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Richard B. Carter, Ph.D. has held senior management positions and established a successful record of drug discovery and development in both small biopharmaceutical (AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals, CoCensys) and large pharmaceutical (Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Purdue Pharma, Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals) companies. Dr. Carter's career spans over 20 years of drug discovery and development across all aspects of nervous system research, including the advancement of therapeutic agents for psychiatric and neurologic disorders and pain management. He was a founder of the emerging pain management company AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals (now Anesiva — www.anesiva.com) and the pharmaceutical technology assessment company NeuroBioMedica (www.neurobiomedica.com). At the neuroscience therapeutics company CoCensys, he initiated and led the sodium channel inhibitor program that formed the basis for its acquisition by the leading pain company Purdue Pharma. Dr. Carter has successfully advanced over 15 drugs into clinical development. Currently, he holds the position of Executive Director, Neuroscience at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation where he leads teams developing medications to treat Alzheimer's disease.
Catherine Read holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA and is a Research Scholar at Rutgers University. She is the editor, with P. Zudow-Goldring of Evolving Explanations of Development (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Press, 1997). She has homeschooled her two daughters from kindergarten through the ninth grade using the Waldorf curriculum. She has also conducted workshops on a variety of topics, including music in the mood of the fifth, festivals, dyeing with plant dyes, nature meditations, and homeschooling grades one through five. Catherine is on the faculty of the Dorion School of Music Therapy and the Resonare Foundation Studies in Music out of Anthroposophy. She is on the Board of the Lyre Association of North America and is currently engaged in Waldorf High School teacher training through the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH.