Board of Directors

Lucy Mancini Newell, MBA, FHIMSS, is Managing Partner of The Kiran Consortium Group LLC. Ms. Mancini Newell is an Information Technology professional with experience in clinical operations, application vendors (ambulatory and inpatient settings), systems integrators and management consulting. One of the hallmarks of her professional success is effective communication of ideas, trends and issues on behalf of her clients while delivering results in a timely, effective manner. Her experience includes work in complex environments as well as project turnarounds. She was previously a Practice Leader of Information Technology Strategic Planning and System Selections, mentoring colleagues, working in collaborative and high impact teams, and actively contributing to an employer-based Thought Leadership Group and professional societies such as the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) and Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). She actively contributes to healthcare industry publications (over 20), presentations (over 40) and blogs on many timely topics.

Kristina Allikmets has been working for Takeda Pharmaceuticals for over eight years, holding various leadership roles in the Global R&D organization, currently leading the R&D organization in the Plasma-Derived Therapies Business unit. She has broad experience in clinical drug development and taking compounds through registration process in different therapy areas. Previously in Takeda, she served as a “chief executive” of a “spin-in” company within Takeda Global R&D, to take one of Takeda’s compounds through experimental phase of development following a new working model. She was also instrumental in establishing Takeda R&D Patient Outreach team and led it for several years, building the strategy and processes for how to engage patients during drug development and to ensure that the innovative medicines could make a meaningful difference to patients’ lives in the communities we serve around the world. Before joining Takeda, Kristina worked for eight years for Nycomed Pharma, where she served as a Chief Medical Officer for several years. Kristina has an MD and PhD from University of Tartu, Estonia, she’s trained as cardiologist and internal medicine specialist and worked in academic clinical medicine for almost 15 years before joining pharmaceutical industry. She has strong international experience, having lived and worked in different European countries (Estonia, Russia, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland), she moved to the US in 2015 and is currently based in Boston, MA.

Steve Braun has more than 30 years of service as a Private Wealth Advisor with Northwestern Mutual – Chicago. Steve is passionate in his pursuit to help his clients retire. He has earned numerous awards throughout his career and is past chairperson for NM’s Annual Meeting and the past president of NM’s Financial Representative Association.

Steve is active in community supporting The City of Hope and the Marty Hennessy, Jr. Tennis Foundation. He brings his understanding of philanthropy and financing planning to support Cures Within Reach. Steve resides in Highland Park.

Cures Within Reach has been awarded four grants totaling $75,000 from the Northwestern Mutual Foundation in honor of his community service, including the 2022 Community Service Award (read more here) plus an award from the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation.