Directors & Team

Kevin Lenaburg is the Policy Director for Clusterbusters. For more than a dozen years he has worked to support people living with pain and advance policies that reduce suffering. Kevin brings twenty years of public health and advocacy experience to his work with Clusterbusters. For five years he led a national headache and migraine coalition, and prior to this he was Vice President at the world's largest public relations agency, where he focused on healthcare communications and advocacy.

Kevin concurrently serves as the Executive Director of the Psychedelics & Pain Association. His experience includes building national coalitions, organizing stakeholder summits, engaging in policy and regulatory issues, and building relationships with a diverse range of organizations.

Kevin earned a master's degree in Applied Politics from American University and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of California San Diego.

Cluster Headache Consensus Conferences 

Ashley Saoud (St. Amand) is the Strategy Director for the Cluster Headache Consensus Conference. She brings more than 15 years of experience in healthcare communications, marketing, and education, with a career focused on distilling complex challenges into strategic oppo22rtunities and translating them into actionable plans that drive measurable progress.

For eight years, Ashley worked at Allergan in migraine, where she became deeply aware of the gap between what was possible in migraine care and the unmet needs of people living with the disease. This inspired her to develop a think-tank-style summit that brought together patients, clinicians, researchers, advocacy organizations, and policy experts to envision a better future and collaborate on a path toward meaningful change.

Prior to Allergan, Ashley worked for healthcare communications agencies, where she learned to lead complex initiatives, build the infrastructure to bring ideas to life, and align cross-functional teams around shared objectives.

Throughout her career, Ashley has worked at the intersection of strategy, science, and communication, bringing diverse perspectives together to turn ideas into action. She brings this experience to Clusterbusters with a belief that progress begins when people come together around something bigger than any one individual or organization. She is passionate about helping create the connections, ideas, and momentum needed to transform the future for people with cluster headache.

Ashley earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Government from Cornell University and resides in Jacksonville, Florida, with her husband and son.

Anna had her first cluster headache attack in 2013. Like many in our community, she was initially misdiagnosed since she experiences migraine as well. In 2017, she experienced an increase in attacks and was diagnosed correctly. Discouraged over the lack of information and treatments, researching led her to Clusterbusters. She and her doctor realized she has the chronic form and has to actively manage her condition.

In January 2023, Anna joined the Board of Directors for Clusterbusters. She focuses on patient support programming. Finding connections in the community helped her and she wants to help others find their connections. She enjoys working with organizations and patient communities to bring awareness to cluster headache, migraine, facial pain, and SUNCT/SUNA.

Anna is a proud mom to two daughters.

Mary Franklin retired as the Executive Director of the National Headache Foundation on November 3, 2021 — a post she had held since June, 2016. She joined the National Headache Foundation staff in September, 2011 as Director of Operations. She previously held several positions at the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, retiring as Vice President of Publishing and Administration.

Until it ceased publication, Mary was the Managing Editor of Head Wise magazine. She has authored several articles on headache, and with Doctor Seymour Diamond is the coauthor of Conquering Your Migraine (2001) and Headache Through the Ages (2005).

She received a Master of Arts in Chicago Studies at Loyola University Chicago and a B.Ph. degree in History from Northwestern University. She continues in headache advocacy as an emeritus member of CHAMP and serves as Chair of its Governance Committee.

Matt is the current Treasurer and Board Member of Clusterbusters Inc. He has experienced chronic cluster headaches for over 30 years and, after struggling with ineffective medication and 2 surgeries, finally turned to Clusterbusters for support.

Matt spent 25 years doing consulting engineering for the electric power industry before moving on to his current role as Vice President of Construction and Engineering for a multistate cannabis cultivator and retailer.

Matt and his wife are avid music fans, with most vacations planned around music. He enjoys spending time with his daughter and stepdaughter, and playing guitar in local cover bands.

Matt earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, and his MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business.

Joe is a retired FDNY firefighter who spends his time advocating for causes close to his heart. With Clusterbusters/AHDA, Joe is a patient advocate for the Headache on the Hill event where he helps lobby Congress for increased recognition of, and more equitable policies toward Americans with disabling headache disorders.

