Bios of the Board of Directors & Advisory Board
Board of Directors
Lil Arbogast
Chair
Lil has a teenage daughter with Tourette Syndrome. Raising a child with TS has inspired her to take an active role in the TSA community. Lil works in the apparel industry and her husband, Jeff Feuer, works in the real estate industry. She and her family live in Manhattan.
Frank Rango
Treasurer
Frank a resident of Manhattan, has worked in the financial industry for more twenty-five years. He has been a constant supporter of the Chapter and served as co-chair of one of the Chapter's most successful annual fundraisers. Frank and his wife have several relatives with Tourette Syndrome.
Chelsea White
Secretary
Chelsea moved to Astoria, Queens in September of 2005 and soon attended her first TSA-NYC event: the bowling social in January 2006. From there she did some volunteer work for the TSA NYC website and has become a co-chair of the Young Adult Committee with Jimonn Cole.
Hilary
Bowers
After many years in marketing and PR in the film and fashion industry, Hilary started banzai! to service a highly selective group of clients in the luxury category. Clients include: Marithe + Francois Girbaud, HOUSE of WARIS, YOOX.COM, The Apartment, Travel Alberta Tourism, Karen Karch and more.
Don
Donin
Don was not diagnosed as having Tourette Syndrome until the age of 44, and shortly thereafter, he co-founded the New York City Chapter of the Tourette Syndrome Association and continues to serve on its board. Don enjoys speaking on TS and finds time to serve on various national and local TSA committees. Don has been involved in the field of education for 40 years, as a high school teacher, a supervisor of teachers, a director of professional and staff development for the New York City Board of Education and as a professor of office administration and technology at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.
Linda
Baker
Linda is a resident of New Rochelle located in Westchester County. She is the mother of three sons, all three years apart in age. Her oldest son, who is now 18, was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at age 12 and went from a well rounded, popular kid to one with pronounced motor and vocal tics. With support and education, he learned to self-advocate during this challenging transition from middle school to high school. He went on to become the star pitcher of his H.S. Varsity Baseball team. He inspired the family to want to be involved in a greater good. They admire and respect him for all his accomplishments. For many years, Linda worked as a NYC special education teacher and made the move three years ago to the suburbs where she is employed as a special education teacher in the Mamaroneck School District. She looks forward to serving the many needs and interests of the diverse members of TSA and sharing her time and energy with a great community of people.
Dan
Kamanga
Dan is a former senior vice president of investment banking who has worked on Wall Street for over twelve years. He recently began his own investment firm. He has an MBA in finance and strategy and has been awarded the CFA designation. Dan first became involved with TSA last year and has looked for ways to volunteer his time and expertise.
Jonathan
Marks
Johathan a resident of Manhattan, has worked in the financial industry for the past 2 years. His brother has Tourette Syndrome, and has inspired him to raise money for the TSA. His first experience was raising over $6,500 from sponsors before he ran the 2009 NYC Marathon. He looks forward to continuing to raise money and to working on innovative ways to educate the community about Tourette Syndrome, with the TSA-NYC chapter, for many years to come.
Linda
McAndrews
Linda is a family therapist, licensed in Creative Arts Therapy, working for the Children's Aid Society in a program for at-risk teens and their families. She is the mother of an adult son who has Tourette Syndrome and OCD. She has been active in the Family TSA Support Group for many years and attended most of the Chapter events. She has also been actively involved with the OCFoundation.
Jeffrey
Oshins
Jeffrey has been an active member of TSA for many years. He resides in Brooklyn and works for the city of New York.
Diane
Rabstenek
Diane has an MA in Speech and Language Pathology and is Montessori trained. As a Speech Pathologist, she worked for 15 years with children and their families providing direct therapy as well as parent education for all age groups, including adult clients, mainstream programs,high-risk programs and infant/early childhood education programs . She took time to be a stay-at-home Mom and raise 2 children, now 29 and 26 years old. As a teacher, she worked in a Montessori school serving children from 3-12 years of age and their families for 15 years. While there, Diane helped begin the Learning Specialist Department in the school and worked directly with children with learning issues and provided guidance for their teachers and parents. Diane became involved with TSA while teaching through working with a student diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. She is currently involved with TSA-NYC working to increase awareness, especially fostering early recognition and intervention, amongst educators and school professionals about Tourette Syndrome and discover the support they can provide to the student and parents. Diane has lived on the UWS of Manhattan, where she and her husband raised their children, for 37 years.
