FASEB Leadership and Staff

Mary-Ann Bjornsti is professor and former chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds an additional appointment as the Newman H. Waters Chair of Clinical Pharmacology and she served as associate director for translational research at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. Her research interests are in the mechanisms of anti-cancer drug action and in pathways that regulate tumor growth and cellular responses to replicative stress.

She is a member of three FASEB member societies: the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Genetics Society of America, and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). She is a past secretary and treasurer of ASPET.
Image: sent via email on June 20
 

Beth Garvy is professor and senior associate dean for biomedical education at University of Kentucky (UK) College of Medicine. Garvy held several appointments at UK, including Hellman Endowed Professor of Infectious Diseases; associate professor and then chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics before assuming her current role. She joined the FASEB Board in 2018 as the representative for the American Association of Immunologists. 

Kevin Kregel is executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa (UI). A physiologist, his research laboratory at UI has focused on physiological adjustments to exercise, aging, and environmental challenges.
 
Kregel has a long record of involvement in FASEB. He was actively involved in the FASEB Science Policy Committee, serving as chair of the committee’s Animals in Research and Education Subcommittee from 2008 to 2018. He also served as vice president for science policy in 2020–2021.  He is a member of the American Physiological Society (APS) and served as the APS representative to the FASEB Board from 2018 to 2020.   
 

Eric Kelley is professor and associate chair of research in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at West Virginia University Health Sciences Center. Kelley is active in the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SfRBM), having served as vice president, councilor, and Young Investigator Award chair. He served simultaneously as SfRBM representative on the FASEB Board and was a member of the FASEB Science Policy Committee from 2017 to 2018, as well as two terms on the FASEB Executive Committee.

Michael Lehman is director of the Brain Health Research Institute at Kent State University. An active member of FASEB, Lehman was appointed to the FASEB Board as a representative for the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (SEBM) in 2019 and has served on the Meetings Committee since 2021. He was named an SEBM Fellow in 2018. 

Cherié L. Butts is medical director and head of clinical assessments at Biogen. A cellular immunologist and clinical trialist, she is an active member of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). She served on AAI’s Committee on Public Affairs and is a former chair of its Minority Affairs Committee. She is also a councilor at the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

Thomas Clemens is professor of orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He served on the FASEB Finance Committee from 2017 to 2023. Clemens is also a member of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). In 2013, he received ASBMR’s Louis V. Avioli Founders Award. 

Marcelo Bonini holds dual appointments as professor of medicine (hematology/oncology) and associate director for education and training at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His laboratory studies the metabolism that occurs during aging and its connection to aging-related diseases such as cancer. He is a member of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SfRBM). He was founding chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion for SfRBM. He was also a member of the FASEB Science Policy Committee and the Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Committee. In 2018 he assumed the chair of the DEAI Committee. 

Lauren Walker is a toxicologist at Colgate-Palmolive. She has more than 10 years of research experience spanning molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, toxicology, immunology, and developmental biology. 

Walker has held leadership roles in several scientific societies, including postdoctoral representative for the Society of Toxicology’s Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group and a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group Committee at the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention—both of which are FASEB member societies. For three years, she was vice chair of the FASEB Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.  
 

Diane Robins is professor of human genetics and research scientist for the Reproductive Sciences Program at the University of Michigan Medical School. Her research area of interest is gene regulation by steroid hormones, focusing on transcriptional mechanisms, hormone-dependent cancers, and sex-biased gene action. In 2020, she received the Teacher’s Award from the Michigan Medicine Academy of Medical Educators.

Robins is an active member of the Endocrine Society and has tirelessly contributed to the society. In 2015, she received the society’s 2015 Sidney Ingbar Distinguished Service Laureate Award in recognition of her remarkable service to the success and future of the Endocrine Society. She was appointed to the FASEB Board in 2021, representing the Endocrine Society. 
 

Michael Schaller is a professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at West Virginia University School of Medicine. He is also leader of the university’s Mechanisms of Metastasis and Therapeutic Response Program. His research interests are the signaling events regulated by integrin-dependent cell adhesion.

Schaller has served on the FASEB Board since 2020, when he was appointed to represent the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also a current member of the Howard Garrison Advocacy Fellowship Selection and Oversight Committee. 
 

Frank Krause is FASEB’s executive director and chief executive officer. He focuses on fulfilling FASEB’s strategic plan and amplifying the collective voice of the federation’s 26 member societies through joint advocacy and promotion. He has led FASEB’s multimillion dollar investments in DEI and Open Science program development.