Board of Trustees

Setting the course for our institution

Meet Our Trustees

Joslin's volunteer Board of Trustees works closely with Joslin's executive staff to assure our organization is both grounded on a steady foundation and has the freedom to create new knowledge — the hallmark of this one-of-a-kind center.

Martin Pasqualini, Chair

Martin Pasqualini is a Managing Director and Founding Member of CCA Group LLC, a leading renewable finance firm. He has more than 28 years of experience executing a wide variety of project and structured financings as both an attorney and banker. Mr. Pasqualini has advised sponsors and capital providers in connection with the financing of over 100 utility scale renewable energy facilities in his role at CCA Group. Prior to co-founding CCA Group, Mr. Pasqualini was a Managing Director in the Tax Products Group at BTM Capital Corporation and was formerly a partner in the Project and Structured Finance Group of Bingham Dana LLP.

Todd M. Abbrecht

Todd M. Abbrecht is Co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of Thomas H. Lee Partners, LP (THL) Management and Investment committees. Since joining THL in 1992, Mr. Abbrecht has been involved in the execution of THL’s investments in the healthcare and consumer spaces and currently sits on the Boards of CSafe Global, Professional Physical Therapy, and Syneos Health (formerly inVentiv Health, Inc.). Todd also sits on the Board of Trustees of Wellesley College. Todd previously served in board positions for Aramark Corporation, Curo Health Services, Dunkin’ Brands, Inc., Fogo de Chão, Healthcare Staffing Services, Intermedix Corporation, Juvare, Michael Foods, Inc., National Waterworks, Inc., Party City, PCI Pharma Services and Warner Chilcott plc. Prior to joining THL, Mr. Abbrecht worked at Credit Suisse First Boston in its mergers and acquisitions department. Mr. Abbrecht holds a BSE in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Michael K. Devlin

Michael Devlin is a financial consultant and former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Randolph Bancorp, Inc. (retired). In his former role, he led all of the Bank’s financial activities, including financial reporting and budgeting, as well as asset-liability, investment portfolio and risk management. Prior to joining the bank, Devlin was a partner with Grant Thornton LLP from 2004 to 2013 where he worked with public companies in a variety of industries and not-for-profit entities. He previously worked for Arthur Andersen LLP for 24 years including 11 years as an audit partner in the firm’s Boston office specializing in the financial services industry. Devlin received his BS degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Ryan Enright

Ryan serves as a Managing Director on the Boston Downtown leasing team representing both investors and tenants. Ryan has over 20 years of commercial real estate experience working for both public and private commercial real estate firms as well as private equity firms on maximizing the value of their real estate holdings. Ryan has been involved in over eight- hundred transactions over his career, including large lease deals with State Street, Bank of America, Ameriprise, GMO, Skadden, Summit Partners, Rapid 7, Wayfair, McDermott, Will and Emery and Citizens Bank. Prior to joining JLL in 2014, Ryan worked for Equity Office/Blackstone for seventeen years as a Vice President of Leasing in their downtown office portfolio. Ryan is a long-time member of Team Joslin, the Joslin Diabetes Boston Marathon team, having run the marathon for over 24 years. Ryan has also served on Joslin’s High Hopes Gala Committee and serves on the Board of Trustees of Thompson Island Outward Bound.

Alan Moses, MD

Dr. Alan Moses is an independent consultant for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. He serves on the Boards of two biotechnology companies and actively advises several companies in the diabetes therapy area. Dr. Moses has strong ties to Joslin. His son was admitted to the Joslin Teaching Unit with a new diagnosis of T1D in 1990. Later, from 1998 to 2004, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Joslin Diabetes Center with specific responsibility for the Joslin Clinic. Trained in internal medicine and endocrinology, he spent the early part of his academic career at Harvard doing bench and clinical research and clinical care. He was the Director of the Clinical Research Center at Beth Israel Hospital prior to moving to the Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Moses co-founded and directed the Clinical Investigator Training Program at Harvard Medical School and the HST Program at MIT. He joined Novo Nordisk in 2004. During his 14 years at Novo Nordisk, Dr. Moses served in multiple roles beginning as Associate Vice President of Medical Affairs in the US and rising to the position of Senior Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer working in Copenhagen. Dr. Moses earned his MD from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, worked for three years at the National Institutes of Health, completed his clinical endocrine/diabetes training at Tufts New England Medical Center and studied Health Care Strategy at Harvard Business School. He retired from Novo Nordisk in June 2018.

