Who We Are

Melissa M. Beck, Esq.

Melissa is the inaugural Executive Director of the Sozosei Foundation. She brings 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, managing and growing large-scale, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. Prior to joining the Sozosei Foundation, she served as Executive Director of The Educational Foundation of America (EFA), a family foundation that supports a range of organizations through grantmaking and impact investing activities. Before joining EFA, Melissa was CEO of Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT), a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing access to justice for children and families throughout New York State. Prior to her role at LIFT, she championed criminal justice reform on a national and local scale with a focus on decriminalizing mental illness.

Read More Before joining the nonprofit sector, Melissa was a litigator, working as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA's Office and as a criminal defense attorney. She was also an adjunct professor of Nonprofit Management at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and an adjunct professor in the Political Science Department at Fordham University.

Melissa has authored numerous articles on nonprofit management and social justice issues, and has participated in many panel discussions and debates. She also holds volunteer leadership positions for several nonprofit organizations including the Correctional Association of New York and The Support Center on Nonprofit Management.

A graduate of Hampshire College, Melissa earned her JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and holds a certificate in nonprofit management from the Columbia Business School.

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Mary Chi Michael

As Vice President of Patient Advocacy and Stakeholder Management at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI), Mary has the unique opportunity to work with trailblazing leaders both inside and outside the clinic walls to create innovative patient-centered solutions. She is responsible for understanding how the world is changing across multiple disease categories, and pulling together the thoughts, ideas, and research from a global array of key opinion leaders, patient advocates, technologists, caregivers, and more to incubate novel business solutions. Mary brings innovation to Otsuka by engaging with stakeholders from the world’s most prestigious medical centers to local advocacy chapters.

Mary has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry developing and incubating novel business solutions across a diverse portfolio of healthcare arenas—biopharmaceuticals, orphan disease, digital health, and technology alliance partnerships. She has worked in both large multi-national and start-up environments across nearly 20 different therapeutic categories.

Read More Before coming to Otsuka, Mary spent nine years with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Opinion Leader and Advocacy Relations, where she developed and executed our Global Opinion Leader business strategies across the Specialty products portfolio. Prior to Wyeth, Mary was at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 13 years, in a variety of positions. At Otsuka, she has spearheaded the launch of the Global Council on Alzheimer’s Disease (GCAD), a collection of preeminent experts who influence the Alzheimer’s space, including science, medicine, technology, policy, advocacy, and caregiving. Through GCAD, Mary has jumpstarted technological innovation, framed a patient navigation model for Alzheimer’s, and helped improve communications between families and healthcare providers.

Mary is a graduate of Virginia Tech as well as Singularity University.

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