Board of Directors

Partner In Charge, Philadelphia, Eisner Amper
Paul Dougherty is a Tax Partner and Partner-in-Charge of the Philadelphia practice with more than 30 years of public accounting experience, and is a former member of the firm’s Executive Committee. In addition, Paul heads up the specialty tax and strategic planning for health care consulting. Paul has dedicated much of his career to building and enhancing a specialized expertise in corporate taxation, high net worth individuals and IRS controversy. He has significant experience in the review of corporate, partnership and individual tax returns; sophisticated tax planning techniques; representation at federal and state audits; real estate taxation; tax lien matters; and mergers and acquisitions.
Paul is responsible for overseeing the tax compliance for all property and casualty insurance companies, life companies, and mutual insurance companies, as well as their ASC 740 and SSAP 101 income tax provisions. In addition, he is responsible for coordinating the tax training for the insurance tax specialists. Paul is a frequent writer and speaker, presenting seminars nationally and throughout the tri-state area on various tax matters.

Tammy Garrison holds the position of Director of Sales at South Jersey Gas Company, where she oversees the Residential On-Main, Existing Commercial, and New Construction segments. She has various supporting roles aimed at surpassing customer growth targets, financial objectives, and customer satisfaction. With over 35 years of experience, Tammy has been an integral part of South Jersey Industries.
Outside of her professional role, Tammy is actively involved in various community and industry organizations. Tammy serves as VP Fund Development on the Garden State Council, BSA Executive Board and as a VP on the Executive Committee of the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation Board of Trustees. She previously held an executive board position at the Cape May County Chamber and is active in various local chambers and energy groups. She dedicates her time to volunteering and is the Cubmaster for Cub Scout Pack 25 in Millville.
Tammy's educational background includes graduating from Millville High School, attending Cumberland County College, and earning a bachelor's degree in business management from Wilmington University. A lifelong resident of Cumberland County, she resides in Millville with her husband, Dan Garrison. Together, they share a blended family, including two daughters, Shelbi Lockard (James) and Darbi Dixon (Joe), as well as two stepsons, Dan Garrison (Mindy) and Bruce Garrison (Cara). Their family is further enriched by eight beloved grandchildren: Charlotte, Saylor, Julianne, Joey, Ryder, Grayson, Addie, and Brooks.

Valerie Sculthorpe has been the Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager of Investors Bank in Wall Township since 2014. Valerie graduated from Monmouth University in 2004 with a B.S. in Business Management and Minor in Information Technology. During her time at Monmouth, Valerie played on the women’s golf team. She became involved with ECF in 2015 as a member of the Crystal Gala Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Jersey Shore Chamber of Commerce and Monmouth University Alumni Association. Valerie resides in Brick with her husband,Bryan.

John Finley is a lifelong Camden County resident who began his connection with the city of Camden as a graduate of Rutgers University Camden campus and thereafter worked at various levels within Camden County government. After 11 years in Camden, he started his now 30 year banking career at Jefferson Bank in Philadelphia, before moving on to Commerce Bank as a Vice President/Commercial Lending officer. Upon the sale of Commerce to TD Bank, John was appointed Vice President/Senior Leader and remained with TD Bank until his appointment in March 2019 as Senior Vice President with OceanFirst Bank. He is currently Senior Vice President – Commercial Real Estate Leader – Delaware Valley/Lehigh Valley Region at Truest. Throughout his banking career, John has received numerous awards and honors and is recognized as a leader and trusted advisor in the industry.  He has been active in his community over the years volunteering his time and talents with various nonprofit, civic and faith-based organizations. He devotes much of his time to his love for his family and most especially his three grandchildren. He lives in Haddon Township, NJ with his wife Mary.

Senior Vice President of Finance, BeiGene
Bob has been involved with the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation since 2015. He serves as the Treasurer and leads the activities of the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.  Bob currently works at Bristol Myers Squibb as Senior Vice President of Finance. Since joining BMS in 1999, Bob has held leadership roles within the finance organization, including responsibility for Research & Development, Commercial Operations, Global Manufacturing & Supply Chain, International Treasury, Mergers & Acquisitions and Internal Audit.
Bob received his undergraduate degree in Accounting from Loyola University in Maryland and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tina has been involved with the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation since 2015. She currently serves as the Recording Secretary of the Board of Trustees and plays a strong role in fundraising and organizing food drives. Tina, a mother of two in Bridgewater, NJ, is a math tutor, community volunteer, and former high school teacher. She holds an MS from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Loyola University in Maryland.

