Board of Directors

Jeff Reynolds, Co-Founder

Jeff Reynolds

Co-Founder

[email protected]

Jeff grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he attended Shorecrest Preparatory School. He currently lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children, William, Teddy and Rosie. + Show More

Jeff co-founded The Champ Foundation in 2015 after William's Pearson Syndrome diagnosis. Jeff is most proud of his efforts to connect researchers, doctors, and industry to work together toward better treatment and a cure for Pearson Syndrome.

Jeff makes his living as a pilot. He has also been an investment analyst for Duke University's endowment, and professional baseball player. He was drafted by the New York Mets in 2012 and played for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Savannah Sand Gnats, and Port St. Lucie Mets in the organization's minor league system. Jeff graduated from Harvard University where he played on the varsity baseball team. He was two-time First Team All Ivy League selection and earned a degree in Economics.

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Elizabeth Reynolds, Co-Founder

Elizabeth Reynolds

Co-Founder

[email protected]

Elizabeth Reynolds comes from Buffalo, NY. After college, she married Jeff and moved to Durham, NC with their three children, William, Teddy and Rosie. + Show More

Elizabeth co-founded The Champ Foundation in 2015 after William's diagnosis of Pearson Syndrome. Besides funding some of the most exciting mitochondrial disease research, Elizabeth is proud of helping create the Newly Diagnosed Information sheet for families learning about their child's diagnosis. She is also proud of the Champ Foundation Registry and the patient-driven research on Pearson syndrome and SLSMDS.

Elizabeth received her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently Public Health research analyst interested in rare diseases, newborn screening, and early child development. Prior to graduate school, Elizabeth was a Teach For America corps member in Tulsa, OK. Elizabeth is a graduate of Harvard University.

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Tyler Albright, Board Member

Tyler Albright

Board Member

[email protected]

Tyler Albright grew up in Long Beach, California, before moving to the east coast for college, where he met his wife, Katherine. Tyler and Katherine currently live in Brooklyn, NY with their daughter, Emily. + Show More

Tyler is a co-founder and partner at AEC Advisors, a NY-based M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for the architecture, engineering, and consulting industry. Prior to forming AEC Advisors, Tyler worked in several corporate finance advisory roles, including as a Vice President at EFCG; a special situations analyst at Gansett Companies; as well as an investment banking associate at Ducera Partners. Tyler graduated from Harvard University, where he was the two-year captain of the baseball team, and subsequently received an MBA with Distinction from NYU Stern.

In addition to The Champ Foundation, Tyler is on the board of the Friends of Harvard Baseball organization.

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Cole Arledge, Board Member

Cole Arledge

Board Member

[email protected]

Cole Arledge was born and raised in Austin, Texas. He attended St. Stephen's high school where he met his wife Sarah – they have been married since 2014. In his free time, Cole enjoys watching sports, playing golf, and spending time with his little girls, Charley and Parker. + Show More

For work, Cole is the President of the Aragona Family office and a Vice President at AV Capital, where he serves on the board of directors of American Insulated Glass. Prior to these roles, Cole worked at Golden Gate Capital where he focused on both industrial and software investments. Prior to his time at Golden Gate Capital, Cole was a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain and Company where he spent time in both the general management consulting practice as well as the private equity group.

Cole graduate from Harvard University where he played on the baseball team, worked in a stem cell laboratory focused on diabetes, and earned an A.B. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cum Laude.

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Eliza Malkin Haviland, Board Member

Eliza Malkin Haviland

Board Member

[email protected]

Eliza Malkin Haviland was raised in London, England one of four sisters. She came to America to attend university where she met her husband, Jordan. Eliza and Jordan live in Cambridge, MA with their daughter, Georgia, a stone's throw from where they first met. + Show More

Eliza works in tech start-ups with a focus on strategic partnerships and growth. She started her career at Wayfair, before joining a very early stage start-up, RallyPoint.com. She went on to be Director of Partner Operations at Paint Nite, working with the 150+ licensees. As well as The Champ Foundation, Eliza sits on the boards of Girls in Tech -Boston and The Harvard Business School Association of Boston.

Eliza is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

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Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Sumit Parikh, Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Sumit Parikh

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Sumit Parikh is a child neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. His practice specializes in Neurogenetics and Neurometabolism and focuses on the genetic diagnosis and treatment of patients with mitochondrial cytopathies, select inborn errors of neurmetabolism, cognitive and developmental regression, leukodystrophies, autism and developmental disabilities. His research and publications focus on improving the diagnosis, management and outcomes in patients with mitochondrial disease. + Show More

Dr. Parikh serves as the Clinical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Mitochondrial Medicine Center and is the National PI for the Pearson Syndrome Natural History Study. His clinic is one of several Mitochondrial Medicine Centers that are part of the National Mitochondrial Disease Care Network that he helped develop, and is also part of the North American Mitochondrial Disease Consortium (NAMDC). He has helped lead the effort to create National Consensus Criteria for the disease, standardizing approaches to diagnosis, patient management and treatment and is in the process of validating appropriate outcome measures.

Dr. Parikh has served on The Champ Foundation Scientific Advisory Board since 2016.

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Dr. Suneet Agarwal, Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Suneet Agarwal

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Suneet Agarwal is a Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist at Boston Children's Hospital, with extensive training in molecular biology, stem cell biology, pediatric hematology and bone marrow transplantation. + Show More

From the bone marrow fibroblasts of one patient with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes, he created the first reported induced pluripotent tem cell (iPS) models of the mtDNA deletion disorder, Pearson Syndrome. Based on his hypothesis that Pearson Syndrome was misdiagnosed, his group identified eight patients with Pearson Syndrome in a registry of samples submitted for Diamond Blackfan anemia genetic testing.

Continuing to address the unmet clinical need for effective treatments for PS and related mitochondrial genetic disease, Dr. Agarwal's lab collaborates with Dr. Sumit Parikh and the Natural History Study of Pearson Syndrome. His lab focuses on the translational research efforts such as genome-editing approaches and identifying cellular pathways that could be targeted for systemic therapy.

Dr. Agarwal has served on The Champ Foundation Scientific Advisory Board since 2017.

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Dr. Matt Byrne, Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Matt Byrne

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Matt Byrne, MD is a surgery resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Matt has been a volunteer for The Champ Foundation since its inception and is a former member of the Agarwal Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Dr. Rebecca Ganetzky, Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Rebecca Ganetzky

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Rebecca Ganetzky MD is an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending physician in the division of Human Genetics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, working in the mitochondrial medicine frontier program and the section of biochemical genetics. + Show More

Her research focuses on mitochondrial complex V deficiency and the development of clinical biochemical assays to improve the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease.

Dr. Ganetzky received her undergraduate degree in Biology & Computer Science from Oberlin College, her medical degree from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She completed a combined residency in Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics and a subsequent fellowship in Clinical Biochemical Genetics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

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