Dr. Kussick, a hematopathologist who has spent his 30+ year career focused on the diagnosis of blood-related cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, was the BLFA Board President from 2015 through 2019, and returned to this position in 2025. He oversees the BLFA Pathology Improvement Project, which is dedicated to enhancing the accuracy and speed of blood cancer diagnosis in east Africa, which is a critical step for improving patient survival. Dr. Kussick and the BLFA are key participants in an ongoing, NIH-funded grant project focused on improving the diagnosis of pediatric leukemia in western Kenya. Dr. Kussick completed his MD and PhD degrees, Anatomic Pathology residency, and Hematopathology fellowship at the University of Washington; he was an attending hematopathologist at the UW for seven years, before joining PhenoPath Laboratories, where he has practiced since 2005. Dr. Kussick is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Hematology, the College of American Pathologists, and the International Clinical Cytometry Society.

Over the last 30 years, Ned has served in various leadership positions as a director of nonprofit organizations, including the Woodland Park Zoological Society, Helpline House of Bainbridge Island and Housing Resources Board. Ned retired in 2007 as a Senior Vice President of Bank of America where he specialized in municipal finance. Ned holds a Master Degree in Business Administration from Harvard University. Ned and his wife spend time between Bainbridge Island, Washington and Maui and he is enjoying life being a grandfather to two grandchildren.

Jackson is currently a Finance Manager at Cisco Systems. He previously worked at Microsoft Corporation, Deloitte Consulting, and served in the United States Army for more than 5 years. Jackson is a Kenyan native and passionate about technology, business, education, and global health. Jackson holds a Master in Business Administration from Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Certified Public Accountant license. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Karen is currently a Senior Recruiter for Seattle Genetics, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel therapies to treat and cure cancer. Previously Karen led Global Staffing at PATH, a global health nonprofit; and headed up the hiring at ICOS Corporation; a biopharmaceutical company. Karen also spent six years as a founder and Principal at Tiburon Group, a recruitment consulting firm launched in the late 1990’s to help companies transition to using the internet for recruiting. Prior to her career in recruiting, Karen spent eight years in consumer products marketing, managing product lines for both Ralston Purina and Keebler. Karen has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Master in Business Administration from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Karen lives in Seattle with her husband and son.

Adam is currently a Family Medicine resident, after getting his medical degree from Rowan University SOM in New Jersey. He is the son of founder, Miriam Sevy, helped establish BLFA and was involved in its first grantmaking efforts. Prior to medical school, Adam served as Coordinator of the Big Cities Health Coalition, a national non-profit group that supported public health research and advocacy by America’s largest cities, and as a cancer researcher with City of Hope and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Adam holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s in Biology from Pomona College.

Raj Uthamanthil DVM, PhD is currently the Chief Medical Office at Seattle Children’s Research Institute leading preclinical and translational research. Prior to this, Raj served as an Associate Vice President at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Raj’s expertise is in providing collaborative administrative leadership to biomedical research programs, especially in preclinical/translational research with a focus on cancer and related diseases. Raj also served as a faculty member at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Raj lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

Nixon is a Medical Officer and Head of Research and Training at the Uganda Cancer Institute. Nixon completed a postdoctoral Fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute. Prior to this, Nixon received his MD from Makerere University Medical School, a Master in Public Health in Global Health from Duke University and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington. Nixon is currently undertaking research describing the genetic and mutational profile of cancer in Uganda. He resides in Kampala, Uganda with his wife and family.

Kerry’s interest in global health and passion for getting vital services to vulnerable children and families started in college and was re-ignited with a trip to rural Guatemala in 2018. She has been involved for more than 20 years in health-related technology programs with technology companies and U.S.-based healthcare systems with a focus on extending technology into clinics and community hospitals. Her early career was in national public affairs in Washington D.C. working with a variety of enterprises, from large financial services companies to internet startups.

Formerly employed as Principal, Medical & Scientific Affairs and Market Access at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a Danaher Company. Tony worked in high burden global markets focused on capacity building to increase diagnostic access that improves health equality in low middle income countries (LMIC). This included global advocacy awareness through strategic alliances for pediatric cancers such as hematologic malignancies. Tony launched the Global Health Access Initiative at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences where his work supporting Global Health overlapped with the blfa. The advocacy work continues in LMIC burdened with hematologic malignancies, and infectious diseases. The goal is to improve patient outcomes through technology innovation, training, education and implementation science. Tony completed his master’s in public health from the University of Liverpool School of Medicine concentrating on global health and epidemiology. His accepted MPH dissertation studied “Prevalence of Hematologic Malignancies in Western Kenya and associated demographic factors: A retrospective study using available secondary data sets from Eldoret Cancer Registry between 1999 and 2020”. Tony also earned a Certificate in Global Health from the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University and a bachelor’s degree from Sigmond Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University. Tony holds membership in the International AIDS Society, the International Society of Pediatric Oncology Africa chapter and the Delaware Academy of Medicine and Public Health.

James helps keep our website presence up and current.

Henry is the founder of Oxygen, a London-based strategic healthcare public affairs company. His clients have included a number of pharmaceutical companies, health charities and UK National Health Service bodies. He previously managed the primary care and oncology government affairs portfolios for Pfizer UK and was Head of Government Affairs and Policy for Novartis Pharmaceuticals in the UK. Henry holds a Bachelor of Arts from Kings College, London. He is the great nephew of Denis Burkitt, the physician who identified and first documented the incidence of Burkitt Lymphoma.