Terri McKnight, President
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, VA, with her husband Matt and their four children.

Annette Leal Mattern, Immediate Past President
Scottsdale, AZ

Annette Leal Mattern is a 24-year survivor of ovarian cancer and a three-year survivor of breast cancer. She retired from US WEST/Qwest as Vice President of Marketing & Operations to devote herself to charity work. She joined the Board of Directors of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance in 2004, chairing the Marketing and Communications Committee and serving on the Conference Committee for several years. In 2008, she cofounded the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Arizona and also serves as president of its board. She was honored for her work in 2009 as recipient of the Patricia A. Goldman Award. Annette published a book on coping with cancer, Outside the Lines of Love, Life and Cancer, which she has donated to the Alliance. She is a contributing writer for www.EmpowHer.com, a website known for “powerful women transforming health,” and, shares her story nationwide as a LiveStrong inspirational speaker to motivate women to live their best lives in spite of their diagnosis. She lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with her husband Rich.

Benita Hofstetter Koman, Secretary
Reedville, VA

Benita Hofstetter Koman is an eleven-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 and 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 consulting company and serves as a federal contractor with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Jaime Matyas, Treasurer
Bethesda, MD

Jaime Berman Matyas is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the 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 the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance by a friend battling ovarian cancer.

Judith S. Abrams, President Emerita
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, and is herself a breast cancer survivor. She resides with her husband Ralph in New York City.

Jenny Allen
New York, NY

Jenny Allen’s essays and articles have appeared for years in many magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, Vogue, Esquire, More, Huffington Post and Good Housekeeping. Recent essays appear in Disquiet, Please! a new anthology of humor pieces from the New Yorker, and in In The Fullness of Time: 32 Women on Life After 50 (Simon & Schuster). She is the author of a book of fables for grown-ups called The Long Chalkboard, illustrated by her husband, Jules Feiffer. She performs stand-up comedy in Manhattan, has appeared in Spalding Grey: Stories Left to Tell, and is a participating storyteller for The Moth. Her one-woman play about ovarian cancer, I Got Sick Then I Got Better was first performed on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 2007; director James Lapine then collaborated with Allen and with Darren Katz on shaping and expanding the material. New York Theatre Workshop produced the show in 2009, extending it three times. I Got Sick Then I Got Better has been seen in theaters, hospitals, universities and at cancer conferences around the country. Ms. Allen received the 2010 “It’s Always Something” award from Gilda’s Club NYC. She has two children, Halley, an actress, and Julie, a high school student, as well as a stepdaughter, Kate. For a calendar of future performances, and for booking inquiries, visit jennyallenwrites.com.

Angelo I. Amador
Stafford, VA

Angelo I. Amador is Vice President of Labor & Workforce Policy for the National Restaurant Association. As Vice President of Labor & Workforce Policy, Mr. Amador is responsible for working with members of the business community to develop the industry’s position on labor, health care, immigration, education, and other issues affecting the availability and quality of the workforce. He advocates on behalf of the National Restaurant Association and its members before the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch. Mr. Amador is a graduate of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and obtained a Master of Arts in International Transactions from George Mason University. He graduated cum laude from his Juris Doctor at George Mason University School of Law and with distinction from his Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he received the Thomas Bradbury Chetwood Award for graduating with the highest academic ranking in his program. Prior to coming to the National Restaurant Association, Mr. Amador served as an Executive Director in the Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits Division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Amador has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law, and also served on the faculty of the Virginia Beach Law Enforcement Training Academy.

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.

Alison Devenny
New York, NY

Alison Devenny is an Associate at GFT Technologies, a leading European-based IT services provider focusing on the financial industry. Alison started her career at Deutsche Bank, where she managed a trust for Private Wealth Management and the Americas Foundation. She holds a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and Master’s in Public Finance and Management from New York University. Alison has been a fellow at a variety of institutions, including the Embassy of Israel, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California at Berkeley and the State Department. She is also on the Board of Dusan Tynek Dance Theater and the Junior Board of the National Women’s History Museum. In 2008, Alison founded and continues to chair the Junior Committee of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, a group of young professionals in New York City that works to support the mission of the organization through fundraising and outreach events.

