Our diverse and experienced leadership team has spent many years developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products in the US and throughout the world. We have a proven track record of growing small biotech companies into multi-product, multi-billion dollar companies with international presence, while still maintaining small company values. As we progress, we will continue to focus on utilizing our knowledge and expertise to develop differentiated products for dermatology patients.

Gerry Proehl
Chairman, President, and CEO

Mr. Proehl is a Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO of Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. From January 2002 until January 2014 he was President and CEO of Santarus, Inc., where he led the sale of Santarus to Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion.  Prior to Santarus, Mr. Proehl was with Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. for 14 years, where he served in various capacities, including VP of Global Marketing. While at Hoechst, he was responsible for marketing products in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, allergy/respiratory, immunology, and neurology.  Mr. Proehl holds a B.S. in Education from State University of New York at Cortland, an M.A. in Exercise Physiology from Wake Forest University, and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst College.  Mr. Proehl currently serves on the board of one public company, Tenax Therapeutics, Inc.

Maria Bedoya Toro Munera, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

Maria Bedoya Toro Munera, PhD, MBA, has held this position since she joined Dermata in January 2016 after serving as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Receptos Inc.  She previously served as Senior Director Regulatory Affairs at Eisai Medical Research Inc., from November 2006 to May 2007, moving to Eisai from Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. when Ligand divested their oncology products to Eisai in November 2006.  Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked as Senior Director Global Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Ligand from 2003 to 2006. From 2000 to 2003 she served as Director Global Regulatory Affairs at Baxter Hyland Immuno.  From 1998 to 2000 Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked at BASF Bioresearch Corporation as Director, Regulatory Affairs/Quality, and from 1996 to 1998 she worked as Director, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance at Amylin Pharmaceuticals.  From 1988 to 1996 Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer in a number of increasingly responsible positions in regulatory compliance, quality assurance, quality control and compliance.  Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera holds an M.B.A from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in bio-analytical chemistry from Ohio University. In addition, she has a M.A. in bio-analytical chemistry and a B.S. in chemistry from Western Michigan University.

David Hale
Lead Director

David Hale is our co-founder and has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2014, and as Lead Director since April 2021. Mr. Hale is Chairman and CEO of Hale BioPharma Ventures, LLC a private company focused on the formation and development of biotechnology, specialty pharma, diagnostic and medical device companies. Mr. Hale is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in the formation and development of a number of successful biomedical companies. He served as the Chairman of Santarus, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, since 2004 and a member of Santarus’ board since 2000, prior to its acquisition by Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. in 2014, and as Chairman of SkinMedica, Inc., prior to its sale to Allergan in 2012, Micromet, Inc., prior to its sale to Amgen Inc. in 2012, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., prior to its sale to Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc. in 2013, Crisi Medical Systems, Inc., prior to its sale to Becton Dickinson & Company in 2015, and Agility Clinical, Inc. prior to its sale to Precision Medicine Inc. in 2017.

Mr. Hale is a co-founder and currently serves as Chairman of Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCT), since 2013.

 Mr. Hale is also a co-founder and currently serves as a director of Neurelis, Inc., a private company, and is a co-founder of Zerigo Health, Inc., Cadence, Inc., Evoke Pharma, Inc., Elevation Pharma, Inc., and Zogenix, Inc.

Mr. Hale is a co-founder and serves on the Board of Directors of BIOCOM and CONNECT and is a former member of the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and the Biotechnology Institute. He has served on the Board of Rady Children’s Hospital since 1986, including Chairman of the Board from 2011 to 2015, and is founder and Chairman of the Rady Children’s Institute of Genomic Medicine. He is a member of the UCSD Rady School of Management Dean’s Advisory Council, a member of the board of the University of San Diego, and is a former Director of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Hale was selected as a director due to his industry and executive business experience.

Kathleen Scott
Director

Ms. Scott is currently the Chief Financial Officer of ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biotech company. Prior to ARS, Ms. Scott was the Chief Financial Officer of Neurana Pharmaceuticals, Recros Medica, Adigica Health, Clarify Medical, Oncternal Therapeutics, MDRejuvena, and BioSurplus. Prior to BioSurplus, Ms. Scott was a Partner at RA Capital Advisors, a San Diego private investment bank providing financial advisory services. Ms. Scott spent over 15 years with RA Capital Advisors, completing billions of dollars of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and restructurings for a broad range of corporate clients. Ms. Scott started her career as an auditor in Arthur Andersen’s San Diego office, focusing on both public and private clients. Ms. Scott is board member and former board chair of the YMCA of San Diego County and is a CPA and CFA charter holder. Ms. Scott graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a B.S. in economics/ business. Ms. Scott was selected as a director due to her extensive industry and financial experience.

Brittany Bradrick
Director

Brittany Bradrick has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Neurelis, Inc. since October 2021. Prior to joining Neurelis, Ms. Bradrick was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at ViaCyte. She previously served in strategy and corporate development positions for 10 years at Insulet Corporation as Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development and at Abbott Diabetes Care as the Head of Corporate Development. Prior to these positions, Ms. Bradrick was an investment banker for the life science industry at Piper Jaffray, Credit Suisse, and Chase Securities for 10 years. Ms. Bradrick began her career as a Federal Reserve Bank Examiner. Ms. Bradrick holds an M.B.A. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Missouri. Ms. Bradrick is also on the Board of Directors at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, where she is the Audit Chairperson.

