Annette Leal Mattern, President
Scottsdale, AZ

Annette Leal Mattern is a 23-year survivor of ovarian cancer and a two-year survivor of breast cancer. She retired from US WEST/Qwest as Vice President of Marketing & Operations to devote herself to making a difference in women’s cancers. She published a book, Outside the Lines of Love, Life, and Cancer, about coping with cancer and surviving life. She is president and cofounder of the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Arizona and a board member of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, where she serves as President-Elect and Chairs the Marketing & Communications Committee. She is a contributing writer for www.EmpowHer.com, a website known as “powerful women transforming health.” She is a LiveStrong inspirational speaker, sharing her story nationwide to motivate women to live their best life in spite of their diagnosis. She lives in Scottsdale, AZ with her husband Rich.

Judith S. Abrams, Past President
New York, NY

Judith Abrams has spent 30 years in Private Banking, including 21 years at Bankers Trust/then Deutsche Bank as Managing Director of Private Wealth Management and three years as a Senior Client Consultant with Sontag Advisory, LLC, a registered investment advisor. She is on the Advisory Board of The Susan Schiffer Stautberg Leadership Foundation and is a member of The Committee of 200 and The Belizean Grove. Her community activities have included participation in programs with Women Unlimited, Habitat for Humanity and Global Volunteers. She was a regularly featured columnist for The Jewish Week and a participant in the Trinity Church Wall Street Dialogues. Judy lost her dear friend, Judy H. Mello, to ovarian cancer. She resides with her husband Ralph in New York City and is a breast cancer survivor.

Terri McKnight, Treasurer
Fairfax Station, VA

Terri McKnight is a Partner in the firm of Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman, located in Bethesda, MD. She has more than 20 years of accounting experience in both the public and private sectors, including more than four years with large, national CPA firms. Her focus has been auditing and consulting for nonprofit organizations. She is the Director of the Audit Department for Gelman Rosenberg and Freedman and her responsibilities include managing the audit practice as well as all phases of audit engagements for nonprofit organizations including private voluntary organizations with federal funding, member-based associations and other charitable institutions. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. She joined the board of directors after her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her mother passed away on December 22, 2007. She lives in Fairfax Station with her husband Matt and their four children.

Benita Hofstetter Koman, Secretary
Reedville, VA

Benita Hofstetter Koman is a ten-year survivor of ovarian cancer. She is a freelance producer, production manager and event coordinator and has worked on numerous high-profile events including the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics Torch Relay, the Holocaust Museum opening ceremonies for Remember the Children, the Anti-Defamation League “Concert Against Hate” at the Kennedy Center, Points of Light Foundation White House East Lawn ceremony, three inaugural events for President Bill Clinton as well as conferences and annual dinners for the National Women’s Law Center, Emily’s List, National Partnership for Women and Families and numerous corporate clients. Additionally, she runs her own arts consultant company and serves as a federal contractor with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Jaime Berman Matyas
Bethesda, MD

Jaime Berman Matyas is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer National Wildlife Federation. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently she was one of 1000 people trained by Vice President Gore’s The Climate Project. She was honored in 2006 by the Washington Business Journal with their prestigious Women Who Mean Business award and in 2008 by Jewish Women International’s Women to Watch. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters. She was introduced to OCNA by a friend battling ovarian cancer.

Robin Cohen
Drexel Hill, PA

Robin Cohen has been the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation for 10 years. She is an oncology nurse at Lankenau Hospital in the Philadelphia area. She is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, the Society of Gynecologic Nurse Oncologists, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and the Cambridge WHO’s WHO. In 2007, she was recognized as one of the 75 Greatest Living Philadelphians.

Linda Koteen
Great Neck, NY

After a diagnosis of breast cancer in 1993, Linda Koteen became a volunteer for SHARE: Self-Help for Women With Breast or Ovarian Cancer. In 1998, she joined the staff as the Coordinator for Programs at the Queens location, and in 2002, she became Share’s Director of Ovarian Programs. She facilitated the first survivor presentation at the 2008 Society of Gynecologic Oncologists annual conference. Five SHARE volunteers presented Ovarian Cancer Survivorship: The Patients Perspective at a plenary session on ovarian cancer. She retired from SHARE in 2009 after the diagnosis of a new breast cancer primary and a diagnosis of lung cancer.

