From left: Lou Philipson, MD, PhD; Jay Franke; Sally Kovler; Donald Steiner, MD; Laurie Jaffe; Dirk Degenaars; Peggy Hasenauer, MS, RN. Not pictured: Khalid Alagel, Mary Jo Basler and Warner Saunders.
The Kovler Diabetes Center Leadership Board promotes the vision and mission of the Kovler Diabetes Center, and to support the needs of the physicians who provide clinical care, research, education and outreach. We invite you to learn more about this incredible team of people!
Khalid Alagel
Khalid Alagel is the Founder and CEO of The Gulf Care Group (GCG), an innovative healthcare consulting company which develops international patient programs for client hospitals. For over a decade, he has worked with foreign heads of state in the promotion of advanced medical treatments and facilitation of international physician exchange programs. He is also a founding partner in Healthcare Language Services, a medical interpretation and translation services company in Chicago, IL. Previously, Mr. Alagel was a Senior Advisor to the Saudi Industrial Export Company (SIEC), Chemtex USA.
Mary Jo Basler
In addition to supporting cancer and diabetes research at the University of Chicago Medical Center
and the Kovler Diabetes Center, Mary Jo Basler is a member of the Woman’s Board of the Joffrey
Ballet and the board of trustees for Providence St. Mel High School in Chicago. She and her husband,
Doug Basler, have two children: a daughter, Lauren, who will be a senior at George Washington
University in Washington D.C.; and a son, Michael, who is in eighth grade. The Baslers live in
Lake Forest and have a second home in Chicago.
Doug Basler succeeded his father Don as president and owner of United Conveyor Corporation
(UCC), a Waukegan-based firm founded in 1920, which specializes in the design, supply, construction,
and maintenance of ash handling and other abrasive material handling systems. UCC also has
facilities in Tainjin, China, and Calcutta, India.
Dirk Degenaars
Dirk Degenaars is a partner in a private equity real estate investment management firm based in Chicago and
is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and Urban Land Institute. He is on
the board of the Kenilworth United Fund and has previously served on the Juvenile Diabetes Research
Foundation (Illinois Chapter) board.
Jay Franke
Jay Franke began his formal dance training at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing
and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. He continued his studies at The Juilliard School, where he
worked with choreographers such as Benjamin Harkarvy, Glen Tetley, Igal Perry, and Lila York.
In 1993 he was selected as a finalist for Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Upon receiving his bachelor
of fine arts degree in dance from The Juilliard School, Franke went to work with the Twyla
Tharp Dance Company (THARP!) Franke moved to Chicago in 1999 to join Hubbard Street
Dance Chicago. He has danced with Chicago companies including The 58 Group, The Lyric Opera
Ballet Chicago, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and was founder of the non-profit Chicago
Arts Project.
Most recently, Franke served as the co-chair for the Joffrey Ballet’s 2009 Spring Gala in Chicago.
He co-founded and is a performer in the Chicago Dancing Festival.
Franke and his partner, David Hero, have been supporters of diabetes research through the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.
Laurie Jaffe
Laurie Anne Jaffe has worked with national and local nonprofit organizations for nearly 30 years
as a manager, consultant, and trainer in strategic planning and public affairs, including all aspects of
media operations and public education. Married to Michael Jaffe, she is a busy mother to three children:
Nathan, 12, Charlotte, 8, and Lilly, 10. Laurie and Michael support diabetes research through
the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and ongoing monogenic diabetes research at the University
of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center.
Jaffe became passionate about contributing to the Kovler Diabetes Center when, in 2006, Lilly was
re-diagnosed with monogenic diabetes, a discovery that allowed her to transition from insulin to
oral medication. Jaffe started an email discussion group connecting and supporting families affected
by monogenic diabetes, and helped organize Kovler’s first Monogenic Diabetes Center Family Forum
in July 2010, which brought together most of those families for the first time. She continues to
work with Kovler to spread the message about monogenic diabetes through grassroots and national
media efforts. Jaffe and her husband are working with a documentary maker to produce a film on
monogenic diabetes for television.
