About us

Elaine Lissner grew up in the Bay Area and can trace her interest in male contraception to her freshman year at Stanford. There she read a book that described a low-tech birth control method which was shown to be effective in the 1950s but never caught on. She researched the topic of non-hormonal male contraceptive methods for a college course and wondered why no one was pursuing simple male options. She wrote several popular articles on the topic, and shortly thereafter started the nonprofit Male Contraception Information Project to increase awareness about nonhormonal male contraception and convey the public’s demand to policy makers (check out this Priceonomics article for an in-depth look at Elaine’s motivation to develop a new male contraceptive). Lissner was founder and director of the Male Contraception Information Project in the early 1990’s and director from 2001 until passing the baton to the newly-formed Male Contraception Initiative (now the Male Contraceptive Initiative) in 2014-2015.

In 2005, Ms. Lissner founded the Parsemus Foundation to support further research on male contraceptives and other areas. Lissner has the ability and perseverance to scour research publications on various scientific topics she encounters, synthesize findings and locate promising advances that for one reason or another were never followed through. She has often had a personal connection to the research areas supported by the Foundation and has always been intimately involved in funded projects. For example, her research into the necessity of an angiogram that was recommended for a relative led the foundation to fund the Archives of Internal Medicine’s popular “Less-is-more” series, which focuses on overused medical treatments and continues to this day.

The foundation’s research has pursued lower-cost or less invasive solutions in areas of interest that linked to reproductive health in some way, ranging from contraception and sterilization (in humans and pets) to breast cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) treatment. Ms. Lissner has served on the advisory board of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs and enjoys the intersectionality between the foundation’s related subject areas, such as when nonsurgical pet sterilization led to a potential tumor treatment, or human breast cancer research led to new ideas about healthy aging in dogs.

Ms. Lissner’s main focus has been on the development of Vasalgel male contraceptive until the project was passed to NEXT Life Sciences in 2022 to take it through clinical trials. She has been a thought leader on reproductive health and male contraception and was an invited participant in the Gates Foundation’s Contraceptive Technology Expert Convening. Her publications include “Frontiers in Nonhormonal Male Contraception: A Call for Research”, and the foundation’s work has been featured in Scientific American, BBC News, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Lissner has served as a funder, advocate, and strategist for the effort to complete clinical trials of existing medications for COVID-19 treatment, including the MMR vaccine, metformin, and fluvoxamine. She has collaborated with other funders to support this work because federal funding has been limited. Ms. Lissner also worked tirelessly to increase enrollment for the clinical trials.

An interest in hormones for women’s menopause care grew to a new project on women’s hormones across the lifespan. The Parsemus Foundation launched and supported the development of Hormonally.org. Under the direction of Lauren Redfern, PhD, Hormonally provides science-based information on all aspects of hormonal health.

Linda has worked with the Parsemus Foundation since 2013 and served as the Executive Director since 2016. She has overseen research and education efforts on diverse topics, such as male contraception, Alzheimer’s disease prevention, enlarged prostate treatment, dog hormone-sparing and nonsurgical sterilization, and canine hormone restoration. She has enjoyed advancing innovating research treatments and helping pet parents provide the best care for their dogs and cats.

Linda has over 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, animal welfare, and behavioral research. Linda was trained as a behavioral primatologist and has worked extensively with chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates. She completed a study in Tanzania on wild chimpanzee maternal behavior for her PhD from the University of Texas.  

Dr. Brent is a founder of Chimp Haven, Inc. – a sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from medical research – and served as its President and Director from 2002-2012.  Under her leadership, Chimp Haven was built from the ground up and was awarded government funding as the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary. The sanctuary is now the largest in the world and has retired hundreds of chimpanzees to spacious enclosures in the forests of northwest Louisiana. Prior to her work at the sanctuary, she was the director of the environmental enrichment program at a research facility in San Antonio, TX.

Always eager to learn, Linda returned to school and earned an MBA in Sustainable Management at the University of Colorado Denver in 2015. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications on applied primate behavior, baboon maternal behavior, and pet welfare. She has served as the PI for several government grants and contracts and has experience with local and national media.

Linda currently serves as a founder and board member of Wildlife Impact – a conservation organization – and as a trustee of Chimp Haven. In addition to her professional work, Linda has a social venture pet product company called Blue Toby and runs Freebird Farm in North Carolina raising rare breed poultry.

Etiam nulla velit, pharetra vel leo a, pretium rhoncus eros. Fusce eu hendrerit ipsum, vitae volutpat dui. Nunc eget mi tincidunt, luctus turpis at, pharetra diam. Nam sit amet purus cursus, rhoncus nibh nec, volutpat purus. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Vestibulum id iaculis velit, vitae faucibus augue. In quis lectus nisi.

Quisque elit nisl, varius nec ullamcorper eget, egestas vitae mi. Nam hendrerit eros a sagittis tempus. Mauris hendrerit hendrerit consequat. Nunc eget dui pulvinar, auctor neque sed, convallis ipsum. Fusce sagittis, dui a malesuada ullamcorper, nulla dolor interdum ipsum, ac condimentum eros lacus vestibulum nunc. Nunc maximus, massa et dictum dictum, risus massa dignissim nisl, at vestibulum ligula ante id metus. Morbi fringilla rhoncus porta.

Ben grew up in Boston and moved to California after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration. His work in graphic design, branding, and website development eventually morphed into a career in public relations. Ben has provided strategic communications counsel for start-up businesses and non-profit organizations in a variety of sectors. He was VP Communications for pioneering biotech companies Genetic Savings & Clone and ViaGen; VP Operations for the Washington DC-based PR agency Turner Strategies; co-founder and partner at DonorMagnet, an online fundraising consultancy; and directed public relations for Friends of the Urban Forest and CoachArt. Ben joined the Parsemus Foundation in 2015. He ensures that clear and timely news and information about the organization’s focus areas are shared with our audiences around the world. In his free time he enjoys hiking and backpacking.