Our Leadership

Aspira Women's Health is dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of AI-powered tests to aid in the diagnosis of gynecologic diseases, starting with ovarian cancer. 

Executive Leadership Team

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Nicole Sandford

CEO & Director

Nicole Sandford was appointed to our Board in February 2021 and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since March 2022.

Ms. Sandford brings more than three decades of executive and leadership experience to the role as an innovator, business leader and sought-after advisor to CEOs and Boards on strategy, operations, human capital, governance, and risk. She spent over 27 years with global consultancy, Deloitte, where she launched new ventures, transformed underperforming practices, and led mature businesses, including the firm’s flagship Regulatory and Operational Risk practice. She started her career with Deloitte as an auditor specializing in high-growth global companies in the technology, healthcare and industrial sectors, and advising on complex transactions including mergers and acquisitions, financings, and securities offerings.

Ms. Sandford is a member of the Advisory Board for Ellig Group, a boutique human capital and strategy consultancy, an Emeritus Member of the Weinberg Center at the University of Delaware and the patient representative for the Greenwich Hospital Breast Cancer Accreditation Committee. She was previously the Board Chair of Girl Scouts of Connecticut, and Board Member of the Stamford Public Education Foundation. Ms. Sandford received her B.B.A. in Accounting from Niagara University.

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Sandy Milligan, MD JD

President

Sandra Milligan, MD, JD joins Aspira Women's Health Inc. in April 2024 as President and will be responsible for steering the company's research and development, operations, information technology, and human resources functions, focusing on accelerating product launches and fostering innovation and commercialization partnerships. Bringing with her a wealth of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors spanning over 25 years. Dr. Milligan's extensive background includes pivotal roles in executive leadership, research and development, regulatory affairs, and clinical safety at several renowned biopharmaceutical companies.

Before joining Aspira, she served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Organon, where she played a crucial role in founding and advancing the R&D organization and strategies for pipeline growth. Previously, Dr. Milligan held the position of Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety at Merck, contributing significantly to the development and implementation of worldwide strategies across various therapeutics. Her career also includes progressive leadership roles at Genentech and Amgen.

Dr. Milligan earned her Doctor of Medicine from the George Washington University School of Medicine and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. Her initial professional endeavors included serving as a General Medical Officer in the US Army Medical Corps and as an attorney specializing in healthcare and corporate law.

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John Kallassy

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. John Kallassy has been serving as Aspira’s interim CFO since August 2024.  He is a seasoned Wall Street veteran having served in senior executive positions for over four decades. Mr. Kallassy has served as Chief Financial Officer for Torigen Pharmaceuticals, Integrated Animal Health, Jaguar Health,and Speedus Corp. He has founded and served as Chief Executive Officer for Bactana Corp, Aimers Ventur Partners, I-Bankers Direct, and Zargis Medical. Mr. Kallassy holds his Master of Business Administration from Cornell University, The Johnson School; has a BSc and completed graduate coursework in pharmacology from the University of Leeds; and received his BSc in Biology with a Chemistry minor from the State University of New York.

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Michelle Snider

Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Operations

Michelle Snider serves as the Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Operations at Aspira Women's Health. With over 15 years of experience in women’s healthcare and diagnostics, Michelle brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role.

Prior to rejoining Aspira, Michelle was the Vice President of Market Enablement/Sales Strategy at Sema4 Genomics, where she oversaw the company’s women’s health commercial strategy during a period of significant growth. Before Sema4, she served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sonic Reference Laboratory, Inc., where she led the commercial development and growth of women's health focused esoteric testing. Michelle has also had great success advancing ObGyn hereditary cancer testing at Myriad and was part of Aspira’s commercial leadership team during the development and initial launch of Ova1®.

Michelle holds a degree from The University of Texas at San Antonio in International Business. She is committed to advancing the field of women’s health diagnostics and leveraging her extensive industry relationships to drive commercial growth at Aspira.

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Nicolette Possemato

Senior Vice President of Human Resources 

Nicolette Possemato has served as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Aspira Women's Health since March 2022. She brings over 15 years of experience in human resources management, with a strong background in strategic and operational Human Resource management and leadership

Prior to joining Aspira, Nicolette held senior management/executive roles at SOMOS IPA, WINFertility, OrthoConnecticut and Maplewood Communities. Earlier in her career she worked within the staffing industry at Robert Half, Onward Healthcare and had her own Human Resource consulting firm.

Nicolette holds a master’s degree in human resource management and counseling from the University of Bridgeport and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Pace University. She is dedicated to enhancing organizational culture and driving HR excellence at Aspira.

