Daniel B. and Florence E. Green Endowed Professorship in Ataxia

School of Medicine

Neurology

Established in 2021 by the David B. and Florence E. Green Foundation

In the summer after his freshman year of college, DANIEL B. GREEN bought a $99 ticket on the Pennsylvania railroad and headed west. Dan stayed with family friends at his first stop in Chicago, where he met their daughter and his future wife, FLORENCE (“Flo”) WEISS. After just a few dates, Dan and Flo were quickly engaged and set the wedding for February 17, 1946.

Dan and Flo had a loving and timeless marriage which spanned over six decades as they shared in an abundance of commonalities in family heritage, values, and interests. They both knew that they were perfectly matched as a couple. Of the many lessons that she learned from her mother, Flo knew that “the foundation of a successful relationship is respect.” This was embodied in her marriage with Dan and exemplified through their motto: “I’ll meet you halfway.”

In 1947, Flo took a leap of faith and left her family and friends in Chicago to embark on a new journey with the love of her life in Philadelphia. Dan was to work for the family business, Firstrust Bank, and finish his law degree at Temple University.

Dan and Flo accomplished a great deal throughout their marriage, supporting and pushing each other every day to be better and achieve their many goals, including starting a family. They eventually bought a house together and, in 1949, had their first son, Benjamin. They had Richard in 1952, and Arlin in 1955. Flo cared for their home and family while working on her golf game, soon becoming a 16-time club champion, while Dan continued to evolve his role at the bank.

Dan and Flo were quite active in the Jewish community. They were founding members of Main Line Reform Temple where they attended services regularly, and Dan served on the board for ten years. In 2006, through the Daniel B. Green and Florence E. Green Family Foundation (The Green Family Foundation), they dedicated the Green Family Chapel at Main Line Reform in memory of a dear friend. Soon after, Dan got involved with the national organization serving on the board of the Reform Congregation of America for a decade. He was in charge of the fundraising for the Philadelphia area for two years. Without Flo’s love and support, many of Dan’s accomplishments could not have been made possible.

Commitment to Community

The Greens both had longstanding charitable intent from early on in their lives in Philadelphia. As Flo was beginning to get acclimated in her new city, she was introduced by her mother-in-law to the Fellowship Commission of Philadelphia. At the time, this was the nation’s largest human rights organization with a mission to combat anti-Semitism, discrimination, and prejudice in Philadelphia. Additionally, Flo joined Hadassah, the American Jewish Zionist Volunteer Women’s Organization.

Dan also volunteered his time helping the Philadelphia settlement movement. He supported Federation of Neighborhood Centers (FNC Philadelphia), an organization formed in 1906 with the goal of creating equal opportunity for children, adults, seniors, and families by building and rebuilding safer neighborhoods in order for them to prosper in their communities.
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Soon after, Dan got involved with the precursor to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, an organization with a comparable mission to FNC. For four years, Dan was the head of the Philadelphia chapter, an association that the Green family still supports to this day.

Given their reputable relationship with the community and a fierce desire to better serve the greater Philadelphia area and beyond, Dan and Flo established the Daniel B. & Florence E. Green Family Foundation in 2005. The Green Family Foundation is dedicated to cultivating and investing in innovative and impactful solutions that foster inclusive and interconnected communities so that individuals and communities flourish and reach their full potential. It was Dan and Flo’s aspiration for the Green Family Foundation to continue to serve the community for generations to come.

Their wishes are now coming to fruition as the second and third generations of the Green family are committed to and deeply involved in the work of the Foundation. The members of the Green family are devoted to making “PopPop Dan” and “Nanny Flo” proud by living out their legacy of working together as a family for the benefit of their beloved community.

In addition to continuing Dan and Flo’s support of FNC, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and Federation Housing, the Green Family Foundation also has a longstanding philanthropic partnership with City Year Philadelphia, administers the Samuel A. Green Scholarship Program, which recognizes a graduating high school senior in the Greater Philadelphia or Lehigh Valley area who demonstrates leadership potential and a fierce commitment to making a substantial impact in their community, and more recently, began supporting the Johns Hopkins Ataxia Center.

Benjamin, Barbara and Charles Green

Benjamin Green is the eldest son of Dan and Flo, and is a patient of Dr. Rosenthal. He is married to Barbara, and they recently relocated from Calabasas, California, to reside full-time in Annapolis. This allows Ben and Barbara to be closer to their adult son, Charles, who also lives in Annapolis, and have easy access to medical care at Johns Hopkins.

Ben inspired the Green family’s interest in and commitment to the work of Dr. Rosenthal and the Johns Hopkins Ataxia Center, and Barbara has been an incredible advocate for us.

