About Us
Team
Management & Observers to the Board of Directors
Constance McKee, MBA
President & CEO
Ms. McKee is co-founder, President and CEO of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals. She was a named co-inventor on three issued first-generation Manzanita patents and all second-generation patent applications. She supported the PI Kahl as Project Manager for the SBIR Phase II and Phase I grants, and acted as co-PI for the Department of Defense grant completed in 2019. Since founding Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2007, Ms McKee has raised $3.3M in nondilutive funding and roughly $750K in private angel investment.
She graduated with honors from Stanford University and earned an MBA from Yale University. After Yale, she was awarded a Bosch Fellowship in Germany which supported internships in corporate finance in Frankfurt, Germany. From 1990-1994 in Cambridge, England, Ms McKee served Chief Executive of Cambridge Quantum Fund I, a seed venture fund at Cambridge University.
Since returning to the US in 1995, she advised or consulted to another 25 technology and life sciences start-ups. From 1996-2001, Ms McKee worked as a contractor for Philips Electronics on over 20 M&A transactions, licensing agreements, intellectual property-based divestments, and venture capital assignments. From 2010-2020, she also served as Principal, i2 Grants Associates, LLC, and prepared federal and defense-related life science grants, raising approximately $10.7M for clients.
From 2003-2016, Ms McKee created and guest-taught the non-credit short course Business of Biotechnology at Yale University. From 2006-2011, she volunteered at the Veterans Administration, Palo Alto. From 2015-2021, she was a guest speaker at Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities at the University of Connecticut. She is a fierce advocate for better cures and therapies to treat our Wounded Warriors, our Veterans, and our active-duty troops.
Stephen B. Kahl, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Vice President & Principal Scientist
Dr. Stephen B. Kahl served as the PI on Manzanita Pharmaceuticals’ NCI SBIR Phase II grant to develop a contrast agent, and served as PI on the company’s DOD grant to develop a non-opiate pain medication. Dr. Kahl previously served as PI on the company’s founding NCI SBIR Phase I grant, and was a Consultant under the founding DARPA grant that successfully demonstrated company’s technology. He is an inventor on most of the first-generation issued Manzanita patents, and on all the second-generation Manzanita patents currently in prosecution.
In 2011, Dr. Kahl retired as Vice Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) after serving in that position for over 20 years. From 2011-2021, he continued to teach as Emeritus-in-Recall.
Prior to his academic retirement, the focus of Dr. Kahl’s research was the design, synthesis, and in vitro and in vivo biological evaluation of potential new tumor targeted drugs for use in binary cancer therapies. These include boron neutron capture therapy, where the drug activating agent is thermal neutrons, and photodynamic therapy, where activation is by visible light.
At UCSF, Dr. Kahl investigated a variety of tumor-specific targeting strategies such as using low density lipoproteins (LDL) as drug carriers, the use of small peptides known as nuclear localization sequences for drug delivery to cellular nucleii, and other small peptide “zipcodes” identified by phage display for selective drug delivery to cell surface sites. One compound from the Kahl lab was brought from the initial synthesis of a few milligrams through small and large animal models and eventually into successful Phase 1 clinical trials for photodynamic therapy of malignant glioma. Unusually for an academic scientist, he is well-versed in the translational challenges of bringing new drug entities from bench to bedside.
Dr. Kahl earned his BS from Duke University in Chemistry, and his PhD from Indiana University in Inorganic Chemistry. He completed two postdocs at the University of California, Berkeley, one in Chemistry and one in Physics, then spent eight years at Wellesley College. In 1983, he accepted a position at UCSF, where he maintained an active laboratory until his retirement in 2011.
Board of Directors & Observers
The Board of Directors consists of five of our eleven private investors: Constance McKee MBA, Thomas Knobel (Chairman), Robert Dalziel PhD, Robert Webb PhD, and Gary Blair MD (retired).
Actively supporting the Board are Observers to the Board of Directors: Christopher J. Dunn MD PhD FCCP (retired); Marcie Fowler PhD; Rhonda Wallen MBA; and Ralph Williams III DBA (Doctorate, Business Administration).
Thomas Knobel
Chairman, Board of Directors
Mr. Knobel is Managing Partner for Global Main Streets Associates, LLC (GMSA), providing business and technology consulting for corporate, government, and not-for-profit clients worldwide.
With footholds in business, academia, government, philanthropy, and investment, GMSA and its predecessor PK Associates have a 30-year history of successful engagements for large and small companies, start-ups, national laboratories, global foundations, national and international NGOs, and an investment bank. Clients included Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the European Union, Dow Chemical, IBA (Brussels), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Kent State Development Corporation.
