Tetsuyuki (Tetsu) Maruyama, PhD, Executive Director

As Executive Director of ADDI, Tetsu has the pleasure of working with an exceptional team to enable data relevant to Alzheimer’s and related dementias to reach their full potential.

Prior to joining ADDI, Tetsu was the Chief Scientific Officer at the Dementia Discovery Fund, a unique venture capital fund focusing a total investment of $350 million on creating new treatment paradigms for dementia. Before that he was head of Drug Discovery for Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Japan, and led the GSK Centre for Cognitive and Neurodegenerative Disorders in Singapore. He began his industry career at Merck Sharp and Dohme’s Neuroscience Research Center in the UK, after 15 years as an academic neuroscientist at Cardiff University and the University of Minnesota.

Tetsu has contributed to the promotion of open science, having been Chairperson of the Board of the Structural Genomics Consortium from 2016 through 2020, and a member of the Board of Directors of Sage Bionetworks. He is currently on the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board of a number of privately held biotech companies and is a member of the World Dementia Council.

Tetsu earned his PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from Stanford University and completed post-doctoral research in Neurophysiology at Yale University. If you catch Tetsu on a videoconference, don’t let the guitars in the background fool you. This former front man for the band Pretty Risky Decision is clear: his enthusiasm greatly exceeds his talent.

Patrick Brannelly, Director of Partnerships & Business Development

As Director of Partnerships & Business Development for ADDI, Pat oversees strategic planning efforts, cultivates new partnerships, and guides complex negotiations on behalf of the organization.

Prior to ADDI, Pat spent seven years at the Rainwater Charitable Foundation where he was the Managing Director of the Tau Consortium. The mission of the Tau Consortium is to accelerate the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and other neurological disorders through increased collaboration among academia, industry, and the philanthropic sector.

In the decade prior to joining the Tau Consortium, Pat was the co-founder and CEO of NeoCORTA and the Director of Partnerships & Group Programs at Posit Science, both early stage brain health technology ventures. Earlier in his career, he served in the US and Europe as a management consultant in the pharmaceutical, energy, and technology sectors. He is a former Assistant Professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at California State University, Fresno. A frequent member of boards and steering committees within the neuroscience community, he currently serves as a Board member of Stroke Onward and a Steering Committee member of the OECD's Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative.

Pat holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Harvard College and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School, and an MSc in Applied Neuroscience with Distinction from King’s College London. As the father of two young kids, he spends his free time building forts, watching animated films, and running a non-profit taxi service.

Matthew Clement, PhD, Director of Partnerships & Scientific Strategy

As Director of Partnerships & Scientific Strategy for ADDI, Matt develops relationships with new partners and data providers to enable researchers to accelerate progress toward new treatments through use of the AD Workbench (ADWB).

Prior to helping lay the groundwork for ADDI’s launch in 2020, Matt worked as a consultant for organizations funding R&D activities in the philanthropic and federal government sectors. His areas of expertise include program management, strategic planning, source selection and proposal evaluation, and scientific writing and subject matter expertise. Matt’s past work has focused on microbial metabolism and genetics, biomarker discovery, assay and diagnostic development, neurodegenerative disease, and biological threat agent surveillance and detection.

Matt earned his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UCLA and his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Macalester College. When away from the office, Matt enjoys cycling, golfing, skiing, and spending time with his family.

Caitlin McHugh, PhD, Bioinformatics Scientist

As Bioinformatics Scientist for ADDI, Caitlin develops and incorporates bioinformatics tools into the AD Workbench (ADWB), manages data science technical workstreams, and works with the technical team to incorporate the needs of the scientific community.

An accomplished statistical geneticist, Caitlin’s area of expertise includes developing statistical models and applying them to large-scale human genetics data with phenotypes of interest ranging from BMI and ECG measurements to Huntington’s Disease and primary open angle glaucoma. Prior to joining the ADDI team, she worked as a research scientist at the University of Washington where she was a core member of the data coordinating center for TOPMed, a consortium generating whole genome sequence data for 150,000 participants across more than 80 studies. Caitlin also worked with the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a cohort study started in 1989 by the University of Washington. Her projects included making computationally efficient the estimation of pairwise relatedness using more than 1 million genetic markers and 100,000+ participants, and coordinating all non-genetics omics data for 50+ projects.

