Son’s Struggles Ignite Father’s Passion
National college of Education
NCE alumnus leads national epilepsy advocacy organization by Robert Schroeder
Philip Gattone
In 1991, Philip Gattone’s life hit a crossroads when his 4-yearold son was diagnosed with epilepsy. Gattone and his wife, Jill, enjoying successful business careers, decided to exit the corporate world and devote their working lives to securing resources and opportunities for Americans with epilepsy.
Today, Philip (M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction ’00), 49, is the CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA), a national volunteer agency dedicated to promoting the welfare of the nearly 3 million Americans with epilepsy and their families. As CEO, he is leading the merger of two of the nation’s major epilepsy awareness organizations, as EFA merges with the Epilepsy Therapy Project. “When our son began having seizures and [my wife and I] started going down this road trying to find
care for him, we both recognized how precious life is, how short life is, and we decided we wanted to spend our lives really doing something that mattered,” Philip said. EFA focuses on education efforts to reduce the sense of stigma that surrounds epilepsy, runs a “Managing Seizures in the Classroom” program and works to ease access to employment for adults with epilepsy. Crucially, the organization funds medical procedures that lessen or eliminate the risk of seizures for some people with epilepsy. EFA is also working with partner organizations to bring new therapies to the forefont and in 2013 will be part of the roll-out of three new therapies. “When you see a young man who is seizure-free and has been for quite some time, able to move on with his life as a direct result of finding good care and aligning with a program and a foundation, that’s probably the most fun part of my job, seeing how when life is tough and this foundation intervenes, life can be better,” Philip said.
Teaching the Joy of Giving
NCE alumna brings philanthropy into her preschool classroom by Mark Donahue
Ziomara Perez (B.A. in Early Childhood Education & Human Development ‘97), a preschool teacher at Nettelhorst School in Chicago, has enjoyed some great accolades in recent years for her work in early childhood education. She was a Golden Apple Award winner in 2006 Ziomara Perez and garnered a Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award in 2011. Ziomara, 37, is also a co-founder of SwaziKids International, which stemmed from a 2007 trip she and a colleague took to southern Africa, where they witnessed the ragged state of schools. She returned with the idea of engaging her young students to help make a difference.
in goody bags for children in Swaziland. Though she was at first worried her students might be jealous of the things they were sending overseas, Ziomara quickly discovered these young children were excited by the chance to help someone else. SwaziKids International was started as a non-profit in 2009 and in addition to providing supplies also raises money to send kids in Swaziland to school. In 2013, Ziomara and her colleague will hand-deliver the students’ gifts to Swaziland, as they do every summer. The effort has taken on deep meaning for this Chicago teacher. “I think I’ve had wonderful moments in my classroom these past 14 years, but this probably is going to be what I remember when I’m 80 years old somewhere,” she said.”This is just going to be what stands out for me.”
The preschoolers in Ziomara’s class collected spare change and bought school supplies and toys to put 10 www.nl.edu/magazine