Further, she is responsible for overseeing the strategy, program operations, and volunteer support for the highly regarded ASH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.  These efforts, begun in 2003 have expanded from a limited recruitment and retention effort into a multi-faceted and comprehensive focus on embedding principles of DEI within and across all aspects of the Society.  Patricia is regularly requested to consult on peer organization efforts and as an invited speaker on DEI related work in the medical specialty space. 

Patricia has 20+ years of professional experience ranging from external auditing for non-profits to working as an internal consultant for a Fortune 500 media company to working as an internal consultant and operational lead for one of the most recognized non-profits in the world. Prior to joining ASH, she served in a variety of roles, including Executive Director for Development Advancement at the American Red Cross, National Headquarters. In this role she was responsible for transforming the organization’s fundraising strategy and structure, including leading edge prospecting and lead generation as well as training strategy and donor communications for 1,200 relationship managers across the country. She also served as the Director of Operations for a 5-year, $200M recovery program in response to Hurricane Katrina. 

Patricia has two bachelor’s degrees in Accounting and Decision Sciences and earned her Certified Public Accountant licensure in Virginia in 1995. 

Valerie is a fourth-year BCMB student studying cancer combination therapies at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine under the direction of Dr. Olivier Elemento. Outside of the lab, she is active in the graduate school community and serves as one of the co-chairs for the Tri-Institutional Minority Society (TIMS). She has also participated in various NIH-funded initiatives to provide support for underrepresented scientists, including the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at the University of Texas - El Paso and the Weill Cornell Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) program.

Damon Love, PhD draws upon over 15 years of academic and industry experience in laboratory and clinical research involving several diseases, most notably cancer.  His academic background includes training at Princeton University and Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and fellowships at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College, where he developed genetic therapeutic strategies to target solid tumors.  Dr. Love has also spent nearly a decade in the pharmaceutical industry in clinical research and medical affairs where he has held several leadership positions. Dr.  Love is co-founder of The S.E.E.D. STEM program which is designed to expose school-aged inner-city students to scientific techniques and concepts that are applied in both academic and industry laboratories, by delivering science workshops directly in their schools and communities.