Board & Staff

Associate Director, Adaptive Biotechnologies

Jennifer Lee, PhD is an Associate Director at Adaptive Biotechnologies, a pioneer and leader in immune-driven medicine.

Prior to joining Adaptive Biotechnologies, she handled business development, innovation strategy, and licensing activities as a Commercialization Manager for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) analytical instrumentation and chemistry portfolios and also is responsible for external industrial partnerships for transitioning technologies to the commercial sector. She has been the commercial transition strategy lead for nine of PNNL’s cross-cutting laboratory directed R&D initiatives and investments. She previously stewarded the electricity infrastructure, buildings, nuclear, fuel cells, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and biomedical technology portfolios. Jennifer is also a founding member and the current co-chair of PNNL’s Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group—the Asian Resource & Outreach Connection (AROC). She is also a member of PNNL’s Laboratory Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Jennifer was the assistant director of the Office of Technology Transfer & Corporate Partnerships (OTTCP) at the California Institute of Technology. There, she managed a broad technology portfolio and was responsible for a number of new startup companies and broad industrial relationships. She was also a postdoctoral scholar in biology and a resident associate for Ruddock House at the California Institute of Technology.Jennifer received her PhD in Biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the California Institute of Technology and a BS as a double major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and psychology (neuroscience) from Yale University. She is a registered U.S. patent agent.

Jennifer has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2016.

Current term: 2020-24 (second term, term extended by service on Executive Committee)

Staff Engineering Manager at Google Research

Dan Liebling, MS leads the speech intelligence applied research team at Google Research. He brings a human-computer interaction lens to speech and translation. Prior to working at Google, he worked on information retrieval and human-computer interaction research at Microsoft Research.

In addition to his work at Google, Dan is a sailor, private pilot, and agility dog handler. Dan received his MS in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington.

Dan has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2018.

Current term: 2020-23 (second term)

Associate Director of Medical Affairs, Biosense Webster

Tara Gomez-Hampton, PhD works as a Medical Affairs Manager at Biosense Webster, a Johnson and Johnson Company, where she assesses safety for new product development.

Tara graduated with a BS in Molecular Biology and Highest Departmental Honors from University of California, Los Angeles in 2005. At UCLA, Tara was a part of the research team that discovered the last unknown enzyme essential to produce Vitamin C in plants. She continued her education as a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, where she earned her PhD in biology in 2011.

Tara also has extensive teaching experience; she enjoys sharing her passion for science and discussing her studies in easily comprehensible ways. She spent time at the California State University East Bay as a lecturer in the biology department, in addition to teaching numerous science workshops throughout the Los Angeles area for students of all ages. In her free time, Tara is passionate about family, civic duty, photography, cooking, and scrapbooking.

Tara has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-23 (first term)

Cofounder & CEO, Ampaire Inc.

Kevin Noertker, BS is the cofounder and CEO of Ampaire, an aerospace startup based in Los Angeles that develops electric airplanes. Ampaire is nearly two years old and enables Kevin to combine his technical and management skills with his entrepreneurial vision, love for the outdoors, and passion for things that fly. He spent seven years in aerospace R&D and program management at Northrop Grumman, running multimillion-dollar programs and developing and fielding advanced aircraft and satellite technologies. He has a proven track record for initiating and delivering innovative technical solutions, building and motivating teams, and optimizing systems.

Kevin has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2018.

Current term: 2020-23 (second term)

Partner Engagement, Netflix

Frederic is a multidisciplinary professional with 25 years of experience leading engineering, product and strategy teams at semiconductor companies (Synaptics, Audience) and specializing in human interface technologies. He broadened scope and impact in the last five years by shifting into corporate development and technology strategy roles, driving the M&A strategy that directly led to multiple acquisitions and investments. 

After years of learning about new technologies, industries and business models in corporate development, Frederic decided to pivot to software and services. He now works in a Partnerships role at Netflix and works closely with Telcos and Operators throughout EMEA. Frederic is also part of the Board for non-profit RAFT.

Frederic has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

‍

Amanda Cashin, PhD (PhD '06) is Co-Founder and Global Head of Illumina For Startups, which is focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry by partnering with leading venture capital investors and entrepreneurs to create, launch, and grow genomics startups. Illumina for Startups initiatives include Illumina Accelerator, founded in 2014, and Sequoia Capital China Intelligent Healthcare Genomics Incubator, Powered by Illumina, founded in 2021. Previously, Amanda was senior vice president of Alexandria Venture Investments at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. She earned a PhD in Chemical Biology from the California Institute of Technology and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor degree in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Amanda has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since October 2022.

Current term: 2022-2025 (first term)

Biography to come.

Portfolio Manager and Partner, Frontier Global Partners

Miral Kim-E is responsible for research, valuation, and risk analysis at Frontier Global Partners. He previously served as Vice President for Research and Operations with HAV Capital, a minority and employee-owned asset management company based in La Jolla, California. He has over 30 years of experience in valuation of fixed income capital markets, having held positions at Morgan Stanley, Salomon Brothers, JP Morgan, and Mischler Financial.  

Miral is the founder of MEK Securities and holds its United States and Australian patents for the technology platform to deliver information to clients. After earning his doctorate and before his career in finance, Miral worked as a member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Labs. He currently serves as Co-VP of Programming for the MIT Club of San Diego and was active with the MIT Club of So Cal, serving on its Board as an event planner for Orange County and as President during the 2014–2015 fiscal year.

