Brad Dell has cystic fibrosis and a double-lung transplant. Technically deaf, he hears with the help of cochlear implants. Before Bionews, he worked as a copy editor and journalist for several culture and lifestyle magazines in Hawaii. He was also the executive editor for Honolulu’s Abstract Magazine. He serves as the Bionews director of community content, boosting patients’ and caregivers’ voices to cultivate change in the chronic conditions community. To do so, he recruits, trains, edits, and supports dozens of columnists.

Brittany Foster is the people and culture manager at Bionews and a columnist for Pulmonary Hypertension News. She has a bachelor’s degree from Providence College in special education, elementary, and middle school education. Prior to Bionews, she worked as an eighth-grade special educator. She took her passion for advocating for students in a classroom and now advocates for those with rare diseases.

It is her mission as people and culture manager to ensure all hires have this same passion and desire to achieve a better quality of life for our patient communities. Brittany leads the management of Bionews’ HR information system, onboarding and offboarding, company training, recruiting and hiring, benefits enrollment and works with the accounting team to coordinate payroll changes for Bionews.

Brittany lives in Cranston, Rhode Island, where she loves to explore hiking trails with her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Bernie.

Shana Gray has served as copy chief with Bionews since March 2022. She previously worked for a number of newspapers in the Southeast, serving most recently as editor of six local news publications in Virginia. Shana started working at newspapers in high school and worked her way through college while serving at The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, in her hometown. She now resides in Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she enjoys reading in sight of the Chesapeake Bay and playing with her two pups, Roxie and Gus.

Michael received his Bachelor of Science in business administration, with a major in management information systems in 1990, from the University of Texas at Dallas. In 2000, he received his MBA, with a major in management, from Amber University. In his working career, Michael worked for various companies, including ExxonMobil Corporation, where he was responsible for safety and ergonomics for the Dallas region. Along with working for ExxonMobil, Michael was an adjunct faculty member and college instructor for the Dallas County Community College District for 18 years. Due to his spinal muscular atrophy, he was forced to go on permanent disability in 2010.

Michael began working for Bionews Services as a YouTube developer and podcast specialist in June 2018. Currently, Michael is the Sr. Marketing Analytics Manager, and he’s collaborating with executive leadership and management to obtain, organize, and summarize relevant daily and monthly statistical data, so that he can report this information directly to the CEO and VP on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Michael ensures the tracking and reporting of key statistical data to ensure that upper management has the information they need in their decision-making process.

Jenn Powell is the Bionews brand marketing manager. She lives in Southern California where she enjoys volunteering for animal rescue and spending time with her husband and golden retrievers. From her time at Bionews, Jenn has created content for and collaborated with multiple divisions of Bionews, including Bionews Insights and Bionews Clinical. Jenn is driven to elevate the needs of those in the rare disease communities. She has done so through her column, reading of news briefings, and hosting the recently launched MS News Podcast. Her patient perspective complements her passion and industry acumen for cultivating and engaging communities both within and outside of Bionews.

Jessica Barrale Cao joined the Bionews team as the Director of Social Media in 2023 and works from our headquarters in Downtown Pensacola, FL. A self-proclaimed idealist, Jessica believes in using her knowledge and skills to make a positive impact. She is proud to work with the diverse, mission-driven team at Bionews and to contribute to that mission by using social media to connect and empower members of the rare disease communities we serve.

Jessica holds a BA in marketing and an MA in strategic communication and leadership, both from the University of West Florida. She has worked in various marketing and communications roles with a variety of organizations including Special Olympics Florida, Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, and even an MGM Casino property in her hometown on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She has also used her digital marketing and social media skills as an independent contractor in the health and wellness niche. Jessica is passionate about personal growth, health and wellness, and social and environmental causes.

In her free time, she enjoys listening to audiobooks and podcasts, practicing yoga, traveling, exploring nature, and spending time with friends and family, especially her two sons, Enzo and Roman.

