Huntington Medical Research Institutes, a leading biomedical research organization in Southern California with a 70-year track record of impact, recently announced it added Dr. Edward Mena and accountant Rick Wentzel to its board of directors. “We are thrilled to welcome Edward and Rick to our board of directors,” Dr. Julia Bradsher, president and CEO of HMRI, said. “Their extensive insights, experience and guidance will play a critical role in continuing to execute HMRI’s mission of advancing scientific discovery and will help us scale our research organization over the next 10 years. Edward’s medical experience alongside Rick’s extensive financial expertise adds to the breadth of the existing board in bolstering HMRI’s strategic plan.”
Mena has more than 20 years of liver research and hepatology practice, currently serving as the medical director of Pasadena Liver Center and medical director-CEO of California Liver Research Institute. He previously worked at the HMRI Liver Center and later opened his own private practice and research facility focused on liver disease. His work over the years centered around improving liver care for diverse communities. His specialties include nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease in adult and pediatric patients, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in response to chronic hepatitis C and liver cancer. For his commitment to helping engage the broader health care community and the Latino community, he received the Hispanic Health Leadership Award in 2019 and the Health Care Visionary Award from the American Liver Foundation in 2020. After graduating from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, he received his executive Master of Business Administration from the USC Marshall School of Business. For more than 30 years, Wentzel has exclusively served not-for-profit organizations and currently is an independent consultant, assisting organizations with operational reviews, board governance reviews and risk assessments. Additionally, Wentzel has more than 35 years of public and private audit and accounting experience, serving a variety of industries, including higher education, health care and employee benefit plans.
First published in the May 18 print issue of the Pasadena Outlook.
