Board

Michael Tarnoff, MD, FACS

www.linkedin.com/in/michael-tarnoff-md-facs

Michael Tarnoff, MD, FACS is an accomplished healthcare executive and board-certified general surgeon who is currently serving as an independent Director for AngioDynamics (NASDAQ: ANGO), Aspen Surgical Products, Inc (An Audax Private Equity Company) and as Board President for the Jacaranda Foundation, a 501 c3.   

Most recently, Mike served as Chief Executive Officer and then Chief Physician Executive at Tufts Medical Center, a world-class, not-for-profit, academic medical center located in Boston, MA and its parent, Tufts Medicine Health System, respectively.  During his tenure at Tufts, which included day to day leadership through the Covid-19 pandemic, he led expansion and integration efforts across the health system while advancing clinical programming affiliations and ventures with physicians, nurses and other health care providers and executives.   Prior to these leadership roles, Mike served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Tufts and had a successful 20+ year tenure as an academic minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon.  

Prior to leading Tufts, Mike served as Chief Medical Officer & SVP, Value-Based Healthcare Partnerships for Medical Affairs at Medtronic (NASDAQ: MDT) and Chief Medical Officer & VP, Medical Affairs at Covidien, LLC.  Beyond his broad corporate leadership roles at both companies, Mike oversaw such functions as medical and regulatory affairs and incubated new business models as part of value-based health care initiatives

Mike’s long-standing commitment to the Jacaranda Foundation helps to support the foundation’s efforts to provide free education, healthcare, nutrition and social support to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi, Africa. Michael has been involved with the Jacaranda Foundation since 2007 when he first heard Marie DaSilva’s story on CNN. Michael called Marie to find out how he could get more involved which began a 15+ year relationship that has since extended to include Michael’s wife and their 5 children all of whom have visited Jacaranda and Malawi. Michael has served as Board President since January of 2017.

Born and raised in Malawi, Marie Da Silva worked as a nanny in the U.S. for nineteen years. During this time she lost many members of her family to the AIDS pandemic. In 2002 after realizing the school in her home village in Malawi was going to close and seeing firsthand the devastation AIDS had wrought in her home village, she founded the Jacaranda School for Orphans in her childhood home. For the next nine years, Marie supported the school financially by sending a third of her monthly salary to Malawi.

In 2008 Marie was recognized as Top Ten CNN Hero for her dedication to orphans in Malawi. Among many other awards received for her work, Marie also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of Malawi.

Today Marie spends most of her time in Malawi at the school and frequently travels abroad for fundraising and speaking engagements. Marie is married to Jacaranda’s Executive Director, Luc Deschamps.

Luc Deschamps was born and raised in France, where he graduated from CELSA Paris Sorbonne with a Masters Degree in Communication and Journalism. Luc lives in Malawi and since July 2007, he has been spearheading the growth of Jacaranda School for Orphans and the development of Jacaranda’s outreach programs, which include the construction of a community physiotherapy clinic - a program of home support and children homes construction - the creation of libraries for public primary schools and community centres - the construction of a vocational school and a preschool - the development of the Jacaranda college scholarships program - and the founding of Jacaranda Cultural Center in Blantyre. Luc leads the 120+ employees of Jacaranda Foundation.

Luc is also Honorary Consul of France in Malawi and organizes French linguistic and cultural cooperation activities in the country.

John Heilman is a law school professor at both Southwestern Law School and the University of Southern California Law School. Mr. Heilman earned his law degree at the University of Southern California, where he was Notes and Articles Editor of Southern California Law Review and the recipient of the Shattuck Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Law Center.

Mr. Heilman is also a prominent elected official, having served as Mayor and City Council member of West Hollywood since the city was incorporated in 1984. Professor Heilman has been an active member of the National League of Cities and has served on the board of both the National and California League of Cities. He is a past board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the Local Government Commission and is also past president of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Local Officials Group.

Rob Burke is a former mathematics teacher at Ridley College in Ontario, Canada and Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China. He has been supporting the Jacaranda School since 2008 in partnership with both Shanghai American School and Ridley College. Rob has now visited the school fifteen times with students, parents and teachers from both schools. Since 2008, he has fundraised for a science lab, a nurse’s clinic, a storage facility, classrooms, restrooms, renovations tostudent’s homes, and much more.

In 2016, he was awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers by the Governor General of Canada for his work with The Jacaranda School and Habitat for Humanity. The photo is with Michaëlle Jean, Governor General for Canada 2005-2010.

Randi Malkin Steinberger is an American photographer and documentary filmmaker whose work has been shown worldwide. She sits on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Randi was introduced to the Jacaranda Foundation by her son who met Marie Da Silva in 2006 when he was twelve years old after he heard her speak at his school. Since then, he and his family have visited the school in Malawi and they remain dedicated to supporting the work of the organization.

Nicole DeVault teaches French, Art and Ethics at the Alexander Robertson School in New York City. She holds an M.S. Ed., in Multi-Cultural education. A harpist and vocalist, Ms. DeVault enhances and supports her instruction with music and art to facilitate a multi-sensory approach in her teaching practice. She is the winner of the 2014 Blackboard Awards for teachers, in recognition of her outstanding work for New York City students. She is currently collaborating on writing and developing an inter-spiritual curriculum for children.

Heather Kun, MS PhD, is Executive Director of Fuck Cancer where she leads strategic programming to help prevent, detect and provide support to cancer patients and their families. She brings years of research, evaluation and health experience to the agency in order to better design programs with potential for impact in the cancer space. She is also principal and founder of HK Impact Advisors that partners with philanthropic, non‐profit and corporate clients to build strategy with maximum potential for impact.

Prior, Dr. Kun was Vice President of Research and Evaluation at the National Health Foundation (NHF) for over 6 years. She was responsible for overseeing the research and evaluation arm of the organization in addition to participating in development, operational and fundraising activities. She also oversaw all of the chronic disease prevention and management, patient safety, patient family centered care and other hospital/community clinic based programs.

Before working for NHF, Dr. Kun was an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stationed in the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Acute Communicable Disease Control Branch. She has also worked as a consultant for various private family foundations and has led and participated in multiple large-scale quantitative and qualitative research projects specifically centered on immigrant health.

Dr. Kun received her doctorate degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Her dissertation work addressed health status and access to healthcare of farmworkers living along the eastern Mexico‐California border. Dr. Kun also holds an M.S. degree in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Sciences from Yale University.

John Staheli is a CPA and finance professional at the Minimally Invasive Therapies Group of Medtronic, a global healthcare solutions company.

John was introduced to Jacaranda in 2016 and was immediately inspired by the foundation’s mission and its impact on the children and communities of Malawi. In 2017 John became the Jacaranda Treasurer, bringing a background in strategic financial planning, project analysis and financial internal control processes.