Founders and Governing Board
Each member of the Governing Board brings a distinct set of skills and expertise that help further the mission of the Primary Aldosteronism Foundation.
Marianne Leenaerts, MHSA, PhD
Co-founder, President
Marianne has over 30 years of experience in knowledge management and translation. During her career with the United Nations, she developed knowledge products and communities of practice in the areas of healthcare, social protection, and public policy to facilitate decision-making and foster innovation among internal and external stakeholders worldwide. Since leaving the United Nations in 2010, Marianne has provided research and management consulting services to various academic and healthcare organizations in the areas of information technology, performance assessment, strategic planning, business modeling, and policy development. Marianne holds a PhD in Health Information Science from the University of Victoria, British Columbia; a Degree of Specialist in Health Policy from the George Washington University; and a Master’s in Health Services Administration from UCLouvain, Belgium.
John Giacona, PA-C, Ph.D., CHC
Director, Clinical Research
Dr. John Giacona is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Clinical Research Department at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a board-certified Physician Assistant and certified Hypertension Specialist practicing at the Clinical Heart and Vascular Center as a member of the Hypertension Section in the Division of Cardiology. In addition to being active in clinical research, Dr. Giacona also provides teaching services for the Department of Physician Assistant Studies by leading the cardiovascular clinical medicine section of the didactic curriculum. Dr. Giacona currently serves as a board member for the Academy of Physician Associates in Cardiology as Chair of Preventive Cardiology, and is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Physician Assistants, the American College of Cardiology, and the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants. He also serves as a member on the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Professional/Public Education & Publications Committee for the Council on Hypertension. Dr. Giacona holds a Bachelor of Science and Arts degree in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Master of Physician Assistant studies degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree from UT Southwestern Medical Center. His research interests include the influence of nutrition and exercise on the autonomic control of blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein metabolism, and skeletal muscle mitochondrial function.
Debbie Kelly
Co-Founder, Secretary
Debbie has over 35 years of experience as an accounting professional and business leader. Her work experience beyond accounting responsibilities has involved employee development, systems implementation work, and litigation support. After retiring from a Fortune 500 company, she now works part-time as a consultant and volunteer. Debbie holds a bachelor’s of business administration degree in accounting from Texas A&M University and is a Certified Public Accountant. She currently resides in the Oklahoma City area.
Mike McGowan
Co-Founder, Treasurer
Mike is a technologist and entrepreneur who has also had a lifelong interest in improving healthcare through education, science, and technology. During his 20-year career at Intel, he was product manager for the world’s first 32-bit microprocessors and helped make Intel one of the world’s most recognizable brands. After spinning off a company from Intel, Mike went on to lead several startups in fields as diverse as online development, nonvolatile memories, high speed encryption, electronic discovery, and smart energy. He holds multiple patents. Mike did his undergraduate work in biology, psychology, and electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and his master’s work in business at PSU in Portland. Through a fellowship from The Hastings Center, he studied medical ethics at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Mike has been a leader in several non-profit educational and patient advocacy organizations including organ donation, mental health, AIDS education, children with special needs, and suicide prevention.
Rachel Medlin
Director, Operations
Rachel Medlin has served as the Director of Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Risk Management for The Charles Schwab Corporation since 2023. In her role, Medlin leads a team of risk management professionals that oversees and governs the Enterprise Vulnerabilities Management program under Schwab Cybersecurity Services. The team provides challenge with partnership for the Firm’s information technology, security, and resilience practices to manage technical risks related to infrastructure vulnerabilities with the Firm’s Risk Appetite. Prior to assuming her current role, she held various risk management roles within Enterprise Risk Management and Technology Risk Management where she designed, deployed, and ensured mandatory completion of the Enterprise Risk Management Annual Risk & Regulatory Training curriculum and assessed, aggregated, and provided leadership awareness to the thematic technical risks in a portfolio of critical initiatives following TDA acquisition, respectively. Before joining Schwab in late 2020, Medlin held leadership roles at Bank of America as the Senior Vice President of Consumer Vendor Analytics, Ocwen Financial Corporation as the Director of Enterprise Risk Management, and Wells Fargo & Company as the Vice President of Risk & Regulatory Exam Management. Medlin earned a Master of Business Administration as well as a certification for Health Sector Management from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She also holds certifications for Six Sigma Greenbelt, PMP, and CRISC. Rachel resides in Texas with her husband, Phil, their two children, and their gentle giant Great Pyrenees named Steve.
Rene Moreno
Co-Founder, Co-Director
Trained as a respiratory care practitioner, Rene started his career in critical care and emergency settings where he practiced for over 10 years providing adult and pediatric care. Rene then worked with a team that pioneered a multi-disciplinary program aimed at bringing ventilator-dependent children home. The program grew to over 200+ patients who could be cared for in the home setting versus hospitals or step down units dramatically improving the quality of lives of patients and their families while lowering the healthcare cost. After overseeing the clinical management of the homecare respiratory team for 10 years, he took on the additional responsibilities of managing the other clinical departments of nursing, pharmacy, and patient services. He later took on the roles of general manager, area operations manager and eventually area manager which oversaw all previous departments and added sales and marketing responsibilities for most of southern California. He is now retired and happily living in the Los Angeles area.
Solomon Praveen Samuel, D. Eng, MBA
Director, Development
Praveen is a biomedical engineer and educator with over 20 years of experience leading clinical and research programs. He has a proven track record in mentoring medical residents, managing multicenter research studies, and developing innovative research protocols. His expertise spans the application of engineering principles in biomedical research, with experience in various medical disciplines. Praveen has held key leadership roles, including Director of Clinical and Outcomes Research, where he led large-scale research initiatives and provided strategic insights to medical boards. He is also experienced in teaching at the graduate level and has contributed to developing educational courses that bridge engineering and medical sciences. Praveen holds a Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, and an MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.
