Sameer Rastogi, MD

Steve is a retired financial services executive with extensive leadership experience in banking, trading, finance, and consulting with major corporations. His work experience was with Citibank, ING (Dutch banking firm), KPMG and Goldman Sachs. As a consultant he worked with BP, Morgan Stanley, Suntrust (now Truist Financial Corporation), Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group), Citizens Bank, Ally Bank. and others. While at KPMG he led teams working on financial model validation, financial model governance and financial asset valuation.

Steve earned a B.A. in University Studies from Brigham Young University (BYU), an M.S. in Economics from BYU, an M.A. in Modern Near East/North Africa Studies from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Rachel Sitta is Director of Contracts, Compliance, and Pricing for Cardno International Development; an international consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia, which is dedicated to the social, economic, and physical development of communities around the world. 

Rachel holds a B.S. in Finance from The College of New Jersey and a Professional Master’s Certification in Government Contracting from The George Washington University. Since 2002, Rachel has pursued a career with nonprofit organizations and other international development firms, which provide similar program delivery and services to help the world’s most vulnerable populations. Rachel has an extensive background in pricing, negotiating, and managing US Government and USAID contracts, grants, and other assistance awards as well as awards from a variety of other major international donors such as DFID, ADB, World Bank, DANIDA.

Rachel’s personal journey with her desmoid tumor started in 2012 and has involved massive chest wall resection, a near immediate recurrence, and a variety of drugs and chemotherapies. Rachel is committed to raising funds and awareness to support research for desmoid tumors.

Rachel resides in Vienna, Virginia with her husband, Grant, and their daughter, Adalyn.

Barbara Sellinger is the Co-Chair and General Counsel for Arts Horizons. Previously, she was the General Counsel for Kamine Development Corp, the Group Vice President for Enterprise Labor and Employment Law at Wyndham Worldwide, Chief Legal Officer for Labor and Litigation Counsel at American Standard, and Chief Labor and Litigation Counsel for RJR Nabisco. Early in her career, she worked for the National Labor Relations Board Division of Judges and the U.S. Department of Labor. She also previously worked as an associate at the labor and employment law firm of Grotta, Glassman, and Hoffman and in the employment law group of the law firm Cohen Shapiro. She was a partner at the labor and employment law firm of Epstein Becker and Green. 

Barbara received her bachelor’s degree, Magna Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa/Phi Kappa Phi from Syracuse University, her master’s, from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and her law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University, where she was awarded a dean’s fellowship.

Her memberships, affiliations and awards include: Board Member, Horizons Newark 2013-present; 2012 Boy Scouts of America Tribute to Women Award; 2009 Corporate Sector NJ Women Lawyer Association Women’s Initiative and Leaders in Law Platinum Award; American Cancer Society, Board of Advisors Member, Northwest NJ Region 2012-present; American Cancer Society, Chair, Starry Night Gala, 2010-present; American Cancer Society, Executive Committee, Annual Golf Classic-2010-present; NJPAC, Committee Member Vanguard Committee, 2012-present; ArtsHorizons, Trustee 2009-present; New Jersey Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Board Member-2012-2013; American Corporate Counsel Association, Former Board Member (1994-1995); New Jersey Corporate Counsel Association, Former President (1993-1995), and Former Board Member 1993-2013; New Jersey State Bar Association, Former President of Young Lawyers Division, Former Member of the Board of Trustees (1983-1984); NYU School of Law, Center for Labor and Employment – Former Advisory Board Member (2001-2003); Atlantic Legal Foundation, Former Advisory Board Member; United Way, Morris County, Former Executive Board Member (1995); Special Olympics of New Jersey, Former Board Member (1999); Metropolitan Corporate Counselor, Former Advisory Board Member; Family Services, Morris County, Former Co-Chair – Ball Fundraising Committee; Embrace the Kids, Former Board Member and Advisory Board Member; Hamilton Farm Golf Club, Former Treasurer and Tournament Chair and President.

Jerry March is currently Executive Vice President of KenKen LLC, a digital marketing company based in Pleasantville, New York that develops unique products for the toy, gaming, and education industries. After graduating cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in History and from Harvard Business School, Jerry pursued a successful career in general management as an executive and investor.  He co-founded Arden Group Publications, a national publisher of regional consumer wedding magazines, where he served as President, and was a principal and EVP at Venture Opportunities Corporation, a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) where he invested in, and provided strategic planning and senior management, to a variety of businesses owned and operated by underrepresented populations.

For the past 11 years, he served as a Senior Executive at MBI, Inc., the world’s leading direct response marketer of consumer collectibles, where he was in charge of all strategic development, business operations, management, and marketing for a $60 million division. In addition to his executive experience, Jerry has been actively involved in a number of non-profit entities.  For four years, he served as the Chairman of the Byram Hills Education Foundation where he raised more than $1.4 million dollars to fund grants proposed by the district’s educators and administration.  He was also a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Banksville Nursery School and is currently serving on the Board of Trustees for the North Castle Public Library. 

