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DPC Board of Directors
Interested in becoming a DPC Board member? According to DPC’s by-laws, the majority of board members must be current dialysis patients. However, the board is open to anyone interested in taking a broader role to improve the quality of life for patients with chronic kidney disease. Each board member serves a term of two-years.
Dialysis Patient Citizens Mourns Loss of Long-Time Kidney Community Champion and DPC Board Member Beverly Schroeder
>DPC Press Release, April 21, 2011
Current DPC Board Members
Nancy Scott (President)
I am from Newark, Delaware and am a registered nurse, an ordained minister, and I have been an in-center hemodialysis patient since my kidney disease diagnosis in 2004. I have been involved with DPC as a Patient Ambassador, Secretary of the Board, Vice President of the Board, and I currently serve as both the President of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Education Committee.
Beyond my DPC involvement, I serve as a patient representative of Advisory Board at ESRD Network 4 and a Chairperson at Henrietta Johnson Medical Center for Clinical Evaluation Committee. I established a support group to encourage better communication between clinic staff and patients, and have traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers. Before joining the Board in 2007 I was honored to receive the DPC Hero Award.
Fred Manfred Jr. (Vice President)
During my 26 years with kidney failure, I started support groups, wrote for newsletters and been an in-unit representative and advocate in Washington, DC. I am a member of the National Kidney Foundation Patient and Family Council Executive Committee, a DPC Patient Ambassador, and was a certified self-care patient during my 11 years of dialysis in California. I have a Master in journalism, B.A. in communications and a teaching degree. I am also president of my community theater and am waiting for my third transplant.
Debi Barnett
I am honored to be part of the dedicated and hardworking group of individuals that make up the DPC Board of Directors. I became involved in the field of renal social work while in private practice as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I agreed to fill in as a favor to a friend who was running a dialysis center and had just lost her social worker. That was twelve years ago, and I have been providing social work services to dialysis patients ever since.
After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1979 I began my social work career in mental health. Over fifteen years, I went from working in a community mental health agency, to working for a group of psychologists, to my owning my private practice. While I have enjoyed my tenure in mental health, nephrology lets me use my social work skills as an advocate, empowering patients and helping them navigate through bureaucratic red tape. My mental health background helps me to provide counseling to many of my patients who are struggling with adjustment issues that result from dealing with a chronic disease. While at DaVita, I have worked on many different levels of patient advocacy and empowerment that include political action at the grassroots level. I also have the privilege of working with a regional team of dedicated social workers to improve the quality of life for all our patients and their families.
Diane Brisbane
I grew up in the South Jamaica section of Queens, New York and was raised in a household and community that taught family first and service to others. This is the mindset with which I have pursued life. After getting my start as a nurses’ aide, I eventually advanced to EKG technician and later to supervisor of the EKG department and finally retired after 37 years of service. During the course of my career, I served on various committees to improve employee relations, educate employees, and unite the hospital and community, and I was recognized for the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation’s achievement award for bringing diversity to the work force, among other awards.
I have committed much of my life to being a parent to my two wonderful children and to being actively involved in the local community, and I have taken pride in those roles. So when I suffered a stroke in 2004, my life in those roles was threatened. It was only months later that I lost vision in both eyes, and in 2005, I was diagnosed with acute renal failure. This was hard news for my children because they lost their father to renal failure in 1981.
Although traumatic, I never had the chance to lose hope. My children stepped in with the unwavering determination, resiliency and faith they were raised to have. Surrounded by this love and support, I made it through those tough times and came out ready to make an impact on anyone I could help.
I continue to serve as a pillar in my church, serving as a senior usher and intercessor. I recently developed Single Mothers in Christ, a spiritually-based empowerment and mentoring program for single mothers of the church. Now, I welcome the opportunity to serve as a DPC Board Member, in hopes to provide preventive education to the world, serve as a voice of hope for survivors of renal failure and as a voice of consciousness to elected officials and health care providers.
Eric Edwards
When you know better, you do better. This has been my approach to dialysis, and more importantly my approach to life. I was diagnosed with Nephritis at an early age, and began my journey as an ESRD patient at age nineteen. I quickly realized that in order for me to live the highest quality of life possible, I needed to know as much as possible about kidney disease. I received my first kidney transplant in 1999, which “freed up my social calendar significantly” for six years. After the rejections, I returned to hemo-dialysis, and decided to return to college.
I received a dual B.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from J.Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. While the majority of my professional work has been in the corporate environment, I have always felt my purpose on this earth has been to inform and empower ESRD patients and their families. What better way to accomplish this than getting involved in an organization that shares my mission: improving dialysis patients’ quality of life.
After working with DPC as a Patient Ambassador on several issues that will have a lasting impact on the lives of dialysis patients, I am honored and privileged to be selected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors. I am excited, enthused, energized, and look forward to serving DPC.
Mike Guffey (Secretary)
I feel honored to be included among the DPC Board of Directors. Three years ago, this is not something I would have ever anticipated. I went on vacation in the Spring of 2008 thinking I had the flu and ended up hospitalized with kidney failure. Since then I have been an in-center hemodialysis patient, while working towards a kidney transplant (which has been an interesting journey in itself), and continuing to work full-time as a Business Continuity manager in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. As a result of my professional background, I am always interested in emergency preparedness as it relates to dialysis patients and others with special medical needs.
Two things that have been key to my success on this journey are becoming educated about my situation and the strong support team I have developed, both among the dialysis clinic staff, other medical providers, family and co-workers. I have found that any issues generally lie within the systems, not the people, and wish that everyone could get the quality of treatment I have received.
In particular, I have been motivated by one of my late co-workers, who in spite of suffering through several serious medical situations in her life, never let those challenges get the better of her. She encouraged me to take control of the situation as best I could, and to not let the challenges get me down. I hope to bring that attitude to my time on the DPC Board of Directors.
Danny Iniguez
I have been on and off of dialysis since I was 12 years old and diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of a bicycle accident. I was lucky enough to receive a transplant from my mother which lasted for seven years until my body rejected it in 2000. I was temporarily put on hemodialysis but now undergo peritoneal dialysis three times a week for 10 hours while I sleep.
I am thankful for dialysis because it has provided me with the gift of life. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to become part of a larger community of empowered patients, like DPC’s Board of Directors, who are continually working to improve the lives of patients just like ourselves.
During the period of time when I was on hemodialysis, I discovered my passion for really getting to know my fellow dialysis patients and helping them remain positive and optimistic. I began visiting my dialysis facility on my days off from treatment to visit with patients and help raise their spirits, and was even asked by facility staff members to speak at various banquets for other people who were also suffering from kidney failure. I have traveled from my hometown of Selma, CA to Washington, D.C. several times to lobby for important legislation for my kidney community.
I am currently on the waiting list for another transplant, but I feel that being on dialysis has made me stronger and has given me a completely different outlook on life, even inspiring me to go to college to become a medical interpreter for Spanish speaking people who may have language barriers in accessing their health care.
Elizabeth Jones
My journey with chronic kidney disease has been both professional and profoundly personal. In 1991, at age 25, I graduated with my Master's of Social Work degree (MSW). During a physical for my first social work job, I was diagnosed with membranous glomerulonephritis. Then I was assigned to the rendocrine, and kidney-pancreas transplant services of a large hospital. Four years later, I began working as an outpatient dialysis social worker.
For 15 years, I have had the privilege of being a nephrology social worker. I have advocated for CKD issues on the local, state, and national levels. My destiny has been to live and work with CKD. I feel passionate and excited about my membership on the DPC Board of Directors. CKD awareness and quality of care improvements are important goals I believe in. May we all work together to make DPC the voiceof all individuals living with CKD and our family members.
Chuck Leggett (Treasurer)
I have had diabetes since I was 16. I was able to work at many different types of jobs and ended up owning my own chimney service and stove sales business. After finding out that my kidneys were starting to fail in about 1992, I managed to keep working and to keep my kidneys working by diet and medication. In 1995 I found out that I would be starting dialysis soon. I started peritoneal dialysis in early 1996, and closed my business mid 1997. I received a kidney/pancreas transplant in June 1998 and had problems from the start with the kidney. I ended up being diagnosed with Polyoma Virus (BK virus) and lost the kidney in November 1999. I started hemodialysis and received another kidney transplant April 2005. This kidney and the pancreas are doing well.
I have always been involved in many community and business-related organizations. I have worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regulations on stoves in the state of Colorado, served on our Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments air quality committee and I also served on the board of a local senior health related non-profit for 26 years. I recently resigned from the latter in October 2008 so I could put more time into kidney-related organizations.
