Your SOTERIA Team
Julia Civardi
Founder & CEO
Julia Civardi is a 2-time cancer survivor, an established life science professional, and a nationally recognized patient advocate who has dedicated her life's work to helping patients and families. Throughout her career in healthcare and genomics, Julia has worked with the world’s most elite medical faculty, biotechnology experts, and clinical researchers to advance patient care.
amanda Skeen
Co-Founder & COO
Amanda Skeen is an established genomics professional with expertise in oncology therapeutics. After losing her 39-year-old husband to colon cancer less than a year after their wedding, Amanda became personally and professionally committed to helping patients identify treatment options by bridging the gap between scientific advancements and clinical practice.
Gena Middleton, MS, APRN-CNS, AOCNS
Oncology Nurse Navigator
Gena Middleton is an Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist with extensive experience in developing and executing strategic business and educational initiatives for oncology/hematology healthcare clinicians, patients and caregivers. She has demonstrated success leading cross-functional initiatives with sales, marketing, training, and advocacy teams to deliver evidence-based, customized consulting and education to healthcare providers (HCPs). Gena has served in varied roles across a broad range of clinical practice settings including active duty Air Force, community-based practice, pharma/biotech industry and professional nursing member organizations and brings a unique perspective to addressing the complexities of the healthcare systems, marketplace dynamics impacting clinical practice and patient management.
John McNeil
Bioinformatics & Machine Learning
John McNeil’s life work has been creating tools that help people use their creative powers to positively affect the real world. He has been passionate about scientific information systems since his time in the biophysics lab at Harvey Mudd College. John has over 25 years of experience in biophysics, opto-electronics, instrumentation, detection and prediction algorithms, bioinformatics, pathogen detection systems, LIMS, validated data management systems, and IT.
AJ Walters
Associate Scientist Translational Medicine
AJ Walters is a biological engineer who specializes in genetic engineering and synthetic biology. He completed his Bachelor's degree at Utah State University and minored in entrepreneurship, computer science, biology, chemistry, and Spanish. He brings tenacious problem-solving skills and significant experience in science communication to the SOTERIA team, with the goal to provide patients with clear, accurate, and accessible information translated from scientific publications and reports. Se habla español.
Gerald Henderson, Jr.
Clinical Trial Navigator
Gerald Henderson, Jr.'s experience ranges from concept development to clinical trial program management. As an undergraduate at Temple University, he entered the research world for the Office of Human Research Protections' Institutional Review Board. To bridge the gap between theory and application, he studied public health policy and management at Benedictine University, while developing top-rated experience at the University of California's Moores Cancer Center, and Center for Precision Radiation Medicine. Gerald contributes to SOTERIA's clinical trial navigation projects helping to provide patients a customized approach to finding available clinical trial options.
Rula Geha, MD
Medical Advisor
Rula Geha is a highly accomplished and driven Physician with more than 19 years of clinical experience, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She has significant focus in the area of oncology, specifically surgical management of breast and endocrine cancers. Rula is adept at vetting life science opportunities for investment purposes and private research funding.
arlet alarcon, MD
Medical Strategic Advisor
Arlet has a wealth of knowledge, especially in the biomarkers and molecular profiling space, and has broad based experience in strategic innovation and product development and pioneering solutions that deliver customer value. She is a seasoned leader with a proven ability to cultivate positive and collaborative work relationships with oncologists, pathologists, sales, operations, and marketing staff. Arlet is passionate about SOTERIA's mission of Precision Medicine for All and is driven to make personalized care a reality for cancer care.
Mary Johnson M.Ed, MSN, RD
Nutrition and Wellness
Mary is a registered dietitian and owner of a virtual nutrition counseling practice, Healing Food for Cancer. Her mother’s breast cancer and her uncle’s fatal pancreatic cancer drove her to leave her corporate job, return to school and change careers to become a dietitian. She has master’s degree in Occupational Education from the University of Louisville and a master’s degree in Nutrition from Bastyr University in Seattle, WA. She takes an evidence-based, integrative approach to care – always looking at the whole person. Mary works with patients to create individualized plans addressing diet and lifestyle. Patients benefit from the therapeutic properties of food and are well nourished through treatment and beyond. Her life’s work is helping people accomplish one of their most important goals – eating foods to promote and restore health.
Mary Tovella Dowling, Esq.
General Counsel
Mary Tovella Dowling is a Partner of the For Purpose Law firm, chairs the firm’s Estate Planning Practice Area, and co-chairs the firm’s Nonprofit Practice Area. She holds a BS, cum laude, in Business Management from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and a JD, cum laude, from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Her practice focuses on providing full-service representation and outside general counsel services advising on a full range of nonprofit and tax-exempt legal issues, with an emphasis on federal, state and local tax laws, including entity formation, applications for federal and state exemption, unrelated business income planning, compliance with public support tests, property tax exemption, nonprofit corporate governance, contracts, joint ventures and corporate compliance.
Lydia Gonzalez McNeil
Marketing & Communications
Lydia Gonzalez McNeil comes to SOTERIA with 30 years of experience in nonprofit design and communications. Her areas of professional interest are nonprofit governance, fundraising, and event management; writing and editing; and graphic design. Lydia’s educational background in biology coupled with her experience as a caregiver for more than one family member undergoing treatment for cancer give her a keen—and empathetic—understanding of the issues faced by patients and their loved ones.
Sierra Walters
Executive Logistics Coordinator
Sierra Walters is dedicated and passionate about helping others. She has over 10 years of customer service and management experience, and is committed to efficiently and effectively providing high-quality service with meticulous attention to detail in support of SOTERIA, its clients, and its mission. Sierra loves working for SOTERIA for the opportunity to be part of a powerful camaraderie that is driven to provide a unique and personal approach to finding hope, relief, and health.