Boris is the Founder and Publisher of The Myeloma Beacon. Prior to founding The Beacon, Boris worked in Internet publishing, management consulting, and academia. Boris was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but his studies and work took him afield for many years before he returned to the fold 15 years ago. He has a B.S. in nuclear engineering from Penn State and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. Boris is a fan of good television, and he is baffled by the many challenges involved in domesticating the two feral cats he recently rescued.

Maike is Associate Publisher of The Beacon. She has lead responsibility for article and resource devel­op­ment. Before joining The Beacon, Maike worked in consulting for many years. She holds a linguistics degree from a German college. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, reading, and practicing and teaching yoga.

Tabitha Burns is an instructional designer, writer, and monthly columnist at The Myeloma Beacon. Tabitha’s column, “Myeloma, Party Of Two,” refers to herself and her husband Daniel, who was diagnosed with smoldering myeloma in 2012, when in his mid-thirties. Together they live in Houston, where they enjoy choral singing, traveling, entertaining, and inadequately serving their three spoiled cats.

Andrew Gordon writes a monthly column for The Myeloma Beacon. Andrew was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in July 2013 at the age of 60. He is an attorney and has spent much of his professional life working for government agencies. For the first part of his career, Andrew was a litigator and appeared twice before the U.S. Supreme Court. More recently he served as chief counsel to two state departments. He retired from government service in April 2015 and now splits his time between working part time for a law firm and enjoying life. Andrew, who has lived most of his life in central Pennsylvania, has two children and is the proud grandfather to two boys. He enjoys the outdoors and is an avid cyclist

Steve Mohr writes a monthly column for the Myeloma Beacon titled “Mohr’s Myeloma Musings.” He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in April of 2012 at the age of 56 and began treatment with Revlimid and dexamethasone in the fall of 2013. A 36-year education veteran, he has served the last eight years as superintendent of a school district in north central Ohio. Steve and his wife of 37 years live in Bucyrus, Ohio, and have two almost grown children. Steve is a long-time coach and enjoys all sports, reading, and watching the Discovery Channel.

April Nelson, who lives in her hometown of Delaware, Ohio, writes a monthly column for The Myeloma Beacon. After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2004 at the age of 48, April received high-dose thalidomide and tandem stem cell transplants, attaining a near complete remission. She relapsed in 2012 after five maintenance therapy-free years. A retired attorney, April is now a staff mediator for the Delaware County Juvenile Court and a community volunteer, sitting on the city’s Civil Service Commission and volunteering at the local monthly free legal clinic. April is married to Warren Hyer; she has two adult children, a daughter-in-law, two adult stepchildren, and one new granddaughter. April is a voracious reader and an avid baker.

Mark Pajak, a monthly columnist for the Myeloma Beacon, was diag­nosed with multiple myeloma in January of 2015 at the age of 58. He has since under­gone induction therapy and a stem cell trans­plant and is cur­rently receiv­ing main­tenance therapy with Revlimid. Mark and his wife of 32 years have two grown sons and live in Laramie, Wyoming (elevation 7270 feet / 2215 meters), where winter is in season about eight months per year. Mark works as a financial advisor and in his spare time enjoys golf, curling, travel, the great out­doors, and staying alive.

Sabine translates Myeloma Beacon news articles into German. She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1999 at the age of 41. At the time, she had three young children (ages 3, 5, and 7) and was working as a part-time physician. She went through several therapies ending with an allogeneic transplantation in 2006. She has been in complete remission since then and decided to share her knowledge about myeloma with other myeloma patients: she translates medical articles into German and has set up a website where patients can find clinical trials for multiple myeloma in Germany. She dedicates the remainder of her time to her family and painting.

Nancy Shamanna lives in Calgary, Canada, and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009 at the age of 58. Since then, she has been successfully treated with induction therapy, a stem cell trans­plant, and maintenance therapy. She was left with bone damage which she hopes will remain at a stable level. Nancy, who has two adult children, is currently working for her husband's busy medical practice. She has been a school and community volunteer for many years. Her current hobbies in­clude singing in a choir, stitching with a local needle and fiber arts guild, and discussing interesting authors in a book club. She is also actively involved with other myeloma patients and caregivers in her area of Alberta, Canada.

Tom Shell, who grew up in Michigan, was diagnosed with myeloma in 2012 at the age of 49. Tom, his wife Cindi, and their two teenage sons live in Haleiwa, Hawaii, where Tom works as a self-employed business consultant specializing in facility management. His passion though are adventure travel, deep sea fishing, bow hunting for wild pigs, golf, and whatever sports he can still manage to do with his boys. Tom and Cindi have traveled extensively (mostly before the boys arrived) by doing volunteer work around the world. Tom tries to live in the moment and has been known to frequently leave the "path well traveled" in search of what else is out there.

Marjorie Smith writes a monthly column for The Myeloma Beacon titled "Living For Lamingtons." She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in June 2015 at the age of 57. At the time of her diagnosis, Marjorie and her husband Graham were living in Singapore. After induction therapy, Marjorie had an autologous stem cell transplant and is now in remission and on maintenance therapy. She and Graham are still living in Singapore and enjoy life in Southeast Asia, but they hope to return to their home in Scotland in the not-too-distant future. For over 30 years, Marjorie has taught high school biology and been involved with the development and delivery of new curricular materials. Her focus is on creating novel resources and teaching approaches to help teachers raise controversial scientific issues with their students. Marjorie loves walking, bird watching, chatting, and reading.

Else Sokol writes a monthly column for the Myeloma Beacon titled “My Myelomaverse.” Diagnosed with smol­der­ing myeloma at the age of 44, she spent 10 years smol­der­ing until tran­si­tion­ing to a diag­nosis of active multiple myeloma in early 2020. A former nurse practitioner turned full-time mom, com­munity volunteer, and activist, she enjoys spending time hanging out with her two boys, hiking and cross country skiing in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, growing organic vegetables, baking, writing, dancing in the kitchen, and finding the silver linings.

Trevor Williams is an aerospace engineer who works for NASA and writes a monthly column for the Myeloma Beacon. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in March 2006, had eight months of thalidomide and dexamethasone induction therapy, and then an autologous stem cell transplant in January 2007. These treatments put him into complete remission, leading to seven years with no treatment besides Zometa. His IgA and kappa numbers then crept back up, so he has been on Revlimid since the start of 2014, with dex and Biaxin added later. Trevor lives with his wife and two sons near Baltimore, Maryland. He enjoys visits to England to see family, walking and reading, and is an unrivaled source for useless space trivia.