The Isa Elaine Foundation is small on purpose. Because Christopher and Rachel Lazzara personally cover its operating costs, the team can stay small and send 100% of outside gifts to the work. What that small structure hides is the depth of experience behind it, much of it volunteered, and much of it personal.
A board that has built things before
Founder and Executive Advisor Christopher Lazzara, chief executive of MountainStar Partners and a longtime North Florida civic leader, and co-founder Rachel Lazzara, Isa’s mother, started the Foundation after their daughter Isa began showing symptoms of an ultra-rare, incurable pediatric disease at around six months old. Every gift the Foundation makes is made jointly by Rachel and Chris. They are joined by a board chosen for what they have already built.
Freddie Figgers, an inventor and telecommunications entrepreneur, built one of his first inventions at age fifteen, a GPS-tracking shoe to help his father, who was living with Alzheimer’s, a fitting reminder that this fight reaches adult disease too. Lenn Murrelle, MSPH, PhD, brings nearly four decades in epidemiology, drug development, and biomarker discovery, with more than 100 scientific publications, and serves as both Board Member and Scientific Advisor. Dale Pirkle, a West Point graduate who spent 32 years at Procter & Gamble, advises on operations.
Officers who keep it accountable
Kristen Cain, Director of Foundation Affairs and Secretary, keeps projects aligned with the mission and brings a background in recreational therapy supporting children and people with disabilities. Carol Lynch, CPA, serves as Treasurer, bringing a career in finance and accounting to keep the Foundation transparent and accountable.
Science and technology at the core
Marc Fariss, PhD, Isa’s great uncle and the Foundation’s early scientific guide, spent more than 40 years studying the cellular events behind human disease, from neurodegeneration to toxicology, and documented the nine-step cascade comparison between BPAN and the major adult neurodegenerative disorders for the Foundation in February 2025. The research itself is led at Stanford Medicine by Dr. Juliet Knowles, the Foundation’s research partner. And Travis Highsmith, Chief Technical Advisor, built the Foundation’s digital identity, including this website.
Still growing
The team continues to grow, with a new member to be introduced soon. Everyone here is assembled around a single mission.
No one on this team is the story. Isa is, and so is every child like her. This is simply the group of people determined to change what her diagnosis means.