PETER JENNISON is a senior partner and portfolio manager at Edgewood Management in Greenwich, Connecticut and a member of Edgewood’s Investment Committee. Prior to joining Edgewood in 2006, Peter was at W.P. Stewart & Co. for 16 years where he was a senior member of the US equity research and money management teams. He was also President and Portfolio Manager of the W.P. Stewart Growth Fund, a ‘40 Act mutual fund. Peter began his career as a specialist clerk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and later became a Research Coordinator at Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc. He was educated at Babson College and Columbia University. Peter joined the Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery in 2007 and currently serves as Chairman of the Neurosurgery Advisory Board.
ALI JENNISON is a freelance graphic designer with 40+ years of experience in corporate communications, graphic design, and creative solutions. Ali has volunteered to design many of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery’s print and online material. She has worked in a variety of creative and production roles including production manager at Burnett Group, assistant art director at Jan Krukowski Associates, and assistant production manager at M + Co. Some of her top clients have been Merrill Lynch, the National Gallery of Art, and the Holocaust Museum. Ali has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Vermont and graphic design training from Shillington Education. She also serves on the Neurosurgery Advisory Board as an integral member.
Peter and Ali Jennison have been longtime generous supporters of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery. Together with advisory board members Frank and Jill Novak, the Jennisons established the Jennison-Novak Families Professorship in Neurosurgery in 2018, held by Chetan Bettegowda, M.D., Ph.D. The Jennisons have also recently established the magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) program in the Department of Neurosurgery to empower researchers at Johns Hopkins, helping them to conduct cutting-edge research and develop innovative treatments for patients.
The Jennison Family Rising Professorship is one more way the Jennisons help to illuminate hope for the future of neurosurgery research. Giving early career professionals extra support and encouragement in the form of quality mentorship and premiere resources is worth it — they’re the lifeblood of any organization. The Jennisons are honored to support Dr. Jordina Rincon-Torroella with her groundbreaking research at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and they look forward to the future of neurosurgery and the kinds of innovative treatments being discovered at Johns Hopkins.
Held by Jordina Rincon-Torroella
JORDINA RINCON-TORROELLA, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery who joined the faculty in 2023 after completing medical school at the University of Barcelona and residency at Johns Hopkins. Her clinical practice focuses on treating patients with benign and malignant tumors of the brain and skull base. She is particularly interested in awake craniotomies, minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures, and endoscopic endonasal approaches.
She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Brain Tumor Surgery in 2016 and another one in Cancer Research and Neurosurgical Oncology in 2022. During her training, her progress and passion for academic neurosurgery culminated in being the first international woman to complete the Johns Hopkins Neurosurgery residency program. During her residency, she was awarded the prestigious NIH NINDS R25 research training grant to develop her scientific training and became a Johns Hopkins Physician Scientist Training Program Scholar. This environment allowed her to receive direct mentorship from figures of rather incredible scientific caliber, such as Dr. Bert Vogelstein and Dr. Chetan Bettegowda, who have been critical in shaping her future as a neurosurgeon-scientist.
Dr. Rincon-Torroella’s research is focused on targeted therapies and drug development for brain tumors. Dr. Rincon-Torroella and her collaborators recently discovered a novel therapy that can be efficacious against various cancers. Specifically, her project designed, patented, and tested a drug compound (ME3BP) that targets MCT1, a metabolic transporter upregulated in pancreatic, triple-negative breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and glioblastoma. Her work in the laboratory was recognized by the Department of Neurosurgery with the Harvey Cushing Hunterian Research Award in 2022. Her work so far has resulted in 69 peer-reviewed articles, 63 book chapters, two patents, two edited books, and several talks at national and regional conferences.
She co-directs the Brain Tumor Genetics Lab with her mentor, Dr. Bettegowda. She plans on building on her prior experience and going one step forward by combining Magnetic Resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) with ME3BP to treat patients suffering from brain cancer.
Her goal is to be a technically excellent neurosurgeon who can advance the field of neuro-oncology with significant scientific contributions in novel therapeutics and drug delivery. The biomarker she identified has the potential to unlock a critical component in the pathogenesis of brain tumors and translate a promising treatment combination for this cohort of patients in need. This would lay the groundwork for combining long-due targeted therapies with technological development to combat the hurdle of drug delivery to brain cancers.
PETER JENNISON is a senior partner and portfolio manager at Edgewood Management in Greenwich, Connecticut and a member of Edgewood’s Investment Committee. Prior to joining Edgewood in 2006, Peter was at W.P. Stewart & Co. for 16 years where he was a senior member of the US equity research and money management teams. He was also President and Portfolio Manager of the W.P. Stewart Growth Fund, a ‘40 Act mutual fund. Peter began his career as a specialist clerk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and later became a Research Coordinator at Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc. He was educated at Babson College and Columbia University. Peter joined the Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurosurgery in 2007 and currently serves as Chairman of the Neurosurgery Advisory Board.