Executive Team
Little Sparrows Technologies was launched in 2013 by Donna Brezinski, MD, and Gary Gilbert, MD, both doctors affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Today, we are a team of doctors, engineers, scientists, and designers dedicated to developing innovative solutions for our world's smallest humans.
Donna Brezinski
Founder, CEO
Donna graduated from Yale Medical School, completed a pediatrics residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and received her training in neonatology at the Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program. She is the inventor of the bili-hut™, an innovation drawn from years of clinical experience taking care of newborns to provide more effective, developmentally sensitive and family-centered treatment of neonatal jaundice.
Donna Brezinski, MD
Chief Executive Officer
Gary Gilbert
Founder, COO
Gary is Chief of Hematology & Oncology at VA Boston Healthcare Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He grew up in Los Alamos, NM, the son of a physicist. With his own expertise in biophysics he developed a novel bench assay to inform the unique shape of the bili-hut light canopy and demonstrate its superiority to conventional phototherapy light sources.
Gary Gilbert, MD
Chief Operations Officer
Kenny Abriola
Vice President, Sales
Kenny has over 20 years of medical device executive sales experience with brands such as Aulisa Medical, O2 Concepts, Drager, Fukuda Denshi and Spacelabs. He joins LST to lead the development of our sales team, grow new channels for the business and bring the bili-hut and our other products broader visibility both nationally and globally.
Kenny Abriola
Vice President of Sales
Mark joined Little Sparrows in 2023 as the VP of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics and Probability and Master's degrees in Engineering Mathematics and Stochastic Control, using this expertise to apply data-driven, risk-based strategies across the product life cycle (from design to PMS with actionable feedback). For over 20 years he has worked in the startup ecosystem to simplify compliance, reduce costs, and improve quality for various class II and III devices, including drug-device combo, infusion, respiratory, and cardiovascular devices, as well as IVD and SaMD. He has led and managed engineering, QA/RA, and supply chain functions, prepared and submitted multiple regulatory filings, and contributed to the successful acquisition of three medical device companies. Fluent in 4 languages, Mark brings extensive knowledge and experience in US and global regulatory affairs to advance our mission to improve the care of newborns worldwide.
Mark Shal, PhD
Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs
Board of Directors
Doug Treco, PhD | Chairman of the Board
Dr. Treco currently serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Inozyme Pharma, a publicly traded, clinical-stage rare disease biopharmaceutical company focused on development of therapeutics to address life-threatening mineralization disorders that affect infants and children. Previously, Dr. Treco was the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Ra Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company which was acquired in April 2020 by UCB S.A. for $2.5B. Dr. Treco also serves as an Independent Board Director at CRISPR Therapeutics.
Georgia McGaughey Nicholls, PhD
Prior to recently founding her own consulting company, Trilligant, LLC, Dr. McGaughey held the position of Vice President, Data and Computational Sciences at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and was a member of the Research Leadership Team, which sets the strategy for the research arm of the company. An internationally recognized team builder, mentor and leader, Dr. McGaughey is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. She serves on several advisory boards, including on the board of Silent Spring Institute which focuses on how our environment contributes to breast cancer.
Francis Kim
Mr. Kim is a highly accomplished senior global leader in the medical devices and life sciences industry, currently serving as the Chief Regulatory and Quality Officer at Nyxoah, a global company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative solutions to treat obstructive sleep apnea. Previously, he served as the Executive Vice President of Quality and Regulatory at Philips Healthcare and has held senior leadership positions at Waters Corporation and Medtronic, Inc. Mr. Kim brings extensive cross-disciplinary expertise in quality, regulatory affairs, and operations to help position Little Sparrows Technologies for strategic advancement and business growth.