Board of Directors

Rick Sontag is President of The Sontag Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing brain cancer research and home to one of the nation’s most prestigious and competitive brain tumor research grants. Rick also manages a venture capital firm. In 1994, Rick’s wife, Susan, was diagnosed with brain cancer, and Rick personally navigated her through diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. When Rick sold his company, Unison Industries, to General Electric in 2002, he set along the path that inspired the formation of Brain Tumor Network. Rick sees BTN as fulfilling his dream of providing brain tumor patients with objective, viable advice when they are faced with the uncertainty that comes with a brain tumor diagnosis.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, David J. Foster graduated from Brown University with a degree in Biology. He is currently the Sr. Director of Consumer Strategy and Insights at Healthwise. Non-profit and independent, Healthwise serves as a trusted resource for consumer health information, technology, and services that help people make better health decisions.

David has applied his entrepreneurial founder experience to developing new ways of integrating patient education and digital experiences into clinical and other health IT systems. He currently advocates for patients getting access to their health data and providing them with information to help them take action to improve their lives and achieve meaningful quality and experience outcomes. David’s work on implementing patient engagement solutions provided a template for the patient engagement requirements built into U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Meaningful Use rules (now known as the Promoting Interoperability Program).

Hilary Keely oversees development and execution of all strategic objectives and programming for The Sontag Foundation, a brain cancer research nonprofit based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Prior to joining The Sontag Foundation, Hilary was Chief Legal Officer for the Nemours Foundation in Jacksonville, Florida. Hilary dedicated over 12 years of her prestigious career in various capacities with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including Acting Chief of Staff of the Indian Health Service, a $6 billion integrated healthcare system, and as a Senior Attorney in the Public Health Division of the Office of the General Counsel.

Dr. Kent New earned his MD/PhD at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, D.C., focusing his research on viral gene and cancer therapies in the brain. He subsequently completed a neurosurgery residency at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, during which time he focused research efforts on immunology of brain tumors. Dr. New was an Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida for three years and was on staff at St. Vincent’s Brain and Spine Institute in Florida, where he oversaw research efforts prior to his retirement. In his role on the BTN board, Dr. New assists in the evaluation of patient cases and clinical trials.

Dan Ryan has over 20 years’ experience in business leadership, serving as Managing Director for the Spring Bay Companies, a venture capital firm based out of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida for the past 15 years. Dan is an avid volunteer, also holding board positions at Divine Mercy House and the Sontag Foundation in Jacksonville. This has fostered Dan’s passion for helping others and given him a deep awareness of the special challenges faced by brain tumor patients. Dan’s sophisticated business perspective is vital to operations at Brain Tumor Network.

Bringing with her more than four decades of social work experience, Kay Verble was Brain Tumor Network’s first Executive Director. After meeting Rick and Susan Sontag in 2002, she joined the Sontag Foundation as its first executive director, serving in that position for over 18 years.  Kay was instrumental in the early days at BTN, helping patients and their families overcome the same obstacles that Kay and Rick faced during Susan’s battle with brain cancer. She spent the remainder of her career guiding, mentoring, and educating patients and families as they navigated their brain tumor diagnoses. Kay retired in 2019, but as a Board Member, her unique historical perspective and invaluable guidance are assets to BTN’s daily operations.

Jill Wyant is the president and CEO of Madison Air, a $10B enterprise dedicated to creating a safer, healthier, and more productive world by helping customers realize the transformational power better air has on business.

Ms. Wyant joined Madison Air in 2021 following twelve years at Ecolab, the world leader in water, energy and hygiene technology and services. As Executive Vice President and President of Global Regions and Global Healthcare from 2018 to 2021, she had ownership of a $5 Billion P&L with 25,000 employees and was responsible for the vision, strategy, and general management skills to shape the next phase of growth for the company internationally. She laid out a sweeping strategy to revitalize Ecolab’s International organization into a major growth engine for the company and in two years, doubled topline growth. Prior to Ecolab, she held multiple leadership positions at General Electric.

Jill’s career reflects a track record of driving innovative strategies to capture new growth and profit, spearheading innovation, driving manufacturing excellence and operational efficiency, and leading breakthrough M&A. She also brings a broad perspective on international business and global expansion as well as experience driving enterprise-wide digital transformations. At Madison Air, Jill built an indoor air quality powerhouse through a series of acquisitions which drove a sixfold increase in revenues to $3 billion. Jill has a passion for building mission-driven teams and strengthening culture through collaboration and a focus on front-line team members.

Jill serves on the board of Dow (NYSE: DOW) and is on the board of directors of the US Chamber of Commerce and the Brain Tumor Network.

Jill earned an MBA degree with the highest honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and serves on the advisory council of the school’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of St. Thomas.