Board of Directors

Jannie Herchuk
Jannie Herchuk

Jannie Herchuk retired from Deloitte & Touche LLP in 2022 where she served in various roles since 1984. Ms. Herchuk served most recently on the Deloitte LLP board of directors and led strategic initiatives and practices. As the audit partner for some of the firm’s most important healthcare and life sciences companies, Ms. Herchuk oversaw her client’s preparation of financial statements and led audit engagements for public and private companies. She was responsible for concluding on the fairness of those financial statements and the related internal controls over financial reporting.

Ms. Herchuck received her BBA in Accounting from Texas A&M University and is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.

Celeste R. Fralick
Dr. Celeste R. Fralick

Celeste R. Fralick, PhD retired in 2022 as Chief Data Scientist at McAfee (Nasdaq: MCFE), a cybersecurity company, which was spun-off from Intel Corporation in 2017. Prior to her position at McAfee, Dr. Fralick served as Principal Engineer and Chief Technology Officer at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). Since 2018, Dr. Fralick has served as Scientific Advisor to Innovatio, a privately held health predictive analytics company. She has also served as Managing Principal at Prukinje Science and Technology, LLC, a privately held data analytics consulting business since 2019, and as a director for Prime Genomics, a privately held cancer diagnostic company since 2020.

Dr. Fralick earned a BSc in Microbiology and Chemistry from Texas Tech University and a PhD in Bioengineering from Arizona State University.

Stefanie Cavanaugh
Stefanie Cavanaugh

Stefanie Cavanaugh has been a senior financial executive for healthcare companies for over 30 years.

Ms. Cavanaugh has served as Chief Financial Officer of Giving Home Health Care, an at-home healthcare services company, since August 2022. From February 2015 to January 2022, Ms. Cavanaugh was the Chief Financial Officer of Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. (Nasdaq: APEN), a publicly traded medical technology company. She worked closely with the Board and Chief Executive Officer to develop guidance and investor communications, and raised over $170 million in debt and equity financing to support Apollo’s strategic and organizational objectives.

Ms. Cavanaugh began her career as an auditor at Ernst & Young after earning her BBA in Accounting and Finance at the University of Texas at Austin. Ms Cavanaugh is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.

Lynn O’Connor
Lynn O’Connor Vos

Lynn O’Connor Vos is a healthcare CEO and Board Director with significant experience across product launches, global marketing, digital health, and M&A.

Ms. Vos is president of VosHealth LLC, a healthcare consultancy firm established in November 2020. Prior to that, she served as the Interim CEO of Modular Medical, Inc., a medical device company, from August 2021 to February 2022. She also served as president and CEO of the Muscular Dystrophy Association from October 2017 to November 2020. Previously, she spent almost 30 years as CEO of Greyhealth Group (and its predecessor company), where she built a global healthcare communications firm and worked on launches for clients across the pharmaceutical, biotech, surgical, and diagnostic sectors.

Lynn currently serves on the boards of OptimizeRX (Nasdaq: OPRX) and Modular Medical (Nasdaq: MDD), and is the chair of the board of Medisafe (a privately held company). She previously served on the board of nTelos (Nasdaq: NTLS), prior to the sale to Shentel, and on the boards of several WPP investment portfolio companies. She has served on audit, compensation, nominating and governance, and executive committees.

She has significant nonprofit board experience with The Jed Foundation, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and is a trustee of The Windward School and the YMCA of the City of New York. Lynn was named the Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association in 2005. She was also a member of the Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator at Harvard Business School, focused on innovation and improving outcomes in oncology and rare diseases. She earned a BSc in Nursing from Alfred University.

Winfred Parnell
Dr. Winfred Parnell

Dr. Winfred Parnell was appointed to the Nomination and Governance Committee in June 2023. He is a board-certified physician in obstetrics and gynecologic care bringing more than 20 years of board experience and expertise in strategic planning, governance, cultural transformation, regulatory & compliance, quality of care, and crisis management. The practice he founded cares for more than 3,500 women each year. He served as Chairman of the $2.3 billion Parkland Health and Hospital System during a period of transformation, overseeing the organization’s remediation of significant regulatory and compliance weaknesses. He serves on the board of private equity-backed SCA Pharm, one of the largest compounding pharmacies in the country. Dr. Parnell previously served as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chair of the Department of Surgery, and President of the Medical Staff at Medical City Hospital in Dallas.

Dr. Parnell has additional experience serving on the boards of United Way of Dallas, Medical City Hospital, BBVA Compass Bank Board, Texas Healthcare Trustee, Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, and the American Hospital Association.

