Management Team
David L. Hankin was named President of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering in April 2009. He concurrently holds the position of CEO of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research (AMF) since 2007 after having served the AMF as General Counsel since January 2004 and Chief Financial Officer since June 2005. In 1983 David received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, CA. In 1986 he received a Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University in the School of Law Nashville, Tennessee. From 1997 to 2000 David served as a member of the Board of Advisors for EC2, University of Southern California New Media Incubator group. From 1996 to 1999 he was Vice President of Business Affairs for Sony Online Entertainment. From 1999 to 2000 he was CEO for Hyundai Internet Technologies.
As David Hankin leads these Alfred Mann Foundation teams to the next horizon, the innovations continue as they look forward to developing solutions to healthcare problems, and new patients to help.
Kristen Delgado joined the Alfred E Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering in 2008, as a Market Analyst. Kristen graduated from Pepperdine University with her Bachelor of the Arts degree in International Communications in 1992. In May 2009 Kristen completed the Medical Marketing Program at UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. She is an active member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, and a member of the Pharmaceutical Market Research Group professional association. During her years of study, she benefited twice from study abroad programs to Germany, 1985-86, and 1988-89. Her professional interests lie in market research and analysis, communications, and new product investigation and opportunities. Kristen founded, built and managed a computer study program in a primary education facility and then ran a very successful business in residential real estate for nearly 10 years. Her personal hobbies include all outdoor activities and sports that she can share with her husband and two children.
Neelima Firth, Director for Strategic Planning and Development is an experienced biopharmaceutical executive with extensive scientific, reimbursement, marketing and international experience in start up and Fortune 500 biopharmaceutical companies including GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sandoz and Amgen. She has responsibility for understanding the commercial environment, reimbursement landscape, and clinical landscape for medical devices and providing appropriate support for the Alfred Mann Institutes at Purdue, Technion and USC.
Neelima was the Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at Amgen and led the strategic planning and operations group. She was instrumental in building the initial UK/European presence of Amgen to support the launch of new products. She worked at Amgen for 16 years in a series of increasingly senior roles in clinical, marketing and reimbursement in the UK and USA. Accomplishments includes managing Medicare and Medicaid marketing strategies, creating alliance management governance and managing clear brand planning processes.
In England, she was the President of AIOPI- Association of Information Officers in the Pharmaceutical Industry for 5 years. She is a board member of the Association for Strategic Planning. She is an active member of the Socal Bio and is on the Socal Bio Executive Committee W3 group. Her passion is mentoring and coaching people and she fulfills this partially through her volunteer work with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County. She is on the board of this charity and chairs the strategic planning committee.
She has an Information Science degree from Leeds Metropolitan University in England, a Certificate in Legal Studies from Cambridge University in England and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Scott P Layne MD is a physician-scientist who is known for cross-disciplinary work involving biology, virology, applied physics and policy-related issues. In September 2010, he joined Alfred E Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering to continue with cross-disciplinary innovation. His current efforts include: developing new therapies for treating antibiotic resistance; developing affordable point-of-care diagnostics for medical care; and developing RNA-protein hybrids for real-time patient monitoring.
Dr. Layne is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health and past Member of the California NanoSystems Institute. He is an author of over 45 publications, including three U.S. patents on methods to access and operate automated high-throughput laboratory systems. Dr. Layne pioneered the development of the High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network for Infectious Diseases along with Dr. Tony J. Beugelsdijk at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The program, funded by congressionally directed Department of Defense investments and a grant from the California Office of Homeland Security, aims to enable near-real time laboratory testing and situational awareness for major infectious disease outbreaks, pandemics and bioattacks.
Dr. Layne served as the Principal Investigator of the Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Response (CRISAR), which was a NIAID Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. From 2007 to 2009, CRISAR undertook national and international surveillance on animal and human derived influenza strains, and actively contributed to NIAID's Pandemic Public Health Research Response Plan. Participating institutions included UCLA, University of California Davis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Dr. Layne is an editor of Firepower in the Lab: Automation in the Fight Against Infectious Diseases and Bioterrorism (Joseph Henry Press, 2001) and also of Jane's Chem-Bio Handbook, 2nd and 3rd editions. In 1988, he organized the workshop A National Effort to Model AIDS Epidemiology for the Office of Science and Technology Policy and oversaw the publication of a White House report that influenced HIV/AIDS research priorities in the United States. In 1999, he also organized the meeting Automation in Threat Reduction and Infectious Disease Research: Needs and New Direction under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering. From August 2008 to May 2010, he served as a Member of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee as authorized by Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-21.
Dr. Layne earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from DePauw University in 1976 and Doctor of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University in 1980. He earned board certifications in internal medicine (1997-2007) and infectious diseases (1998-2008), with a fellowship in adult infectious diseases. He served as a postdoctoral fellow and staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 1982-1986 and as a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1986-1992. While at the national laboratories, he focused on numerical simulations and laser spectroscopy investigations for bioenergetic solitons in proteins, and on numerical simulations and laboratory investigations of human immunodeficiency virus' (HIV's) physical-chemical properties. His ground-breaking work on humoral immunity remains relevant to developing of HIV vaccines and included key measures of viral infectious stability, infectious fraction and neutralization kinetics with immunoglobulins and soluble blockers.
Carla Mann Woods, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Program Development, is a member of the AMI-USC and the AMI-Purdue Board of Directors and has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Center for Global Innovation at the USC Marshall School of Business. She is also a member of the Board of Governors for The Fulfillment Fund, and formerly on the Board of the National Pain Foundation. A USC graduate in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, Carla began her career at Pacesetter Systems in Business Development and Marketing to research and plan new technology applications and product needs for pacemakers. Later, she joined Advanced Bionics, a cochlear implant company acquired by Boston Scientific. During her tenure at Advanced Bionics/Boston Scientific, she was involved in the business development, product development, and marketing for the BION® microstimulator and the Precision Spinal Cord Stimulator and was the Vice President of Marketing for the Auditory Division. For these products she holds over 40 U.S. patents. In 2007, she became the Vice President of Program Development and Strategic Planning for the Alfred Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering to establish the model for creating and operating Alfred Mann Institutes (AMI) at universities.