Caitlin earned her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington, a Master of Science in Applicable Mathematics from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Seattle University. When she’s not chasing after her 2-year-old daughter, she loves to knit.

Mukta Phatak, PhD, Director of Data Science

As Director of Data Science for ADDI, Mukta is responsible for creating a technical roadmap for the AD Workbench (ADWB) and strategy for data science features and functionality, which also includes engaging with the AD data science community to understand user experiences and identifying and converting gaps into business requirements for the Workbench.

Prior to joining ADDI, Mukta was Director, Data and Analytics with the Chief Data Office organization at GE Aviation. Her responsibilities included leading development of a cloud-based ecosystem to enable unified data strategy for aviation value streams and scaling products from self-service proof of concepts to enterprise-level products.

Mukta earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati with a focus on bioinformatics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Pune, India. Her areas of work include predictive modeling, next-gen sequencing data analysis, development of data portals for integrative analysis of genomics and proteomics data, and enterprise class cloud-based data analytics solutions. She lives in Seattle with her spouse and child where she likes to paint, sing, and practice yoga when she’s not travelling internationally.

Shirley Prasad, Director of Policy, Advocacy & Communications

As the Director for Policy, Advocacy & Communications at ADDI, Shirley is responsible for developing ADDI’s strategic policy roadmap, building a broader community with partner organizations, and overseeing external communications.

Prior to joining ADDI, Shirley spent 10 years working in health policy and advocacy with a focus on increasing access to health care for low-income and other vulnerable populations. She has worked extensively in both Washington State and Washington, D.C. She has engaged in issues that include addressing data privacy for patients with substance use disorders, increasing state funding for Medicaid patients with dementia, and building a coalition to address Washington State’s nursing shortage. Shirley is also an experienced community organizer, working with patients to elevate their voices with state and federal policymakers.

Shirley earned both her Master of Health Administration and Master of Laws in Taxation from the University of Washington, a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Seattle and is excited that professional hockey has finally arrived in the city. However, since Shirley did grow up in Canada, her hockey loyalties will be divided!

Zahra Radjavi, Program Management Office Lead, External Engagements

As Program Management Office Lead, External Engagements, Zahra is responsible for ensuring strategic initiatives, including AD Workbench dataset integration projects and interoperability programs are prioritized and executed successfully.

Prior to joining ADDI, Zahra was the Collaboration and Partnerships Manager at Global Good where she was responsible for establishing and stewarding relationships with governments and international NGOs to better develop and deploy agricultural and health technology interventions in underserved communities. Previously, Zahra was a management consultant, supporting large-scale programs to optimize operations and improve cost effectiveness for healthcare organizations, technology companies, nonprofit organizations, and various U.S. government agencies.

Zahra holds a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington. She currently resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and their two inquisitive and super spirited daughters. She spends most of her free time humming nursery rhymes, doing heaps of laundry, and fantasizing about travelling to exotic places.

Kelly Sparks, Senior IT Architect

As Senior IT Architect for ADDI, Kelly is responsible for overall strategic direction, product roadmaps and partner integration strategies. He also drives several application development efforts including tools for harmonization, federated data access, and operations management.

Kelly is a veteran technology executive with over 30 years of diverse information technology executive-level leadership. His experience in large enterprises, mid-tier companies and startups enables him to bring fresh, innovative ideas and strategic thinking into every opportunity and engagement. Prior to ADDI, Kelly held many roles including CEO, CTO, President, Product Marketing and Product Development in small and large firms including 11 years as a decorated sales leader at IBM. He has developed and authored over 25 patents and patent applications in identity management and digital media, and is currently managing partner at aPersona, Inc., a pioneer in identity management technology.

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Southern Polytechnic State University. He currently resides in Raleigh, NC with his spouse, Becky, and their two labradoodles, Panda and Paddington.