In 2008, Dr. Parnell served on the Senator Obama health care Committee and was named a Delegate the Democratic National Convention. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University and received his MD from the University of Florida College of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency training at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX. and holds an Executive Certificate in Non-Profit Governance.

John Ragard
John Ragard

Mr. John Ragard joined the Board in July 2024 bringing over 46 years of experience as a venture capital investor, public equity buy-side analys, and portfolio manager. Mr. Ragard is currently a Senior Investment Advisor at Wayve Capital Management after having been a portfolio manager at Spouting Rock for over six years, where he co-managed a small-cap growth portfolio that outperformed the benchmark over the 5-year and since-inception periods. Prior to Spouting Rock, Mr. Ragard was a portfolio manager at Friess Associates where he outperformed the Russell 3000 Growth Index by over 400 basis points annually for over 20 years. Mr. Ragard received his Bachelor of Science in Economics cum laude from the Wharton School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Twiggs
Leo B. Twiggs, MD

Dr. Twiggs is Aspira Women’s Health Director of Medical Affairs. He is a gynecologic oncologist and academic physician who practiced Gynecologic Oncology for more than 45 years. He is professor emeritus at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Twiggs is past Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Reproductive Science and associate dean for Women’s Health, University of Miami (2000-2014). He was Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota (1990-2000). He is internationally recognized as a teacher and academic scholar. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is the past president of ASCCP and initiated the peer review Journal of Colposcopy and Lower Genital Tract.

During his career, Dr. Twiggs mentored over 50 people in the subspecialty of Gynecologic Oncology. He graduated from the University of Michigan and took his post-graduate training at LAC-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Downs
Levi S. Downs, Jr., MD, MS

Dr. Downs is Director of Gynecologic Oncology at Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Downs received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He did his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Downs completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of Minnesota and has a Master of Science degree in clinical research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Prior to joining Park Nicollet, he was Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School where he served as Division Director for Gynecologic Oncology, Women’s Cancer Program Director at the Masonic Cancer Center, and Chief Medical Officer of the University of Minnesota Medical Center and University of Minnesota Physicians.

Dr. Downs has served as principal investigator for numerous clinical trials investigating cervical cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and preventive approaches to HPV related diseases. As an active member of the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) he has participated in cervical cancer screening and management consensus conferences. He has served on the ASCCP Board and joined the Executive Committee in 2019 and is the current ASCCP President. Dr. Downs is also a member of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and has served as a member on the Board of Directors of many other professional societies. He has a commitment to service that extends beyond the medical profession. He was on the Board of Directors for College Possible and served as the inaugural chair of their National Board and he is currently on the Chairman Regional Board of Teach for America, Twin Cities.

Dr. Garg
Nisha Garg, MD, MS, FACOG

Dr. Garg is a board-certified gynecologist with advanced surgical training in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (MIGS). She specializes in the surgical management of complex gynecologic conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis, abnormal uterine bleeding, congenital uterine anomalies, and adnexal masses. She also performs gender-affirming surgery. She is experienced in various surgical approaches including laparoscopy, robotics, vaginal surgery, and minilaparotomy.

Dr. Garg completed medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where she concurrently completed a Masters in Genomic Medicine. Upon graduation, she was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the esteemed national medical honor society. She then went to the University of California, Irvine for OB/GYN residency, where she graduated with awards in MIGS, Gynecologic Oncology, and resident research. She then completed her fellowship in MIGS at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. She now works as a Gynecologic Surgeon in Phoenix, AZ and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at both the University of Arizona College of Medicine and at the Creighton University School of Medicine.

Dr. Garg’s clinical and research interests include endometriosis diagnostics, surgical education, transgender care, and surgical menopause.

Dr. Sea
Tamika Sea, MD, FACOG

Dr. Sea is a member of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a Fellow of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.

Dr. Sea attended The University of Tennessee Health Science Center where she gained her Medical Doctorate. While at UTHSC, she was a founder of the Clinical Esperanza charity clinic associated with Christ Community Clinic in Memphis, where she served the underprivileged Hispanic community in the Greater Memphis Area. She also received the prestigious Charles C. Verstandig award during her matriculation. She later attended The Methodist Hospital/Christus St. Joseph Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program in Houston, TX, where she received numerous awards, including the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists Resident of the Year. Since her return to Atlanta, she has had the privilege of serving the Greater South Atlanta area at Piedmont Henry Hospital, where she has served in several administrative roles, including Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Sea is also a representative for the OBGYN Clinical Governance Council for the Piedmont Healthcare System. Her fields of interest include polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), high-risk obstetrics, as well as utilizing laparoscopy and performing several pelvic floor reconstructive procedures.