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 more than 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 Orlando, Florida with his wife of 27 years, Jennifer.

Steve is a certified public accountant with over 20 years of financial, operational, and audit leadership experience. As Chief Financial Officer, Steve is responsible for providing financial control and oversight to ensure TAF is an excellent steward of donors’ philanthropic support.
Steve began his career in 1992 at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), one of the world’s largest professional services firms, as part of its audit and consulting practice. During his seven years with Price Waterhouse, Steve worked extensively in the healthcare industry with nonprofit healthcare systems. From 1999 to 2003, Steve led the internal audit team at Harcourt, an educational publishing company later acquired by Reed Elsevier. In 2003, Steve joined the management team at Rotech Healthcare, the third largest provider of durable medical equipment in the U.S. At Rotech, Steve served in numerous leadership roles including Vice President of Internal Audit, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer. In 2014, Steve left Rotech to start Simply Mobility, a provider of mobility and accessibility equipment. Steve sold Simply Mobility in 2016 and joined the leadership team at TAF. Steve has a CPA and a Master’s in Accounting from Florida State University.

As Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, Gerald is responsible for increasing long-term corporate funding and large donations to help cover out-of-pocket costs of treatment for underinsured individuals living with life-threatening, chronic, and rare diseases.

Gerald has 16 years of pharmaceutical sales experience and seven years of experience in nonprofit business development. A native of New Jersey, Gerald graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts. He began his pharmaceutical career with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 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 the sales and corporate departments, including Specialty Representative, Hospital Representative, Managed Care Account Manager, District Business Manager, and Leadership Development Manager.

Danielle Vizcaino is an accomplished operations leader with over 12 years of experience. As Vice President of Operations, Danielle manages and directs daily operations and is responsible for leading TAF’s operations strategy and overseeing program management, claims administration, call center operations, communications, and philanthropy functions. Danielle prioritizes developing and implementing efficient operations to meet TAF's evolving needs.

Prior to joining The Assistance Fund, Danielle was the Director of Operations at a large-scale call center at One Call Care Management. She previously worked as a Medical Laboratory Scientist at the Florida Department of Health, where she led research projects in mycobacteriology and coordinated applications for grants in workforce competency standardization in a state public health lab. Danielle has a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Microbiology from the University of Central Florida, and both a Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration from the University of North Florida.

As Vice President of Business Intelligence, John focuses on enhancing TAF’s information technology resources for better security, data visibility, and process improvements. John has over 13 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with a focus on reporting, business analytics, and information technology. In his previous position at Rotech Healthcare, John developed and oversaw reporting projects that provided increased visibility into operations, allowed for better monitoring of assets, and identified areas for process improvement.

Since joining TAF in 2017, John has improved TAF’s data reporting capability and developed enrollment capacity models that increased the number of patients TAF is able to serve. John plays an integral role in championing system enhancements that allow TAF to provide the highest quality service to patients. John has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Rollins College, a Master of Arts in Social Science Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Cognitive Science from the University of Central Florida, and a Global Information Assurance Certification in Information Security Fundamentals.

As Vice President of External Affairs, Christina leads the Washington, DC, office and its efforts to pave the way for patient-focused policy and advocacy to lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs and ensure their access to critical treatment.

Christina came to 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 improve 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 and in the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS), 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. She has a bachelor’s degree from The Catholic University of America and a Master of Public Health from The George Washington University.

With over 25 years of experience as a healthcare attorney and chief compliance officer, Judith focuses on compliance oversight to ensure TAF’s regulatory adherence to its Corporate Compliance Program. Judith is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Program, chairs the Executive Compliance Committee, and reports directly to the TAF Board of Directors.

Judith began her career with a national healthcare law firm. Subsequently, she served as the Compliance Officer for several integrated healthcare systems, where she designed and implemented compliance programs and worked closely with government regulatory agencies. Judith has extensive experience with regulatory matters involving the Anti-kickback Statute and False Claims Act. She 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 has a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law, a Master of Public Administration with a specialty in Health Care Planning, Policy and Administration from New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from SUNY at Buffalo.