Dr. Axelrod has over thirty years of clinical and administrative experience in ambulatory care, pharmacy services, and healthcare delivery systems design and implementation. His passion is combining his clinical perspective and business acumen in the start-up and future sale of entrepreneurial healthcare companies. From 1980 until 1996, his experience as a physician had encompassed a career of Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, Occupational Medicine, and Medical Management. From 1996 until 2008, Dr. Axelrod had been principle and Chief Executive Officer of SeniorMed, an innovative institutional pharmacy provider that in September 2006 was acquired by Walgreens. He became a principle of a new, successful hospice, Halcyon Hospice and Palliative Care, in 2008. In 2009, Dr. Axelrod joined TabSafe Medical Services, Inc. as Chairman & CEO. Dr. Axelrod is a nationally recognized speaker on the special needs of seniors and has participated on numerous Advisory Boards. He proudly serves as a board member for the nonprofit Alliance for Aging Research. Dr. Axelrod received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan and Doctor of Medicine degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He was board certified in Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was also board certified by the American Board of Medical Management.
Gina Buffa has been a G4G board member since it’s inception in 2006, when her nephew Richard Stefanacci was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma. Her responsibilities include, fundraising, marketing, lobbying and general day to day operations. Gina graduated from Villanova University in 1992. She resides in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey with her husband and three daughters. Gina and her team of volunteers are responsible for growing the HHK5K “Richard’s Run” from a small community gathering of several hundred runners to one of the foundations largest annual fundraising event drawing thousands of runners from throughout the state. Gina’s daughter Blake was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (a rare soft tissue cancer) in 2010 at the age of 9. She successfully underwent 12 months of chemotherapy, 25 radiation treatments and 3 surgeries at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Gina’s commitment to raising awareness and finding a cure for Pediatric Cancer is stronger than ever.
Tom is an attorney and businessman and has held many executive, director and professional positions in his career including CEO, Partner, Chairman and General Counsel for both private and public entities in the Financial, Technology and Healthcare sectors. Some of these entities include Cordtrack Partners, mCom Financial Solutions, USABancshares.com and several leading regional law firms in the Philadelphia region. He now runs the Maiorino Law Group LLC focusing on Corporations, Non-Profits, Healthcare, Real Estate, Financial Services and Intellectual Property Licensing and Strategy. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration – Finance from Villanova University and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.Tom, an active soccer enthusiast, has been involved with Go4theGoal since its inception and resides in Mount Laurel, New Jersey with wife Monica and three boys, TJ, Vince and Robbie.
Andrew is currently the Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs of Neurogene Inc., which focuses on rare neurological disease drug development. He is the former Division Deputy Director of Gastroenterology and Inborn Errors Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2010. Before joining FDA, Andrew has served as Portfolio Leader in Established Products responsible for providing worldwide leadership in support of GI and diverse Internal Medicine products within the Established Products Therapeutic Area of Johnson and Johnson from 2000-2010. He has served as Attending Physician in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 1993-2010. Andrew is a graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University and of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia followed by a Pediatric Gastroenterology Clinical Fellowship and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at New England Medical Center. Andrew is Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine ,Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He has served as Principal Editor of Pediatric Drug Development: Concepts and Applications published April 2009 with Wiley-Blackwell and now in its 2nd edition released August 19, 2013. He is a member of multiple professional medical societies including Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, American Gastroenterological Association and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.
Dr. Richard Stefanacci’s clinical focus has primarily been long term care (LTC) for which he has several unique perspectives. To begin, he literally grew up in LTC; celebrating his 8th birthday in a nursing home that his family continues to own and operate today. As a practicing internist/geriatrician, he has a long-standing interest in and commitment to the frail elderly as his clinical practice solely focuses on nursing home eligible older adults through the PACE program (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly). He is currently engaged with a large health system in their development of a preferred skilled nursing home network of providers.
On the policy side, Dr. Stefanacci served as Health Policy Scholar for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He has combined his expertise in healthcare government policy and systems in his teaching position at Thomas Jefferson University in their Jefferson College of Population Health. In his academic role he has well over 500 publications in addition to delivering well over 1000 lectures both nationally and internationally.
An active member of all the LTC professional associations – Dr. Stefanacci has been active on both the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) and AMDA Foundation Boards as well as being honored as an honorary lifetime member for ASCP and the National Association of Directors of Nursing. Finally, Dr. Stefanacci has achieved recognition as a fellow in both the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and American Geriatric Society as well as several national awards. He brings all his LTC expertise to his work here at AtlantiCare where he serves as the Medical Direction for Population Health, Post-Acute Services and the LIFE Connection / PACE program.
Dr Stefanacci’s greatest accomplishment is the Go4theGoal Foundation (www.Go4theGoal.org), a 501(c)(3) public charity that he founded with his family and friends when his oldest son Richard was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in May 2006. He developed the foundation with an intense focus after his son’s death on June 12, 2007. Since its inception, the foundation has raised several million dollars to assist hundreds of children affected by cancer at nearly 100 children’s hospitals across the country, while also funding cutting-edge research to find a cure.
I’ve been volunteering at Go4theGoal for the past five years and I am so blessed to work with such passionate, caring, and kind people. Everyone who works here is attentive to every detail to ensure needs are always met and they are always so happy and eager to do so! It’s refreshing to see an organization dedicate so much care and energy to each and every project.