Sally Kovler
Sally Meyers Kovler has been active in the Chicago nonprofit community since 1986. She is a life
member and former chair of the board of trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago,
and board member of the Chicago High School for the Arts. The Kovlers are a founding family of
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and as a longtime supporter, Sally is engaged in
a variety of capacities with the organization. She previously has served on the boards of the Lynn
Sage Cancer Research Foundation and the Chicago Foundation for Women. Kovler earned her
bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in speech pathology from Temple University in Philadelphia,
and previously worked as an art consultant on the East Coast before moving to Chicago.
Since 1992 Kovler has been married to Jonathan Kovler, a University of Chicago Laboratory
Schools graduate. Jon, a private investor who also runs a family foundation, is a life member of the
Visiting Committee to the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine.
In addition to their generous support of the Kovler Diabetes Center, the Kovler family has also
funded:
• The Kovler Gymnasium at the Laboratory Schools
• The Marjorie B. Kovler Viral Oncology Laboratories, named for Jonathan’s mother in 1973
• The Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellow program, named for Jonathan’s mother
• The Everett Kovler Café in the Charles M. Harper Center, named in honor of
Jonathan’s father in 2005
Warner Saunders
Before his retirement in June of 2009, Warner Saunders was co-anchor of the 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10
p.m. newscasts on Chicago’s WMAQ-TV (NBC). Considered by many of his peers to be the most
versatile performer in the history of Chicago television, Saunders is the winner of 20 Emmys for
news, sports, documentaries, children’s programs, talk shows, and community town meetings.
Saunders also received the Illinois Broadcasters Association Public Service Award, the prestigious
Gabriel Award, the Ohio State Award, and the 1999 Hull House Jane Addams Award for his commitment
and service to the Chicago community. He is a proud member of the Chicago Journalism
Hall of Fame, the Chicago Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Silver Circle, and the past
president of the National Association of Black Journalists, Chicago Chapter.
His teaching career includes the Chicago Public Schools, National College of Education, Malcolm
X College, Northeastern Illinois University, and Indiana University Northwest campus, where he
was voted teacher of the year for two consecutive school terms.
Saunders received honorary doctorates of Humane Letters from Rush University Medical School in
2004 and from St. Xavier University in 2007.
A native Chicagoan, Saunders earned a bachelor’s degree at Xavier University, New Orleans, and a
master’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University. He and his wife, Sadako, live in Chicago.
They have one adult son, Warner, Jr.
Donald F. Steiner, MD
The University’s A.N. Pritzker Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a
founding member of the Kovler Diabetes Center Board, Donald F. Steiner, MD is an international
leader in insulin biology and diabetes whose work revolutionized how scientists understand the
production of hormones such as insulin. A 1956 graduate of the University of Chicago Medical
School, Steiner, in 1965, discovered proinsulin in the pancreas and the related process by which
the body produces insulin. This landmark discovery of the first “pro-hormone” enabled the pharmaceutical
industry to increase the purity of insulin preparations extracted from animals, which
has improved the management of diabetes and created a better life for millions of diabetic patients
worldwide.
Working with colleagues at the University, Dr. Steiner discovered the first case of diabetes caused
by abnormal insulin (which they labeled “insulin Chicago”), and collaborated with a Japanese team
to describe the first disorder caused by an abnormal insulin receptor. He and his colleagues isolated
the human C-peptide; the radioimmunoassay for C-peptide they produced has enhanced the diagnosis
of insulin-secreting tumors of the pancreas and greatly aided in evaluating the success of islet
transplants.
Dr. Steiner’s many honors include the 2009 Manpei Suzuki Diabetes Award, the largest such
recognition for diabetes research; the Lily, Koch and Gairdner awards; the Wolf Prize in Medicine,
and several honorary degrees. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Chicago’s
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2006, the University established The Donald F. Steiner
Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research in his honor.
