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Tom Archer President
Tom Archer was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in December
of 1991. In October of 1999 he was evaluated by the lung transplant team
at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO and was placed on the lung
transplant list there. Tom was transplanted at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on
September 11, 2006.
He joined St. Louis Chapter of Second in January of 2001 and the association
in February of 2001. Tom was elected President of the St. Louis Chapter on
July 14, 2002. In October of 2003 Tom was appointed to the Second Wind Board
of Directors. In March of 2005 Tom was elected President of the association
and continues to serve in this capacity.
Tom holds a B.S. and a M.A. in Elementary and Special Education. He has worked
as both a teacher and a school administrator.
Cheryl Keeler Vice President
Cheryl is the Mother of one son, and the grandmother of two grandsons, and one granddaughter. She was born
and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Cheryl received a B.A. degree from the Ohio State University and for most of
her professional life worked in the legal field and for a public sector union.
In the past, Cheryl has served on several not-for-profit boards that provided transitional housing and employment
assistance for women in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. She also served on the board of a county
organization that provided assistance for women trying to transition from welfare to work, and a transitional
housing facility for women being released from correctional facilities.
In 1996, Cheryl developed pneumonia. While in the hospital, she was informed she had COPD. Cheryl was a smoker
and had been for thirty-three years. After being released from the hospital, she continued to struggle with smoking
for several years but was eventually able to quit. In 2003, she was referred to the Ohio Cleveland Clinic for
assessment for a lung transplant. With only 14% lung capacity, and on oxygen, she was listed and on February 3, 2005
after one dry-run, she received a life saving bilateral lung transplant. Ten days after her transplant, she suffered
a stroke as a result of the surgery. Since her transplant, Cheryl has retired from active employment.
Damian Neuberger Second Vice President
Damian Neuberger earned a BS and MS in Biology at Penn State, taught for
two years in the University of Wisconsin Center System before earning a
PhD in Botany at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. While working at
the UW Damian became increasingly short of breath and had a persistent cough.
In May 1983, he tried to start a jogging regimen but could only go about 20
yards before gasping for breath and realizing something was seriously wrong.
After seeing an internist and having a chest X-ray taken, he was referred to
a pulmonologist who ran a series of tests culminating in a transbronchial
biopsy that revealed idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF); Damian was given a
prognosis of 2-5 years life expectancy as lung transplants were not a viable
option.
Damian moved his family to Glenview, IL in June of 1983 where he went to work
for Baxter International as a microscopist in the Particle Science Laboratory.
His disease progressed very slowly and was followed by an IPF specialist in
Chicago. It was not until October 1996 that he was advised to seek evaluation
for a lung transplant. He received a bilateral lung transplant at Loyola University
Medical Center in Maywood, IL, on October 19, 1997. He worked up until the day
he was paged and returned to work 6 weeks post transplant; he retired as a senior
research scientist at the end of July 2004.
He wrote a thank you note to his donor family and received a return letter.
They corresponded anonymously until they met in 2000 and has since maintained
a good relationship.
Damian joined Second Wind in1997, edits the newsletter AirWays, and is one of
the owners/monitors of the listserv. He is speaker for the area OPO, Gift of
Hope, active in Glenview UMC and serves as a Stephen Minister and Stephen Leader.
He is also very active as a volunteer with the Chicago Botanic Garden as team
leader of a volunteer group digitizing the various slide collections for the Plant
Collections department. He also continues to work as a consultant in microscopy,
digital imaging and image analysis. Damian married his high school sweetheart
Judy and they two children Jim (Michelle), Karen Gabriel (Tom) and three grandchildren
Morgan Gabriel, and Sarah and Matthew Neuberger.
Garry Nichols Treasurer
Garry received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1965 and an MBA in Finance from Syracuse University in 1969. During a 32 year career with a Fortune 50 company, he had two foreign assignments and served on the Boards of Directors of several joint-ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries. He also had been active in and served on the Boards of various educational, civic and business-related organizations.
Garry retired from his employer in 1997 and established his own consulting business in International Business Development. In 1999 he was diagnosed with end-stage COPD and began chronic oxygen therapy. In 2000, he was placed on the transplant list and he received his single-lung transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, UPENN Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA in May, 2003.
Just completing his three-month rehab, Garry became a member of the Board of Second Wind in October, 2003, having joined in 2002. He also has reactivated his participation in other civic organizations.
Garry and Barbara, his wife of thirty-nine years, have three adult children and five grandchildren.
(April 2005)
Sharon S. Barlow Director
Sharon is the Step-mother to 4 children, with 8 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, all girls.
Sharon lives in Texas and has been married to Bill for twenty-seven years. She worked in the
telecommunications industry for 25 years and retired in 1992 as a Manager in Revenues and Public
Affairs-Industry Relations Division of a major telephone company. Prior to retiring, Sharon
water-skied regularly and kept in good physical condition most of her life.
In the late 1970s she began having breathing problems and in the mid 1980s she was diagnosed with
COPD. In 1991 she retired from full-time employment. After retirement, she continued a slow
decrease in breathing capability until in 1997, after being hospitalized, she was on oxygen full
time. Later that year, she was again hospitalized and came out of this hospital stay in an
electric wheelchair which she used for all activities when leaving her home.
