Charles and Cherry Seabrook have been married for 62 years. They are retired and reside in Charleston, South Carolina. Cherry is a six-year breast cancer survivor and former nurse. She is also a volunteer board member at Hollings Cancer Center Disparities Board in Charleston, SC. Charles is a newly diagnosed prostate cancer patient. They are caregivers to each other as well as their families.
Professional Musician, Sons of Serendip
Micah Christian, a native of Randolph, Massachusetts, became interested in music at an early age. However, it wasn’t until his senior year of high school, when he earned a solo in the Massachusetts Southeastern District Senior Choir, that he realized his potential as a musician. As a freshman at Stonehill College, he decided to follow his passion for music. For the next five years, he spent his summers performing with the Cape Cod-based a cappella group, Hyannis Sound, and his love for music deepened. Alongside Micah’s passion for music is his desire to help build a better world. He has volunteered for a year in Honduras, and a month in Calcutta, India with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. Also, in 2013, after graduating from Boston University with a Master of Divinity, he and his wife volunteered in a rural community in northern Peru for another year. As a member of Sons of Serendip, Micah hopes to inspire others to use their gifts to spread love and build a better world.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Andrew Roth, MD, is an Emeritus Member of the Psychiatry Service, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
Dr. Roth became a clinical fellow in Psycho-Oncology/Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry on the Psychiatry Service at MSK in 1992 after graduating from Mt. Sinai Medical Center’s Psychiatry Residency Program. He joined MSK’s attending staff in 1994, where he served as clinical member and attending psychiatrist through 2022. Dr. Roth concurrently worked as a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC), Department of Psychiatry, and as an attending psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH).
In 2023, Dr. Roth was appointed to the Emeritus faculty at Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, NYPH’s Department of Psychiatry, and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry at WCMC, Cornell University.
Through 2019, Dr. Roth served as both assistant program director and program director for MSK’s ACGME- accredited Psychosomatic Medicine/Psycho-Oncology Clinical Fellowship Training Program. Dr. Roth helped train close to 150 psychiatrists in the subspecialty of psycho-oncology, receiving awards for clinical and teaching excellence.
He also served as the psychiatry liaison to genitourinary medical oncology at MSK for over 28 years. His research includes the development of the distress thermometer; the creation of the Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC); a National Cancer Institute-funded, double-blind, randomized control trial using methylphenidate for fatigue in men with prostate cancer; and most recently, evaluation of a novel psychotherapy designed specifically for older cancer patients. He also helped start the Psychiatry Clinical Service at the MSK Westchester.
Sophie Co
Dr. Robert S. Bridwell is a Medical Advisor at SOFIE Co. and the Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Appian 360. He is also the Founder and CMO of Bridwell Consulting Services. He has worked as a Medical Director at Medical Outsourcing Services, LLC and has a background as Chief of Nuclear Medicine for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Dr. Bridwell obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland and his MBA from Regis University in Denver, Colorado.
Dr. Bridwell is a member of the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging as well as the European Society of Nuclear Medicine. He was also awarded the Army Commendation Medal in 1998, the Army Achievement Medal in 1999, and another Army Commendation Medal in 2000.
Essa Pharma
Dr. Alessandra Cesano has been ESSA’s Chief Medical Officer since 2019 and Executive Vice President since 2023. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Cesano served as Chief Medical Officer at NanoString Inc., focusing on the development of translational and diagnostic multi-plexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response and resistance. Previously, Dr. Cesano was the Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc., and Nodality, Inc. Throughout her career, Dr. Cesano has held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped advance various oncology drugs through late-stage development and FDA approvals. Early in her professional career, Dr. Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania, and she has authored over 100 publications. Dr. Cesano received an M.D. summa cum laude, a Board Certification in Oncology and a Ph.D. in Tumor Immunology from the University of Turin
AME Church
The Rev. Dr. Ann Marie Bentsi-Addison Posey was born with the expressed assignment to be in service to women. She began her professional career in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she labored for twelve years providing primary healthcare to fragile neonates and their families. It was there that she felt the strong tugging of the Almighty to minister to women in their moments of deep sorrow and despair. She then moved on to practicing midwifery. As history and the word “midwife” exemplifies, she was truly “with women”. Midwives are called to nurture the mind, body and spirit approach to women’s healthcare. This requires an understanding of the history and vision for women’s health. As such, She cared for women from conception to childbirth, using these moments as a consummate example of God’s grace here in the earth. She is ever engaged in the fight to amplify the voices of those in the battle for reproductive and social justice inside and outside of the church.
Ever mindful of the thought that God rewards those who stands with and supports the needs of others, she perseveres daily to answer His call to serve. As her signature scripture support. “ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” Exodus 1:21
She formally answered her call to preach in September of 2000. She attended the AME Ministerial Training Institute where she sat at the feet of those great AME preachers, learning the subtle nuances of shepherding God’s flock under the great tradition of African Methodism. She has attained both Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees in Nursing, and a post-Master’s certificate in Midwifery, She also has a Masters of Divinity from New Brunswick Theological Seminary. She has attained her Doctorate in Ministry, with a focus on The Black church, Social and Environmental Justice and Public Policy from Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. She has presented extensively nationally and internationally on issues related to Black Women and Reproductive Healthcare in America.
Rev. Dr. Ann Marie Bentsi-Addison Posey served for many years as the Minister to Youth at Union AME Church in Warwick NY. There she was instrumental in the continuation of the Rights of Passage Program and the initiation of Diakonos de Theos “Servants of God” Liturgical Dance Ministry. She has also served as the Minister to Women at St. Luke AME Church, Harlem, NY where her focus was the Mind, Body and Spirit approach to Christ. She has served at Mount Carmel AME church in New Rochelle, as Minister to Youth. On February 8th 2014, she was assigned to the pastoral charge of New Covenant AME Church in Tobyhanna PA. On June 17th 2017, She returned to the place of her ministerial roots to pastor Union AME church in Warwick, NY. She is a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., and the Executive Director for the International Health Commission of the AME church. She is blessed to be able to integrate her calling to health care and ministry as the Senior Director for Faith Based Initiatives at NYC Health and Hospitals.