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Daniel Becker
Daniel
Becker grew up in San Francisco and then attended Dartmouth College and
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He has had several jobs in the
public policy arena, including working as a legislative assistant to a U.S.
Congresswoman and jobs with the California State Legislature and City of
Seattle's Office of Management and Budget. He recently completed a Masters in
Education from Stanford University and currently works as a high school
history teacher in Bellevue, Washington. He has had articles published on
Salon.com and Backpacker Magazine.
Daniel’s
book This Mean
Disease tells the story of his mother, Carol Oberman
Becker, who passed away from anorexia nervosa in 1992 at the age of
62. She first was diagnosed in
1966 and lived with the illness for over 25 years.
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Jeanine C. Cogan, PhD
Jeanine
Cogan completed her PhD in Experimental/Social Psychology at the University
of Vermont in 1993. Since then
she has conducted research, published in professional journals, and
conducted both community and professional presentations on a range of
topics with an emphasis on influencing public policy. Working with other eating disorder
leaders Dr. Cogan was the founding Executive Director of the Eating Disorders
Coalition for Research, Policy & Action. Under her leadership, the coalition
of five founding organizations grew to more than 20 in 4 years, and led to
the introduction of four new bills promoting eating disorder relevant
policies in Congress. More
recently as the EDC Policy Director, she was successful advocating for
language in a Senate bill that urges the CDC to collect data on the
incidence, morbidity and mortality of eating disorders.
Jeanine
has made outstanding contributions in other areas of policy as well. While working as a Congressional
Science Fellow in the office of Congresswoman Degette,
she wrote the Patient Freedom of Restraint Act to to
limit the use of restraints and seclusion for patients with mental
disabilities treated in certain facilities. She has worked with federal agencies
and Congress toward implementing hate crimes policy initiatives and
advocated for more research into hate crimes statistics.
Jeanine
is currently Assistant Director of the Other 3Rs Project at the Center for
Psychology in Schools and Education at the American Psychological
Association.
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Eleena Melamed
(Eleena’s
presentation is sponsored by Remuda Ranch)
Eleena Melamed, who was born in
Jerusalem, moved to New York City at age five. She soon began ballet
lessons and was accepted into the School of American Ballet at the age of
7. At 17, she joined the corps of the American Ballet Theater. During her ballet career, Eleena struggled with anorexia and self-injury. Her story was told in the PBS NOVA
documentary Dying to Be Thin.
After
five years with ABT, she decided that leaving the dance world would be the
best decision for her health and future. Eleena
enrolled at Columbia University in New York City, as an international
politics major. Her coursework earned her a 2003 Goldman Sachs Global
Leadership Award and an internship with the grassroots Middle East peace
initiative. She spent a summer interning for John Stossel
at ABC's 20/20 and another summer interning for the Today Show.
While
at Columbia,
Eleena served as a panelist in a program on
eating disorders called "How Do I Look?" She also was one of the
founders of Students Against Silence, a campus organization to help students combat depression.
Eleena will graduate in May from Columbia as the
valedictorian of the class of 2006, and has accepted a job to work for
Lehman Brothers in their investment banking division.
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Melissa Román
Melissa Román
is a 28-year-old Nicaraguan Native who has been living in Miami, Florida
for the last 6 years. She graduated from Louisiana State
University in
December 1999 with a degree in Finance. She moved to Miami in the fall of 2000 to undergo
treatment for her battle with anorexia. Within a few weeks after undergoing
therapy, her treatment team suggested and advised for her to go inpatient
at Renfrew's Coconut Creek facility.
She still sees her therapist and nutritionist weekly and has been in
solid recovery from her eating disorder since 2000.
She currently works for a
Mexican furniture Company and is responsible for handling the finances and
operations of the U.S market. She also volunteers on a weekly basis at
Children's Home Society (CHS) with abandoned, neglected and abused
children that live in a shelter and belong to the State. Her volunteer
work at CHS (www.chsfl.org) has been very
therapeutic for her recovery.
Melissa still attends the
Renfrew Reunion's every year in light of giving someone hope
there that recovery is possible. She's also part of the Eating
Disorder Steering Committee and has been helping with Eating Disorder
Awareness Week (EDAW) for the last four years. As a Latin Recovering
Anorexic, she has had the opportunity to share her battles, struggles and
triumphs with the media. She was interviewed last summer for an article on WebMd and was also featured on Univision's Ultima Hora with both her
therapist and her nutritionist.
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Joslyn Price Smith
Joslyn Smith is the Public Interest Policy Assistant in the
Public Policy Office of the American Psychological Association in
Washington, DC. In her position
with the APA, she works mostly on issues affecting women, older adults and
children, youth and families. Joslyn recently completed a congressional internship in
the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton where she worked closely with
members of the Senator’s health team on issues including eating
disorders and obesity. Joslyn holds a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts
from Scripps College in Claremont, California, where her art portfolio
focused on body image and eating disorders. She has been active in eating
disorders advocacy on a federal level with the Eating Disorders Coalition
for Research, Policy and Action for the past five years.
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Tom & Doris
Smeltzer
Tom
with a M.S. in Education and Doris with a M.A. in Counseling Psychology are
career educators - he at the elementary and community college level, she
throughout the K-12 and adult education spectrum. When illness forced
Tom to
leave his position as an elementary school principal he took up the
therapeutic art of welding. He
now coordinates the Welding Technology Program at a community college in
Northern California where he teaches welding as an art form and
professional and technical mathematics. When their daughter Andrea died
from bulimia, Doris chose to leave her classroom assignment. She is now a
Teacher on Special Assignment with the local school district encouraging
and guiding teachers in Character Education as well as in the prevention of
bullying behavior among students.
Andrea’s
Voice: Silenced by Bulimia, written by Doris with excerpts from Andrea’s
journals and poetry, will be published in May 2006.
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