Jenny Breunig holds the position of Vice President of Operations at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital. Jenny brings over 15 years of healthcare experience to the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation board, after holding various leadership positions throughout her career in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and New York. Jenny has received awards and honors in the healthcare space and is recognized as a leader in the industry. She has been active in the community over the years volunteering her time with various nonprofit and civic based organizations. Jenny lives in Sicklerville, NJ with her husband, Jeff and her son, Jasper.

Strategic Customer Marketing and Experience Lead, Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Karen Diaz has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry as an executive in a variety of therapeutic categories and health care settings, including pharmaceutical companies, managed care and healthcare advertising. Currently, Karen is a Director in Novartis’ Immunology division, bringing new, innovative approaches to educating healthcare providers, patients and payers on Novartis’ products and associated patient programs. Karen’s personal and professional interests have focused bringing health care providers and their patients the medicines and support they need to improve health outcomes and live their best life.

Born in New Jersey, Karen earned a B.S. in Marketing from Rutgers Business School and a Masters in Finance from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business in New York City. Karen has been involved with the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation since 2015, and in her spare time enjoys skiing, traveling and spending time with friends and family. She presently lives in northern New Jersey with her husband, Ralph and their two children, Kyle and Lauren.

VP, Sr. Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch

Ralph has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry. He currently works at Merrill Lynch as Vice President, Senior Financial Advisor and is a designated Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor. Whether devising an investment program, determining estate needs or creating a Social Security strategy, he helps clients and friends to articulate and achieve their financial goals. Ralph graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Economics. Before joining the board of the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation in 2015, he helped small charities finance advertising space on digital media and initiated fundraising efforts.

President/CEO, FIrst National Bank of Elmer

As the President/CEO of The First National Bank of Elmer, Brian W. Jones utilizes over 46 years of industry knowledge to manage all bank-wide initiatives to ensure the success of the bank’s financial and strategic goals. He believes service to others is one key principle of the community bank mission and that fulfillment of this responsibility contributes to his success. Throughout his career, Mr. Jones has concentrated on three pillars that ultimately translated into many of his career accomplishments: Risk Management, Operational Management, and Community Relations. He has recently been recognized with honors such as Top CEO and CFO, Man of the Year, and Executive of the Year in South Jersey through various publications. Mr. Jones is a member of the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, a member of the Executive Advisory Council and the Finance Advisory Committee of Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University, and a member of the Executive Corporate Board for The Franklin Institute.

Mr. Jones has a fond appreciation for civic involvement. Some of his civic involvement awards include Distinguished Alumnus Medallion from Rowan College of South Jersey, Citizen of the Year by the Gloucester County Chamber, South Jersey Humanitarian of the Year from Volunteer Center of South Jersey, The President’s Volunteer Service Award-Lifetime Achievement from the Corporation for National & Community Service. He is also a member of the Second Century Society of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), a member of the National Alumni Association Committee and VP of Finance for the Area 5/Northeast Region Board of Trustees and a member of the Executive Board of the Garden State Council/Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Jones is a trustee of Friends School Mullica Hill and also serves on the finance committee.

Mr. Jones has been published in the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions and has been a presenter on multiple aspects of risk management for The Risk Management Association (RMA), Community Bank Integrated Risk Management Forum and the American Bankers Association.

He is a graduate of Glassboro State College NKA Rowan University with a BA in Administrative Studies. Mr. Jones is also a graduate of the American Bankers Association (ABA) Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Delaware and resides in Woodbury with his wife and daughter.

Vice President/Sr. Analyst, Moody’s

Jonathan Kanarek began serving on the board of trustees for the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation in 2015 and currently chairs its Strategic Planning Committee. Jonathan’s interest in joining ECF was sparked by his wife Allison’s several years of involvement with the foundation and his befriending of a young cancer patient at an ECF event who has since passed away.

Jonathan is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service. Jonathan concentrates on the healthcare sector, covering high yield credits. He focuses on credit analysis in medical devices, contract development & manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), and other healthcare services companies. Throughout his career, Jonathan has covered several other industries, including supermarkets, drugstores, food distributors, drug wholesalers, foodservice companies, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and has several years of both credit and equity research experience.