Jerry and his wife Mary live in Bedford, New York, and are proud parents of three children.

Nicole Deichert and her family have been involved with fundraising efforts and raising awareness for the DTRF since 2012. Her brother, Matt, was diagnosed in 2009 with an intra-abdominal desmoid tumor, has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation, and has been in remission since 2013. Nicole discovered the DTRF in the midst of a crisis, and the support Matt and her family received from the foundation was invaluable. Nicole wanted to find a way to give back and support this amazing organization, so with her brother, Nicole co-founded and leads an annual fundraiser, The Desmoid Dash 5K. Through all their fundraising efforts, Nicole, her family, and friends have raised roughly $700,000 for the DTRF. Nicole is passionate about raising awareness about desmoid tumors, as well as raising money to support ongoing research efforts, and is very hopeful that someday a cure will be found.

Nicole graduated from Saint Norbert College with a B.A. in International Business and Spanish. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and  is currently a Human Resources Leader at Ecolab Inc. headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she leads HR initiatives for the Latin America region. Prior to that, Nicole held various HR roles of increasing responsibility at Target Corporation headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Nicole resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband Sean and two children. She loves to travel and learn about other cultures, and also enjoys staying active by golfing, hiking, playing tennis, skiing and biking.

Maria T. Crocitto is CEO of Advantage Communications, LLC, a medical education and communications company she founded in New York City in 1997. Maria has been a leading expert in implementing global education plans for medical societies, research centers, and the pharmaceutical industry. Her hands-on experience ranges from clinical research to journalism to the development of strategic medical education programs. 

After attending the Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program at Columbia University, she earned a M.A. degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Certificate in Science and Environmental Reporting from New York University. Prior to founding Advantage, as a Science Writer at Medical Tribune, her articles were syndicated in Asian Medical News and the Japanese hospital posters medical bulletins. Maria also worked for six years in the United States Bureau of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. She is fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish. 

Outside the office, she has devoted her time to serving on the board of directors of the DTRF and working on projects in Africa and the U.S for AIDS foundations, overnight homeless shelters and soup kitchens, supporting women survivors of war, and fundraising for hospitals’ neonatal intensive care units.

Marlene Portnoy co-founded the DTRF after her husband, Steve, was diagnosed in 2004 with a retroperitoneal desmoid tumor. While he was treated with surgery and radiation, Marlene experienced frustration with the lack of information available and the lack of research on this rare disease. This kickstarted her goal of accelerating research and the search for a cure. 

After graduating magna cum laude from Albany State University in 1981, Marlene pursued a career in sales, first working at Corning Glass Works and then at Playskool Toys, a division of Hasbro Toys, where she served as a sales representative and later as a District Sales Manager. Afterwards, Marlene took time to raise her two young children, during which she also became active in community service, with activities such as running various social action programs, participating in the local soup kitchen, and working on golf outings and walk-a-thons for local community interests.

Marlene resides in Tuxedo, NY, with her husband. She enjoys spending time with her family, which include two beautiful daughters, Brittany and Danielle, two wonderful sons-in-law, Adam and Mike, and three adorable grandsons, Grant, Mason, and Brooks. Marlene also enjoys such active pursuits such as running, hiking, biking, and skiing. She has a passion for traveling and experiencing other cultures.

In 2005, Jeanne Whiting and Marlene Portnoy founded the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation (DTRF) to facilitate and fund desmoid tumor research and support patients with access to information. Jeanne’s personal journey with a retroperitoneal desmoid tumor involved resection, recurrence, two and a half years of two different chemotherapies, and eventual loss of her right kidney. This has made her keenly aware of the needs of the desmoid community and dedicated to accelerating the search for a cure.

Prior to co-founding the DTRF, Jeanne spent most of her career as an attorney. After attending University of Michigan Law School and J. Reuben Clark Law School, she received a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1980. She then clerked for the Michigan Court of Appeals in Detroit, Michigan, and in succeeding years practiced with Sidley & Austin in Cairo, Egypt and in Washington, D.C.; with Shearman & Sterling in New York, New York; with Stern, Dubrow & Marcus in Maplewood, NJ; and, as a sole practitioner.

After retiring from the practice of law to raise her family, Jeanne became involved in various nonprofit organizations, including serving as Northeast Director for Choice Humanitarian and Executive Director of FamilyCares. She views her experience with a desmoid tumor as both a wake-up call and a calling to a new endeavor since it became clear to her as a patient that this was a field that needed jumpstarting into a new level of accelerated research to develop new treatments.

Jeanne resides in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband Steve. They have raised four sons and a daughter, and now enjoy their twelve beautiful grandchildren. They love the outdoors and enjoy skiing and crew rowing together.