Our Leadership
Becky Malkerson, Executive Director and Board Member
Becky Malkerson has an extensive background in the non-profit, biotechnology, health care and finance sectors. Most recently, she was EVP/Chief Advancement Officer at the Minnesota Medical Foundation, and, prior to that, she held senior level leadership positions at Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Amgen Inc., United Health Group, and U.S. Bancorp. Malkerson received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.
Sarah Hargadon, Founder, Secretary, Board Member
Sarah Hargadon is Deputy General Counsel at HNI Corporation. She has worked for fifteen years as an attorney, in both commercial in-house roles and as a litigator at law firms. She graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and University of Chicago Law School. Sarah’s son, Wren, has a TBL1XR1 gene variant.
Patti Arnold, Board Member
Patti Arnold is a retired healthcare executive who has served as a finance leader in healthcare and academics for thirty years. Her leadership roles include Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at the University of Minnesota Physicians, Chief Financial Officer at Hamline University, and Vice President of Medica and Allina Health System. Patti has served on numerous not-for-profit and foundation boards.
Penny Hunt, Board Member
Penny has served on numerous boards and also held positions at Medtronic. Penny received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude degree from Carleton College.
Natalie Marquez, Board Member
Natalie Marquez brings deep expertise in consumer marketing and creative operations. She has worked at independent creative agencies, servicing clients such as Coca-Cola and General Mills, and more recently is focused on driving operational excellence at Target Creative. She is honored to serve on Fly Little Bird Foundation’s board.
Nicole Murphy, Board Member
Nicole is Senior Counsel, Office of the General Counsel at the University of Missouri. Prior to her current position, she was a Global Director at a multinational beverage company, and, prior to that, Senior Commercial Attorney at Cargill. She has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, where she also received her J.D. Following law school, she was a federal appellate law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Nicole is honored to serve on the board and is excited to see what a difference the Foundation can make in the lives of children impacted by TBL1XR1 gene variations.
Giovanna Diletta lelacqua, PhD, Board Member
Giovanna Ielacqua received her degree in Veterinary Medicine and subsequently her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She then carried out postdoctoral research at Stanford University, where her work focused on advanced neuroimaging methodologies and translational preclinical research. She later led a preclinical MRI facility in Berlin, Germany. She has over 15 years of experience in preclinical imaging, with particular expertise in preclinical MRI, other neuroimaging modalities and experimental standardization. She is currently the In Vivo Training Programme Lead in a pharmaceutical company, focusing on training, governance, and quality frameworks in animal research, with emphasis on reproducibility, harmonized workflows, and best practices across preclinical research environments. Giovanna's daughter, Olivia, has a TBL1XR1 gene variant.
Brad Edelman, PhD, Board Member & Scientific Advisor
Brad Edelman received a dual B.S. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. He also conducted postdoctoral research at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany. His research experience spans both preclinical and clinical work, and focuses on the development and application of various biomedical imaging technologies. Brad has co-authored 25+ peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents, and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards from the NIH/NINDS, IEEE, EMBO, and more. He is currently the CTO of a medtech startup where he leads the R&D of a suite of imaging-based health screening devices. Brad's daughter, Olivia, has a TBL1XR1 gene variant.
Dr. Leandro Venturutti, PhD, Scientific Advisor
Dr. Leandro Venturutti is a Scientist at the BC Cancer Research Institute (BC, Canada), and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (University of British Columbia, BC, Canada). He began his research career as an undergraduate, at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he studied the structure and function of a protein lost in the hereditary neurodegenerative disease Friedreich Ataxia. After graduating, he moved to the cancer research field, and obtained his PhD in Biological Chemistry for his work on the mechanisms driving metastatic dissemination and therapy resistance in breast and gastric tumors. He completed his training working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Hematology and Oncology (Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA), where he investigated how mutations (including those targeting TBL1XR1) drive the malignant transformation process in B-cell lymphomas. Dr. Venturutti's work has been published in prestigious journals, including Cell, Cancer Cell, Blood and Cancer Discovery.