I have been working with DPC as a Patient Ambassador for the last 4 years and work very closely with my local dialysis centers. I also volunteer for the National Kidney Foundation of Colorado, and I am a Hope Line operator for Renal Support Network (RSN). My wife, Laurie, and I have a travel business selling mostly leisure travel and also maintain rental property for Laurie's mother. I am very pleased to be accepted as a Board Member for DPC and hope to be an asset for kidney patients.
Jack Reynolds
The dialysis career of a “22 year old, hostile male” as noted by my nephrologist, Dr. Condon, began in late December of 1974. My hemodialysis treatments have continued in Des Moines, Iowa since then, and I have lived the dialysis life with few associated health problems so far. Over the many years, until recently, the idea that the dialysis community had any consistent or appealing message was lost on me. I did my own dialysis business, on schedule, then went home. My attitude has changed over the past year, in large part due to my involvement with Dialysis Patient Citizens. The experience with DPC has given me fresh hope that a person receiving dialysis, as well as his or her family, may participate in an organized approach to addressing the “bigger” issues that affect most kidney patients. The defining answers to the questions and concerns of patients and dialysis providers alike, need to be worked on together to ensure the best possible outcome for all.
Carol Thomas
I was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2003 and I began hemodialysis in 2007. I thought this was the beginning of the end for me. However, I soon found out that dialysis is not the end but a new beginning. Over the past four years I have become very informed about dialysis. I have learned that many patients have a lack of health literacy, so I hope to start a support group with my center this year to help educate patients about their disease. I want to inspire dialysis patients to take control of their Kidney health. I am currently the team leader for Ambassadors’ Coordinating Together (ACT) for Northern California. I have been fortunate to take part in two trips to Washington DC to speak to lawmakers on behalf of the kidney community. I feel very honored to have been asked to serve on the DPC Board of Directors.
On a personal note, I have three beautiful daughters that have given me five wonderful grandchildren. I was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. I married a career military officer that gave me the privilege to live in several states and Europe. We settled down in Southern California for 30 years before he passed away in 2002. After a short while I decided I needed a change and moved to Sacramento, California, where I now reside.
Martin Wienshienk
I am honored that I have been selected to serve on the DPC Board of Directors and look forward to working with fellow members to ease the life of those afflicted with ESRD, as well as helping others to avoid ESRD treatment.
I was trained and worked as a mathematician and engineer for almost 50 years until retirement. As an engineer, I was able to look at problems as challenges which could be fixed with the appropriate analysis and application of proper design. As a retired engineer, I still have the same mind-set and have viewed ESRD as yet another challenge but, in this case, a challenge which I could not fix but could try to accommodate by working to alleviate difficulties encountered not only by me but by others. I was fortunate to receive a kidney transplant in April 2009 which has not dampened my desire to provide support for those still in treatment. Although medically trained doctors and staff provide the necessary medical treatment for the disease, patients, who have experience in coping with ESRD, can provide another patient with an empathetic ear and, hopefully, with non-medical advice on how to get along in life. I have served as a patient member of the Medical Review Board for CMS Network 15, have developed education materials for dialysis patients, served as chair for a local support group, and assisted other ESRD organizations in developing comments regarding ESRD legislation.
I am fortunate to have two children who have given me four beautiful grandchildren and to have a wife who has been my loving companion for over 40 years and who was trained to be my self-care care-mate during my hemo-dialysis treatments.
Myron Zayon
Fortunate. Most individuals with kidney disease would not likely use this word in a biographical description. Nevertheless, I do consider myself fortunate. Modern medicine is far ahead of where it was when I was born more than 50 years ago. Those advances have afforded me the opportunity to experience family events that would otherwise have taken place without me. So forgive me for choosing to be optimistic and for believing that every day, rain or shine, is a Mr. Rogers Day!!
For 25 years I was privileged to work as an educator working my way up the ladder until I became the principal. Now, it seems, I am destined to utilize my skills to further other causes. There is much work to be done in the arena of kidney disease and I look forward to helping have a positive impact on them. We must allow our voices to continue to be heard. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to work on behalf of my fellow ESRD patients and to serve the kidney care community in general, as well. Together, we can all help to ensure that proper care and useful educational materials and programs are available to all patients.
On a more personal note, I have six beautiful children. One is married and has given us a beautiful grandson, three are in college, one in high school and my baby is a fifth grader. My wife is a medical coder at a local hospital and has her hands full keeping all of us on the straight and narrow!! I thank her for being so supportive of my work with DPC, even when it takes me away from home for days at a time.
I look forward to continuing my work with Dialysis Patient Citizens.