Board of Directors

Nancy L. Isserlis is a Principal with Winston & Cashatt, Lawyers, and practices bankruptcy and commercial law. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Linfield College, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Gonzaga University in 1980. She was admitted to practice law in Washington State in 1981; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington, 1982; U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, 1985; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Nancy is past President of the Spokane County Bar Association and also a member of the Washington State Bar Association. Nancy is a recipient of the Smithmoore P. Myers Professionalism Award, 2004. She is active in the Spokane region and served as Chair of Sirti, appointed by Gov. Gary Locke in 1998. She currently serves on the Board of the Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, a local community action agency.

Earl M. "Marty" Martin was appointed Executive Vice President of Gonzaga University in July 2010. As such, his EVP division has 260 employees and an administrative and operating budget in excess of $100 million. Gonzaga University is a private, four-year institution of higher education, with a student enrollment approaching 8,000. Gonzaga provides its students with an excellent education informed by the institution's humanistic, Jesuit and Catholic traditions and values. Prior to serving as the EVP, Mr. Martin was the dean of Gonzaga’s law school which regularly enrolls approximately 500 students who hail from 30 different states. Earl Martin received his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1987 and he received an LL.M from the Yale Law School in 1996. He served 20 years as an active duty and reserve Judge Advocate General officer in the United States Air Force, retiring in November 2007.

Gary Pollack joined Washington State University (WSU) as the Dean of the College of Pharmacy in August 2010. He was appointed Vice Provost for Health Sciences in July 2011 and continues to serve as dean of the WSU College of Pharmacy. He spent several years in ascending positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he most recently served as the Executive Associate Dean, School of Pharmacy. As Vice Provost of WSU Health Sciences, Dr. Pollack will lead the expanding health sciences mission at the Spokane campus and will facilitate efforts to take an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research in the health sciences. The WSU Division of Health Sciences is composed of the colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy; WWAMI/medical sciences; and the departments of Speech and Hearing Sciences and Health Policy and Administration. Dr. Pollack has a bachelor's degree in chemistry and psychology from Knox College in Galesburg, IL, and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics, with a concentration in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics from SUNY, Buffalo, NY. The majority of Dr. Pollack's career has been focused as an independent scientist on issues related to central nervous system pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. He is widely published on a range of work his laboratory completed related to substrate uptake across the blood-brain barrier, substrate distributions with the brain, and drug action on CNS targets. He also has extensive experience as a principal investigator, co-investigator, and consultant on numerous occasions. He leads an active graduate-level teaching program at WSU in the areas of theoretical and applied pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, with six Ph.D. students enrolled in this coursework for the 2011/12 academic year.

Jeffrey B. Collins, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Providence Sacred Heart is one of the largest hospitals in the Pacific Northwest, employing more than 4,000 health care professionals and support staff. Dr. Collins received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1977, and his M.D. from UI, Chicago, in 1981. He served his residency and received clinical training in Spokane 1981-1985, and was board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1984. Dr. Collins is past President of the Washington State Medical Association and the Spokane County Medical Society and has served on many local health care-related committees.

Kelsey Gray is the managing partner of Spectrum, LLC, a organization development consulting firm that works with local governments, state agencies, tribal nations, police departments and federal groups. Her background encompasses more than 30 years' experience with public policy, including work with physicians, hospitals and citizen organizations on health care issues. Spectrum provides training, organizational development interventions, organizational and stakeholder assessment, conflict management and related services. Dr. Gray worked for Washington State University from 1975 until 2008 as an Organizational Development Specialist for the WSU Spokane Cooperative Extension. She received her bachelor's degree from WSU in 1971, her master's of science degree in urban planning in 1974 from the University of Arizona, and her doctor's degree from Gonzaga University in 1984.

Kevin Oldenburg, Ph.D is the president of MatriCal Bioscience, a Spokane-based biotechnology company focused on the pharmaceutical industry that he founded in 2000. MatriCal builds scientific equipment, large robotic systems, bench-top equipment and some injection molding that supports R&D for scientific purposes. Dr. Oldenburg received his doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles where he focused on protein structure function relationships in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Upon completion of his Ph.D, he joined Affymax as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Peter Schultz of the UC-Berkeley, where he performed some of the seminal work with “peptides on phage,” a virus on bacteria, demonstrating that small peptides could mimic and inhibit sugar binding to lectins. In 1996, he became the Director of Biomolecular Screening at DuPont Pharmaceuticals where his group focused on both conventional screening as well as assay miniaturization. Dr. Oldenburg currently holds over 20 patents issued and pending and has over 50 peer-reviewed publications. In addition, he has extensive industrial experience in biotechnology, with particular expertise in the areas of assay development, high throughput screening and technology development.

Jason Thackston is the Vice President, Finance, for Avista Corporation, and as such his responsibilities include treasury, risk management, forecasting and analysis, investor relations and corporate development. Prior to Avista, Jason was a Trust Officer for U.S. Bank where he managed retirement and trust funds for individuals and small companies. He is a graduate of Whitworth University and holds a bachelor's degree in international studies. Jason serves on the corporate board of the YMCA of the Inland Northwest, and also serves on the boards of the Northwest Business Development Association and the Business Development Corporation of Eastern Washington.

Dave Vachon is the CEO and Founder of Iasis Molecular Sciences LLC, Spokane, a pharmaceutical-drug delivery company with emphasis on inflammation and infection control. Areas of focus include topical formulation development for skin diseases, hard to manage wounds, transcutaneous devices, burn wound healing and periodontal disease. He has been awarded four phase I SBIR grants from the National Institutes of Health and in October was awarded an Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development Award from the Department of the U.S. Army. Dr. Vachon has filed three patent application related to Iasis drug delivery, infection control, and would healing technology.

Dr. Vachon has co-authored 20 manuscripts, is a named inventor of 18 issued patents, and is a named inventor of approximately 20 patents pending in the fields of materials, chemistry, biomaterials, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Vachon received a bachelor's of science degree in Chemistry from Framingham State College in Framingham, MA; a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH; was a Postgraduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids, and received a master's in business administration (marketing, finance and business planning) from California State University, Northridge, CA. His comprehensive understanding of medical device and pharmaceutical markets and technological trends have been key in his obtaining over $4 million in federal funding for Iasis-related technology development.

Mike Wilson is Chief Executive at Providence Health Care. His career spans 35 years in healthcare management including his most recent position. Wilson retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of Sacred Heart Medical Center, Children's Hospital and Holy Family Hospital but was called back to service in 2011. Mike has served as Chief Operating Officer, President and/or Chief Executive Officer throughout his 21-year career at Sacred Heart. He received his bachelors of arts degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., and received his master's degree in business and public administration from Southeastern University in Washington, D.C. He has held leadership positions in many community organizations, healthcare organizations, and has served on a variety of boards and advisory committees during his career. Mike currently is working with an emerging entrepreneurial healthcare company.