Jonathan graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Finance and a minor in Psychology. He received his MBA from NYU-Stern with concentrations in Corporate Finance and Real Estate and is also a CFA charterholder.

Attorney at Law, Mezzaca & Kwasnik, LLC

Mr. Kwasnik, a Managing Partner with the law firm of Mezzacca and Kwasnik, LLC concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate, trust and estates, community association law, land use, civil litigation, commercial transactions and corporate law. He is actively involved with civic duty and volunteering, and counted among his many active memberships in organizations are: the Rahway Police Athletic League and the VSA Arts of New Jersey, Inc., where he serves on the Board of Directors, the Rutgers University Alumni Association, and the Children’s Specialized Hospital Softball Tournament, which he co-chairs.

Managing General Partner, Lerch Family Partnership L.P.

Mark Lerch is a private investor and the Managing General Partner of his family’s investment company, the Lerch Family Partnership L.P. and their charitable foundation, The Mark and Gayle Lerch Family Foundation. Mark has over 30 years of experience as a senior executive, entrepreneur and business owner in the information publishing industry. In 2004, Mark and a business partner acquired Buyers Laboratory, owning and operating the business for 8 years before selling to private equity firm SFW Capital in 2011. Prior to that, for 15 years, he was President and CEO of various businesses for Thomson Financial, part of The Thomson Corporation, then a NYSE-listed $8 billion global provider of integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Mark was also a founding principal in two startup publishing businesses, Rand Communications and IDD Information Services, and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Mark earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He resides in Allendale, New Jersey with his wife Gayle, with whom he has three adult children.

Director, PwC

Cara is a Director within PwC’s Finance Transformation practice in Consulting Solutions, based out of the New York City office.¬¬ She has 9+ years of experience in working with organizations to assess, design and optimize their automation and operating model strategy to reduce costs, leverage emerging technologies, and enhance differentiating capabilities to become industry leaders. She believes the intersection of sourcing methodology and people strategy is key to setting an organization up to achieve long-term success. Prior to PwC she worked for the JDCA, an organization dedicated to promoting a Practical Cure for type 1 diabetes become widely available in the next 15 years. Cara has a BA in English and Psychology from Lafayette College and an MBA from Fordham University.

Vice President, Credit Manager-Credit, Builders General Supply Company

For over 30 years Betsy Shaheen has been running special events and handling customer accounts at her family business, Builders’ General Supply Company, which has been selling lumber, windows, cabinetry and more to homeowners and contractors since it was started by her grandfather in 1931. ECF’s founders, the Vizzonis, were customers of Builders General, and got the company, Betsy, and her brother involved in the organization. Betsy, who graduated from Seton Hall University, currently lives in Atlantic Highlands and has three daughters.

Supervisor, Association Management Solutions, RSM US LLP

Steven M. Wooton, Sr. is the former President of the Board of Trustees. When he is not busy volunteering his services as Santa, or chairing his annual dinner/dance, or working endlessly with the Odd Fellows of NJ, he works as a Supervisor, Association Management Solutions.

President/CEO, Shore Systems, LLC

Born and raised at the Jersey Shore, Michael Yuschak had his first exposure to cancer at an early age. After an eight-year battle against breast cancer, his mother, Bernadette, passed away when Michael was just a freshman in high school. Mike and his wife Kerren are the founders of Shore Systems, LLC, and give back and honor the memory of Mike’s mother by providing incredibly generous amounts of free IT services to ECF. In addition to supplying ECF with the computers and network assistance, they have donated their time, brought in subcontractors, and appealed to their customers to donate any gently used computers to ECF.

President and Co-founder of Zimmel Associates

David Zimmel, President and Co-founder of Zimmel Associates, leads an Edison, New Jersey, corporate real estate brokerage firm that handles more than 5 million sq. ft. of exclusive office, industrial and flex space. His career covers more than three decades dedicated to the real estate industry and the closing of more than 3,000 real estate transactions. A native of New Jersey, Dave began his real estate career in 1978 after graduating from Rider College with a degree in Political Science. He specialized in office, industrial and shopping center space for eight years before partnering with his father, Bernard Zimmel, at Zimmel Associates in the mid 1980’s.

