Leadership & Staff

Dorothy Beckwith

Co-Founder, The Beckwith Institute

G. Nicholas Beckwith III

Co-Founder, The Beckwith Institute
Chairman Emeritus, UPMC Board of Directors

Timothy Billiar, MD

Bruce Bowden

Deborah Brodine

Louise Brown

Jeanne Cunicelli

Eric Dueweke, MD

Jackie Dunbar-Jacob

Robert Edwards, MD

Toren Finkel, MD/PhD

Bartley P. Griffith, Jr. 

Dawndra Jones

Edward Karlovich

Louis Leff, MD, FACP

Amanda Lenhard, MD

Anne Marie Lennon, MD

Holly Lorenz

Jennifer March

Oscar Marroquin, MD

Ed McCallister

Maribeth McLaughlin

Suresh Mulukutla, MD

Sandra L. Rader

Mark Roberts, MD

Fred Rubin, MD

James M. Schuster, MD

Graham Snyder, MD

J.C. Stilley

John P. Surma

Elizabeth Surma

Becky Taylor

Jessica Trybus

V. Thomas Worrall, MD

Donald M. Yealy, MD

Dylan Sun

Senior Board member, Shady Side Academy

Dylan is a senior at Shady Side Academy who is passionate about the health sciences and serving his community. He is keen to exploring the mechanisms found in science and technology. After completing research on the synergistic effects of emodin and doxorubicin, he presented his work at both PRSEF and PJAS. He will attend the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy, learning about computational healthcare.

At Shady Side Academy, Dylan serves as an Admissions Ambassador and photographer. Dylan also contributes his time to the Chinese community of Pittsburgh, volunteering at the Pittsburgh Chinese Cultural Center and the Chinese Association for Science and Technology – Pittsburgh. In his spare time, Dylan enjoys photography, technology, golfing, tennis, and travelling.

Sissi Zhu

New Junior Board Member, Shady Side Academy

Sissi is a Junior at Shady Side Academy who has a keen interest in healthcare stemming from her grandparents, who worked as nurse and doctor. With a strong belief that the best way to improve healthcare for patients is to directly interact with them, she is passionate about learning about innovative ideas in healthcare aimed at improving patient experience. She hopes that by learning more about the healthcare system, she could one day improve the system and contribute to her community.

After interning at WellGenetics to learn more about genome editing (using CRISPR on fruit flies) in the summer of 2023, Sissi spent her time collaborating with her teammates to do gene comparisons to find genes with significant levels of mutation in different cancer subtypes. She and her teammates aim to publish a paper on their findings in the summer of 2024 and continue delving into other areas concerning health and biology. Aside from academics, Sissi also does community service, whether it’s packaging books for the Prison Book Project or volunteering at PCS to mentor the children’s choir class.

At Shady Side Academy, Sissi serves on the Newspaper Editorial Board and the history department as the History Department Associate. She plans to continue promoting civic engagement at school by inviting speakers involved in government, along with delving into the chemistry of cosmetics and their effects. She enjoys being involved in the Pre-Med Club, the Quantum club, and the ASL club, which allowed her to see and learn about different perspectives. Sissi also participates in the Science Olympiad and loves reading Shakespeare, swimming on the swim team, participating in the Symphonic Band, and writing poetry in her free time.

Tami Minnier

Executive Director, The Beckwith Institute
Chief Quality Officer, UPMC