JHF Welcomes Two New Members and One Returning to Board

From left to right: Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, Nancy Washington, Med, MS, PhD, and Evan Indianer

 The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) recently welcomed two new Board members Nancy Washington, Med, MD, PhD and Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD. It also welcomed its returning member Evan Indianer. Each will serve a three-year term.

Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, is the Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Shekhar leads all six health sciences schools (Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health) and is responsible for over 6,000 faculty and staff members, as well as approximately 5,000 students. Dr. Shekhar's areas of expertise include basic and clinical research on the effects of stress, stress-induced psychiatric disorders, and clinical psychopharmacology. His laboratory has developed several translational models for psychiatric disorders as well as identified novel targets for neuropsychiatric disorder treatments in commercial development. Grants from the NIH, private foundations and commercial collaborations have supported his research. He has co-authored more than 200 original scientific papers published in leading basic science and clinical journals. He is a founder of multiple biotech companies developing novel therapies. Dr. Shekhar is an elected member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation. Dr. Shekhar earned his medical degree at St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, and PhD in neuroscience at Indiana University.

Nancy Washington, MEd, MS, PhD, is an educator, academic administrator, and community activist. Her career with the University of Pittsburgh began in 1972 as an assistant professor of psychology and concluded with her retirement in 1999. After graduating with her PhD in Psychology, she became a senate officer for the university, representing the Greensburg campus. Dr. Washington went on to serve as an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and family medicine and assistant dean of minority affairs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1993, Dr. Washington became assistant to the chancellor, where she focused on minority affairs at affiliated schools and helped the Black Action Society start a black cultural center on campus. Dr. Washington retired from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. During her career, Dr. Washington also served on various boards, including Pennsylvania's Council on the Arts, The Carnegie Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and the Pittsburgh Foundation. Additionally, Dr. Washington has received many awards for her work, which include the YWCA's Voluntary Community Service Leadership Award in 2001, the Humanitarian Award from Three Rivers Youth in 2008, the Outstanding Community Leaders Award by the Community College of Allegheny County in 2010, and the History Makers Award in the field of community service, given by the Senator John Heinz History Center for contributions to the history of Western Pennsylvania. She received her B.S. degree in education from Boston, and her M.Ed. and M.S. degrees from Temple University.

Evan Indianer was an active member of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation board from 2015-2020. Indianer has 40 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and executive responsible for sales, development, and management of technology solutions in a variety of industries. Indianer has acted as technology advisor and architect to Compliance Assurance, YouCompli, Wellbridge Health, and Emodt. He holds multiple patents for his innovations in the marketplace. Indianer is founder and CEO of Unicentric, Inc. Unicentric's flagship products are legalxpert and servicexpert that are built on Unicentric's case management platform a cloud based highly customizable enterprise solution utilized in the social assistance, healthcare, and legal marketplaces. Indianer has been recognized as one of the "Top 40 under 40" who makes a difference in Pittsburgh, one of Pittsburgh's Fifty Finest in recognition of his activity in the community, professional success, and commitment to others through charitable causes, and received the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh 2009 William and Olga Stark Leadership Award. Indianer is a former National Young Leadership cabinet member and a National Solicitation trainer.