Gerry Proehl
Chairman, President, and CEO

Mr. Proehl is a Founder, President, CEO and Director of Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. Formerly he was President and CEO of Santarus, Inc., where he led the sale of Santarus to Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion.  Prior to Santarus, Mr. Proehl was with Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. for 14 years, where he served in various capacities, including VP of Global Marketing. While at Hoechst, he was responsible for marketing products in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, allergy/respiratory, immunology, and neurology.  Mr. Proehl holds a B.S. in Education from State University of New York at Cortland, an M.A. in Exercise Physiology from Wake Forest University, and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst College.  Mr. Proehl currently serves on the board of one public company, Tenax Therapeutics, Inc.

Mary Fisher
Director

Ms. Fisher currently serves as Chair and Chief Executive Officer, at Colorescience Inc., a science-based skincare company and former division of SkinMedica, Inc. While at SkinMedica, Ms. Fisher served as Chief Executive Officer, where she led the successful sale of the company to Allergan, Inc. for $350 million. Prior to joining SkinMedica, Ms. Fisher served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR). She previously held management and leadership positions at Cephalon, Inc., Immunex Corp. from November 1990 to March 1994, and Boehringer Ingelheim. She previously served on the Board of Directors at ZELTIQ Aesthetics, Inc., and Ovascience. Ms. Fisher currently sits on the Board of Sientra. Ms. Fisher was selected as a director due to her extensive business and professional experience.

Andrew Sandler M.D.
Director

Andrew Sandler, M.D. currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Alpine Immune Sciences. Prior to joining Alpine Immune Sciences, he was Chief Medical Officer at Kiadis Pharma prior to its acquisition by Sanofi, providing strategic oversight of the company’s clinical development, clinical operations, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, safety/pharmacovigilance, scientific communication, and life -cycle management. Before that, he served as Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs at Medivation (Pfizer) where he provided strategic leadership direction in building and maintaining a Medical Affairs team for the development of their investigational agents in late-stage development while leading the life cycle management of their marketed products.  Prior to Medivation, Dr. Sandler held various roles including Chief Medical Officer, Executive Vice President, R&D, Seattle Site Head and Senior Vice President, Clinical and Medial Affairs at Dendreon. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sandler was Chief Medical Officer at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Vice President and Head of Global Medical Affairs for Oncology at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, and held various positions at Berlex Oncology/Schering AG and Seattle Genetics, Inc.

Dr. Sandler holds a M.D. degree from Mount Sinai Medical Center and a B.S. degree in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester. Dr. Sandler completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Sandler also holds a Certificate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and was a Fellow in Hematology/Medical Oncology in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Wendell Wierenga, Ph.D.
Director

Dr. Wierenga joined the Dermata Board of Directors in September 2016. Dr. Wierenga previously served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Santarus, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.  Prior to Santarus, Dr. Wierenga served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Ambit Biosciences Corporation and Neurocrine Biosciences. Prior to Neurocrine, he served as the Chief Executive Officer for Syrrx, Inc. where he built an early stage biotech company which was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2005. Dr. Wierenga earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Cytokinetics, Ocera Therapeutics, and SRI Int’l and most recently was on the Board of Directors for Anacor Pharmaceuticals and XenoPort, Inc. prior to their sales to Pfizer and Arbor Pharmaceuticals, respectively. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Concert Pharmaceuticals, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and aTyr Pharma, Inc.

Steve Mento Ph.D.
Director

Dr. Mento currently serves as the Excecutve Chairperson and interim President and CEO at Histogen. Dr. Mento previously served as a director on the board of directors of Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and, Dr. Mento served as chairman of Conatus’ board of directors. Dr. Mento was a co-founder of Conatus and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer until its merger with Histogen Inc. (NASDAQ: HSTO). Dr. Mento has over 30 years of combined experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Mento was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Mento guided Idun during its transition from a discovery focused organization to a drug development company with multiple products in or near human clinical testing. Idun was sold to Pfizer Inc. Previously, Dr. Mento served as President of Chiron Viagene, Inc. (subsequently Chiron Technologies, Center for Gene Therapy), and Vice President of Chiron Corporation. Dr. Mento was Vice President of research and development at Viagene. Prior to Viagene, Dr. Mento held various positions at American Cyanamid Company, including as Director of Viral Vaccine Research and Development at Lederle-Praxis Biologicals, a business unit of American Cyanamid. Dr. Mento currently serves on the board of directors of Histogen, BIOCOM California and various academic and charitable organizations. He previously served on the boards of Biotechnology Innovation Organization, BIO Emerging Companies Section Governing Board, BIO Health Section Governing Board, and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. Dr. Mento holds a Ph.D. and M.S., both in Microbiology, from Rutgers University, and a B.A. in Microbiology from Rutgers College. Dr. Mento was selected as a director due to his experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including executive leadership experience at several pharmaceutical companies.