Boards and Advisory

Patricia Turney is Chief Technical Operations Officer at Acelyrin, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Acelyrin, Turney was SVP of Arcutis Biotherapeutics. Turney was also a senior leader at Amgen for over 20 years where she held a wide variety of roles with increasing responsibility and leadership across Manufacturing, Engineering, EH&S, R&D, and Quality.

She currently manages Amgen’s External Supply organization supporting over $5B in annual product sales along with enabling Amgen’s R&D pipeline for new product development. Her team is responsible for over 250 Raw Material and Medical Device Suppliers worldwide and 55 contract manufacturing sites spanning 10 countries.

Prior to this role, Ms. Turney led Amgen’s Manufacturing Site Operations in The Netherlands, where she was responsible for supplying patients in over 75 countries. “Parent of the Year 2001”– Ventura County Autism Society.

Ms. Turney serves on the Exceptional Minds Board of Directors as Board Chair and is a member of the LA BioMed Board. She has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the US Naval Academy and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Prior to her career at Amgen, Ms. Turney was a US Naval Aviator and served in the US Navy in various locations around the world.

Prior to creating his own business, Dan served as the CEO for Film Solutions: an entertainment digital assets management provider in Los Angeles. He has held executive leadership roles in media service companies on both coasts. Glasser holds degrees from Vanderbilt University and the UCLA Anderson School of Business. He also serves on boards for the Thomas Sherak MS Hope Foundation, GRFF at Chicago Community Trust, and the D&R; Foundation in Chicago.

Susan Capps is a business executive focused on social impact strategies for both patient access in healthcare and autistic artists in employment. She is currently Vice President of Market Access at Baylor Genetics, where she works with insurance organizations to cover genetic testing for patients across a variety of diseases. For 30 years, she has worked to improve access to medicines and to genetic tests.  Her previous experience includes starting a new corporate initiative to address equitable access of medicines for low and lower-middle income patients across the globe. Susan also collaborated on delivering the first Autism In Entertainment conference in 2024, which was attended by 400 people working to bridge the gap between the autism community and employment in the entertainment industry.

Susan is also the parent of Carter Capps, an adult on the autism spectrum, who is a past graduate and has worked as a part-time animator with Exceptional Minds. Susan’s years in business (Invitae, Amgen, Eli Lilly & Co, and IMS Health) plus her direct experience with parenting an animation artist on the autism spectrum provides her with a unique perspective to support the growth of the Exceptional Minds organization.

Doug Gardner joined Echo Horizon School in 2024 as its Director of Finance and Operations leading the finance, facilities, IT, and health/safety functions, amongst other responsibilities. Doug came to Echo after serving as Director of Finance and Operations at Westmark School and COO at the Yavneh Hebrew Academy before that. Doug also spent the last several years as a trustee for the Hermosa Beach City School District Board of Trustees overseeing the construction of two new schools and the attainment of several state recognitions. Doug is also the Treasurer for the Mira Costa High School Band Boosters. Prior to entering the education industry, Doug built his financial and operational acumen in the entertainment industry at FactoryMade Ventures and PwC.

Doug studied Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He followed that several years later with a School Business Management Certificate from the USC Rossiter School of Education and a certification from the California Association of School Business Officials. 

Cuong Do, MBA, is President and CEO of BioVie Inc . Prior to his appointment with BioVie, Mr. Do was President of Samsung Global Strategy Group where he helped to set the strategic direction for Samsung Group’s diverse business portfolio. He was previously the Chief Strategy Officer for Merck, Tyco Electronics and Lenovo. Mr. Do is a former senior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he spent 17 years helping to build the healthcare, high tech and corporate finance practices. Cuong often straddles the worlds of health care and high tech and has helped companies grow by pursuing new opportunities through internal development, acquisitions, corporate venturing, and partnership.

Cuong is an active entrepreneur – starting companies himself, coaching startup CEOs, and serving on startup boards. He serves or has served on the board of AngioSafe, BioVie, Curve Financial, Hope Trust, ILiAD Biotechnologies, Laava, RenalSense, and WuXi AppTec. He is active with many philanthropic activities, particularly in autism and education. He also serves or served on the board of Autism Speaks, Caring for Cambodia, Celebrate the Children school, Fulbright University Vietnam, the Institute for Exceptional Care, Newark Academy, Paper Mill Playhouse, Profectum Foundation, and the Tuck School of Business.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, U.S., and a Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.

Richard Gasparian is a Director, Writer, and Producer who is equally at home in the worlds of animation and live-action. With two Emmy Award nominations and one Emmy win for his work on the iconic TV series, The Simpsons, Gasparian’s animation credits are vast. His resume includes Disenchantment, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, The Simpsons Movie, Family Guy, King of the Hill, and Dragon Tales, as well as hundreds of hours of Saturday morning cartoons. He has worked at many of the top Los Angeles animation studios including FOX, Film Roman, Bento Box, Rough Draft, Disney, Warner Bros., and Columbia TriStar. He directed and co-wrote the award-winning live-action short, Private War, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He also produced the short “dog-umentary,” The Corgi Conspiracy, which won the coveted Director’s Choice Award at the Atlanta Film Festival. Gasparian co-wrote, co-produced, and stars in the soon-to-be-released cult-classic horror-comedy, The Night They Saved Siegfried’s Brain.

Over Michael’s career as a Human Resources Executive, he has held various leadership positions in Business and Human Resources in Telecommunications, Biotechnology and Defense industries. Michael has been employed by GTE, Amgen, and is currently with Northrop Grumman. Throughout his career Michael has developed an expertise in Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, Leadership Development, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Human Resources and Labor Relations. Michael joined Amgen Biotechnology as a senior leader in Talent Acquisition and then transitioned into HR Business leadership roles in Finance, Information Systems, Law, and Global Operations. At Northrop Grumman, he is the Senior Human Resources Business Leader for Global Operations in Aerospace Systems. Michael earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Redlands. He also holds several Executive Human Resources credentials from The Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, UCLA Anderson School of Management Business School, and USC Marshall Business School.

Dr. Amy M. Schonfeld is a clinical psychologist licensed in the state of California. Dr. Schonfeld specializes in clinical and forensic neuropsychological assessment of pediatric through young adult populations in private practice at Golden State Neuropsychology in Calabasas, CA. She works with children, teens, and young adults presenting with a wide range of concerns including neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and medical conditions.

Outside of her practice, she is a volunteer clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is co-author of “Beyond the Label,” published by Oxford University Press in 2012. Dr. Schonfeld received her Clinical Psychology doctorate in 2002 at the San Diego State University/University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology with a specialty in Neuropsychology, followed by a three-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA.