Meet The New Board Members
November 2008

The CFIDS Association is pleased to introduce our newest board members, who began their terms this month. Their range of backgrounds—from community activism to business to science—as well as their personal experience with the illness in their own lives or in those of friends and family adds a wealth of perspective to the governance of the Association.

Here’s a bit of background on each of the new board members:

Christoph Bausch, PhD
St. Louis, Missouri
While working on his doctorate degree in molecular microbiology at Ohio State University, Christoph became ill with CFS. Eventually he recovered enough to finish his dissertation and take a postdoctoral research position at Stowers Institute for Medical Research focusing on genetics where he worked from 2003-2006.

Bausch joined the biotech firm Sigma Aldrich as a senior research and development scientist in the spring of 2006, and this year transferred to business development, working as a strategic marketing analyst for the company. He is also working toward his MBA at St. Louis University.

Stuart Drescher, PhD
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dr. Stuart Drescher is a psychologist whose practice includes individual and group psychotherapy in the areas of health psychology and personal growth. He treats people who have CFS and fibromyalgia, as well as illnesses ranging from Parkinson's disease to cancer. Additionally, he works as an organizational consultant with businesses and nonprofit organizations. In 1989, while skiing in Colorado, he experienced a sudden onset of CFS.

During the acute phase he had to suspend his practice. Subsequently, he was able to gradually return to a full time practice, and with time, resume skiing, hiking and whitewater river rafting. He continues to live with the constant need to pace himself.

Drescher received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Utah. He has been active on the board of Organization for Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Education and Research (OFFER), founded by board member Lucinda Bateman, MD, and has participated in their conferences.

Amy Divine
Boulder, Colorado
After beginning her career in social work as a youth services coordinator, co-founder of the Denver Youth Agencies Network, and gubernatorial appointee to the Colorado Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, Amy Divine spent 10 years as a programmer, producer and consultant for national and international TV and cable networks. Divine was also a partner in The Drummond-Divine Company, a New York-based producer of children’s programming.
 
When CFS struck Divine in 1986, it brought her career in television programming to an end. She turned her focus to parenting, working as a community activist and participating as executive director of the Rita and Harold Divine Foundation. She co-founded Citizens Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to pluralism, religious liberty and separation of church and state. She later founded Food for Thought Gatherings (FFTG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing understanding within the community by bringing diverse peoples together for informal small group discussions. In the 1990s, on behalf of FFTG, Divine initiated and co-chaired the Community Conversation on Race, a coalition effort involving over 80 organizations and 900 individuals in local interracial discussion groups. Divine also served on the steering committee for the Colorado Springs Leadership Institute, the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Board of Directors of the Colorado ACLU and the Board of Directors of the Anti-Defamation League of the Rocky Mountain Region.
 
The Colorado Association of Nonprofit Organizations recognized Amy Divine in 2000 "for her efforts to bridge the religious, racial and philosophical divides in the Colorado Springs area." She holds a Masters in Business Administration from UCLA and an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.

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Recent public advocacy activity by other CFIDS Association board members:

Board member Brian Smith testified at the May meeting of the CFS Advisory Committee (CFSAC), sharing his story and appealing for better public health policy for people with CFS.
View Smith's testimony at the May 2008 CFSAC meeting (Video)
Read Smith's testimony at the October 2008 CFSAC meeting

Chairman of the Board of Directors Jennie Spotila also testified at the May CFSAC meeting and has shared elements of her CFS experience in news broadcasts and online.
Read Spotila’s testimony at the May 2008 CFSAC meeting
View Spotila’s interview during a CBS3 news story about CFS
Read Spotila’s Defining Moments essay on CFS, “Reaching the Corner”

Board member Amy Squires gave her testimony at the October 2008 CFSAC meeting, presenting a “good government” perspective to thinking about and confronting CFS.
Read Squires’s public testimony.

Visit the Leadership page of our website to learn more about all of the Association’s board members and to link to more of their writing and work on behalf of people with CFS.

Updated July 15, 2009

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