Krishna Shetty is an Executive Director at S&P Global, where he oversees Americas Fixed Income Business Development for Corporate & Sovereign Bonds. Krishna has over 20 years of work experience and originally joined Markit, which ultimately merged with S&P Global, and grew the bonds business from its infancy into a multimillion-dollar business.

Krishna has an undergraduate degree in Business Management from Clark University in Massachusetts, and MBA in Finance and Information Systems from Fordham University in New York. Krishna grew up in India prior to moving to the United States for college and now lives in Demarest, NJ with his wife and two kids. Along with Emmanuel Cancer Foundation, Krishna also works closely with Lend-a-Hand-India to train kids in India with vocational skills.

President/CEO, Preferred Home Health Care & Nursing Services

Joel Markel is the President/Owner of Preferred Home Health Care, a leading provider of medical and non-medical home health care in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He first became involved with the Emmanuel Cancer Fund (ECF) in 1990 when his five-month-old son, Ryan, was diagnosed with a malignant liver tumor. ECF provided help and support to Markel’s family during this time, which inspired them to remain involved with the organization even after Ryan’s death six months later. Markel has dedicated his life to caring for others, and he has helped raise awareness about issues such as children’s health, elder care and cancer treatment. He is a graduate of the City University of New York-Brooklyn College and is involved with a number of boards and organizations that promote home health care. Regarded as one of the leading home health care agencies in the region, PHHC fosters long-standing relationships with all local hospitals, which allows the company to have a keen understanding of home care complexities and enables it to deliver optimal care to all of its clients. Additionally, PHHC has been publicly certified by CHAP (Community Health Accreditation Program), the leading accrediting organization for the home health care industry, as voluntarily achieving the highest standards of excellence for home-based health care. The company is also active in a number of educational and service initiatives, including a partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

On February 5, 1981, Emmanuel Vizzoni was diagnosed with Burkett’s lymphoma just weeks after his seventh birthday. Over the next two months, his parents, Joseph and Susan Vizzoni, alternated shifts at the hospital while their son endured grueling medical treatments. Sadly, on April 5 of that year, the lymphoma claimed Manny’s life, leaving his family to pick up the pieces.

Coping with their grief and explaining to their younger daughter why her brother had simply “disappeared” proved to be incredibly difficult for the Vizzoni family. At that time, medical treatments for pediatric cancers were developing rapidly; however there were large gaps in the emotional, spiritual, and financial support available for families. Susan reflects, “Joe and I came to understand—because we were running back and forth to the hospital while family members helped care for our daughter—that families with other circumstances must have an incredibly difficult time managing this. We realized that the best thing we could do to cope with our own loss was to start helping others in this situation.”

In 1983, after two years of kitchen-table talks and networking, the Vizzonis established the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation (ECF) in memory of their son. At that time, the purpose of ECF was to fill in gaps that medical insurance did not cover, to provide assistance in the home, and to give spiritual support and guidance to families struggling to deal with their child’s diagnosis. Joseph and Susan felt that it was important to help all members of the family, not just the child with cancer.

At first, families were hesitant to accept any support from the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation. Joseph and Susan recall talking to one mother who said, “We’re having enough trouble getting food on the table. We don’t have time to sit down with a counselor.” In response, an ECF volunteer delivered a new microwave to the family’s door. Overwhelmed that an organization was willing and able to make a huge difference with a small gesture, this family became one of ECF’s first.

Even in the beginning, Caseworkers would visit a new family’s home to assess their situation. Was the family having trouble getting to and from the hospital? Were they having trouble getting meals on the table? Were they able to keep on top of the surmounting medical bills? Through the Caseworkers’ guidance, ECF was able to meet some of the families’ needs, thus helping to improve their overall quality of life.

Since those early days, ECF has helped over 2000 families in New Jersey manage their struggle with pediatric cancer. ECF recognizes that each family has a different experience and different needs. Consequently, ECF staff, Caseworkers, and volunteers have dedicated themselves over the past decades to helping families address these needs as they arise. ECF continues to provide a comprehensive package of support at no cost and in the comfort of the family’s ­home. Services are coordinated by professional Caseworkers, who work with the children, siblings, and caretakers to help preserve their quality of life as they grapple with the challenges of pediatric cancer.