GAIA US Board

Philip Arscott
Jim Cashel, Chair: Jim Cashel is a business executive with experience in multiple sectors, including technology, global development, philanthropy, and medicine. He currently serves on a number of corporate and non-profit boards. He is an alumnus of Stanford, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School, and lives with his wife in Sonoma, California.
John Cullison: John has had an interest in Africa since serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia and subsequently living in Malawi. John is retired from a banking career that included over a decade abroad. John and his wife enjoy travel and are often found on the tennis courts. John looks forward to learning from  and working with the US and Malawian staff and Board members.
‍Bob Daily: Bob Daily is a television writer and producer living in Los Angeles. He's won a Peabody Award and two Writer's Guild Awards for his work on series that include Frasier, Desperate Housewives, The Wonder Years, and King of the Hill. He's proud to be an eight-year member of the GAIA Board of Trustees.
Phil Darrow: Phil Darrow has been a supporter of GAIA since he and wife Robin joined a weeklong visit to Malawi in 2018 to see GAIA in action. Phil has also made numerous visits to Sudan and South Sudan as a member and Past President of the Board of the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans (AFRECS). He is a graduate of Williams College and Stanford Law School and retired in 2023 from a career as a real estate and environmental lawyer in the home building industry. He is also an avid long-distance cyclist, having completed three transcontinental bike trips. Phil and Robin have three adult children and three grandchildren.
Lisa Deal RN, MPH, ScD: Lisa Deal is the Executive Director of the Humane Prison Hospice Project. With over 20 years experience in nursing and public health, she specializes in systems of care for vulnerable populations and nonprofit leadership. Lisa GAIA as a long-term supporter and advocate and has been on GAIAs Board of Directors since 2020 and had the opportunity to travel to Malawi to witness GAIA programs firsthand in 2023. In her personal life, Lisa is passionate about travel and spending time with her husband and adult children.
Erin Fish: Erin Fish has supported GAIA for over 15 years serving on the Development Committee, and now as a U.S. Board of Trustee since 2020. Erin has more than 30 years of marketing, public relations and sales experience having worked in the professional services industry and political consulting. Erin is passionate about GAIA’s work in Malawi having visited in 2023 and seeing GAIA’s wonderful work up close. She has three children and she and her husband enjoy traveling, hiking and golf.
Brian Frantz: Brian Frantz is a retired USAID Senior Foreign Officer. His assignments included East Timor, Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya (covering Somalia), and Washington, DC. Brian holds a Master of Science in National Security Strategy from the National War College, a Master of Arts in International Development from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University, where he also captained the varsity soccer team. He is married to Vicky Frantz, and they have two children, Shad and Nyah. Brian greatly enjoys fly fishing and swimming and is a proud finisher of an Ironman triathlon (for which he did all of his training in Malawi!).
Joel Goldman
Kaboni W. Gondwe PhD, RN: Kaboni Gondwe is a nurse-midwife whose work focuses on health equity, maternal and child health, and global health. Originally from Malawi she has experience working with the Malawi health care system and she contributes to the programs committee for the GAIA board. She also collaborates with the GAIA team on grant application and reviews of GAIA programs. 
Michael Gottlieb: Dr. Michael Gottlieb is a world-renowned immunologist and has served as a medical advisor to GAIA since 2006. Gottlieb was the first physician to identify HIV/AIDS in 1981 as co-author of the CDC report that announced the disease to the world. He was physician to Rock Hudson, and following the actor’s death, partnered with Elizabeth Taylor to launch the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar). Throughout his career, Dr. Gottlieb has published extensively and played a pivotal role in advancing antiretroviral research and treatment. He was the key connection for Elizabeth Taylor’s support in launching GAIA’s mobile health clinic program in Malawi, which has now supported over 3 million client visits. Prior to retiring in 2024, he practiced as an HIV and primary care physician at APLA Health in Los Angeles.
Galym Imanbayev
Dr. Nina Kola: Dr. Nina Kola is a Vice President Medical Safety Assessment Therapeutic Area Head, with expertise in patient safety and over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She specializes in pharmacovigilance, interpretation of safety data, benefit-risk determination, risk mitigation, regulatory compliance and advancing patient safety initiatives. Dr. Kola has supported GAIA for nearly 10 years, serving as the liaison with Trinity Church Princeton, New York Event Planning team and on the Program & Grants Committee.
Zander MacQuitty: Zander MacQuitty has served on the GAIA board for over 3 years, serving on the Governance committee and hosting the Menlo Park event each year. Professionally, Zander recently departed Google to work in Product at an AI technology startup.
Timi Most: Timi Most has been a supporter of GAIA since meeting the inspirational Bill Rankin, co-founder, 25 years ago. She has been CFO with Mind Garden since its founding. She has extensive experience working with and organizing non-profit organizations. She is an alumnus of the University of Miami.
Ashley Paff, Vice Chair: Ashley Paff has been a GAIA supporter for over 20 years and has served as chair of the finance committee during her time on the U.S. Board of Trustees from 2018 -- present.  She previously had a career in finance, including a job at the World Bank, where she first became interested in working in the developing world.
Andy Pflaum: Andy Pflaum became connected with GAIA nearly 20 years ago after having worked in the mid-1990s for a non-governmental organization in Malawi. His career has been with startup software companies and at VMware, Slack and Salesforce, and he also enjoys coaching track and cross country at Menlo-Atherton High School. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula with his wife Courtney and they have three college- and high-school-age daughters.
Melville R. V. “Mel” Sahyun: Mel Sahyun was born in Santa Barbara, California. He has held professional positions in the US Public Health Service, 3M Corporate Research, and University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Concurrently he was Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology (1996-2011), published by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T). From 1990-1996 Mel served on the Board of Directors and as Vice-President of IS&T, as well as on the Academic Advisory Board of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Along with involvement since 2004 with GAIA Global Health, which resulted from the Sahyuns’ introduction to Bill Rankin, Mel has been involved with the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research program of BrightFocus Foundation. Mel served as National Trustee of FFB from 2009-2019.
Ellen Schell, PhD, RN: Ellen Schell served as International Programs Director and then Senior Advisor at GAIA for over 2 decades, retiring in 2022. She is delighted to continue her service to GAIA as a board member and brings expertise in global health, program development and administration, and long experience in Malawi. She is an Adjunct Professor at UCSF School of Nursing and serves as Co-Chair of the Global Committee of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. 
Azmat Siddiqi: Azmat Siddiqi is Managing Partner of Austin Way Group, a consultancy focused on performance solutions in robotics, fuel cells, and renewable energy. He previously served as Global Head of Reliability at Applied Materials and SVP of Quality & Reliability at First Solar. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Northrop Grumman and spent over 18 years in the semiconductor industry. Azmat holds degrees in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and completed postgraduate work at Stanford. He and his wife, Saira, live in Saratoga, California.
Ivan Weinberg: Ivan Weinberg is GAIA’s General Counsel, former Board Chair, and a trustee for more than 10 years. He is a litigator specializing in medical-legal matters of various descriptions and servesfrequently as an arbitrator and mediator as well. Living in Mill Valley, California, he is husband of one and father of five.
women carrying water pales