Meet RSC's Board of Trustees
Our hardworking Board of Trustees is responsible for guiding the growth
of the Rockville Science Center and ensuring its sustainability for years to come
Ulisses Santamaria
President, Board of Trustees
Ulisses Santamaria is a research technician for the National Institutes of Health serving the Rockville Science Center in his personal capacity. He currently works on clinical trials primarily on infectious diseases for the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and formerly conducted research in the Laboratory of Avindra Nath, where he worked on improving clinical databases, testing new possible treatments for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and studied how HIV affects aging in the brain.  He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from The University of Virginia. He then obtained a Master’s in Biotechnology with a specialization in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Technologies from the Johns Hopkins University.  Ulisses is also a founder of The DMV Petri Dish, a collective of DIY-Biology and Maker groups in the DC Area. In his spare time he enjoys stocks, reading books, writing, and building things out of cardboard.
Soo Lee-Cho, Esq.
Vice-President, Board of Trustees
Soo Lee-Cho is a member of the Land Development & Real Estate Group at Miller, Miller & Canby. Ms. Lee-Cho’s practice includes land use, zoning, real estate, and administrative and municipal law. She focuses on representing clients in zoning and land use matters before various administrative boards and commissions, and also elected and appointed bodies. These include the Montgomery County Council, the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission Planning Board, the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission, the Montgomery County Board of Appeals and Sign Review Board, the City of Rockville Mayor and Council, Planning Commission and Historic District Commission, and the City of Gaithersburg Mayor and Council and Planning. Her efforts on behalf of clients have also included work on land use-related legislative matters before the State General Assembly.  ​
Melissa Scales
Secretary, Board of Trustees
Melissa Scales is an attorney who has been engaged in issues at the intersection of law and science throughout her career. She is currently Assistant Director for Educational Programs at the Food and Drug Law Institute, where she creates educational conferences, courses, and webinars for the food and drug law community. She has worked on science regulatory and policy issues at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ginny Bonifacino
Member, Board of Trustees
Ginny co-founded Nazareth Bonifacino Law Benefit LLC, Maryland’s first Certified B CorporationTM law firm. She has over a decade of experience as a business attorney and outside counsel on both coasts — Maryland/DC and California, with a focus in transactional, intellectual property, and employment law. While Ginny’s clients are from all industries, she often counsels businesses with creative assets they wish to protect and monetize. This enables her to utilize her strong intellectual property background and provide additional value as general counsel. Giving back to her community is important. She actively supports women entrepreneurs as a volunteer attorney for the Maryland Women's Business Center. Ginny also contributes pro bono work to the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.
Sherine Chan
Member, Board of Trustees
Sherine Chan is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Neuroene Therapeutics. She is a mitochondrial biologist with a B.Sc. Hons. in Vet. Biology (Murdoch University) and a Ph.D. in Clinical Biochemistry (University of Western Australia). After a postdoctoral fellowship at NIEHS/NIH, she moved to the Medical University of South Carolina as a faculty member to start her laboratory in Drug Discovery. Her group developed new animal models and assays of mitochondrial dysfunction to understand the progression of mitochondrial disease and screen novel mitochondrial compounds. She and medicinal chemist Dr. James Chou discovered that small Vitamin K analogs had potent activity in animal models of seizure, Parkinson's, and mitochondrial diseases, leading them to co-found Neuroene. Dr. Chan now runs Neuroene full-time and recently moved the company to JLABS @ Washington, DC, as Neuroene was selected to join Blue Knight, a joint initiative between Johnson & Johnson Innovation and BARDA.
Bob Ekman
Member, Board of Trustees
Bob Ekman is a software engineer and project developer. He retired from a forty-four year career in software development and teaching for IBM and Lockheed Martin. He worked on government contracts from space projects (Apollo) in the 60’s to defense research projects (DARPA) in the 90’s. He developed commercial software for IBM and human resources software for Lockheed Martin, as well as taught internal classes in software engineering, programming, and web development for over 30 years.  Mr. Ekman is deeply committed to developing the next generation of engineers. He has led the Lockheed Martin Exploring Engineering Program in Rockville Maryland for over sixteen years. This program uses hands-on learning activities in robotics and rocketry to give high school students experience in engineering and inspire them into engineering careers. He has mentored over 400 teenagers through this program.