Carolyn
Renner
Carolyn a native New Yorker, has a BBA from Baruch College, CUNY, with a major in Industrial Psychology. Prior to leaving the workforce to care for her 3 children, Carolyn worked in Training and Development at Bloomberg, LP. She is a certified yoga instructor, teaching beginner/ intermediate hatha yoga. She has served on the Executive Board of her children’s elementary school for 2 years and is currently involved in numerous fundraising projects and event planning including an annual auction and spring fair. She is a volunteer ESL teacher for new moms at a parenting center run by the Dominican Sisters. Her 9 year old son was diagnosed with TS two years ago.
David
Shenton
David has established an enviable reputation as a pianist, violinist, prolific composer and arranger. He has recently been added to the faculties of NYU, The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and Andy Anselmo's Singer's Forum. The New York City Chapter has been lucky to have him perform at a couple of Mentoring Brunch events.
Kimberly
White
Kimberly is the chapter Government Liaison. She became involved with TSA out of a desire to support her two nephews who have Tourette Syndrome. She is currently an attorney at Seward & Kissel, LLC and has in the past worked as a staff member for Senators Rockefeller and Moynihan. The combination of Ms. White's personal and professional experience made her a natural choice for the newly formed Government Liaison position
Bios of Professional Advisory Board
Dr. Barbara Coffey
Dr. Coffey is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Tourette’s and Movement Disorders at the NYU Child Study Center. She is an internationally known specialist in Tourette’s Disorder and is the author of numerous manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, abstracts and book chapters. Her research focus centers on the clinical course,
phenomenology, comorbidity and treatment of Tourette’s Disorder.
Dr. Coffey received her B.A. in Biology and Psychology from the University of Rochester, her M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine and her M.S. in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to her arrival at the Child Study Center, Dr. Coffey was the Director of Pediatric Psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital and Director of the Tourette’s Clinics at McLean and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston. She remains on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as a Clinical Associate at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Patricia A. Flynn
Dr. Flynn has her doctorate in Language, Literacy and Learning from Fordham University. Her specialization is reading and learning isues. She has over 25 years of teaching experience and currently is the Lower School Learning Specialist at The Brownng School in Manhattan. Additionally, she teaches at Bank Street College. She has presented on reading, comprehension, and study skills at The European Conference on Reading, The International Dyslexia Society, The International Boys' School Coalition, NYCAEYC (Early Childhood organization) and The ATIS (an independent school group). She has also published articles on learning.
Emily Kelman-Bravo
Emily has been the Director of the Tourette Syndrome Association's New York City Counseling Program since 1989. Prior to holding that position, Emily was a social worker at Mount Sinai Hospital. She received her MSW degree from Hunter College, School of Social Work in New York, and her MSPH degree from UCLA's School of Public Health.
Dr. Les
Linet
Dr Linet is board certified both in psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry. He is currently in private practice. In the past, he has held faculty positions as Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry both at the State University of New York, Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn and at Cornell Medical College.
After receiving his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he trained in psychiatry at the State University of New York, Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn, where he later also completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. Dr. Linet was in charge of medical student education in child psychiatry at that institution and later worked as Medical and Psychiatric Director of a residential treatment center for severely disturbed children and adolescents. In addition, he served for several years on the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association and was a member of the Advisory Board to CH.A.D.D. (Children With Attention Deficit Disorders) of Brooklyn.
Bios of Honorary Board
Polly
Draper
Polly is well known for her starring role in the ABC series thirtysomething, as Ellyn Warren, a career woman, and was nominated for an Emmy for the role as best supporting actress. She has starred in several movies including Home Song, Second Best, and The Tic Code, which she wrote and produced. The film was loosely based on her husband Michael Wolff, a musician who has Tourette Syndrome and who is also a member of our Honorary Board.
Ruth
Nass, M.D.
