Ronald D. Murff

Director, Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (Chairman Elect)

A seasoned executive with more than 30 years of experience in banking, Mr. Murff has held several leadership roles in the financial industry. In addition to serving on Baylor Research Institute’s board of directors and executive committee of the board, Mr. Murff serves as vice chairman of the board of Baylor University. He also serves on the board for Baylor University Medical Center and the Southwest Transplant Alliance. He holds a B.B.A. from Baylor University and is a certified public accountant in Texas.

Kent Eastman

State President, Texas Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking, Capital One Bank

As state president for Capital One Bank in Texas, Mr. Eastman is focused on continuously improving the Capital One Bank customer experience, growing revenue and leveraging market opportunities. He oversees the bank’s community resources and activities designed to help meet the needs of each local community, including philanthropy, volunteerism and community banking products and services. Mr. Eastman serves on numerous boards, including the board of directors of Downtown Dallas Inc., Texans for Education Reform advisory board, and the Crystal Charity Ball Committee advisory board, and he is a member of the Dallas Citizens Council. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Tennessee Technological University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee-Nashville, and he is a graduate of the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking.

Erle Nye

Chairman Emeritus, TXU Corp., President, EN Consulting

With a forty-plus year career behind him, Mr. Nye has been hailed as a visionary in the energy industry.  Dubbed the “father of deregulation in Texas,” Mr. Nye was a key player in the passage of deregulation legislation in Texas in 1999 and boasts a storied career with TXU, including as the company’s chairman and CEO.  In addition to serving as chairman of the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, he also served as vice chairman of the Governor’s Business Council.  He is past chairman of the President’s Infrastructure Advisory Council in three administrations.  He is also on the boards of the United Way Foundation, The Salvation Army and KERA.  Mr. Nye holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, a Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University, and was awarded a Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the Baylor College of Dentistry.

John B. McWhorter III

Chief Operations Officer

Mr. McWhorter is responsible for the leadership and operations of 18 hospitals, more than $2.7 billion in revenue, 3,000 medical staff members and 10,000 employees at Baylor Scott & White Health. He also serves as president of the health care system’s flagship hospital, Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) at Dallas, a 1,069-bed nonprofit academic hospital, which has been nationally recognized. He became president of BUMC in May 2005 after having served as chief operating officer since 2003. Mr. McWhorter is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration and finance. He recently completed his Doctor of Science in health administration from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Prior to that, he completed his Master of Science in health care administration from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Paul B. Convery, MD

Dr. Convery is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Baylor Health Care System.  Dr. Convery has more than 20 years of medical management and health care leadership experience, including serving as executive vice president and chief medical officer of SSM Health Care in St. Louis, leading them to be the first health care winner of the distinguished Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Dr. Convery has dedicated much of his career to working with physicians and operational leadership to advance health care improvement initiatives. Dr. Convery graduated from medical school at the University of Illinois.

Michael A. E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA

President of the Baylor Research Institute

Dr. Ramsay leads and accelerates research efforts for Baylor Health Care System (BHCS). Since joining the research organization in 2000, he has developed a successful infrastructure that has increased the number of clinical trials from 250 to more than 1,000 active trials today. Under his leadership, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute has attained substantial achievements in advancing clinically relevant research through more than $100 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health as well as significant support from philanthropists. This includes the formation of the Ramsay Endowed Chair in Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Ramsay has been a member of the medical staff of Baylor University Medical Center since 1976 and serves as a member of the board of trustees. He is currently chairman of the department of anesthesiology and pain management and is involved in a number of clinical research projects for which he is the principal investigator. He has published more than 150 scientific manuscripts and textbook chapters.

Jaime Walkowiak, JD

Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Research

As the senior vice president of research and chief operating officer, Jaime oversees the research infrastructure of Baylor Scott & White Health Research by integrating research into all levels of the Baylor Health Care System, facilitating growth of new and existing research programs, and expanding collaboration. Jaime will also oversee the development of industry and business relations for research through partnerships, business ventures, licensing and other related opportunities. She joined Baylor in 2007 as assistant general counsel after several years of experience in legal and research settings, both in Dallas and her native Boston. Her prior life science experience includes clinical research and project management in leading health care institutions such as Massachusetts General, Harvard Medical School and Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. Jaime has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Suffolk University and a juris doctorate degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.