Mr Knobel spent 22 years as Senior Researcher and Senior Account Manager for Dow Chemical and later as Technical Director at E-BEAM Services. As a principal investigator he was granted 23 US and foreign patents, inventions for applications in energy, advanced materials, and applied radiation technologies.
Along the technical spectrum, GMSA offers specific expertise in several fields, focused on evaluations of new processes and products, business planning, and business development.
For six years Mr. Knobel volunteered as Executive Coach/Advisor at entrepreneurial boot-camps at Cornell and Syracuse Universities. As an active board member and advisor for non-profits and foundations, Mr. Knobel heads efforts related to long-term strategic development and financial planning. He is an active private equity and angel investor.
He holds BS degrees in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Houston. Mr. Knobel is a published author and an active public lecturer on topics including technology and energy.
His web site is found at www.300oddwords.com.
Robert G. Dalziel, PhD
Board Member
Chair, Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Dalziel serves as Chair, Scientific Advisory Board of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals. His laboratory carried out the foundational in vivo studies in chronic pain that demonstrated the analgesic activity of an injected “neurotrophin targeted glucocorticoid” conjugate.
Dr. Dalziel (ret.) was a Group Leader and Senior Lecturer in The Roslin Institute and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He gained his BSc (Honours) in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow. He carried out his PhD studies on protein/DNA interactions in HSV-1 infected cells at the MRC Institute for Virology. He then worked at the Scripps Research Institute, after which he accepted a Faculty Position at the University of Edinburgh.
At the University of Edinburgh, following a Wellcome Trust lectureship in Molecular Biology and a Lectureship in Virology, from 2008, Dr Dalziel was a group Leader/Senior Research Fellow in the Division of Infection and Immunity at The Roslin Institute. He taught as a Reader and conducted research there until his retirement in 2021.
Dr. Dalziel’s research interests focused on the host: virus interactions in herpesvirus infections of animals and humans. He previously investigated the biology of varicella zoster virus (VZV) latency and mechanisms of induction of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), and the role of virus encoded miRNAs in herpesvirus infection. His group developed Genome-Scale CRISPR Knock-Out (GeCKO) and Synergistic Activator Mediator (SAM) libraries directed against the bovine genome. Using these approaches the Dalziel group identified cellular genes that control the replication of BoHV-1, the causative agent of Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis.
He is the co-author of the 6th edition of Mims Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (2015). Until 2020, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Veterinary Research Communications.
Robert R. Webb, PhD
Investor and Board Member
Dr. Webb is a co-founder and co-inventor on key first-generation Manzanita patents that led to the development of the Company’s current products and technologies. He holds a degree in biochemistry from UCLA and chemistry from the University of Utah, and was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Webb spent 35 years in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industries as a Medicinal Chemist, where he guided and participated in several discovery and development programs in the antiviral, anti-infective and cardiovascular fields that subsequently yielded marketed drugs.
His current professional interests are angel investing, board work for startups, and university advisory work.
Gary Blair MD (retired), FACEP
Investor and Board Member
Dr. Blair (retired) is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Blair previously served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. He has a long-standing interest in finding effective non-narcotic alternatives to pain management. He earned his BA at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), then attended medical school at Georgetown University, where he earned his MD. Dr Blair completed his Residency at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI in Emergency Medicine.
For Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dr. Blair not only serves as a Board member and investor, he actively contributes to advancing the company’s clinical interests in several areas. His priority is to enhance the connection between the company's basic science research and real-world clinical applicability of related product ideas to patients.
Christopher J. Dunn, MD (retired), MBA, FCCP
Observer, Board of Directors
Dr. Christopher Dunn serves as Observer to the Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Board of Directors. He has over 30 years’ experience as a physician, entrepreneur, and investor where he has been involved with patient care and administration in hospital, medical office, and sub-acute settings. In the medical transportation industry, he served as the Medical Director for Northern California Critical Care Transport for the ambulance company AMR for 20 years. In the US Air Force reserves, he served as a physician from 2001 until his retirement in 2009.
Dr. Dunn has provided patient care in pulmonary medicine, internal medicine, and critical care medicine at Samaritan House (Redwood City, CA, 2001 to present); as Chief Medical Officer and in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Sequoia Hospital (Redwood City, CA 1998-2001); at Palo Alto Medical Clinic (Palo Alto, CA, 1987); and at Mills-Peninsula Hospital (San Mateo, CA 1984-1987). Complementing his work at Samaritan House, he participated in medical mission work through his local church in Africa, Middle East, Latin America, and South America.