Richard J. Green

Richard is the middle son of Dan and Flo, and currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Firstrust Bank. He is also a minority owner of the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team, after losing a bid to buy the team in 1985, and has ownership stakes in hotel properties in the Turks and Caicos.

After graduating from Haverford School in 1969 where he played football and lacrosse, Richard earned undergraduate degrees in economics and political studies from Tufts University, and then an MBA/JD from Southern Methodist University.

In addition to serving as Trustee of the Green Family Foundation, Richard currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Penn Medicine, the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and the Executive Board of Federation Housing.

Richard has three children – Brittany and Julia (bios below), who both work for the Green Family Foundation, and Jeffrey, who works for Firstrust Bank.

Held by Liana S. Rosenthal

LIANA S. ROSENTHAL, M.D., Ph.D., graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in biology with a neuroscience concentration from Duke University. As an undergraduate, she was awarded the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Fellow in Neuroscience and twice received funding from the Undergraduate Research Support Program. Before matriculating to medical school at Johns Hopkins University, she worked for two years as a research assistant in an auditory neuroscience basic science laboratory at Johns Hopkins. After earning her medical doctorate, Dr. Rosenthal completed her internship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and then went on to a neurology residency at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Rosenthal subsequently completed a two-year movement disorder fellowship at Johns Hopkins in order to continue her training in the treatment of the motor and cognitive manifestations of these diseases. During this time, she successfully obtained a KL2 award which facilitated matriculation as a full-time student at the Bloomberg School of Public Health during her second year of fellowship, laying the foundation for a subsequent Ph.D. in Clinical Investigations awarded in 2019 and influencing the direction of her overall clinical research program. With a keen interest in clinical and translational research, and biomarker identification in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and spinocerebellar ataxia, Dr. Rosenthal became an instructor in 2012 then joined the faculty as assistant professor in 2013.

Dr. Rosenthal’s research in cognitive change in the setting of neurodegenerative diseases began during her residency, and developed more fully during her fellowship years to focus on the identification of biomarkers for cognitive changes among individuals with PD and improving the quality of life of people with neuropsychiatric symptoms of Parkinson’s. In addition to the KL2 award, she was instrumental in obtaining funding for what became the Johns Hopkins site for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Parkinson’s Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP). Serving as co-chair of the overall PDBP steering committee for two years, Dr. Rosenthal co-authored meaningful publications and established a biorepository that would become the basis of the neurodegenerative disease biofluid bank and protocol at Johns Hopkins.

Samples from this cohort have been involved in meaningful advancements in our knowledge of Parkinson’s disease related to the role of Poly(ADP-ribose) – PAR, for short – and the potential therapeutic benefits of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Additionally, as part of her doctoral dissertation, she determined that PAR is a possible progression marker for PD. Dr. Rosenthal is investigating numerous other possible Parkinson’s biomarkers with the biofluid bank she helped to create, including exploring alpha-synuclein strain toxicity and c-Abl pathway markers as potential progression biomarkers. While these biomarker identification efforts have all been targeted based on our understanding of PD pathophysiology, she is also utilizing discovery-based platforms to identify protein-based cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for PD, atypical Parkinsonian disorders, and cerebellar ataxias of unknown etiology.

Dr. Rosenthal has served as director of the Johns Hopkins Ataxia Center since 2013. Under her leadership, the center’s patient census and staffing level more than doubled, a multidisciplinary clinic framework was implemented where patients see their neurologist and a selection of other paraprofessionals depending on their individual needs over the course of one inclusive visit, and a comprehensive spinocerebellar ataxia research program was created. The center’s clinical infrastructure provides a robust participant recruitment environment for research, giving Dr. Rosenthal the opportunity to take knowledge from the bench to the bedside, and back again.

Benefiting from thoughtful mentorship and highly specialized training opportunities throughout the course of her academic and professional careers, Dr. Rosenthal is committed to providing experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as advanced trainees, to grow the community of medical professionals with a deep understanding of and passion for spinocerebellar ataxia and other movement disorders. She regularly has students and trainees shadowing her in clinic, hosts summer internships for post-baccalaureate students, and has a track record of developing future research coordinators and medical students through these efforts. Additionally, she currently serves as co-chair of the Department of Neurology’s resident selection committee and has reviewed proposals for the department’s internal review board for K and R grants.

Dr. Rosenthal is nationally recognized as a leader in Parkinson’s disease biomarker discovery and all aspects of spinocerebellar ataxia. Her expertise in these distinct areas has led to her service as co-chair of the Parkinson’s Study Group Biomarkers Working Group, two terms as steering committee co-chair of the NINDS Parkinson’s Disease Biomarker Program, and presently serving as the medical director for the National Ataxia Foundation as well as co-director of the Clinical Research Consortium for Studies of Cerebellar Ataxias (CRC-SCA), an ongoing natural history study of specific spinocerebellar ataxias.