Bios of Board of Directors
Lil Arbogast, chair, is the mother of one child and is the Sr. V.P. of sales for a women's apparel company. She and her family live in Manhattan.
John Birstler, a retired executive of Merrill Lynch & Co, is currently employed as a residential and commercial realtor on Staten Island. He first became involved with TSA when his son was diagnosed with Touretts Syndrome and other neurological disorders. John has participated in the Chapter's education and outreach campaign and helped place public service announcements on area radio stations.
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.
Julie Chen is a resident of Brooklyn and began working with TSA in early 2006 as a way to reciprocate to the chapter for its generous support and services it offered her. Her initial volunteer services began with a web advertisement campaign for Tourette Awareness Month and later grew to include a position coordinating the TouretteTalk events.
Jimonn Cole came to New York City as a student at The
Juilliard School drama program in 1994, where he received his B.F.A. in
Theater. Jimonn has an impressive array of credits, including the John
Houseman Award for excellence in acting which he received in his final
year at Juilliard. He has gone on to act on Off-Broadway (The Exonerated),
in national tours, and in regional theater, as well as in film (Toy Soldiers,
The Exonerated).
Don Donin 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.
Marcia Egger is the mother of an adult son who was diagnosed with TS at the age of 10. Soon after his diagnosis, Marcia became involved with the parent support group. Marcia has been an appellate attorney with the Legal Aid Society Juvenile Rights Practice for over 20 years. She has another child, a daughter, and lives in Manhattan with her husband, who was on the board for many years himself.
Nancy Fried has served as Vice President of the New York City Chapter during the 1990's and received the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2000 from National TSA for organizing mentoring events as well as holiday get-togethers and monthly “TouretteTalks”. Nancy works in publishing and has also worked for non-profit organizations as a fundraiser. She has a son with TS.
Linda McAndrews 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 have 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.
Frank Rango, treasurer, 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, 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.
Bios of Professional Advisory Board
Dr. Barbara 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 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 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 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 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.
Dr. Oliver 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 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 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.
