Board Members

Ruth Fraser qualified as a Health Visitor [Nurse Practitioner] in the UK and practiced nursing, midwifery and public health for many years in both India and the UK. Following this she worked in development with 3 major organizations in the United States - California Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation.Her commitment to the reproductive well being of women has been a thread throughout her professional and personal life.

Deborah Shefler

Deborah is a litigation attorney with Pacific Gas and Electric Company, specializing in rate cases before the California Public Utilities Commission. She has also been in private practice and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division and in the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's Office. She has been a member of the PINCC Board for three(?) years, and currently serves as secretary. Deborah comes from Washington, D.C., where she attended George Washington University, and has lived in the Bay Area for 31 years. She resides with her husband in Oakland.

Ann Pierson

Ms. Pierson is a founding partner and business director in Optim Sciences. She has over 20 years experience working in business development, strategic planning, and licensing for biotechnology and diagnostic companies in both the USA and Europe. She holds a B.S. degree in Microbiology from Michigan State University.

Patricia Sax Ph.D., LCSW

Patricia Sax: Ph.D., LCSW retired from her psychotherapy practice in San Francisco in 2001. She is a co-founder of PINCC and has travelled to Central America, Africa & India to register patients, clean instruments and hand out medications. Currently she is a stay-at-home development volunteer.

Dr. Rhoda Nussbaum

Rhoda Nussbaum, MD spent the first part of her career practicing Obstetrician&Gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco. She held numerous administrative and leadership roles including Women's Health Leader for Northern California. Since retiring from Kaiser, she has continued to practice medicine on a volunteer basis at home and abroad. While volunteering at a hospital in India, she saw how common cervical cancer was and began looking for a way to provide screening and prevention practical for this very poor region. She heard about PINCC and knew she had found the answer. In 2009, Rhoda and her husband John Adams became the medical and administrative directors of PINCC - India and have conducted 2 trainings at a Mobile Hospital caring for thousands of villagers in Andhra Pradesh, India. They will continue to lead PINCC trips to India where more than 70,000 women die each year from this preventable disease.

Dr. Obsidiana Abril-Hörpel

Dr. Obsidiana Abril-Hörpel has over 25 years of international business and R&D management experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical diagnostic companies where she held a variety of executive positions. Dr. Abril-Hörpel holds a B.S./M.S. from Moscow, Russia, and a Ph.D. from MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Kay Taylor

Dr. Kay Taylor is a gynecologist who took early retirement from her practice at Kaiser Fremont in 2005 to address the problem of cervical cancer prevention in the developing world. She returned to school after starting a family, was educated at UCLA and UC Davis Medical School, escorted to her graduation by her 2 teenaged sons. Always interested in women's access to care, she started a women's clinic in Sacramento, Womankind, during medical school, and volunteered at Lyon-Martin Clinic in San Francisco during her OB/GYN residency at Kaiser San Francisco. She will receive the UC Davis Medical School Alumni Transformational Leadership Award this May for her work in founding and developing PINCC (Prevention International: No Cervical Cancer). She is also a grandmother, amateur artist and birder.

Larry Shushan

Larry Shushan, now retired, was in Bay Area journalism for 9 years, then worked in corporate communications for Chevron, Gap and Lucas Films. He worked for the PR firm of Manning, Selvage and Lee in media training and crisis management. At Gap, he was responsible for Gap Foundation, whose focus was at-risk youth. His volunteer work has been with the Red Cross, co-founder and chair of the crisis communications task force for the Bay Area, and on the communications advisory committee for Jewish Vocational Services; he has also gone on two campaigns with PINCC.

Maggie Shushan Acosta

Maggie Shushan Acosta is retired after a 25-year career in the Bay Area in commercial development and property management. She specialized in building and managing biotech facilities for companies from start-up stage to major firms such as Amgen, Genentech, Pfizer and others. Maggie has been a volunteer with Meals on Wheels, Children’s Hospital of Oakland, and has participated in fund-raising for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as going on two campaigns with PINCC as an interpreter in Latin America.

John Adams, PhD

John D. Adams, Ph.D. (retired) is an Emeritus Professor of Organizational Systems, and was for many years the Chair of the Faculty and the Chair of the Organizational Systems Ph.D. Program at the Saybrook Graduate School (San Francisco). He has been a leader in the organizational development movement, published extensively, and provided consultation to such organizations as Sun MicroSystems, Hewlett Packard, and the National Institutes of Health.