Our dedicated leadership team fosters the growth of the foundation through their expertise and commitment to our mission.
Karen Cassel
President & Chief Executive Officer
Appointed as MedicAlert’s President & CEO in October 2020, Karen is a digital marketing pioneer and start-up veteran. She has been leading and scaling digital marketing services companies for over 20 years. While CEO of Caring.com, Karen transformed the company into the number two senior care referral business in the nation and led it through two successful exits.
Prior to Caring.com, Karen’s other leadership positions include social media giant Tagged, as well as digital marketing companies QuinStreet, Exponential Interactive, and Focus Media, where she led the turnaround and sale to Ziff Davis Media.
Karen earned her M.B.A. from Stanford University’s GSB and a B.S. in Mathematics and Quantitative Economics from Tufts University.
Josefina Jervis
Chief Operating Officer
MedicAlert Foundation COO since November 2017, Josefina oversees all aspects of the Foundation’s operations. She was previously Chief Product Officer, CEO and Co-Founder of openDoctor, a cloud-based enterprise platform designed to connect patients, physicians and staff with online appointments, registration and payments in real time.
Prior to co-founding openDoctor, she was Group Marketing Manager at Nestle Waters North America where she worked on the transformation and rebranding of the home and office delivery services as well as running Loyalty and Retention marketing, Promotions and product plan offerings for the subscription-based business. Previously, Jo was at American Express for 8 years where she held various marketing and product development leadership roles, her last being Vice President of US Marketing & Global Prepaid New Product Development.
She earned her B.S. in Finance and International Business from Fairfield University.
Kathy Koo
Chief Financial Officer
Kathy joined MedicAlert Foundation in September of 2022. As CFO, she directs and oversees the financial activities of the organization. She brings to MedicAlert over 20 years of experience in executive leadership in both private sector operations and nonprofit management. She most recently served as the Executive Director of Challenge Success, an educational, research based nonprofit supporting student well-being and academic engagement, and prior to this led a co-educational PreK-8th independent school steeped in a mission of progressive education.
Kathy earned an MBA from Stanford University, a BA in Management Science from the University of California, San Diego, as well as holds a CPA license from the California State Board of Accountancy.