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Meet GBSI's Board of Directors

​Marti Perhach - GBSI Cofounder and CEO

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Marti cofounded GBSI in 2006 after serving as President for GBSI's sister organization, The Jesse Cause, since 1999. Marti's daughter, Rose, was stillborn in 1998 due to group B strep. (Rose's story can be read HERE.)

Marti enjoys organizing conference exhibits and mailing out GBS brochures so parents know how to help protect their babies from GBS. Her background is Hotel and Restaurant Management with a minor in Marketing from Cal Poly Pomona. 

To read more about GBSI's mission history, please click HERE.  

Donna Russell, MHA

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Donna Russell, MHA, is founder and CEO of Precia Group, a contract research organization (CRO) focused on improving equity in research by including more women in clinical trials and bringing trials to community and rural health systems. She has extensive experience in building strategic alliances and designing and launching new programs focused on improving women’s health outcomes. Prior to starting Precia Group, Ms. Russell spent 10 years setting up pregnancy cohorts and in-country biorepositories across sub-Saharan Africa and SE Asia to build in-country maternal health research capacity.
 
She has been involved in preventing invasive neonatal group B strep disease since her youngest child contracted early onset GBS sepsis in 1999. At that time, she started working with stakeholders in Washington State to develop and implement new policies and procedures in to reduce invasive neonatal GBS disease. At the national level, she was a consultant to the CDC on the revised guidelines.
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She is on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Preeclampsia Registry and Biobank and serves on the University of Washington Medical Center, Valley Medical Center Board of Trustees. She holds a major in Nutrition and Food Science (University of California, Berkeley) and a postgraduate degree in Health Administration from the University of Washington.

Tara Randis, MD, MS

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Dr. Tara Randis is the Pamela and Leslie Muma Chair in Neonatology at the University of South Florida Morsani School of Medicine.  She has a joint appointment with the Department of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Randis attended medical school at Drexel University School of Medicine, completed her pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and her fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at Columbia University.  She has an MS in biostatistics from Columbia University.  Dr. Randis served on the faculty of Columbia University for 8 years following her fellowship training. She joined the Division of Neonatology at New York University School of Medicine in 2015 and relocated to the University of South Florida in 2019. 

Tatiana Pinto, PhD

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​Tatiana Pinto is a mid-career Microbiologist and an early-career mom. As an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she is involved in teaching and researching. She is also enthusiastic about science communication and outreach as she believes that knowledge is power. 

She fell in love with Microbiology while still in High School. She remembers being mind-blown when she learned about the existence of these tiny organisms that seemed so smart and powerful. She was especially interested and attracted by how they were able to cause so many diseases in humans, and it led her to choose a Microbiology degree in College.

She has always found fascinating the dynamism behind GBS history - starting as an exclusively veterinary pathogen to become later a leading agent of human neonatal infections. Such a versatile history sparkled her curiosity as a scientist, and GBS has been the focus of her research group for the last 20 years. She is proud to have helped to uncover novel aspects of the biology of this microorganism, as well as molecular characteristics that are important to trace the epidemiological evolution of several variants in Brazil.

By helping to reveal the real burden of GBS in Brazil, a continental-dimensioned LMIC, her research group aims to also contribute with the efforts to prevent GBS disease. Although clinically relevant, GBS is still mainly neglected as a pathogen in their setting, mainly due to the lack of data and information. Thus, besides tracking GBS prevalence and epidemiology inside the lab, one of their main goals is also to increase awareness on GBS among their community, including healthcare workers, women and policymakers. It is important to make it clear that anyone can be affected by this silent threat, such as she was during her pregnancy. Being aware of GBS-related dangers will also be of paramount importance when we finally have a GBS vaccine licensed, which she hopes will happen soon.

James A. McGregor, MDCM

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Dr. James A. McGregor is a graduate of Dartmouth College and McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and has served as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology practicing at UCLA, USC and the University of Colorado Hospital.

Dr. McGregor practiced as a fully engaged obstetrician and gynecologist for forty years at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles County, Tucson Medical Center and University of Colorado Hospitals until his retirement in 2010. Now he shares his expertise with Group B Strep International through giving presentations and talking to providers and parents at perinatal conference exhibits around the world!

He continues to make leading contributions to the areas of infectious disease, Group B Strep disease prevention and prematurity prevention as well as pregnancy/breastfeeding nutrition and optimizing prenatal and early age brain development learning capacity and school preparation. 

GBSI's Past Board Members

David M. Aronoff, MD, FIDSA, FAAM    

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During his GBSI board membership, David Aronoff, MD, FIDSA, FAAM was the Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the founding Director of the Vanderbilt Pre3 Initiative (Preventing adverse Pregnancy outcomes and Prematurity). He was also the Addison B Scoville, Jr Chair in Medicine.

​He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Indiana University and his Medical Degree at Tufts University in Boston. He completed internship and residency training, including a year as Chief Resident, in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University. 

Dr. Aronoff stayed at Vanderbilt to complete a clinical fellowship in Infectious Diseases and a research fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology. He then joined the faculty in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan where he also completed a research postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology.
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He returned to Vanderbilt in 2013 as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine with a secondary faculty appointment in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, & Immunology. He is also a faculty member in the Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health and Society and an Adjunct faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Meharry Medical College.

The Aronoff Lab studies reproductive immunology and host-microbial interactions in the context of pregnancy, with a focus on Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections. Primary areas of focus include mechanisms of disease pathogenesis involved in GBS infections causing chorioamnionitis, preterm birth, stillbirth and neonatal sepsis.

​His global health work includes collaborative projects in Brazil, Jordan and South Africa. He has received numerous governmental and non-governmental research grants, including support from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, The March of Dimes and the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity & Stillbirth. 

Josh Jones - GBSI CFO

Josh Jones is a computer programmer, serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, husband and father. He founded DreamHost Web Hosting while in college in 1996, then got into Bitcoin in 2010 and startup investing in 2013. He now runs HMC INQ, his alma mater's startup incubator, and is on the board of Represent.us, The Aquarium of the Pacific, and Harvey Mudd College.

Josh's son, Wren, passed away at one day of age due to pneumonia caused by GBS. Wren's story can be read HERE.

John MacDonald - Cofounder

John cofounded GBSI in 2006 after serving as Vice President for GBSI's sister organization, The Jesse Cause. John's daughter, Hannah, was stillborn in 2003 due to group B strep.  (Hannah's story can be read HERE.)

James C. Caillouette, MD

Dr. Caillouette won numerous awards in the field of medicine. He was a member of the Nu Sigma Nu Honor Society. As an obstetrician-gynecologist in Pasadena., he delivered thousands of babies and was president of the Pacific Coast Ob-Gyn Society, a group he truly enjoyed his entire career. Jim was an avid inventor and was issued 33 patents on a wide variety of medical products and devices. He authored and coauthored 35 scientific papers and has been a consultant to many companies.

Diep Nguyen, MD

Dr. Nguyen is an OB/GYN and inventor of the kickTrak™ kick counter, a handheld device to help pregnant women track their baby's movements and be able to work with their doctors to identify potential problems before their baby's heart rate and future well-being are affected.