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.
Current DPC Board Members
Myron Zayon (President)
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.
Nancy Scott (Vice President and Education Committee Chair)
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. Since then, I have been involved with DPC as a Patient Ambassador and am now delighted to serve as Secretary of the Board 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.
Erich Ditschman (Public Policy Committee Chair)
As a DPC Board Member I have a chance to help others on dialysis realize that dialysis is the “true gift of life.” For many of us, transplant is not an option, dialysis gives us the ability to lead hopeful and productive lives. I am a father of two young children and the husband to my high school sweetheart. I am my son's Cub Scout Den Leader and spend much time volunteering at both my son's and daughter's schools. While these past three years on short term daily hemodialysis at home have been my most stable since I lost the use of my kidneys in 2001, I'm still not able to go back to the work I enjoyed.
Before I lost my the use of my kidneys I was an environmental consultant, community organizer and doctoral student. My wife and I had just moved to a new city and had adopted our son after ten years of trying to be parents. I had cut down my commute from one and one-half hours one way to twenty minutes both ways. Life seemed to finally fall in place. Then boom in four short months I went from a respectful fifty-percent kidney use to zero and on to emergency dialysis. Yikes, my world turned upside down. Not to worry, I was to receive a gift of life from my wife in a few months. That day did come, but unfortunately focal segmental glomerulosclerosis shut it down the day after the transplant. Another transplant in 2005 also failed due to recurring focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Since 2001 I have done home hemodialysis using a big Fresenius machine, in center hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis using a cycler and manual exchanges. In 2006, I found the NxStage System One which allowed me to dialyze at home. My life has been forever changed for the better. Home hemodialysis has given me significant new energy. For me dialysis is the “true gift of life.
While, I may not yet be able to return to work, I have been able to help others undergoing dialysis by working with Dialysis Patient Citizens and the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan. There is much to be done to ebb the flow of people losing the use of their kidneys. Additionally, there needs to be policy changes at the national level to allow more people to opt for home hemodialysis as a first choice in dialysis modalities. Finally, I think we need to showcase more people on dialysis and the very active lives they are leading. Dialysis is just something we have to do, it doesn't define us. Our actions tell of who we are. I hope you too grab life by the horns and make the most of this wild ride. Together with Dialysis Patient Citizens we can have a real impact on this horrid disease.
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 own 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.
Helen Como
As a DaVita Teammate, I am deeply honored to be a member of the DPC Board of Directors. I am a registered nurse, beginning my career in dialysis in 1987 caring for both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients. Once I entered this field, there was instantaneous fulfillment. I realized this was the area to which I would dedicate my professional life. Over the years, I have come to understand the importance of being involved in not only nursing activities, but business and grassroots efforts as well.
After obtaining my nursing degree, I returned to college and acquired a Bachelors degree in Business Administration. I have served as a Facility Administrator, and in my current role, I am a Regional Director in the Central Florida area. I have also been elected to the Florida Renal Administrators Board of Directors for the past 10 years, and remain active in political grassroots efforts that will benefit the dialysis population. I firmly believe in the DPC Mission & Charter, and realize that as a united organization, we have the power to make extraordinary, positive changes for dialysis and CKD patients nationwide. I look forward to working with all of you to make this a reality.
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. 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 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 Nov 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've 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 Oct 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 we 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.
Fred Manfred Jr.
During my 26 years with kidney failure, I started up support groups, wrote for newsletters, 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 journalism masters, communications BA and a teaching degree. I am also president of my community theater and am waiting for my third transplant.
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.
Beverly "Bev" Schroeder
I am a peritoneal dialysis patient, due to diabetes, since October 2004. I grew up as an Army "Brat". In 17 years of schooling, I attended 14 schools. I was always the new student but fit in quickly by being gregarious and inerested in my new classmates. After graduating from Nurnberg High School, on the grounds of a castle, I attended and graduated from Goucher College and also attended the University of Geneva in Switzerland for one year. I worked for Social Security as a claims rep, a field rep.,a supervisor, a policy specialist, and a management analyst. I then worked in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a management analyst and a branch chief after which I stayed home for many years raising my children. I did, however, do many volunteer jobs, to name a few-manning a domestic violence hot line, doing a newsletter, working with abused children, board member on a domestic violence shelter and counseling group, started a fibromylagia support group and last as a DPC Patient Ambassador and a DaVita Village Greeter.
Since retiring in North Carolina, I have worked part time as an Elections Supervisor and with the local District Attorney's office advocating for victims of crime.
Being an advocate comes naturally to me. Now being on the DPC Board and helping in the formation of policy, I look forward to further advancing that aspect of my life.
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 material 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 2 children who have given me four beautiful grandchildren and to have a wife who has been my loving companion for over forty years and who was trained to be my self-care care-mate during my hemo-dialysis treatments.