Ruth is a pediatric behavioral neurologist who specializes in autism, ADD, and learning disabilities as well as migraines and seizures. Her research interests focus on epilepsy and autism, causes of autism in neurological disorders such as tuberous sclerosis and the cognitive and behavioral consequences of congenital stroke. Dr. Nass received her B.A. from Brandeis University and her M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition, she studied linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She did a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center and received a certificate in bioethics at the Einstein College of Medicine-Yeshiva University.
Dr. Oliver
Sacks
Dr. Sacks earned his medical degrees in Queen's College, Oxford and has lived in New York since 1965. He is a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, adjunct professor of neurology at the NYU school of Medicine and consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor. He has a practice in New York City. Dr. Sacks is also a best selling author. His most famous book, Awakenings, was made into a movie. In his other books he describes cases of Tourette Syndrome and various effects of Parkinson's disease. Dr. Sacks' writings have been translated into 21 languages.
Paige
Vickery
Paige is a conductor and currently resides in New York City, where she assists Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops. In addition, Vickery works with the Denver Brass and the Boulder Youth Symphony Society. Before this, she had a nine-year tenure with the Colorado Youth Symphony. Prize Winner at the 2003 Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, Vickery spoke at the Chapter's 2003 Mentoring Brunch about her experience with Tourette Syndrome.
Michael
Wolff
Michael is an innovative pianist/composer with a wealth of straight ahead jazz credentials (Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, Airto, Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Jean Luc Ponty) as well as an impressive body of movie soundtrack work ("Dark Angel," "The Tic Code"). Wolff addresses his own musical roots while incorporating a fresh world beat sensibility as leader of his inventive band Impure Thoughts. Michael is married to actress Polly Draper, whom he met when she appeared on the Arsenio Hall television show, for which Wolff was the band leader.
Jonathan
Fried
Jonathan has Tourette’s Syndrome and ADHD. He was diagnosed with both when he was 12 years old. He graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a B.S. in Computer Science and has worked as a manager at an event space in IT, at a restaurant group, has taught high school math in a Bronx public school, and now has decided to become an accountant. He is going back to school part time at Lehman College while working full time as an accounts payable rep at a restaurant group. He maintains a 4.0 GPA.
Katie
Kamanga
Katie has a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Teachers College of Columbia University and a Master of Arts in School and Community Counseling from Michigan State University. She is a school counselor at a public high school in the Bronx. She has worked as a teacher and counselor in public schools in Chicago, New York City, and Kitakyushu, Japan. She has TS herself and was diagnosed at the age of 9.
Jodi
Schalman
In 1990, after earning a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Syracuse University and Syracuse University London Centre, Jodi obtained her Real Estate License and embarked on what was to become a 16 year career in corporate real estate. She has been quoted numerous times in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Real Estate Weekly and several trade publications. In 2009, Jodi completed her second Masters level degree and holds an MSW and CASAC-T from Fordham University School of Social Service. She completed her two year field practicum at Odyssey House, a non-profit Drug Rehabilitation Residence in Harlem, NY and at ACI, Inc., the nation’s oldest substance abuse treatment center. Most recently Jodi along with her teenage son, Griffin, a Youth Ambassador, lobbied on Capitol Hill, on Behalf of the National Tourette Syndrome Association(TSA), in front of House and Senate. She also facilitates the monthly support group for the TSA-NYC Chapter.
Gardiner
Comfort
Gardiner is a professional actor and teacher who was born and raised in New York City. He has performed in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Public Theater, PS 122, The Williamstown Theater Festival, the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA and internationally in Berlin and various cities in France. He will perform in a production of Julius Caesar in Bogota, Colombia in the spring. He holds an MFA from the American Repertory Theater's Acting Institute at Harvard University. He was diagnosed with Tourette at the age of 7 and has lent his experience to children with TS through TSA's main branch in Queens, NY. He has developed extraordinary communication skills through his teaching and looks forward to more opportunities working with children with TS. He lives with his wife in Central Harlem.
Jeffrey
Feuer
Jonathan is the father of a 20 year old daughter who was diagnosed with TS at the age of 8 ½. Jeff, along with his wife Lil, has been involved with the TS community for 8 years and is looking forward to serving on the board of directors and continuing to build the NYC Chapter outreach. Jeff is a Real Estate Broker with Douglas Elliman and was born and raised in NYC. Cara, their daughter, is a singer and actress recently graduated from LaGuardia Performing Arts HS.