He holds a PhD and an MS in Chemical Engineering from MIT and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Caltech.

Miral has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

Founder and Executive Director, Now and Then, For the Future

Linda Maepa is an international leader on climate, sustainability, and social justice for the benefit of marginalised and vulnerable communities. she works on the strategic development and deployment of new companies and economic development planning that impact scientific research, agriculture, mining beneficiation, education, electric transport, and renewables on & off the power grid. She holds a BS in Geobiology from Caltech and is a contributor to the book, The Language of Cybersecurity (XML Press).

She is passionate about complex problem solving, future generations, and building novel ventures to address unmet needs. Her default posture is international, promoting cultures of stewardship, compassion, and fiscal discipline to achieve successful outcomes that are sustainable long-term.

At Now and Then, For the Future, Maepa leads a global climate advisory practice equipping stakeholders with practical next steps toward a just, low-carbon future. She assures that young people develop an informed and inclusive connection to the geosciences, placed-based history, and ecology through the development of an integrated, field sciences curriculum and yearly leads instruction for multi-age, mixed ability field classes.

Her projects and operational leadership in the past two decades include launching and leading multiple energy storage and energy advisory firms internationally; national electric vehicle introductions (technology, political support, legislation); infrastructure project development for renewables and energy storage; new industry ecosystem development and innovation ecosystem development; cradle-to-cradle design of novel energy storage technologies; clean manufacturing innovation in US and emerging markets; workforce capacity development and training; developing quantified ESG metrics for governance for future generations, equity and belonging, climate risk, and social systems impacts; and judging, mentoring, and advising 100s of companies and founders in the US, South Africa, Malaysia, Pakistan, and beyond with UNIDO, Techstars, Astia, Cleantech Open, Thiel Fellowship, and Caltech/DOE First Look West.

Linda has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

Director of Experiential & Career Development, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences

Keith Karasek, PhD is the Director of Experiential and Career Development at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to joining Harvard in 2014, Keith spent 35 years in various roles related to industrial R&D in companies ranging in size from large multinational corporations to small startups. His longest affiliation was 17 years with Honeywell (formerly AlliedSignal), where he held several positions starting with Research Scientist and culminating with Division Technology Manager. Keith has a BS in Physics from Caltech and a PhD in applied physics from Harvard. He has 39 publications in refereed journals and 4 patents.

Keith has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2014.

Current term: 2018-24 (second term, term extended by service on Executive Committee)

Biography to come.

Jessica Mao, PhD (PhD ’06) is an experienced pharmaceutical industry professional, with extensive experience in consulting and industry. Jessica is currently working as the Global Market Access Lead for the Cardiovascular team at Bayer. She is responsible for leading the global market access team to drive strategy development and implementation in key markets for a new heart failure therapy, to ensure patients can have access to the innovation.

Prior to joining Bayer, Jessica was a strategy consultant at IQVIA in Shanghai, China and London, UK.  She earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Caltech and a BS in Chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook.

Current Term: 2022-24 (first term, appointed to fill a partial term)

Biography to come.

Hardware Systems Engineer, RealityLabs, Meta

Jasmine Soria Sears, PhD is a Hardware Systems Engineer at Meta, working in the Augmented Reality space with a focus on Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion. In her previous role, she explored novel approaches to AR and VR image enhancement as a research scientist. Jasmine has received 20 patents.

She earned a BS in English from Caltech, followed by an MS and PhD in Optical Science from the University of Arizona.

Jasmine has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

Special Counsel, Cooley LLP

At Cooley LLP, Elizabeth Stameshkin litigates cases from inception to trial across the country, with an emphasis on high-stakes patent infringement and other technology-focused legal disputes. Liz has handled cases across a variety of technical disciplines, including virtual reality hardware and software, social networking, Internet advertising, video games, digital photography, telecommunications, medical devices, and food science. She has also litigated cases and counseled clients on trade secret, inventorship, trademark, copyright, false advertising, and contract issues. 

Liz received her JD, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2008. While at Michigan, she served as the Administrative Manager and as an Article Editor for the Michigan Journal of Gender andLaw and was Vice President of the Intellectual Property Student Association. She completed an externship with the Honorable R. Gary Klausner, United States District Court for the Central District of California in 2006. In 2003, Liz received her BS in Biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Liz has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois Chicago

Martin Tangora, PhD (BS '57) is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department, of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Martin has contributed twice to the Caltech Oral History Archive, and he regularly attends Caltech reunions and Caltech events in the Chicago area. He has served on the Board of Landmarks Illinois since 1971, including terms as president, vice president, and secretary, and was appointed Life Director in 2000. He served on the Board of the Civic Ballet of Chicago, 2005-2012. In mathematics, Martin has five books and fifteen papers.

Martin has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2021.

Current term: 2021-24 (first term)

‍

Evan Tsang, BS (BS ’99) is Vice President at Skylar Consulting, a management consulting and business administration outsourcing company based in Pasadena and Las Vegas. With 18 years of experience commercializing products in the automotive and medical device markets with broad and increasing levels of responsibility spanning manufacturing, quality assurance, and research and development, Evan previously held positions in engineering management at a variety of startups, WET Design, Novartis/Alcon, Beckman Coulter, and General Motors. Evan lives in Pasadena with his wife and son.   Evan has served on the Caltech Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2022. Current term: 2022-25 (first term)