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD

A prominent diabetes researcher, physician and educator, Dr. Polonsky serves as President of the University of Chicago Medicine health system and Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine. He also serves as Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs for the University of Chicago, overseeing its research and education programs. He reports directly to the University president. Born and educated in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Polonsky graduated cum laude in 1973 from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, then came to the University of Chicago in 1978 for a fellowship in endocrinology. He joined the University's faculty in 1981, was promoted to professor in 1990 and became the Louis Block Professor of Medicine in 1995. He also has served as chief of endocrinology and as director of the University's Diabetes Research and Training Center. In 1999, Dr. Polonsky moved to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was appointed the Adolphus Busch Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University and physician-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital before his return to the University of Chicago Medicine. As a scientist, Dr. Polonsky studies factors that influence the health and function of pancreatic beta cells, which produce and secrete insulin. Defects in insulin production and action are hallmarks of noninsulin dependent (type 2) diabetes. Dr. Polonsky was part of a team at the University of Chicago in the 1980s that developed and tested ways to measure insulin-secretion rates. His more recent studies have focused on novel, sensitive and accurate methods of evaluating beta-cell function in people with mild diabetes or who have not yet developed diabetes, and on forms of diabetes that result from genetic causes. He currently is studying genes that increase the risk for type 2 diabetes and is evaluating drugs that stimulate insulin secretion — a project that he began with colleagues at the University of Chicago. Dr. Polonsky is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He has won multiple awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the American Federation of Clinical Research in 1993, the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award of the American Diabetes Association in 1994 and a highly selective National Institutes of Health MERIT Award in 1997. In 2007, he was named director of the five-year, $50-million NIH-funded Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University. In 2009 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He has published more than 250 papers, has served on the editorial boards of several journals and on national and regional committees of a number of organizations including the American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He was a member of the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Bastiano Sanna, PhD

Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D., joined Vertex in 2019 and is the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Cell and Genetic Therapies. In this role, Dr. Sanna is responsible for advancing research, development and manufacturing for all of Vertex’s cell and genetic therapy programs, including sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia, type 1 diabetes and, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He also oversees the Jeffrey Leiden Center for Cell and Genetic Therapies that opened in 2022 at Innovation Square in Boston’s Seaport District. Dr. Sanna was previously the CEO of Semma Therapeutics, which was acquired by Vertex in 2019. Under his leadership, Semma’s pioneering work to develop cell therapy treatments for those living with type 1 diabetes significantly advanced. Prior to Semma, Dr. Sanna was Chief Operating Officer at Magenta Therapeutics, where he was responsible for operations, finance, clinical development and program management. Prior to Magenta, Dr. Sanna served on the leadership team of Novartis’ Cell and Gene Therapy Unit as the Global Program Head of Stem Cell Transplant and early programs, where he oversaw clinical, regulatory, CMC and commercial aspects of programs in bone marrow transplant and CAR-T cell therapies. He also served as Global Head of Strategic Planning and Portfolio Management at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was responsible for global portfolio management of all Novartis’ research programs, from discovery through Phase 2 across all disease areas. Dr. Sanna currently serves on the board of directors of Adicet Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company that’s focused on designing and developing allogeneic gamma delta T cell therapies for cancer and other diseases. He received a Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Sassari, in Italy.

Kristin Welo

As Community Events & Impact Director at Artful Jaunts, a boutique luxury art travel company, Kristin has combined her longtime interest in nonprofit work with her more recently acquired passion for contemporary art. Formerly a trust and estate attorney, with an LLM in Tax Law, Kristin provided tax, estate, and charitable planning advice for corporate executives and family business owners at Coopers & Lybrand and State Street Global Advisors. She is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School. Kristin has worked with several local charitable organizations, including her alma mater, and fulfilled leadership roles with the Boston Public Library Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, New England Chapter. Kristin and her husband, Tobias, have been proud Joslin parents since 2008. Both of their children have Type 1 Diabetes and have benefited greatly from the expert care they receive at Joslin Diabetes Center.