Joe advocated alongside fellow first responders and Jon Stewart in 2015 and 2019 to get 9/11 health and compensation bills passed, and again with Burn Pits 360 to help pass the PACT Act in 2022. He also serves on the board of the Ray Pfeifer Foundation, helping 9/11 first responders with medical needs.

Joe graduated from Devry Technical Institute in 1988 and became a New York City firefighter in 1998. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

Gary began experiencing chronic cluster headaches and hemicrania continua in 2003, marking the start of a journey that has spanned more than two decades. That search for answers and community led him to Clusterbusters.

Since joining the organization, Gary has become an active contributor through the Clusterbuddies peer-to-peer support program and by facilitating a regional support group in Texas. He regularly participates in Headache on the Hill to raise awareness and promote legislative action.

Gary holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and manages an engineering team in the energy and aerospace industries. Gary and his wife enjoy spending time outdoors, traveling, cheering on college football, and sharing life's adventures with their three granddaughters.

Dr. Burish received his MD PhD in the Vanderbilt Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his neurology residency at the University of California at San Francisco, his fellowship in interventional pain management in the department of Anesthesiology at UCSF, and later obtained headache certification through the UCNS practice track. Dr. Burish's cluster headache research surrounds epidemiology as well as basic science circadian mechanisms.

Dr. McGeeney received his medical degree from University College Dublin, Ireland, before completing a neurology residency, pain fellowship and Master of Public Health at Boston University and Boston Medical Center. He obtained boards in Neurology, Pain Medicine, and the UCNS board in Headache Medicine.

He recently moved to the JR Graham Headache Center, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. McGeeney is an associate editor of the journal Headache and since 2006 secretary of the Headache Cooperative of New England. He also holds an MBA (Health Sector) from Boston University Questrum School of Business.

Dr. Gottschalk trained at Johns Hopkins, the Sorbonne, the Pasteur Institute, and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He remained at Columbia for residency at the Neurological Institute of NY before joining Yale in 1996.

Dr. Gottschalk is currently director of the Yale Headache and Facial Pain program and Chief of the section of General Neurology. He was UCNS board-certified in Headache Medicine in 2012, and has carried on the project to study the use of psilocybin in primary headache disorders begun by Andrew Sewell.

William B. Young, MD is a board-certified neurologist and Professor of Neurology, Co-Director of the In-Patient Program at the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University.

He is a fellow of the American Headache Society, American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He is past President of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, physician advisor to CHAMP, and President of Miles for Migraine. His special interests include migraine stigma, migraine phenomenology, and the treatment of intractable migraine.

Dr. Schindler is a board-certified Neurologist at Yale School of Medicine with expertise in headache medicine. She has executed the first controlled trials investigating the effects of psilocybin in cluster headache, and previously studied the neuropharmacology of psychedelics and other serotonergic compounds. She is also working to increase awareness about oxygen therapy in cluster headache.

Dr. Shapiro is a Professor of Neurological Sciences at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, where he is Director of the Division of Headache Medicine and the UCNS Headache Fellowship. He holds an MA from Oxford, a PhD from Penn, and an MD from Columbia, with residency at Johns Hopkins.

He is the Founding President of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, Past President of the Headache Cooperative of New England, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Headache Society. His publications have appeared in Nature, Science, and Science Translational Medicine.

Dr. Schor, himself a cluster headache patient, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia and a licensed psychotherapist. His research, teaching, and practice focus on the psychological effects and treatment of trauma. Dr. Schor, Dr. Mark Burish, and Mr. Stuart Pearson recently published an article on Oxygen and have presented their CHQ data nationally and internationally.

Monte B. Pellmar, M.D., FAAN, is a board-certified neurologist and Director of Headache Medicine at Hackensack Meridian Medical Group. He has been serving the community of Monmouth County for over 35 years.

Dr. Pellmar holds board certifications in neurology, headache medicine and acupuncture. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and a member of the American Headache Society and the International Headache Society.