Meet our Board
Jeffrey Raskin, MS MD FAANS FAAP
President and CEO
Jeffrey S. Raskin is a clinical-track assistant professor and board-certified pediatric neurosurgeon. He completed residency in the department of neurological surgery at Oregon Health/Science University and fellowship training in pediatric neurosurgery at Texas Children’s Hospital. He maintains specific interests in functional neurosurgery in children and serves as director of functional neurosurgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Dr. Raskin is a member of AANS, CNS, AAP, ASPN, and NANS and associate editor of Operative Neurosurgery. Dr. Raskin is the key contact for SMERF scholars.
Justin Michaels
Vice President
Justin is the Vice President of Michaels Follmer Real Estate, a full service commercial real estate brokerage and management company based in Las Vegas. In addition to his duties at MFRE, Justin is also the manager of a series of private real estate investment partnerships and the president of a private utility company. Justin completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona. He is a graduate of The Meadows School, where he also serves on the Board of Trustees.
Tia Raskin
Secretary and CFO
Tia Raskin is a communications consultant and facilitator with extensive
experience facilitating experiential training programs for global clients at
all levels of leadership.
Tia received a BA in Psychology from Harvard University and a JD in
law from Stanford University. After graduation, she began her law career
at Sullivan & Cromwell, in their London and Sydney offices. After
returning to the US, Tia moved in-house to the high-frequency trading
firm Hudson River Training. She subsequently worked in-house at
Shazam, the music identification app, various companies in the
advertising technology industry, and the autonomous vehicle space.
Tia also attended the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute and has
substantial training from the MN Acting Studio. She has starred in more
than 100 films and television shows, including a short film that
premiered at Cannes in 2016. You likely haven’t seen any of her work
unless you watch a lot of Indie short films or have a particular interest in
kitschy horror films on iTunes.
Ruth Penfold-Brown
Board Member
Ruth is a People and Talent expert for over two decades and Chief People Officer, and has built and rebuilt teams and cultures for companies like Shazam, Onfido, and bp Launchpad.
Having experienced the chaos of rapid growth first hand, she learnt how to build human centric, vibrant cultures that scale. She now works as an Advisor, Executive Coach and fractional CPO. She has also just launched Bloom, a leadership accelerator for women, with the goal of supporting more women to step confidently into the C-Suite.
Salma Taman
Board Member
Salma Taman is an Egyptian lawyer and owner of Taman Law Office (Alexandria, Egypt). She graduated from Alexandria University Faculty of Law in 2006 and was appointed teaching assistant at the Faculty of Legal Studies and International Relations at Pharos University (PUA) in 2007. At PUA, Taman taught Constitutional Law, Economics, and Legal Writing. In 2009, Taman joined Indiana University’s LL.M. Program in International and Comparative Law. In her Master thesis, Taman addressed some of the problems facing developing countries in WTO negotiations, specifically in the Doha Round, and the position of these countries after the failure of that Round. Taman is currently pursuing an M.A in Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Taman is a fellow of the Zakat Foundation Institute, a Harvard University Institute for Global Law and Politics (IGLP) alumna, and an AAOIFI-certified Sharia Advisor and Islamic Bank Auditor.
Taman is also a professional fine artist, whose preferred medium is acrylic on canvas with the incorporation of gold and silver leaf as well as other unique elements.
Joanna Blackburn
Board Member
Joanna Blackburn is an Associate Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending child neurologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She is a fellowship trained pediatric movement disorders specialists and leads the pediatric movement disorders program and Lurie Children’s Hospital. Dr. Blackburn is the director of the Tourette Center of Excellence at Lurie Children’s Hospital. She has published several articles in the medical literature. written book chapters on the topic of pediatric movement disorders and given talks on a local and national level. In addition to her clinical practice, she is the program director for the child neurology residency program and is dedicated to medical education.
Cori Fischer
Board Member
Cori Fischer is finishing her master’s degree in Occupational Therapy at Gannon University. In her master’s thesis, she researched accessibility barriers at post-secondary institutions across the U.S. and how this affects overall participation and engagement of students, faculty, and staff living with physical disabilities. In addition, she was a teaching assistant for the graduate-level Clinical Neuroscience class, a student worker in the Office of Accessibility Services, and a board member and weekly volunteer for the pediatric pro bono occupational therapy clinic at Gannon University. She has been an intern for Trend-Able for more than 4 years, creating and writing blogs on disability products and topics for those living with physical disabilities. She has the unique experience of being a patient for most of her life, as she has dealt with a movement disorder, resulting in 12 surgeries. She was selected to speak about the life lessons she has learned from having a movement disorder to an audience of over 2,000. Through her experiences and future career, she aspires to provide others with creative problem solving, out of the box thinking, hope, encouragement, and advocacy that she has experienced and learned throughout her care. Once licensed to practice, Cori has a specific interest in pediatric neuro OT.