Leverett Wing

Leverett Wing has led the Commonwealth Seminar since 2015, after being one of its founding board members in 2003. Leverett is a well-known leader and community mobilizer whose ability to communicate to broad, diverse audiences, think innovatively, organize on a wide scale, and break down barriers across communities, has led to a number of landmark accomplishments benefiting organizations and causes locally and nationally. Before joining the Commonwealth Seminar, Leverett led the Community Services Division at the Massachusetts' Department of Housing and Community Development. In that position, he oversaw a budget of over $250 million and staff of over 50 employees while working with cities, towns and non-profit organizations to offer programs, funding, and technical assistance to support the advancement toward self-sufficiency of households as well as the revitalization of cities and towns throughout MA. Leverett was also the Executive Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote); headquartered in Washington, D.C., APIAVote is the only non-partisan, national organization focusing on civic engagement in the Asian American community. Prior to that, Leverett helped envision and spearhead an effort to create the Massachusetts Asian American Commission, a permanent entity in state government to represent Asian American interests in Massachusetts. Having been instrumental in its creation, Leverett was named the Commission's first permanent Executive Director. Over the past three decades, Leverett has consistently conceived, promoted and led innovative programs and initiatives, bringing the unique needs of various communities to the fore. As a member of the Board of Overseers at Joslin Diabetes Center, an internationally known hospital and research center, Leverett helped found a first-of-its-kind, national project called the Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI), which seeks to improve the understanding and treatment of diabetes among Asian Americans. Leverett also founded and co-chaired the AADI's signature fundraising event “A Taste of Ginger” for its first five years, returning in 2019 to co-chair its Fifteenth Anniversary celebration. Leverett also recently joined the Board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he Co-Chairs its Diversity Outreach Committee as it seeks to diversify its board and community outreach and inclusion efforts. As a member of Boston Harbor Now's (BHN) Board of Advisors, Leverett founded the annual Asian American Community Harbor Cruise, which serves as a vehicle for the AAPI community to learn more about, gain better access, and achieve a greater appreciation for the Boston Harbor, its surrounding islands and the environment in general. Donated by BHN and led and organized by Leverett, the cruise annually draws upwards of 1,000 attendees with free tickets being claimed in less than 10 minutes. Leverett also sits on the Board of Overseers of the nationally renowned Boston Children's Museum as well as the Board of Advisors for GBH-TV/Radio, Boston’s nationally known Public Broadcasting affiliate where he founded the station's annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration in 2006. This is now an annual event drawing over 300 attendees each year. In addition, Leverett sits on the Board of Trustees at Eastern Bank, the largest and oldest mutual bank in the United States. Leverett sits on the Bank's Nominating Committee to help diversify its board leadership. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Boston’s Higher Ground in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which aims to better direct resources and services — including childcare, social services, and youth leadership development — to some of Boston’s most challenged neighborhoods. Most recently, Leverett spearheaded the creation of “Community Crossovers” partnering the Commonwealth Seminar with Boston's Higher Ground and NAACP's Boston Chapter. The Crossovers are series of cross-BIPOC community dialogues seeking to harness and build on the cross-community support witnessed during the Black Lives Matter movement to explore how to leverage interest in addressing systemic racism and build on the movement’s momentum to create lasting relationships and alliances. While addressing specific topics, Crossover attendees learn about the history and background of these issues, the strategies used to address these issues, and explore potential collaborative opportunities among each community's residents and constituencies. Leverett has also been the featured speaker in a number of “Fireside Chats” with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion divisions of a number of prominent companies, including Keolis, Vertex, Cambridge Savings Bank, and Boston Medical Center. During these chats, Leverett offers insights into the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, some of the barriers faced by the community, and potential collaborative solutions and initiatives which attendees might undertake to understand, support and partner with one another. In 2016, Leverett was recognized by Get Konnected as one of their “GK 100: Honoring the One Hundred of the Most Influential People of Color.” He was also a recent recipient of the prestigious “Good Guy Award” from the MA Women's Political Caucus, only the second Asian American to ever receive the award. Leverett was also honored by the Asian Community Development Corporation, which offered its “Inspiration Award” to him for his work empowering and educating the community regarding political engagement. Color Magazine also presented Leverett with its “Publisher’s Award” for his work breaking down barriers and building collaborative efforts within communities of color in Massachusetts. A graduate of Tufts University (BA), Leverett is also an alumnus of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (MPA-2). A longtime Boston Celtics season ticket holder, Leverett enjoys watching, and partaking in, any sporting activity he can, as well as visiting and exploring America's National Parks around the country. He lives in Boston with his family.

