The NeedyMeds Board of Directors
Donald Maier, M.D. - Chair
Don is the former Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He graduated from Haverford College and Hahnemann Medical College, and subsequently trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Duke University Medical Center. He was at the University of Connecticut from 1984 to 2008 and is now an emeritus professor. He moved to Rockport, MA in 2008 and has been a volunteer at NeedyMeds since 2009.
Maureen Dea, Esquire - Vice-Chair
Maureen is the supervising attorney at the Medicare Part D Appeals Unit of Legal Services (LSE) for the Elderly of Maine. She has held this position since 2006, when Medicare Part D began and the State of Maine asked LSE to set up a Unit to help low-income Mainers who had trouble getting their medications through Medicare Part D. The Unit, comprised of four Appeals Specialists as well as Maureen, provides statewide help to people on limited incomes who cannot afford or obtain their prescription drugs through Medicare.
Maureen graduated from the University of Maine Law School in 1986. She subsequently represented injured employees in their workers compensation cases and became a partner at the McTeague Higbee law firm in Topsham, Maine. Prior to law school, she was a reporter for the Associated Press, based in Augusta
Michael Holmes - Secretary
Michael currently serves as president of Rx Outreach, non-profit organization that makes medicine affordable to people in need throughout America. Prior to this he was an executive vice president at Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit management companies in North America. Prior to Express Scripts, Michael was a principal and the chief human resources officer for Edward Jones in St. Louis, and served as a member of the firm's management and executive committees.
Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of Missouri Baptist Hospital, St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the United Way of Greater St. Louis. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Washington University in 1979 with a triple major, and earned a master's degree in business from Webster University in 1993.
Frederick Cowan - Treasurer
Frederick has a long history of service in board management, grass roots organizations and local government. On his lengthy list of organizations that he has helped guide are his current commitments to the Gloucester, MA Board of Health and the Boston AIDS Action Committee. He has been a strong advocate and supporter of many activist and volunteer groups. He is a Gloucester resident.
Gisele M. Michel
Gisele M. Michel is the Managing Partner of Icatalyst Consulting (Icatalyst), a full service management consulting firm advising clients, businesses, and governments, on issues of leadership development, interim transition management, executive transition, change management, capacity building, process facilitation and organizational development. Icatalyst and its associates have successfully helped to advance client projects both domestically and internationally including Washington D.C., South Florida, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Northern Ireland, Liberia, France, and Haiti.
Gisele has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from George Washington University and a master's degree with a concentration on East European Studies and Political Economy from the University of Pittsburgh. She is multilingual, multicultural with broad-based experience and training in organizational development, strategic planning, resource development and management, contract and budget management, negotiation, mediation, public relations, and public policy and administration.
Left to right: Michael Holmes, Maureen Dea, Fred Cowan, and Donald Maier, M.D.
Gisele M. Michel