About us

Bernard Ravina is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Vima Therapeutics. Dr. Ravina has over 20 years of drug development experience in government, academia, and industry, and has spent his career caring for patients with dystonia and related movement disorders. Most recently he was CMO of Praxis Precision Medicines. Prior to that he served as CMO of Voyager Therapeutics and worked in clinical development at Biogen.

Dr. Ravina holds an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed training in neurology. After training, Dr. Ravina held positions at NINDS/NIH in neurogenetics and at the University of Rochester School of Medicine where he was Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of the Movement and Inherited Neurological Disorders Unit.

Judy Dunn is President, and Head of Research & Development, at Vima Therapeutics. During her 30+ year career, she has held leadership positions in biotech and pharma. Judy served as the Global Head of Clinical Development at Hoffmann – La Roche in Basel, Switzerland and has held positions in both the research and commercial neuroscience divisions of Pfizer. In addition to her industry experience, Judy worked with government agencies in the establishment of the Empire Discovery Institute, an incubator focused on catalyzing the progression of academic discovery research to clinical application and served as the Institute’s first Chief Executive Officer.

Judy attended University of Rochester and Wesleyan University, obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in Neurobiology. She completed a Training Fellowship in Neuropharmacology at Strong Memorial Hospital’s Center for Brain Research and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in New Drug Development at Pfizer.

Jessica Fees is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Vima Therapeutics, bringing over 20 years of finance and strategic leadership experience in the biotech industry. Prior to joining Vima, she served as CFO at Surface Oncology where she oversaw finance, investor relations, communications, IT and facilities and lab operations functions. Prior to Surface, she served as president of Glide consulting, and held senior positions at Aileron Therapeutics and Tokai Pharmaceuticals.

Jessica began her career at Arthur Andersen LLP, where she was a manager in the attest function. She received a B.A. from The College of the Holy Cross and earned her CPA in Massachusetts.

Ariel D. Jasie joined Vima Therapeutics as Chief Business Officer in July 2024 and now also serves as General Counsel. Ariel most recently owned and operated ADJ Advisory & Consulting Services where he served as senior advisor and fractional CBO to multiple public and private biotechs; providing and supporting business development, corporate strategy, and financings. Ariel has been in the biotech industry for over 20 years and has held a variety of leadership positions at a number of biotechs including Celgene Corporation, eGenesis Bio, and Codiak Biosciences.

Ariel completed his J.D. at Brooklyn Law School, and his B.A. in history, from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Tushar Misra is the Chief Technical Officer at Vima Therapeutics where his responsibilities include the CMC (Chemistry & Manufacturing Controls) Development of Vima’s products. Prior to Vima, he was the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Mersana Therapeutics, which develops antibody-drug conjugates to treat various types of cancers.

He has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 32 years and has worked across the entire value chain from R&D to Commercialization at many companies including Wyeth, Sepracor and Takeda. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

Karen Carroll is Senior Vice President of Clinical Development Operations. She has almost 30 years of experience in the biopharma industry with significant contributions to 3 successful NDAs. At Vertex, Karen co-founded a group dedicated to global trial activation and led the team to the most competitive trial initiation timelines as compared within the industry and FDA sponsored CTTI. At Promedior, she built a worldwide external team that executed successful proof of concept trials leading to the eventual acquisition by Roche. At AGTC, Karen’s creative problem-solving skills allowed her team to reach their inherited retinal disease gene therapy patients by a specialized Mobile Vision Van in the height of the Covid-19 lockdown. Karen contributed to the successful IPO at Angion by participating in multiple audits while keeping the clinical trials on time and inspection ready.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an Associates of Nursing degree from NECCO and is a matriculated student with the Isenberg School of Management’s MBA, Finance program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Michael Oldham is Vice President of Clinical Development, cross-functionally supporting the strategy and implementation of Vima’s lead programs. Prior to Vima, he held roles of increasing responsibility in biotech companies, including most recently Entrada Therapeutics where he was Vice President and clinical development lead of the neuromuscular and ocular portfolio. He spent several years at a CRO focused on rare diseases across multiple therapeutic spaces after practicing academic clinical medicine.

Michael is a board-certified neurologist with special qualification in child neurology and epilepsy, receiving his MD from The George Washington University, his MPH from Johns Hopkins University, and additional training at Cincinnati Children’s/University of Cincinnati and the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF).

Lisa Organisak is Vice President of Program Management at Vima Therapeutics where she is responsible for cross functional team leadership in advancing our programs. Lisa brings over 20 years of experience in program management in the biopharmaceuticals industry and has extensive experience in drug development across multiple therapeutic areas including CNS, immunology, and rare disease.

Prior to joining Vima, Lisa held roles of increasing levels of responsibility in program and alliance management at Valo Health, Kiniksa, Biogen, Sepracor (Sunovion/Sumitoma Pharma), and Hybridon (Idera/Aceragen). Lisa began her industry experience in clinical supplies at Johnson & Johnson. Lisa holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from Duquesne University and is a PMP.

Mark Rogge serves as head of translational medicine and pharmacology where he oversees various research, preclinical and clinical activities related to pipeline creation and development. He brings significant experience in CNS drug development that encompasses genetic, neuroinflammation, psychiatric, and movement disorders.

During his 15 year tenure at Biogen, he oversaw preclinical and clinical pharmacology activities and most recently served as global head of translational science at Takeda. In addition to his responsibilities at Vima, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and sits on several advisory boards.

James Thornton is Vice President of Corporate Development at Vima Therapeutics where he focuses on corporate strategy, business development, and communications. Prior to Vima, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Venture where he worked on early-stage company creation.

He spent 6 years at Codiak Biosciences in business development and strategy, where he completed a number of partnerships, and public and private financings. He also spent several years at a large law firm working in patent prosecution and strategy. He received his PhD in RNA biochemistry and stem cell biology from Harvard University.