Sharon was listed for her transplant in June 1997 at two transplant centers because of the rarity
of her blood type which is AB-. After two dry runs, she received a single lung transplant on
February 3, 1999.
She has had her lung for almost nine years and during that time, she has been afforded the
opportunity to see several of her grandchildren and all of her great-grandchildren born. She loves
life and all that she can now do since her transplant. Sharon has been very active mentoring
pulmonary patients considering transplantation and also those who are post-transplant that have
been referred to her by her physician and also from a pulmonary rehab group. She has also mentored
people through Second Wind several years ago, including a patient in the United Kingdom.
On a personal level, Sharon enjoys digital photography, photo editing and restoration, digital
scrap-booking and water color painting.
Dharti Director
Dharti obtained her undergraduate degree in Biological Systems Engineering from University of California at Davis and a
Master's degree in BioMedical Lab Science from San Francisco State University. She is PMP and Lean Six Sigma certified and
has also completed a professional sequence certificate in Java programming from University of California at Berkeley. With
experience working in the genomics/biotechnology sector and the regulated medical device industry, Dharti has been working
within project management related to devices, software and consumables for six years. Currently she is working for Abbott
Diabetes Care as a Management Consultant. Dharti has also been volunteering for a friend's law firm website with digital
marketing and website promotion.
Dharti's mother-in-law, who lives with her and her husband in Toronto received a double lung tranplant at Toronto General
Hospital in December 2004 due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Milt Goldstein Director
Milt was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended New York University
(NYU) where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Arts
Education. He also completed most of the course work toward a Master's
Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling, also at NYU.
His professional life was devoted to working with people with physical,
developmental and psychiatric disabilities. For most of his working
career, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of not-for-profit
organizations in upstate New York that provided vocational
rehabilitation and employment services to individuals with disabilities
and other employment barriers. He has also acted as a Management
Consultant to private and public sector agencies throughout the
northeast.
He currently serves as a Vocational Expert to the Office of Disability
and Review at Social Security Disability Insurance hearings.
Milt is now a professional photographer.
Milt's wife, Ella received a single lung transplant at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center on 9/24/01 due to
COPD, emphysema.
Jane Kurz, Ph.D., R.N. Director
Jane holds a professional membership with the Second Wind Lung Transplant Association, Inc.
and has since January of 1997. One of the first ways Jane served the Second Wind Community was
as speaker at the Third Annual Educational Conference; Lung Transplant The New Millennium.
She spoke on issues facing Caregivers.
Jane Kurz has worked as a critical care nurse and nurse educator for more than 20 years.
Her doctoral dissertation examined the lived experience of spouses of individuals waiting for
lung transplantation. She has used qualitative and quantitative methods to explore stressors,
coping and quality of life in other studies involving heart/lung transplant candidates,
recipients and spouses with national samples. Other research interests include family dynamics
in the presence of acute and chronic illness, marital support and adolescent health. She is
the author of several articles on the application of nursing research in clinical practice.
Jane is currently the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, College of Health Professions, at
Temple University in Pennsylvania. She was also an Associate Professor of Nursing at Temple
University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She writes extensively and publishes regularly in the
American Journal of Nursing (AJN), Journal of Family Nursing, Journal of Advanced Nursing,
RN Web, RN Magazine, Family Systems & Health and American Nurses Association.
Some of the issues Jane addresses include:
Effect of parental genetic lung disease on older adolescents.
Families and chronic illness across the lifespan.
Vulnerability for caregiver role strain of spouses involved with lung transplantation.
The roller coaster ride of spouses of lung transplant recipients
Stressors and coping strategies used by well spouses of lung transplant candidates.
The lived experience of spouses of individuals waiting for lung
Transplantation.
Julie Martin Director
Julie Martin was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.
She and her husband, David, now live in Oklahoma and are the proud parents of two
sons and are blessed with four grandsons.
For many years Julie suffered with asthma. In February 2003, after two weeks in
intensive care on a ventilator, she was diagnosed with COPD and her life changed
forever.
Prior to this diagnosis, Julie had been a banker for over thirty (30) years and
loved it but her doctors told her that her career was over.
In June 2005 she and her husband moved to St. Louis, Missouri to wait for a transplant
at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. There were ten patients with their care givers in a group
and they all became very close and supportive of each other. On August 29, 2005,
Julie received a successful bilateral transplant. Three months later she and her
husband were able to return to their home in Oklahoma.
Recovery has been a lot of work and continues daily for Julie. With two sons and
four grandsons she has to try to stay in shape or her basketball skills might suffer.
Julie loves working with pre and post transplant patients. She understands the fear
and stress of living with your life dependent on getting your breath from an oxygen
machine. She believes transplantation is not an easy choice but well worth the fight.
Tina Orlita Director
Tina Orlita was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs. She has been married for eight years.
At the age of 14 she had developed Lupus. In 1989 she developed Bronchiolitis Obliterans and in
June of 1997 she was listed for a bilateral lung transplant at Loyola University Medical Center.
Two years, 2 months and 2 days later she was transplanted. After her transplant she met and married her
husband two years to the date of her surgery.
She is currently an Advocate for the inhaled cyclosporine clinical trials called CYCLIST.
Tina is currently a Medical Transcriptionist and mentors a Junior at the local high school.
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