Kevin graduated from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2016, and he is passionate about different forms of storytelling. He started at Bionews in 2017 as a columnist for SMA News Today, sharing his experiences as an adult with spinal muscular atrophy type 2. He eventually transitioned to a full-time role, helping build the company’s multimedia and forums divisions. As associate director of community content, he is responsible for supporting the director of community content in bridging the gap between our patient populations and our websites. He does this through building and maintaining patient and caregiver forums across Bionews’ disease sites. He oversees every step of the process, from hiring, training, and guiding forum moderators. His goal is to create engaging and supportive online communities for patients and caregivers to connect.

Patricia holds a PhD in medical microbiology and infectious diseases from the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, Netherlands. She has studied applied biology at Universidade do Minho and was a postdoctoral research fellow at institute de Medical Moleculer in Lisbon, Portugal. Her role at Bionews has led her to build a team of PhD researchers who serve as science writers and editors, whose role is to ensure that the science and research that Bionews reports on daily is 100% accurate, while also written in a way that allows patients and caregivers to easily grasp the important details.

As the executive vice president of business development at Bionews, Josh Kramon leads all sales and business development initiatives. He comes to Bionews with more than 25 years of experience focused on the tech, data, and media side of life sciences. He’s managed business development teams at Doctor.com, Crossix, Vitals, and Healthline, and as an executive team member, led several of them to successful corporate acquisition.

Louisiana native Matthew Lafleur’s life isn’t what he expected following his 1994 diagnosis of Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare and debilitating disorder. Instead of giving up, he obtained degrees in English and mental health counseling. Unable to find a job after grad school, he applied to write a column at Friedreich’s Ataxia News. Years later, he now serves as the Associate Director of Patient Engagement for that site’s parent company, Bionews. Through his column and his role in patient engagement, Matt hopes to elevate the often overlooked voices of the rare disease population. We are not victims. We matter.

Alex Coletta is the SVP of Product and Audience Development at Bionews. With more than 20 years of digital health experience, he’s created captivating digital products for both healthcare practitioners and patients, covering various disease areas including cardiovascular, diabetes and endocrinology, pain management, mental health, spine and musculoskeletal, HIV/AIDS, oncology, dermatology, and beyond. Alex also has played a pivotal role in deploying engaging products, including CME and course-based learning programs, condition-focused platforms, peer-to-peer HCP videos, branded and unbranded microsites, community-based tools, physician directories, point of care programs, virtual and in-person webinars and conferences, and more.

He has expertise in driving and nurturing repeat audiences among patients and HCPs, often catering to niche segments by utilizing both paid and organic traffic channels. He’s employed data-driven approaches and automation to help orchestrate large-scale email marketing efforts and has implemented SEO and E-E-A-T strategies at scale in the health space. Alex embraces emerging technologies, particularly those in AI content, image, and video generation, and often integrates new trends and tools into the healthcare landscape. He lives in northern New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Inês holds a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she specialized in blood vessel biology, blood stem cells, and cancer. Before that, she studied cell and molecular biology and worked as a research fellow at multiple institutes. In addition to several college awards, Inês won the Pfizer Basic Research Award in 2012 for a research paper. She also has a graduate degree in data science.

Alyssa Crawford is a VP of Business Development at Bionews and has been working in the media and digital advertising industry for 10 years, focusing on digital pharma and healthcare over the last 5 years. She is excited to be a part of the Bionews team and help the company grow by bridging the gap between pharma and patients/caregivers in the rare disease space. Alyssa graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Public Relations back in 2015 and currently lives right outside the city of Philadelphia with her husband. She enjoys exploring different cities, trying new restaurants (especially Italian ones!), and loves to spend her summers at her family’s beach house in Wildwood Crest, NJ.

Originally from St. Louis, Erica made a bold move to the Big Apple after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri (Mizzou). With an unwavering passion for innovation in the digital advertising space, she has built a successful career in the digital health sector, where she focuses on improving patient outcomes and enhancing healthcare accessibility.
Erica furthered her expertise by earning an MBA, equipping her with valuable skills in strategic management and leadership. Throughout her career, she has been at the forefront of initiatives that leverage technology to transform the healthcare experience.
Erica lives in NYC with her husband, their son (Louis), and their Cavalier King Charles (Cooper).