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American Brain Tumor Association
8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste 550
Chicago, IL 60631
American Brain Tumor Association
8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste 550
Chicago, IL 60631
Make an Impact!
Your donation will change the lives of brain tumor patients and their families.
Katie Groetsema
GBM Survivor
Srisupen Andersen, CFA—ABTA, Member
Srisupen Andersen, CFA, joined the ABTA Board of Directors in 2023 and serves as a member of the Mission Committee and Finance & Audit Committees.
Srisupen is a Credit Products Manager within the Financial Institutions Group at PNC Financial Services. She manages a portfolio of 125+ commercial lending relationships, providing continuous credit and risk analysis. Srisupen is a seasoned credit risk manager with two decades of experience managing a diverse portfolio covering trading/capital market credits and commercial credits. Srisupen has worked at leading financial institutions including The Northern Trust Company, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Â
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics and International Business from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Srisupen was awarded a CFA Charterholder in 2005.  Â
Srisupen’s daughter, Louise, was diagnosed with astrocytoma in 2009 at the age of nine. She received her treatment at Children’s Memorial Hospital (now known as Lurie’s Children Hospital) for a little over a year. Louise passed away in June 2010 at the age of 10. Â
In addition to serving as an ABTA Board Member, Srisupen volunteers in the oncology department at Lurie’s in 2018 as a Parentwise. She has also been involved with Make-A-Wish Foundation as a wish granter
Patti Tsai-Steiner—ABTA, Member
Patti Tsai-Steiner joined the ABTA Board of Directors in 2022, where she serves on the Development, Mission, and Governance & Nominating Committees. She previously served as a patient advocate reviewer for the ABTA Discovery Grants in 2020 and 2021.
A native of Maryland, she completed her bachelor’s degree in physics at Cornell University, and her PhD in physics at the University of California, San Diego.
Patti, now retired, was a tenured faculty member at two California community colleges: Grossmont College in East San Diego County and the College of Alameda in the San Francisco East Bay area. At both schools, she served on numerous committees and as department chair. Over the course of 25 years, she taught all lower division physics, as well as introductory astronomy, physical science, and math. As a result of friendships formed during a sabbatical visit to UC Berkeley in 2001, she changed her style of teaching mid-way through her career to incorporate principles from physics education research, emphasizing the conceptual underpinning of problem-solving, and incorporating metacognition to encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of their thought processes.
Patti is using her retirement as an opportunity to pursue projects that have value to her. She is excited about developments in brain tumor research. She hopes to contribute to improving the experience of patients and families, with a special interest in palliative care.
She’s learning to refinish furniture and turn wooden bowls and is training her Shetland sheepdog for obedience competition.
Mindee Plugues—ABTA, Secretary
Mindee Plugues serves as Secretary of the ABTA Board of Directors, and is a member of the Governance & Nominating and Finance & Audit Committees. Since joining the ABTA in 2017, she has served as Chair of the Mission and Development Committees.
Mindee is an experienced executive and senior leader in brand and business management, integrated marketing, and people development. She has a proven track record of driving topline, margin, and share growth on multi-million/billion-dollar businesses. Over the course of her 15-year brand management career, she has led transformative marketing and breakthrough innovation on some of the most universally recognized brands such as Kraft Foods, Oscar Mayer, Lunchables, Halls, Trident, and Applebee’s.
A seasoned brand strategist, Mindee is passionate about mining consumer, customer, and category insights to build businesses, brands, and teams globally and domestically. In her spare time, she continues to consult with start-ups and non-profits on building strong brand foundations and developing effective go-to-marketing strategies. Prior to brand management, she spent a decade in software development and product management leading process improvement and digital innovation in business systems and electronic banking.
A Michigan native, Mindee holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a B.A. in psychology from Michigan State University. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband Matthew and their young daughter.
Mindee’s father was diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM) in 2000 and passed away 11 months later. During that time, the ABTA was a valuable resource to help navigate her father’s treatment plan. She later got more involved with the ABTA by raising money in 2013 with Team Breakthrough for the Chicago Marathon, in memory of her father.
Jacqueline Lemke, CPA—ABTA, Board Member
Jackie Lemke has served as an ABTA Board Member since January of 2017 and has served on both the Audit and Governance and Nominating Committees.
Certified in Public Accounting, Jackie’s expertise lies in financial and strategic planning, financial reporting and mergers and acquisitions. Her career includes senior leadership roles as the global Chief Financial Officer for Remy, Inc., Motorola and the DuPont Company as well as the Chief Executive Officer for a microcap publicly traded Clinical Research Organization, Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.
Jackie is a strategic thinker always looking to re-invent and re-energize a business strategy. She won the DuPont Marketing Excellence Award for her repositioning of a $100 million resins business and received the CRO Excellence Award for each of the four years as CEO of BASi.
Jackie has earned a Bachelor of Science degrees in both Accounting and Finance from Drexel University, where she graduated first in her class, and a Master’s in Management degree from Northwestern University.
A mother of four, Jackie joined the ABTA to support its goals of improving the lives of brain tumor patients and their caregivers. Jackie’s husband of 27 years, Brian, had been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 2004, so Jackie and her family are familiar with the struggles that accompanying a brain cancer diagnosis. Her hope is that we can reach a better understanding of the brain, extend lives through this knowledge, provide help for those with a brain tumor and their loved ones and, ultimately, find a cure.
Linda Sikora—Director, Human Resources
Linda Sikora joined the ABTA in 2019 as the Director of Human Resources. Linda leads all aspects of the Human Resources function including developing and implementing HR programs while advancing positive employee relations and best practices in support of organizational growth and strategic initiatives. Linda works at developing and delivering creative, cost-effective human resources solutions in support of the organization’s strategic business plan, culture and core values.
Linda has a broad range of experience in Human Resources, most recently within a medically-based fitness center through Northwestern Memorial Healthcare. She has expertise in benefits, payroll, performance management, training, coaching, employee relations and compliance. She is an advocate of employee well-being for optimal work-life balance of all staff.
Linda maintains professional human resources certifications through the Human Resource Certification Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Maxine Doolittle—ABTA, Sr. Director of Business Operations
Maxine Doolittle joined the ABTA in 2020 as the Sr. Director of Business Operations. Her responsibilities include the implementation and support of business-wide technology resources and establishing and managing efficient and cohesive organizational operations. Maxine works closely with ABTA leadership to provide strategic direction, systems expertise, vendor management and information to support their priorities.
Maxine has a long history of proven success in business process optimization, project and change management, and application implementations. Prior to joining the ABTA, Maxine was the Director of Project Management for the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago where she led the technology effort for the migration to their new hospital and served as the regulatory expert for the organization.