OUR FOUNDATION
Hope. Cures. Awareness. Advocacy. Access. Support.
RTW Charitable Foundation works to improve opportunities for all people to live healthier, longer lives and was created at the intersection of scientific advancements and humanitarian efforts.
Grant Applications
Foundation Mission
Identify unmet needs and impact research and patients directly.
The RTW Charitable Foundation is proud to support pioneers who are breaking new ground in the fight against diseases that may not represent compelling commercial opportunities, but do result in significant human suffering.
The Foundation is able to provide capital, manpower, and logistical support to help scientists push such projects forward. In addition, the Foundation aims to assist in advocacy, disease awareness and directly support patients and their families.
Grant Progams
The RTW Charitable Foundation supports transformative rare disease research, patient support, education and policy that measurably impacts patients.
2021
Priority Focus Area
For Unmet Needs
Pediatric rare diseases
Rare diseases in CNS & Cardiovascular System
COVID-related support
Fund rare disease research
Assist rare disease patients in getting access to experimental and approved therapies
Educate and raise awareness of rare diseases
Fund local and global relief efforts and humanitarian causes
Our Most Recent Work
COVID-19 Relief Effort
What's New
Investing in Human Lives
The RTW Charitable Foundation represents an extension of our investment firm mission. Our research process helps us identify important causes of human suffering, and introduces us to individuals and organizations trying to make a difference.
To our research grant recipients, we can offer not only financial support, but also guidance gleaned from our experience in drug development and company building.
Beyond research, the Foundation can offer support to humanitarian causes, initiatives that raise disease awareness and programs with a direct patient impact.
Fueling Innovation
And Beyond
Valuing What Matters
Providing
Advocating
Raising
RTW Charitable Foundation Leadership Team
Foundation Leadership
Deborah Slipetz
Vice President
Deborah serves as Vice President of RTW Charitable Foundation and is responsible for leading the foundation and executing on its strategic mission to improve opportunities for all people to live healthier, longer lives.
Prior to joining RTWCF, Deborah Slipetz was at Merck and has 30 years of experience as a drug hunter scientist and executive leader in the pharmaceutical industry. She was part of the team that invented SingulairTM for asthma and has brought an additional 25 drug candidates into clinical trials. Deborah has broad depth and breadth of experience in drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas. She recently served as Executive Director In-Vivo Pharmacology responsible for cardiovascular, diabetes, neuroscience, infectious diseases, respiratory, immunology and oncology therapeutic areas. Her core biology expertise lies within the respiratory and immunology area, where she held the position of therapeutic area lead.
Deborah most recently co-founded and served as the executive director of imagine@Merck, a transformative innovation engine that attracts thinkers and doers who seek to challenge the status quo by providing the framework to unleash and amplify their ingenuity to amplify change. This business unit served as a platform for employees to communicate and collaborate to drive change and identify solutions to pressing issues not only in drug development, but enterprise-wide. Her team was recognized by “Fast Company” in 2020 as one of the most “Innovative Teams”.
Deborah has a B.Sc. in cell and molecular biology, a M.Sc. in molecular genetics and a Ph.D. in pharmacology, all from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Nate Pelsma
Chief Operating Officer
Nate Pelsma serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the RTW Foundation and the Managing Director for Communications and People for RTW Investments where he is responsible for the operations for the Foundation and leading communications and organizational development initiatives for RTW.
Prior to RTW, Nate has spent the past ten years as CFO and COO of JMG, a youth workforce development organization, and Teach Plus, a national teacher leadership organization. He taught for eight years as an adjunct professor of nonprofit management at the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College. Prior to working at Teach Plus, he was an economist for Analysis Group. Nate started his nonprofit career at City Year where he managed national corporate partnerships. In addition, prior to joining the RTW team, Nate served as an independent board director for RTW’s private funds. Nate has an MBA from Boston College and a BA in English from the University of Kansas.
Board of Directors
Chairman
Roderick Wong, MD, serves as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of RTW. Rod is responsible for managing the firm’s investments focused on innovative drug development. Prior to forming RTW, he was a Managing Director and sole Portfolio Manager for the Davidson Kempner Healthcare Funds. Before joining Davidson Kempner, Rod held various healthcare investment and research roles at Sigma Capital Partners and Cowen & Company.
Rod simultaneously received an MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS in Economics from Duke University.
Rod has a keen interest in educating the next generation of life science entrepreneurs. He regularly sits on a variety of corporate boards. In addition, he serves on the board of Penn Medicine, as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at NYU Stern, and as Chairman of the RTW Charitable Foundation.
President
Stephanie A. Sirota, serves as a Partner and Chief Business Officer at RTW Investments, LP (“RTW”), where she is responsible for strategy and oversight of the firm’s business and corporate development as well as strategic partnerships with counterparties including banks, academic institutions, corporations, investors, and NGOs. She leads the business team on various types of domestic and cross-border transactions and is also responsible for shaping the firm’s governance policies underscoring impact and sustainability.
Stephanie has fifteen years of deal experience in financial services. Prior to joining RTW, she served as Director at Valhalla Capital Advisors, a macro and commodity investment manager. Stephanie also worked in the New York and London offices of Lehman Brothers, where she advised on various Merger & Acquisitions, IPOs, and capital market financing transactions with a focus on cross-border transactions for the firm’s global corporate clients.
Stephanie graduated with honors from Columbia University and also received a Master’s Degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She has contributed to Fortune Magazine and ABCNews.com.
She serves as a director of RTW Venture Fund Ltd; President of the RTW Charitable Foundation; and Co-Chairman of Council of the New York Philharmonic.
Marti Speranza Wong
President, Community Engagement