Shunee Yee

Shunee Yee is the President and CEO of CSOFT International and CSOFT Health Sciences, overseeing operations across 3 continents. In her 25+ years of industry experience, Ms. Yee has been featured in numerous publications, including the Economist, Fortune Magazine, Forbes Asia, and IDG journals. She is also a Fortune selected Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur in 2012 and was identified by CNN Money as one of technology’s 36 most powerful disrupters. In June 2016, Ms. Yee helped launch the Shenzhen 100 research report, utilizing qualitative indicators to support global market strategies. Her many contributions in the sphere of education include the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing US-China Center, Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative, and her work on the board of trustees at Dexter Southfield School. Additionally, Ms. Yee served as co-chair for the Joslin Diabetes Center’s A Taste of Ginger committee in 2021 and 2022, supporting the Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI).

Meet the Ex Officio Trustees

George King, MD

George L. King, MD, is the Director of Research, Senior Vice President and Head of the Section on Vascular Cell Biology at Joslin, as well as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from Duke Medical School, completed residency training at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, in Seattle, and then completed training as both a Research Associate and a Clinical Associate at the National Institutes of Health. He has been at Joslin and Harvard Medical School since 1981. Dr. King has received numerous awards, including the Cogan Award from the Association for Research and Vision and Ophthalmology, the Stadie Memorial Award and Lectureship from the Philadelphia Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association, the Alcon Award for Vision Research and the Annual Award for Excellence in Research from the Japan Society of Diabetic Complications. Dr. King also was named Honorary Professor and Director of the Fu Dan Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetology at Fu Dan University, Shanghai, China. Recently, Dr. King was among a group of scientist who received the Champalimaud Award, the most prestigious award for vision research. Complications of vascular diabetes can affect many organs, but the most serious involve the eye, kidney, arteries, heart and nerves. The laboratory of Dr. King studies the molecular mechanisms by which hyperglycemia and insulin resistance may lead to vascular dysfunction and long-term complications of diabetes and insulin resistance. Dr. King’s laboratory proposed that activation of protein kinase C—especially the beta (PKC-beta) and delta (PKC-delta) isoforms—is the major signaling pathway by which hyperglycemia causes pathologies in the retina, kidney and cardiovascular systems. In a series of studies using cultured vascular cells from the retina, renal glomeruli and arteries, Dr. King’s laboratory demonstrated that hyperglycemia can activate PKC to induce vascular pathologies. Dr. King’s laboratory also characterized an isoform-selective inhibitor to PKC-beta, which, in diabetic animal models, prevents and stops the early changes of diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy and cardiovascular dysfunction. Currently Dr. King’s laboratory is exploring the targets of PKC-beta and delta isoform activation in various vascular tissues, including retinal vascular cells, cardiomyocytes, arterial vascular cells, renal mesangial cells and podocytes. These targets involve extracellular matrix proteins, enzymes such as eNOS, and NADPH oxidase, cytokines and growth factors such as VEGF, TGF-beta, CTGF and endothelin, as well as transcription factors. Recently, Dr. King’s laboratory has reported that PKC delta activation by hyperglycemia can activate two independent signaling cascades, one NF-κB and the other is a tyrosine phosphatase (SHP-1) to reduce apoptosis of retinal and renal cells important in the initiation of diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy. The second area of study concerns insulin’s role in regulating cardiovascular function in physiological and pathophysiological states. Insulin resistance is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases not only in people with diabetes, but also in those who have high blood pressure or lipid abnormalities or are obese. Dr. King’s laboratory has shown that at the molecular and biochemical levels, insulin can regulate many vascular and cellular functions, including the enzyme activities of eNOS and HO-1, the expression of cytokines such as VEGF and endothelin and the migration and growth of smooth muscle cells. His laboratory postulated that insulin in the normal state can have anti-atherogenic actions. However, the loss of insulin’s normal action, in combination with the elevation of insulin levels found in insulin-resistant states, can lead to pro-atherogenic conditions in large blood vessels. These studies show an insulin-resistant or diabetic state causes a selective loss of insulin’s action with regard to one specific signaling pathway—IRS–PI 3-kinase–Akt—which mediates many of insulin’s anti-atherogenic actions, such as production of nitric oxide (NO) to dilate blood vessels and the expression of VEGF to improve heart perfusion and HO-1 for endogenous anti-oxidative stress actions. Clinically, Dr. King is leading a comprehensive study to identify protective factors in a large group of Type 1 diabetic patients with diabetes duration over 50 years, called the Medalist Study. Over 40% of the Medalist diabetic patients do not have significant complications, even after 50-85 years of diabetes. Studies using molecular, genetic, biological and physiological methods are ongoing to identify these protective factors against the adverse effects of hyperglycemia of diabetes.

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