Keith Mirchandani
Bernardsville, NJ

A respected business leader and visionary, Keith Mirchandani is President, CEO and Founder of Tristar Products Inc. Since starting up Tristar in 1993, he has built the company into an award-winning market leader, with over $1 billion in sales. His marketing savvy, integrity, creativity and business expertise has been pivotal to Tristar’s success at branding and selling 20-plus products in over 100 countries around the globe. He oversees product development, infomercial production, strategic partnerships and leads the overall direction of the company.

Sue Ellen Moore
Carmel, IN

Sue Ellen Moore is a business owner in the beauty industry for 25 years in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. She credits her background as a Real Estate broker and paralegal certification for the success of her salons. She was a finalist in the Starkey Entrepreneurial Woman Award for 2010 in Indianapolis. She became involved in the fight of ovarian cancer in 1997, after her sister’s diagnosis of stage 3C. Her passions for answers lead her to the local organization Ovar’coming Together in Indianapolis. She has been guiding local volunteers through the years and prides herself on turning the Canal Teal in Indianapolis since 2008. She joined the local board in 2002, after working closely with the National board for the annual conference in 2001 and became president one year later. She remains dedicated and active on the local board, proudly joined the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance in 2004 and works closely with the Partner/Member committee, believing local and national agendas are parallel. She joined the Alliance’s board of directors in 2005. Through her activism, she continues to be the “voice” of her sister, Christine.

Diane Rader O’Connor
Vancouver, WA

An ovarian cancer survivor, Diane Rader O’Connor is president of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance’s Partner Member organization, the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon and S.W. Washington. She also helped create the S.W. Washington Cancer Center’s ovarian cancer support group in 2003 and is an ACOR on-line listserv participant. She is an integral part of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance’s “Survivor’s Teaching Students: Saving Women’s LivesSM program, where she recruited and prepared 15 survivors to speak at the Oregon Health and Science University. She is retired from a 32-year career as an educator in the Vancouver public school system. She has been married for 39 years and has two adult sons.

Dennis Oziel, Past President
North Brunswick, NJ

Dennis Oziel lost his sister, Rhonda Oziel, a founding member of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, to ovarian cancer in June 2001. His wife, Ellie, is a breast cancer survivor. He and his family are committed to continuing his sister’s legacy as an ovarian cancer advocates. He is the president of Garden State Countertops, LLC in New Jersey.

Rebekah Plowman, Esq.
Atlanta, GA

Rebekah Plowman, Esq. is a partner in the national health practice with the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP in the Atlanta office and chairs the fraud and abuse practice. She has almost 20 years of health care regulatory experience serving hospitals, physicians and ancillary providers. Prior to the practice of law, she managed a group of utilization management nurses for KeyCare, an affiliate of Indiana Blue Cross & Blue Shield and worked as an intensive care unit nurse at Indiana University Medical Center. Ms. Plowman was selected by the editors of Nightingale’s Healthcare News as one of the “Outstanding Fraud and Compliance Lawyers” of 2008 and is also listed in the Health Care Law Section of Chambers USA Guide. She currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Healthcare Liability and Litigation Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Christine Schmidt
Washington, DC

Christine Schmidt is President of the Board. She has been active in OCNA since 2002 and served as chair of its Conference Committee and Strategic Planning Committee and has been a member of several other committees including the Policy Committee. She is an eleven year ovarian cancer survivor.

Currently, she is the Director of Quality of Care Programs at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Before this she was the senior Director of Health Policy for the American Cancer Society following a long career as a senior career civil servant in the federal government. At the Department of Health and Human Services she served as Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the Office of the Secretary and as Director of Management and Budget for both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and for the Social Security Administration in the Office of the Secretary. At the Department of Agriculture she was the Director of the Office of Policy Analysis and Evaluation.

Prior to her career in the civil service, she was a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research and the Urban Institute. Her experience in public policy covers a broad range from Medicare and Medicaid programs to public health, insurance and health finance, federal and state budgeting, appropriations and development of legislation. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She earned her Masters of Public Affairs at Princeton University.

Teresa Smith
Stafford, VA

Teresa Smith is a certified SIX ADVISORS™ Executive Coach, speaker, trainer and writer. She founded U 2 the Power of U, offering personal and professional development services with a holistic approach. Her professional background includes: over twenty years as a successful fundraiser and has raised millions of dollars for several worthy organizations including The Salvation Army, The American National Red Cross, United Way of America, National Wildlife Federation, and The AARP Foundation. Teresa lead the National Women’s Initiative for United Way of America and founded The AARP Foundation, National Women’s Circle. She lost a very dear friend to ovarian cancer and her mother to colon cancer.