Renee Day, CPA

Chief Financial Officer and Vice President

Ms. Day manages the finances for research operations at Baylor Research Institute (BRI), supports BRI’s business development projects and oversees investor relations. She joined BRI in 2009, having served as chief financial officer of the Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers. Prior to that, she served as vice president of finance for the Baylor Health Care System Foundation from 2004 through 2008. Her diverse business and nonprofit experience includes two years of service in Lithuania as a small economic development and nongovernmental organizations volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps. She holds a B.B.A. degree from Angelo State University and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of North Texas. She is a certified public accountant.

Elizabeth Cothran

Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer

Ms. Cothran has been at Baylor Research Institute since April 2002. From 2002 to 2011, she was the director of the Office of Research Subject Protection. In that role, she created an Institutional Review Board (IRB) setup that ranks among the most professional in the country, culminating with a full AAHRP accreditation first obtained in 2003, with reaccreditation in 2006, 2009 and 2015. In 2011 she assumed additional responsibilities for all research regulatory affairs for Baylor Health Care System, and in 2015, she was promoted to vice president and chief regulatory officer for research at Baylor Scott & White Health and assumed a system role for these responsibilities in both central and North Texas. She has served as a site visitor and a member of the board of directors for the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), and is also a member of Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research (PRIM&R) and was formerly a council member in ARENA, the membership arm of PRIM&R. Ms. Cothran has a master’s degree in management from Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She has received certifications in Health Care Research Compliance (CHRC), Health Care Privacy Compliance (CHPC) and as a Certified IRB Professional (CIP).

M. Virginia Pascual, MD

Investigator

Dr. Pascual’s research endeavors have focused mainly on systemic lupus erythematosus and juvenile arthritis. She has received a number of grants to support her investigations and recently received a $3.3 million grant from one of the National Institutes of Health to fund the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR). She has authored more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, plus 31 chapters and reviews in either books or medical journals. Recently, Dr. Pascual was recognized by D CEO’s Excellence in Healthcare Awards for her achievements in medical research.

Gerard Zurawski, PhD

Investigator, Director, Center for Biotechnology, Co-Director of Baylor Institute for Immunology Research

Dr. Zurawski is a molecular biologist specializing in immunology and is dedicated to developing novel vaccines based on exploiting the central role of dendritic cells in initiating immunity. Backed by funding from several grants, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the ANRS, Dr. Zurawski continues to focus on developing preventive vaccines, including those for HIV.
 

Ajay Goel, PhD

Investigator, Director, Center for Gastrointestinal Research, Director, Center for Epigenetics, Cancer Prevention and Cancer Genomics, Baylor Research Institute, Baylor University Medical Center

Dr. Goel’s primary research is focused on gastrointestinal cancer pathogenesis and its prevention, with a particular emphasis on the development of biomarkers for the early detection, prognostication and predicting response to chemotherapy for colorectal, pancreatic, gastric and liver cancer. In addition, he is researching the prevention of gastrointestinal cancers using integrative and alternative approaches, including botanical products. Dr. Goel has published more than 200 scientific articles in peer-reviewed international journals and several book chapters. He is also a primary inventor on more than 15 patents, serves on the editorial board of almost 15 leading journals, performs peer-reviewing activities for more than 100 scientific journals and acts on various grant funding committees of the National Institutes of Health and other international organizations.

Raphael Schiffmann, MD, MHSC

Director of the Institute of Metabolic Disease at Baylor Research Institute

Dr. Schiffmann is an expert on neurometabolic diseases, focusing his research efforts on lysosomal storage disorders such as Gaucher disease. His writings include more than 213 peer-reviewed publications in scholarly journals, and 22 book chapters and reviews. He is an adjunct professor of biomedical studies at Baylor University and a clinical professor at Texas A&M University College of Medicine. Dr. Schiffmann is an active member of the American Neurological Association, the International Child Neurology Association, the Child Neurology Society (USA), American Academy of Neurology and the Israeli Child Neurology Society.