Direct Relief has elected seven new directors to its Board of Directors. Each will serve up to two, three-year terms. The new board members – who bring a wealth of expertise in business, strategy, and medicine to the organization — include Steve Ainsley, Bitsy Becton Bacon, Charles Fenzi, M.D., Pamela Gann, Siri Marshall, Jim Selbert, and Thomas Weisenburger, M.D.
Steve Ainsley worked for 31 years in the newspaper industry, before retiring in 2010 as president of The New England Media Group and publisher of The Boston Globe and Boston.com, the Globe’s website. During his time at The Globe, the newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Ainsley served as publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press from 1992 – 1999, before moving to Tampa, Florida to become President and COO of The New York Times Regional Media Group, at that time a group of 21 newspapers located primarily in the southeast United States and California.
Bitsy Becton Bacon has worked for thirty years as a real estate broker in Santa Barbara. In 2001, she was president of the Santa Barbara Associate of Realtors (SBAOR). In 2002, she was named SBAOR Realtor of the Year and awarded an honorary lifetime membership. Becton Bacon is also a longtime supporter of the Community Arts Music Association, where she served as president from 2004 to 2008, and continues to chair its governance committee.
Charles C. Fenzi, M.D. is currently the Chief Medical Officer of the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics. Dr. Fenzi spent 24 years in a private family practice in Roswell, New Mexico, where he received a number of awards: Family Physician of the Year from the New Mexico Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2001; Presidents Award from the same Chapter in 1998, and Chapter Service Award in 1995. He also received the Faculty Member of the Year Award from the Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in 1999.
Fenzi earned his BA from the University of Arizona, where he also did his postgraduate work in physiological psychology, and his Doctorate of Medicine, with honors, from the University Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium. Fenzi completed his family practice residency at St. Joseph Hospital, Stamford, Connecticut, a hospital affiliated with NY Medical College and the University of Connecticut, where he served as Chief Resident from 1980 to 1981.
Pamela Gann served as president of Claremont McKenna College in California from 1999 to 2013. She now serves as Claremont McKenna’s College Professor of Legal Studies. An expert in American law and international trade, Gann’s career includes visiting professorships with the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan. Through an International Affairs Fellowship, awarded by the Council on Foreign Relations, Gann also worked at the International Monetary Fund and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Siri Marshall retired from General Mills as the company’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Governance and Compliance Officer. In that role, Marshall was responsible for the company’s worldwide legal issues, compliance programs, as well as its board and corporate governance. Marshall also managed General Mills’ Corporate Affairs group, including government relations, corporate public relations, internal communication, and the General Mills Foundation. She was also a member of the Corporate Management Committee.
Jim Selbert is a co-founder of Warren & Selbert, a leading financial software firm in the leasing industry. The company provides developers, investment banks, commercial banks, and Fortune 500 companies with software and expertise to structure solutions for equipment and project financing. The software uses linear programming optimization techniques to structure transactions in the equipment, renewable energy, real estate, and project finance industries.
Thomas H. Weisenburger, M.D., is the Director of Radiation Oncology at the Radiation Center Medical Group at the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara. Since 1990. Weisenburger has been a Clinical Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCLA.
Weisenburger received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, his Doctor of Medicine from the University of California Medical School, Los Angeles. Weisenburger completed his Radiation Therapy residency at the UCLA Department of Radiological Sciences and his fellowship at the C.A.C Hospital in Nice, France.