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About
C&S Patient Education Foundation About
Conquer Chiari
Mission
Team
Coat of Arms
Annual Reports & Financial Disclosures (990's)
Contact Us
C&S Patient Education Foundation
The C&S Patient Education
Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the
experiences and outcomes of Chiari and syringomyelia patients through
education, awareness, and research.
Founded in 2004, the organization
has made tremendous strides in Conquer Chiari:
Conquer Chiari Accomplishments
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Conquer Chiari
Conquer Chiari is our informal name, our goal, and
our website. Chiari and syringomyelia are complicated diseases, which
require complex solutions. No single action will beat them, but the
combined efforts of many people on many fronts will. For far too long
these diseases have destroyed people's lives, its time to fight back.
Education, awareness, and research are our weapons.
Compassion and conviction are our guides.
Strength, courage, and determination will sustain us.
We will win.
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Mission
The C&S Patient Education
Foundation is dedicated to improving the experiences and outcomes of Chiari
& syringomyelia patients by:
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Providing accurate, up-to-date,
and easy to understand information to patients so that they can take
control of their health care and make intelligent, informed decisions
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Raising awareness among family,
friends, and the general public so that they can understand what patients
are going through and are better able to provide support
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Raising awareness among, and
providing accurate, up-to-date information to, the medical community, so
that errors in diagnosis and treatment are reduced
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Sponsoring research to advance
the understanding of these conditions and the importance of patient
education in general
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Team
Rick Labuda,
Executive Director & Secretary (not on Board of Directors) -
Mr. Labuda is the Founder of Conquer Chiari. As a Chiari patient
himself, he knows firsthand the pain and frustration of dealing with this
disease. He has written hundreds of articles on Chiari and related topics
and is the author of, “Conquer Chiari: A Patient’s Guide to Chiari
Malformation”. Mr. Labuda holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from
Carnegie Mellon and has over 20 years of business experience across a range
of industries.
Rich
Kushner, President & Director -
Mr. Kushner is Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Modern
Transportation Systems and has over 25 years of business and marketing
experience. Mr. Kushner is active in the non-profit sector and is a
Director of the American Respiratory Alliance. He holds a Master's in
Management and Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University.
David Lee,
Vice President & Director-
Mr. Lee is a business and high technology professional with over 20
years of experience across a variety of industries and vocations. Currently
he is a Product Manager at Dynavox, a manufacturer of communications
products which assist individuals in overcoming speech, language and
learning challenges. He is an expert in the application of cutting edge
technology to innovative business practices. Mr. Lee holds a degree in
Business from Boston University.
Mark
Tomczak, Treasurer & Director -
Mr. Tomczak is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over 25 years of
world-wide, financial management experience, including 6 years at Price
Waterhouse. Mr. Tomczak is currently Vice President of Finance and Chief
Financial Officer at Inmedius, Inc. a global leader in delivering
innovative, performance-oriented applications and services that capture,
create, manage and deploy technical information assets.
Dr. Diane
Mueller, Director -
Dr. Mueller achieved her Doctorate in Nursing from Case Western Reserve
University and has over 25 years of neurosurgical nursing experience. She
is currently with the University of Missouri and during her career has
treated hundreds of Chiari and syringomyelia patients. Dr Mueller has
authored multiple publications in peer reviewed journals and is currently
active in several research projects.
Scientific Advisors -
In order to remain independent, and adhere to our policy of not aligning
with a specific doctor or hospital, Conquer Chiari does not have a formal
medical or scientific advisory board. However, Conquer Chiari has
built an extensive network of contacts with the medical and scientific
leaders in the world wide Chiari community, and consults with these experts
on an ongoing, as needed basis. Since we provide significant research
funding, we believe that it is important to maintain a constructive, but
arms length, relationship with the medical and scientific community in order
to avoid conflicts of interest.
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Coat Of Arms
A Coat of Arms is a representation of a family's heritage and contain
symbols which define them; that is why we chose a Coat of Arms to represent
the Conquer Chiari effort.:
The Conquer Chiari Coat of Arms contains four symbols on its shield
representative of our mission:
1) A ribbon representing Awareness
2) A book with magnifying glasses representing both Education and the search
for answers
3) A microscope representing Research
4) The Rx symbol representing a Cure
Behind the shield lie a Caduceus and rising sun. The Caduceus - a
well known symbol for medicine - represents our partnership the medical
community, while its sword like shape represents both the surgical aspect of
the disease and invites to take the fight to our enemy. The sun,
rising behind the shield, represents the promise of a day when Chiari and
syringomyelia are conquered.
Finally, beneath the shield lies a banner with our call to action, "Join
The Battle"; for this is not a fight that can be won alone. It will
take the combined efforts of each and every one of us to put an end to this
fight once and for all.
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Annual Reports &
Financial Disclosures
As a public charity, Conquer
Chiari is required to make our financial statements freely available to the
general public; below are our yearly tax filings with the IRS (form 990s).
We take great pride in delivering effective programs with very low overhead.
This means that donors to Conquer Chiari really are getting the most for
their money.
2010 990 (PDF) 2009 990 (PDF) 2008 990 (PDF)
2007 990 (PDF)
2006 990 (PDF)
2005 990 (PDF)
2004 990 (PDF)
501c3 Letter (PDF)
Annual Report 2010 (PDF)
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Contact Us
We want to hear from you.
If you have a question for Conquer Chiari regarding
Chiari or a related topic, or about the foundation and our programs, call or
email:
724-940-0116
director@conquerchiari.org
If you have an original submission for Chiari &
Syringomyelia News please email with no attachments. We are looking for
both Perspectives (personal stories) and You Gotta Laugh (funny anecdotes).
To get a better idea of what we are looking for, please review the newsletter
archives.
If you'd like to use regular mail, send to::
Conquer Chiari
320 Osprey Court
Wexford, PA 15090
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