About The Assistance Fund

As President and CEO of The Assistance Fund (TAF), Mark provides executive leadership to staff and works closely with the Board of Directors to set strategic priorities. Mark leads a highly skilled senior leadership team to ensure a patient-centric organizational culture of high standards, strong communication, transparency, excellent stewardship, and trust.

During Mark’s tenure as President and CEO, The Assistance Fund has experienced significant growth. When Mark joined TAF in 2013, the organization had $66 million in revenue, 12 full-time employees, and eight disease programs. TAF now has $372 million in revenue, 70 full-time employees, and offers financial assistance to patients through nearly 70 disease programs. Under Mark’s leadership, TAF opened a second office in Washington, DC, to effectively advocate on behalf of patients and protect the critical safety net charitable patient assistance provides to ensure patients have access to treatment.

Throughout Mark’s career, he has been a “hands-on” executive with key leadership roles. A certified insurance counselor, Mark enjoyed a nearly 20-year career in the insurance sector and is licensed in all facets of the insurance industry, including financial planning. Originally from Frederick, Maryland, Mark has held positions on several boards, including Encompass’ North Star Agent Advisory Board and National Automation Panel, the Frederick County Rotary Board of Directors, Mount Saint Mary University’s athletic fundraising board, and St. John’s Catholic Prep’s Board of Directors.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Business from Mount St. Mary’s College. He is the proud father of two college-aged daughters and lives in Winter Park, Florida with his wife of 27 years, Jennifer.

Steve is a certified public accountant and brings over 20 years of financial, operational and audit leadership experience to the team. Steve began his professional career in 1992 with Price Waterhouse, one of the world’s largest professional services firms, as part of its audit and consulting practice. During his 7 years with Price Waterhouse, Steve worked extensively in the healthcare industry with many not-for-profit health systems. From 1999-2003, Steve led the internal audit team at Harcourt, an educational publishing company that was subsequently acquired by Reed Elsevier. In 2003, Steve joined the management team at Rotech Healthcare, the third largest provider of durable medical equipment in the US. During his time at Rotech, Steve served in numerous leadership roles including Vice President of Internal Audit for 3 years, Chief Financial Officer for 6 years, Chief Operating Officer for one year and Chief Executive Officer for one year. In 2014, Steve left Rotech to start Simply Mobility, a provider mobility and accessibility equipment. In 2016, Steve sold Simply Mobility and joined the leadership team at The Assistance Fund. Steve is responsible for providing financial control and oversight to The Assistance Fund to ensure that we are excellent stewards of donor’s philanthropic support.

Gerald brings more than 16 years of pharmaceutical sales experience. A native of New Jersey, Gerald graduated from Rutgers University and began his pharmaceutical career with GlaxoSmithKline in 1997. After GSK, Gerald spent over 10 years at Sepracor, which later became Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at Sunovion, Gerald held several leadership positions in sales and corporate, including specialty representative, hospital representative, managed care account manager, District Business Manager, and Leadership Development Manager. In his new role for The Assistance Fund, Gerald is responsible for increasing long-term corporate funding and large donations to help cover out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for patients who have insurance but cannot afford their medication copayments.

Danielle earned her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Microbiology from University of Central Florida. While working as a Medical Laboratory Scientist at the Florida Department of Health, she earned a Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Florida. At the Florida Department of Health, she was involved with leading research projects in Mycobacteriology and coordinated applications for grants in Workforce Competency Standardization in a State Public Health Lab. Danielle brings 6 years of Operations experience in various facets. From 2008-2011, she joined the Government Contracting industry as an Operations Manager in a Small Women-Owned Business. After obtaining her Master’s in both programs, Danielle moved into the Worker’s Compensation Industry where she held titles as Operations Manager and Director of Operations of a large scale call center.

With over 25 years of experience as a healthcare attorney and chief compliance officer, Judith focuses on compliance oversight to ensure our regulatory adherence to TAF’s Corporate Compliance Plan. Judith began her career with a national healthcare law firm. Subsequently, she served as the Compliance Officer for several integrated health care systems where she designed and implemented compliance programs and worked closely with government regulatory agencies. She has extensive experience with regulatory matters involving the Anti-kickback Statute and False Claims Act. Judith is certified in healthcare compliance and a long-standing member of the Florida Bar, the Health Care Compliance Association and the American Health Lawyers Association. Judith was born and raised in New York City, and attended law school at the University of Miami, Florida.

Christina is a DC-based policy and advocacy expert with experience in building alliances and elevating the voices of patients, parents, scientists and clinicians to have a positive impact on health policy.  Christina came to The Assistance Fund (TAF) from the EveryLife Foundation, where she led policy and advocacy efforts to advance treatment and diagnostic opportunities for rare disease patients. At the American College of Cardiology, she worked with staff and member leadership to develop an agenda for improving cardiovascular health outcomes. At the Pew Charitable Trusts, Christina worked with a range of partners to advance legislative goals that incentivize the development of new antibiotic drugs. As an analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and in the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, D.C., she served as Project Officer for a cooperative agreement between HHS and the World Health Organization. Christina’s engagement in the rare disease space is a direct result of her own experience with her youngest daughter Charlotte, who has a rare genetic disorder.