Denise K. Fletcher
New York, NY

Denise Fletcher is a finance, strategy and operating executive who has been a leader at public and private global companies and not-for-profits. Currently she serves on the board of Unisys Corporation and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. Previously she served on other public company boards, including: Sempra Energy , Orbitz, and Software Etc. Stores as well as the board of the Hospital Group, a private U.K. company.Her not-for-profit board expertise includes Girl Scouts/USA , YWCA/NYC , Flying Heritage Collection Museum, and the Alumni Executive Council of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She chaired the Zoning Board of Appeals of Larchmont, New York.Denise was Executive Vice President, Finance of Vulcan, Inc., Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s multi-billion dollar investment and project management company.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College, Denise holds a Master’s in City Planning from Harvard University.

She was elected to the Academy of Women Achievers; the Business Leadership Council; and the Women’s Forum of New York. She was named in “Women at the Top” by Industry Week, and “Women Ready to Run Corporate America” by Working Woman.

Pamela Forbes Lieberman
Northbrook, IL

Pamela Forbes Lieberman is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of True Value Company, where she led an impressive strategic, financial, operating, and culture turnaround of a $2 billion public-reporting wholesaler/retailer nearing bankruptcy. The company includes True Value Hardware, Grand Rental Station, Taylor Rental, Party Central, Home and Garden Showplace and InduServe Supply.

Before coming to True Value, Ms. Forbes Lieberman was SVP and CFO of ShopTalk, a start-up voice application software company. She had moved there from Martin-Brower Company, one of the largest distributors in the McDonalds system. Ms. Forbes Lieberman holds an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Illinois Champaign. She is a Certified Public Accountant.

Ms. Forbes Lieberman serves on the board of numerous companies and nonprofit groups, including Standard Motor Products, the Ovarian National Cancer Alliance and the Committee of 200.

Veronica Jordan, PhD
Boston, MA

Veronica Jordan has broad business experience in health care and life science-based companies. For much of her career, she has been involved in the discovery and development of new drugs and other health care products, and has provided senior leadership to numerous clinical trial programs. Veronica’s experience includes building early-stage companies and management of larger international organizations, with functional expertise covering general management, sales and marketing, business development and technical operations. She holds a BA in biochemistry from Cambridge University and a PhD in biochemistry/cell biology from Oxford University. She has conducted post-doctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

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 has been a business owner in the beauty industry for 26 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 against ovarian cancer in 1997, after her sister’s diagnosis of stage 3C. Her passion for answers led 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 board of Ovar’coming Together in 2002and became president one year later. She proudly joined the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance board in 2004 and works closely with the Partner Member committee, believing local and national agendas are parallel. Through her activism, she continues to be the “voice” of her sister, Christine.

Diane Rader O’Connor
Vancouver, WA

An ovarian cancer survivor since 2002, Diane Rader O’Connor is president and co-founder of the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon and SW Washington, a Partner Member of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. She has served on the board of directors for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance since 2006, where she currently chairs the Governance and Service Programs Committees. She has been an integral part of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance’s Survivor’s Teaching Students: Saving Women’s Lives® program since 2004 and has recruited and prepared survivors to speak at the Oregon Health and Science University as well as local nursing schools. She has served as a Consumer Reviewer for the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Project. Diane also helped create the SW Washington Cancer Center’s gynecologic cancer support group in 2003. In 2000, Diane retired from a 32-year career as a counselor and educator in the Vancouver, WA, public school system. She has been married for 40 years and has two adult sons and two granddaughters.

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 has been active in the Alliance since 2002. She has served as chair of the Conference and Strategic Planning Committees and has been a member of several other committees including the Policy Committee. She is a 12-year ovarian cancer survivor. She became 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.