The Board
Ellen M. Robin President
ellen.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Ellen Robin survived SCAD in 2010 and has chaired the West Coast/San Diego SCADaddle since 2017. She has held the role of the 5k Coordinator to help and support the other 5k SCADaddle chairs. Ellen joined the SCAD Research Inc Board in 2022.
Her professional career has been in the health care industry as a contract administrator for over 30 years. She has worked at Kaiser Permanente for over 15 years in the role of Senior Contract Manager, where she negotiates contracts for services that are not provided at a Kaiser facility.
Ellen received her BBA in Health Care Administration and her MBA from National University. She lives in Oceanside, California.
Cindy Adams Vice President
cindy.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Cindy Adams worked for over 20 years in a management capacity at Southern California Edison Company in the Ethics, Compliance and Legal Departments. She has been involved in numerous community and civic groups including over 5 years as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth. She also volunteers in the emergency department at a large medical center.
Cindy has participated in the West Coast SCADaddle since 2017 and has met many survivors, giving her a strong understanding of the need for research.
Cindy has an undergrad degree in Economics and an MBA. She lives in San Diego, California.
Terri Bell Secretary
terri.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Terri Bell is currently the administrative assistant for the board secretary of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency, Terri learned about SCAD when her healthy younger sister, Donna, had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) in 2015 and then experienced two more over the next seven years. Terri understands the need for more research as to why SCAD happens and the important work of SCAD Research, Inc. Terri also owns SOLSIS Jewelry with her sister. They help to bring awareness of SCAD through one of their collections and also donates a percentage of their sales of this collection to SCAD Research, Inc.
Terri has lived in Santa Clarita, California for over 30 years where she volunteers for several local nonprofits.
Nancy Hebert Treasurer
nancy.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Nancy Hebert retired in 2020 after 25 years at Kaiser Permanente, where she served as both Director and Manager of Finance for the San Diego Service Area. She coordinated the team responsible for financial analysis, reporting and budget development. She worked with multidisciplinary teams on major initiatives such as capital projects including the opening of a new hospital; design input for several financial systems and analysis and forecasting of medical utilization.
Nancy worked at Scripps Health, where her positions included Financial Analyst and Project Manager. She worked for the New York City Health and Human Services Administration and for the Telecommunications Division of Merrill Lynch.
Nancy received her Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin College, her Master of Urban Planning degree from Princeton University and her MBA from the New York University Sterm School of Business. Nancy lives in San Diego, California.
Shirlene S. Barnes Director
shirlene.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Shirlene Barnes is from Jamaica but moved to New York with her family. Following her active service in the United States Marine Corps, she made California her home after being stationed there for 3 years.
Shirlene contributes to several charities by running races and fundraising on their behalf. These charities include St. Jude, Make a Wish Foundation and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. She has been a volunteer with San Diego Volunteer lawyer Program (SDVLAP) since 2011 assisting parties unable to afford legal representation. Shirlene has also served terms as the correspondence Secretary for the Jamaican Awareness Association of California (JAAC) assisting the underserved in Jamica and Los Angeles in the areas of education, medical and dental healthcare. Shirlene lives in Oceanside, California.
Claude Kansaku Director
claude.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Claude Kansaku is Professor Emeritus of Computer Engineering Technology at Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls, OR. His engineering and education career spans 34 years over which her earned several local, state and national awards and recognitions. He served his professional and local communities in many capacities including as an Oregon Tech faculty senator for 14 years and as Klamath Falls YMCA board member for nine years.
Claude is a SCAD survivor from 2016. He lives in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Kristy Pals Director
kristy.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Kristy Pals is co-founder and owner of Envision Planning, a fast-growing Colorado-based medical equipment planning company that provides agile project management and procurement services for the United States leading healthcare systems.
With over 25 years of industry experience, Kristy has grown Envision into an industry-standard for equipment, procurement and transition planning for small to large and multi-phased healthcare projects. Kristy proudly supports minority and women-owned business organizations and received awards for her support in hiring active military personnel and veterans. Prior to founding Envision, Kristy managed global services for AT&T as a Cisco-certified Network Associate.
Kristy lost her mom, Nancy Snow, to SCAD. Kristy lives in Westminster, Colorado.
Robert Alico Director, Founder & Past President
robert.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Bob Alico is a retired teacher, the founder and past president of SCAD Research, Inc. In 2011, after his active wife, Judy, died suddenly from a SCAD, her cardiologist told Bob there was little known about SCAD. He told Bob that he would probably never know “why she died from a SCAD”. Judy was 51 years old.
Bob went to work establishing SCAD Research, Inc. to raise funds to help find answers about SCAD and, hopefully, someday prevent the same tragedy from ever happening to another family. Bob lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Janet Salliard Director
janet.excludethis@scadresearch.org
Jan Salliard is a retired instructional designer, where she wrote training for numerous departments at Allstate Insurance. She had never heard of SCAD until her younger, healthy sister, Judy, died suddenly from a SCAD heart attack in 2011.
Jan served as the Secretary on SCAD Research, Inc.’s board for 12 years. In addition, Jan works behind the scenes to support the 5k SCADaddles. She currently posts content on social media and writes content for SRI website. Jan creates the monthly e-newsletters and monitors scadinfo@scadresearch.org. Jan lives in Aurora, Colorado.