Exciting Oley Updates

This summer, after nearly forty years of working for the Oley Foundation, Joan Bishop stepped down as Executive Director. Assuming the new title of Executive Director Emeritus, Joan will continue to be involved with Oley, helping the organization transition to a new executive director (see below), overseeing special projects, and helping to plan the 2023 Annual Conference, which is expected to be both in person and virtual, with dates and location to be announced shortly.

Joan started with Oley in 1984 as a program support person. After working in other roles at Oley, she became the executive director in 1999, overseeing the day-to-day operations, collaborating with Oley members, and networking with various stakeholders of the home nutrition support community. Joan is well known throughout the the Oley Foundation community Foundation and, with a highly motivated staff behind her, has positioned Oley well for future growth and activity.

“Joan has been an ever-present source of encouragement, information, and knowledge in the twenty years we have known and been part of the Oley family,” says Steve Atkinson, Oley Board Trustee. “She has been an unwavering supporter, advocate, and champion for not just our family, but for countless others that she has touched through her work and leadership of the Oley organization. She has provided much needed personal encouragement in our twenty-year journey with parenteral nutrition and gave us hope and community when it was needed the most. My wife, Leah, our son Jameson, and I wish her nothing but the best as she looks forward to retirement and the rewards it brings.”

The Oley Board of Trustees has selected Beth Gore, PhD, to serve as the new Executive Director. Beth has been working closely with Joan—and will continue to—during the transition period.

Beth and her husband, Daniel, live in Tampa, Florida, with their six children. Manny, their youngest, has lived on nutrition support since the age of 9 months. Now 13 years old, he continues to receive home IV (parenteral) nutrition and is on and off tube feeding.

Beth brings a variety of skills and experience with her to Oley. She has a PhD in training and has worked for other non-profit associations in various capacities. She is also a sought-after keynote speaker on patient safety and has served on numerous boards. Before assuming this position, Beth was President of the Oley Board of Trustees. Beth has participated in national patient safety task forces and coalitions, believing the patient perspective is of utmost importance to any national or systemic change. “My life mission statement is ‘speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves,’” she says.

After twenty-seven years of serving members, Roslyn Dahl, Director of Communications and Development, is moving on to new challenges. Roslyn shares, “It has been a privilege to have worked with and learned so much from the Oley community.” She will be greatly missed.

Board Updates

We are pleased to announce that Kelly Tappenden, PhD, RD, FASPEN, will serve as President of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Tappenden served as the Vice President and is well familiar with Oley and the needs of its members. She is a professor and head of the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research program focuses on intestinal failure, mechanisms of intestinal adaptation, and patient malnutrition. For these contributions, she has received multiple awards. She has published over one hundred peer-reviewed papers and delivered over four hundred invited lectures. In addition, Dr. Tappenden has served as president of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN); chair of the Nutrition, Metabolism and Obesity section of the American Gastroenterology Association Institute; and editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

We are pleased, too, that Shirley Huang, MD, has rejoined the Oley Board of Trustees. Dr. Huang is an academic general pediatrician in Boston, Massachusetts, with a special interest in children with medical complexity. She has three children. Her daughter, Janie, who was born in 2008, has short bowel syndrome and liver disease, and has been dependent on home IV nutrition and tube feeding. Janie has undergone numerous surgeries over the years. Dr. Huang previously served on the Oley Board of Trustees and brings with her, among other things, experience and organizational knowledge.

We invite you to share your stories or memories about Joan and Roslyn, and to welcome Beth to the Oley Foundation staff and Drs. Tappenden and Huang to the Oley Board of Trustees. Please send your comments to the editor (Lisa Metzger, metzgel@amc.edu or see address on page 2).