CHADD’s Leadership Changes
LANDOVER, MD — (July 7, 2009) CHADD, the nation’s
largest family-based organization serving children and adults affected
by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or AD/HD, today announced an
impressive line-up of three new members to its board of directors. New
to the board will be Ana Romero, a controller who oversees a $500
million budget for a private corporation; Sharyn Rhodes, a retired
college professor with expertise in special education; and Chuck
Kaplanek, a businessman turned philanthropist.
“These accomplished leaders will join a board full of
impressive members with varied backgrounds,” said CHADD board
president Marie Paxson. “The one thing they have in common is that
they want to make this country a better place for people living with
AD/HD.”
Indeed, the three new board members will come to the board table from
different parts of the country and with vastly different experiences.
Both Kaplanek, a New Yorker, and Romero, a Californian, are first
generation Americans. Romero is Mexican American, while
Kaplanek’s family is from Eastern Europe. They both speak
more than one language, and Romero claims English as her second
language.
They understand well all of the opportunity that comes with growing
up in the United States. Kaplanek took over his father’s thriving
business that was later acquired by a public company. Romero has worked
her way up the corporate ladder to become controller of the Jankovich
Company.
While Kaplanek and Romero became advocates on behalf of people with
AD/HD after their children were diagnosed with the disorder, Rhodes was
led to CHADD through her work as a professor of special education at
Loyola College in Baltimore. Now retired from that position, Rhodes
spends her time as a volunteer leader, serving as membership coordinator
of CHADD of Greater Baltimore.
“All three of the new board members have dedicated countless
hours to CHADD,” said Paxson. “CHADD would not be the
organization that it is if not for the work of people such as Chuck,
Ana, and Sharyn.”
Romero currently serves on CHADD’s editorial advisory board,
Kaplanek is president of the president’s council, which was
created to facilitate contributions from individual donors, and Rhodes
has served on CHADD’s member services committee.
The CHADD board of directors consists of 12 people, all of whom are
elected by the existing board. New members start their three-year term
on the first of July, the beginning of CHADD’s fiscal year.
With over 70,000 constituents, CHADD is the nation’s largest
family-based organization serving people affected by AD/HD. At least
five to eight percent of school-aged children and two to four percent of
adults live with the neurobiological disorder.
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