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Director, Patty Christlieb
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Patty Christlieb is the mother of Alisha who
is a left below elbow amputee due to a rare case of Myelodysplasia
Syndrome.
She completed Nursing Asst. school and went on to
Nursing school were she worked actively on the post op and pre-op
floors of Queen of the Valley Hospital in CA.
She volunteers on the Advisory Board for UCCH
where she also helps to reach out to neurologically impaired children
and their families. She is in the process of setting up an on line
list serve with the University for these families and in her spare
time she volunteers for the Ronald McDonald House but has found her
true calling with I-CAN and amputee kids. She does hospital visits
with her daughter when a traumatic amputee child comes into the
hospital and actively speaks at schools to open the lines of awareness
for children.
She hosted the Chicago 2004 meeting with great
enthusiasm and has co-hosted the 2005 San Diego meeting, as well as
the 2006 Cincinnati meeting.
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Director, Mary
Clark, M.D.
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Mary is a retired pediatric
orthopedic surgeon, with a particular interest in children [and adults]
with congenital or acquired limb differences. "A professional"
on the I-CAN list for about 8 or 9 years, she has attended two of the
summer gatherings [Memphis and New Orleans], and looks forward to more.
Her professional training began at Yale Medical School, then
surgery and orthopedic surgery residencies at the University of
Pittsburgh. Part of that residency included 3 months at the Rancho Los
Amigos Hospital in Downey, California--an orthopedic rehabilitation
hospital. After residency, she stayed on the faculty at Pitt, and helped
establish an amputee clinic at the Children's Hospital there [and a few
years later, an amputee camp that's still going, 28 years later]. Over
the years her practice has taken her to several other places, but she
has always kept amputees and their families a part of her work.
She is a co-author, with Dr. Hugh Watts, of Who Is Amelia?: Caring
for Children with Limb Difference (1998). An excerpt from In
Motion |
Director, Joyce
Wheeler
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Joyce has been an active member of I-CAN since
1997, about a year after the birth of her first child, Kayla.
Kayla was born missing both legs at the hip, right arm above the
elbow and left arm/hand differences.
Their family has attended all but one of the annual meetings
since she signed on and hosted the Seattle meeting in 2003.
Joyce’s professional background is in
accounting but she chose to cease working outside of the home shortly
after the birth of her second child in 2000.
Since then she has chosen to volunteer at her children’s
schools, is the Assistant Leader/Treasurer for Kayla’s Brownie Girl
Scout Troop, and was Special Needs Coordinator for the Saint Edwards
State Park Playground project in 2003. She
hosted the Seattle 2003 meeting with great enthusiasm and is helping to
co-host the 2005 San Diego meeting.
Joyce’s hobbies and interests include gardening,
reading and various craft activities. |
Director,
Lisa Swanzy
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Lisa
Swanzy is a Disability Specialist at Auburn University. She has a
bachelor's degree in General Rehabilitation Services and a master's
degree in Vocational Testing and Counseling.
Lisa
was born with bilateral above elbow limb differences (BAE). She
does have an elbow joint in her left arm; however, it is fused. The
fusion was from birth rather than being a surgical one. She also
has bilateral proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD) resulting in a
height of 3 feet, 10 inches.
Lisa
has been an I-CAN mentor almost from the beginning. She wanted to
be a mentor because she wanted parents and kids to be able to ask
questions, express true feelings e. g. anger, bewilderment, etc. to
people who had “been there, done that.”
Growing
up, Lisa’s parents treated her just like her brother (who has no
disability). She had chores to do, had to do all of her homework
at the same time her classmates did, etc.
She
was fitted with her first arm at 18 months old. At about 25 years
old, she decided to stop wearing her arms ALL the time. She
now wears them about 15 to 30 minutes at most each day depending on what
she need to do.
Lisa's
Profile |
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