OpenBiome Foundation Announces New Board Leadership

WESTPORT, MA – (April 7, 2026) – Today, the OpenBiome Foundation announced the unanimous election of its Board Leadership for a three-year term, effective immediately. The officers, representing a cross section of innovators – from the clinical, patient, technology and financial fields – will guide the Foundation in its mission to expand patient access to microbiome therapies and drive scientific discoveries that will shape the future of health. 

They are:

Chair, Jane Williams, MD, MPH
Vice President, Neuroscience and Rare Disease at Syneos Health

Jane is a powerhouse in the life sciences sector.  A 2024 PharmaVoice 100 honoree, she leads a global team of medical directors, guiding biotech firms through the complexities of clinical drug development and asset strategy.

Before her tenure at Syneos, Dr. Williams held senior leadership roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, where she directed medical policy, and at Parexel, where she provided strategic oversight for global vaccine and pulmonary programs. Her corporate expertise is uniquely informed by 15 years of clinical practice as a family physician and her status as a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP).

Vice Chair Joanne Kamens, PhD
Senior Consultant, North Group

Joanne has advanced the leading edge of science in the academic, pharmaceutical, and nonprofit world. She spent nearly twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry as Senior Director of Research Collaborations at Abbott Bioresearch Center and RXi Pharmaceuticals Discovery respectively. She then became the Executive Director of Addgene, overseeing its expansion into a leading international research biorepository.

Secretary Neil Rasmussen
Retired; Former Senior Vice President of Innovation, Schneider Electric

A member of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory from 1979-1981, Neil and two colleagues spun-out and scaled, American Power Conversion (APC). Over the ensuing 26 years as its CTO and director, Neil helped APC grow from zero to $3 billion in revenue, with the company frequently recognized as one of America’s hottest growth companies.

He holds 30 patents related to high-efficiency and high-density data center power and cooling infrastructure and has published more than 60 papers related to power and cooling systems. Neil is currently working to advance the science of high-efficiency, high-density, scalable data center infrastructure solutions and is a principal architect of the APC InfraStruXure system.  He is a Life member of The MIT Corporation and a trustee of the Neil and Anna Rasmussen Foundation.

Lisa Serwin, Treasurer
Advisor, Nina Capital

Lisa has a 25+ year career leading start-ups and established organizations in the healthcare, consumer product and retail sectors. She is the co-founder of C-Sweetner—a nonprofit that matches senior women in the healthcare industry with mentors so they can thrive in C-suite leadership positions. She has also served as CEO and in other leadership roles at a wide variety of technology and healthcare companies where her responsibilities have ranged from strategic planning to closing on multiple rounds of financing.

“We stand at a critical moment, and our Board’s deep expertise is exactly what patients need now as we translate microbiome science into real-world solutions,” said Foundation CEO Julie Barrett O’Brien. “Their dedication aligns perfectly with our goal to ensure the next generation of breakthroughs reaches those who need them most.”

Additional board members are:

Jim Bildner
CEO
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation

Stephen Jones
Executive Director
Stanley Family Foundation

Ruchika Kumar
General Counsel, Head of People
N-Power Medicine

Garabet Yeretssian, PhD
Science Program Manager
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative