Cheryl Gaudino
Executive Director

Cheryl is from North Attleboro, Mass., and is the proud mom of 9 year old DJ and 13 year old Ryan, who has autism and PANDAS.

Cheryl is an autism advocate who has served on the Board of Directors for several organizations including Advocates For Autism of Massachusetts (AFAM); Research, Education and Action for Autism spectrum CHildren (REAACH); and Massachusetts Families Organizing For Change (MFOFC).

She is also a member of the Mercury Free Vaccine Coalition of Massachusetts, a support parent for Mass. Family TIES and a contact parent for the National Autism Association.

At the local level, Cheryl is the co-founder of a parent support group, Helping HANDS, which focuses on biomedical treatment options for children with autism and other neurobiological disorders. Cheryl and her husband Peter have also served on the Walk Committee for Community Autism Resources in Swansea and were voted "2006 Volunteers of the Year."

Prior to becoming a full-time advocate, Cheryl worked for 25 years in Office Management and Accounting.  She holds a degree in Accounting from Bryant University in Smithfield.

Pamela J. Ferro, RN ASN
President

Pamela J. Ferro RN ASN, is the Co-founder of Hopewell Associates, Inc. She provides biomedical treatments for children, teens, and adults with autism using biomedical approaches. She is also on the Parent Advisory Board of the Autism Higher Education Foundation, which is dedicated to creating global access to educational opportunities for individuals with autism.

Pam has spoken on several occasions at the international Defeat Autism Now! conferences, and is widely recognized as being the leading authority on the utilization of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in children and adults with Autism. She was also one of the five original nursing collaborators who developed the DAN Nurses Curriculum, which has since evolved into the DAN Practitioners’ Training.

Pam became close personal and professional friends with the late Elaine Gottschall, researcher, author, and developer of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Pam worked closely with her and was personally selected by Elaine as she became ill to carry on Elaine’s pioneering dietary work using the SCD to treat people with autism spectrum disorders. Pam’s article “Healing the Gut in Teenagers and Beyond” was recently published in the magazine The Autism File which was originally published in the UK, but now is published in Canada and the US as well.

Pam brings her special passion and knowledge to her treatment of people with autism not only because of her friendship with her mentor Elaine Gottschall, but even more directly and importantly, because of her beloved son, Isaiah, whose life is affected by autism.

Joani Desnoyers, RN
Vice-President

Joani is a registered nurse with a clinical focus in neurosurgical intensive care and has worked at both Massachusetts General Hospital and the New England Medical Center in neurosurgery units.

In 1995, Joani joined on the Board of Directors for the Schwartz Center for Children and since 1999 has served as its President. She has contributed her expertise to numerous projects including the design and implementation of the Center's Quality Assurance program. Joani also served on the Capital Campaign Committee as well as Chairperson of Strategic Planning. During the construction of the Schwartz Center's new facility, Joani Chaired the Building Committee.

Prior to her involvement with the Schwartz Center, Joani was on the Board of Directors for the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, serving as President for three years.

Joani lives on Cape Cod with her three children: Andrew, 20, a sophomore at Tufts University studying mechanical engineering and applied physics; Adrienne, 17, who has autism and is in a vocational training program at a local high school with other children who have a variety of developmental disorders; and Alex, 15, a freshmen at a local private day high school interested in soccer, basketball and lacrosse with a keen interest in studying medicine in the future.

In addition to her volunteer work and spending time with her children, Joani also enjoys sailing, traveling, knitting and sewing.

Vanda Blinn M.D., M.P.H.

Children Isaac and Isabelle
Husband Alan

Dr. Vanda Blinn graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine, and Brown University.  She completed her residency in pediatrics at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Boston Massachusetts.   

Dr. Blinn is a pediatrician in Massachusetts with interest in functional medicine, disease prevention and health promotion.   

Ilene Buchholz, RN

Ilene received her nursing degree from Providence College in 1971 and pursued a nursing career that spanned 24 years in the hospital and working with a pediatric neurologist implementing biomedical assessment and treatment modalities for children with autism.  She was the coordinator of the first two digestive enzyme clinical pilot studies in collaboration with Dr. Bernard Rimland and the Autism Research Institute.

She resides in California with her husband Ron and works with Klaire Labs in addressing technical needs relating to nutritional supplementation in support of health.

Wendy Fournier

Wendy is the mother of daughter diagnosed with autism.  She is a founding board member and president of the National Autism Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping families through its research funding, family care programs and political advocacy. 

Wendy is committed to changing the perspective of autism from what was once considered a mysterious mental illness to a biologically definable and treatable medical disorder.   She attends and speaks at conferences throughout the US.  She currently serves on the RI State Commission to study the education of children with autism, and as a reviewer of research proposals submitted through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for Autism Research through the U.S. Department of Defense.

Wendy and her husband Paul live in Rhode Island with their three children.

Dorry Ann Silvia
Mother to Tonya Lee

Dorry is a Health Unit Coordinator at St. Anne's Hospital, with 28 years experience in Health Care.

She is certified as a Speech, OT, and PT, Assistant.

Dorry has 27 years experience assisting medically fragile individuals in their home. She became committed to helping families who have children on the autism spectrum after her nephew Isaiah was diagnosed.

She was instrumental in Hopewell Autism Initiative's fund raising efforts to fund a highly specialized camp for children on the autism spectrum. Dorry has volunteered her time providing families with educational materials at the Massachusetts Biomedical Conferences.

Susan completed graduate courses in the field of Speech and Language Pathology at Emerson College in Boston, MA.

She has worked with children in the Newton, MA school system as well as with children on the autism spectrum through Emerson College’s program with Children’s Hospital.

Susan, her husband, Parviz and their three sons live in the Boston Metrowest area.

Sidney Baker, M.D.

Sidney MacDonald Baker, M.D., is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale University, and Yale Medical School, where he completed his residency training as Chief Resident Pediatrics in 1969 after taking time out for a mini-residency in Obstetrics and two years in Chad, Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer.   

After leaving a full-time faculty appointment as Assistant Professor of Medical Computer Sciences at Yale in 1971, he became a family practitioner in a prepaid health plan in New Haven.  Seven years later, he took a position as Director of Gesell Institute of Human Development where he continued a medical practice that had evolved toward an interest in biomedical aspects of chromic illness in adults and children.   

Dr. Baker returned to full-time practice in 1978 and currently practices in Sag Harbor, NY.  In 1994, Dr. Baker co-founded the Defeat Autism Now! Project.

Dr. Michael J. Cameron is the Founding Chair of the Department of Behavior Analysis at Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Cameron is a member of the editorial boards for The Behavior Analyst Today and The Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis.

Dr. Martha Herbert is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, a Pediatric Neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a member of the MGH Center for Morphometric Analysis, and an affiliate of the Harvard-MIT-MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.  She is director of the TRANSCEND Research Program (Treatment Research and Neuroscience Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders). 

 Dr. Herbert earned her medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Prior to her medical training she obtained a doctoral degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying evolution and development of learning processes in biology and culture in the History of Consciousness program, and then did postdoctoral work in the philosophy and history of science.  She trained in pediatrics at Cornell University Medical Center and in neurology and child neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has remained.  She recently received the first Cure Autism Now Innovator Award and directs the Cure Autism Now Foundation's Brain Development Initiative.  She is the Co-Chair of the Environmental Health Advisory Board of the Autism Society of America.  Her research program includes studying what makes some autistic brains unusually large, how the parts of the brain are connected and coordinated with each other, and how we can develop measure sensitive to changes in brain function that could result from treatment interventions.  To this end she utilizes multimodal imaging techniques including MRI, EEG and MEG, is particularly interested in using imaging, in coordination with clinical observation, metabolic biomarkers and animal studies, in shedding light on the physiological level of changes in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, and on potential domains of plasticity and targets for intervention. 

Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D.

Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless is a psychiatrist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology.  After practicing psychiatry for many years, in the early 1980’s she began pursuing alternative medical remedies for brain health as well as for hormone issues in peri-menopause. 

In 1996 her beloved 12^th grandchild Chelsey was diagnosed with autism at 2-3/4 years of age, and since then Dr. McCandless has pursued and taught bio-medical understanding and treatments for autism on a full-time basis. 

In 2002 she wrote “Children with Starving Brains:  A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder” which has been updated/revised 5 times with a 3^rd Edition released in early 2007 containing contributions by various colleagues and associates.  

In 2003, Dr. McCandless started the Mini-DAN! training course for physicians in the DAN! Bio-Medical Approach, training physicians throughout the US, Israel, Scotland, and China.  In 2005 she became a member of the DAN! Executive Board and has been a regular presenter at the bi-coastal DAN! conferences. 

Dr. McCandless introduced LDN to the autism community in 2005 and continues to research and pursue this immune/mood modulator for autism and other auto-immune disorders including HIV+ in Africa and elsewhere.

Maureen McDonnell, RN

Maureen received her BS, RN from Seton Hall University in 1977. Her nursing career included work in med-surg, pediatrics, newborn nursery, labor and delivery and childbirth education. Ms. McDonnell has been the national coordinator for the DAN!™ Conferences since 1998. She initiated (with Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless) the DAN!™ Physician Training program, the Mini DAN!™ Forum, and the DAN!™ Nurse’s Training program.