Dr. Dunn is an active investor, with prior involvement in Northern California groups, and currently an early-stage investment firm. Since 2005, he has made over 25 early-stage life science investments. For those investments, he has acted as due diligence lead and/or founding Board member for investments in novel medical devices and in therapeutics; in operations technology for supply and drug distribution; and in computerized health records.
Dr. Dunn earned his BA in Biology, a Masters of Health Services Administration and his MD at Stanford University and Stanford School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center. After completing his Residency, he then served at Loma Linda as Chief Resident, Internal Medicine, and then as a Fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In 2001, Dr. Dunn earned his MBA from Santa Clara University.
Marcie Fowler, PhD
Senior Director, Clinical Development, Avidity Biosciences, Inc.
Observer, Board of Directors
Marcie Fowler PhD, serves an Observer to the Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Board of Directors. She is a scientist with over 18 years of professional experience in preclinical and clinical research with expertise in drug development from discovery through launch. She has led animal model development for the evaluation of novel analgesics, first-in-animal efficacy studies, IND-enabling preclinical pharmacology for multiple target indications, and clinical development. As Senior Director, Clinical Development at Avidity Biosciences, Inc., and in previous positions, Dr Fowler has gained valuable hands-on experience in the design, enrollment, and conduct of clinical trials.
Dr Fowler received her BS in Biology from Louisiana Tech University and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center, where her thesis work focused on gene regulation and dysregulation in solid tumors. She then completed postdoctoral work in cell biology at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport (Shreveport, LA) Medical Center.
From 2009-2018, Dr Fowler served as a principal investigator and research physiologist in the Battlefield Pain Management Task Area at the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR). At USAISR, Dr Fowler was a Department of Defense (DoD) subject matter expert in preclinical pain and led clinical studies in pain and psychological health.
From 2018-2022, Dr. Fowler was part of the clinical development team at Acceleron Pharma Inc. (acquired by Merck in 2021), a mid-size Cambridge, MA biotech company developing medicines targeting the TGF-beta superfamily to treat serious and rare diseases. In this role, she led clinical development activities for early stage, in-house developed biologics. She served as clinical science team leader for the successful Phase 3 study of sotatercept for adults with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Rhonda Wallen, MBA
Observer, Board of Directors
Rhonda Wallen is an Independent Board Director and Advisor to life science companies, leveraging her 20+ years of experience to help founders and CEOs set strategy, navigate financings and plan for growth. She was most recently Chief Strategy Officer / EVP of Caresyntax, providers of an end-to-end digital analytics platform for the surgical suite. Prior to this, Ms. Wallen was Head of Global Corporate Development at Terumo BCT, the $1 billion biomedical division of Terumo Corporation, a multinational leader in medical technology. In this role, as a member of the Global Commercial Leadership Team and its working group on marketing excellence, she led the cross-function evaluation and negotiation of strategic transactions for blood and cell therapy technologies. As founding CEO for Caveo Therapeutics, she raised seed capital and launched a reagent product line. She serves on the Board of Directors for Ekso Bionics (NASDAQ: EKSO), Boulder Community Health hospital system, and is a Board Advisor for A28 Therapeutics (biotechnology) and ViuHealth (healthcare data science).
Ms. Wallen holds a BS in Biology from Stanford University, and earned her MBA and MS from the University of Rochester, Simon School of Business and School of Medicine and Dentistry, respectively. She is an active member of Stanford Women on Boards, and Mentor to the Corporate Board Readiness Program of the Silicon Valley Executive Center at Santa Clara University.
Ralph Williams III, DBA
Observer, Board of Directors
Dr. Ralph Williams III has a career spanning military service, homeland security, and executive leadership. He is the Executive Vice President of Operations at Centurion Analytics, LLC since July 2023, and the founder of Ralph Williams Coaching & Consulting, LLC since 2020. In these roles, Dr. Williams has shown an ability to lead strategic initiatives, manage operations effectively, and drive leadership development.
Dr. Williams served in the US Army from 1992 to 2012, during which he was deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2005 to 2006. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal in 2006. After retiring from the military, he worked in public service at the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2023, ending his tenure as a Senior Advisor at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
Dr. Williams holds a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) with a focus on Organizational Leadership, awarded in 2023 from Thomas Edison State University (Trenton, NJ). In 2015, he was awarded a Master’s degree in Homeland Security from The George Washington University (Washington, DC). This is his second Master’s degree: in 2009 he was awarded a Master’s degree in Management, specializing in Human Resource Management, from Wayland Baptist University (Plainview, TX).
Since 2017, Dr. Williams has been an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Maryland Global Campus, teaching terrorism, homeland security, and counterterrorism strategies.