Meet Our Team

Ms. Stewart founded BMT InfoNet in 1990 and served as its Executive Director for 36 years. A transplant survivor herself, she brought great insight and perspective to her work and was widely considered a vital resource to the entire transplant community. Sue authored Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplants: A Guide for Patients; Autologous Stem Cell Transplants: A Handbook for Patients; Graft-versus-Host Disease: What to Know, What to Do; and CAR T-Cell Therapy: What to Expect Before, During, and After - all of which are used extensively by transplant centers to educate patients. 

Ms. Stewart has served as a patient advocate on several national advisory boards and has won awards for her advocacy work. She is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Sociology/Urban Affairs.

Penina Seidman became BMT InfoNet’s Executive Director in 2026, and leads programs, partnerships, and strategic growth, bringing deep experience in patient advocacy, healthcare leadership, and nonprofit operations. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and advocates, focusing on helping people who face a serious illness navigate complex medical systems.

Before joining BMT InfoNet, Penina held senior leadership roles across healthcare and nonprofit organizations, where she led strategy, operations, partnerships, and growth initiatives. She is known for her ability to turn vision into practical systems and for her commitment to ensuring that individuals and families have access to meaningful support and trusted resources throughout their journeys.

Marla coordinates BMT InfoNet's annual Celebrating a Second Chance at Life Survivorship Symposium. She also manages BMT InfoNet's online Transplant and CAR T-cell Directories, as well as the GVHD Provider Directory. Prior to joining BMT InfoNet, Marla was a  volunteer stem cell donor for an unrelated patient, an experience she describes as very humbling,

Cindy oversees BMT InfoNet's Caring Connections program, which connects transplant and CAR T patients and caregivers with survivors who can answer questions, share their experiences, and provide emotional support. Cindy is also BMT InfoNet's website manager. As the parent of a child diagnosed with leukemia at a young age, Cindy understands the emotional turmoil families face when a loved one is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Lynne manages BMT InfoNet's corporate partnership programs. Empathetic to the caregiver experience, Lynne became involved in the vital work of BMT InfoNet after her brother recovered from a stem cell transplant for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).  She also manages the production of BMT InfoNet’s books and brochures.   

Michala manages BMT InfoNet's support group program. She also manages BMT InfoNet's Directory of Mental Health Providers and coordinates the production of webinars on topics of interest to transplant and CAR T-cell recipients. 

Marsha manages BMT InfoNet’s Patient Assistance Fund (PAF), which provides financial support to transplant and CAR T-cell patients during treatment.

Steve is the administrator of the BMTinfonet Private Group on Facebook. He received a double cord blood transplant in 2016 to treat acute myeloid leukemia and is very grateful for his full recovery. His memoir How Steve Became Ralph: A Cancer/Stem Cell Odyssey (with Jokes) taught him the therapeutic benefits of telling our stories, and he warmly welcomes new members and their wisdom in the BMTinfonet Private Group.

Julia manages translation of BMT InfoNet's publications and website into Spanish, and responds to inquiries from Spanish-speaking patients and caregivers. She is a retired Argentinean career diplomat who served as Consul General in Chicago. She later served as Director of Latin American Division at Minnesota International Medicine where she assisted Spanish-speaking BMT patients and families through their medical treatments. 

Margaret is BMT InfoNet's office manager who maintains databases and process orders for BMT InfoNet's patient handbooks.  Her own experience with chronic illness sparked her interest in patient advocacy. 

Dr. Bishop is a clinical health psychologist with over 25 years of experience working with cancer patients and their family caregivers. Throughout her professional career, she has worked with bone marrow/stem cell transplant survivors and caregivers, helping them before, during, and after transplant. She was author of a groundbreaking report highlighting psychosocial challenges faced by bone marrow transplant family caregivers. Dr. Bishop is the lead support group facilitator for several of BMT InfoNet's patient and caregiver support groups.

Ms. Fletcher is a social worker at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and previously worked as a social worker at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston where she counseled patients who were undergoing bone marrow/stem cell transplantation or CAR-T therapy. In her private practice, she works with patients who have a blood disorder or other cancer.  She currently facilitates several of BMT InfoNet's GVHD support groups, including one for young adults.

Holly Barron MSW, LICSW is a clinical social worker at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where she has worked since 2016. She spent five years in the adult Hematological Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant Center, working directly with transplant recipients and caregivers before, during and after transplant. She also facilitated a support group for transplant recipients who were more than a year post-transplant, many of whom were living with chronic GVHD. 

Ms. Scanlon is a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in helping children, adolescents, and families experiencing serious illness, grief, loss, and coping. She is very familiar with bone marrow/stem cell transplantation and CAR T-cell therapy and has helped patients and their families cope with issues such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and secondary cancers.

She is passionate about guiding and supporting families as they cope with serious illness. She recognizes that when an individual is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family system is impacted and she works with the individual and whole family to reduce feelings of isolation and address coping, bridging communication gaps amidst managing difficult situations, and a variety of other needs.

Ms. Kinnicutt was a clinical social worker at UC San Francisco Medical Center in the outpatient Hematology/BMT clinic for 4+ years. She worked with patients and families from initial diagnosis and initiation of treatment, through assessment and preparing patients for a stem cell transplant through hospitalization and survivorship. She has worked extensively with patients dealing with GVHD, those who received photopheresis treatment, and those whose GVHD has limited their lives in many ways. 

Ms. Kinnicutt currently leads several of BMT InfoNet's GVHD support groups. 

Ms. Franzetti is a licensed clinical social worker dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by cancer. She specializes in working with the blood cancer community and has extensive experience working with CAR-T survivors. In working closely with patients before and after CAR T-cell therapy. Ms. Franzetti understands the unique challenges CAR T-cell patients face. She’s passionate about the importance of emotional and social well-being in cancer care, and she is committed to helping patients improve their overall quality of life post CAR-T. She currently leads BMT InfoNet's CAR T-cell support groups.