Our Founder, Jeff Goldstein (1957-2021)
The Lung Transplant Foundation is saddened to announce the passing of President and Founder, Jeff Goldstein. A steadfast leader and treasured friend, for the nearly 18 years following his transplant, Jeff dedicated himself to improving the lives of other lung transplant patients and their families. Jeff spent every day honoring the gift he was given the day of his double lung transplant. The Lung Transplant Foundation now continues its work in his honor, and the honor of all members of the lung transplant community that have been lost.
Amy Skiba
Executive Director
The Lung Transplant Foundation is pleased to introduce our new Executive Director, Amy Skiba. Amy joined the Lung Transplant Foundation in June and was working closely with Jeff Goldstein, founder of LTF prior to his passing.
Amy’s nonprofit career started in 2016 as the Executive Director for the NEPA region of the American Heart Association. Prior to her work in a non-profit, Amy excelled in her career in sales and marketing in the world of hospitality. As an Executive Director with the AHA, Amy’s focus was on development and community health initiatives to better outcomes for heart and stroke patients while raising critical funds for research. Amy hopes to bring her experience to the Lung Transplant Foundation and continue the critical work for our transplant community.
Amy resides in Pennsylvania with her husband and three children ages 20, 9, and 7. As a mother of multi-generation children, she brings a unique perspective to balancing motherhood and professional lives. She is passionate about elevating women in leadership and making an impact in the nonprofit community. Amy enjoys running, spending time with her family and children, and can be found many nights at the local ballpark watching her son play baseball and serving as a board member for the program.
Ellen Goldstein
Raleigh, NC
Ellen Goldstein moved to North Carolina from Florida for graduate school in 1981 and knew it would be home. She holds a B.S. Degree in Chemistry and worked for 13 years as VP/Partner in a commercial real estate development and management company.
She retired in order to spend more time with her two daughters. During retirement, she has actively volunteered in public schools, mostly tutoring students in ESL programs. As the sister of Lung Transplant Foundation founder Jeff Goldstein, she has been an active LTF volunteer since the organization was founded, including serving as bookkeeper for several years.
Ellen and her husband, Paul Sun, live in Raleigh. She enjoys traveling with friends and family, college basketball, gardening, and walking.
Kim Holleman
Raleigh, NC
Kim has an associate degree in allied health– radiologic technology and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from East Carolina University. Kim has worked at Duke since 1992. Kim grew up in Ohio and moved to NC after nursing school, where she started working with pulmonary patients. She worked in the MICU for 20 years and also did labor and delivery for three years. Kim also works for Buckeye Transplant Services which contracts with transplant centers all over the U.S. to help provide donor organs to those who need them.
Kim has a LOVE for pulmonary patients. One of her friends talked her into interviewing for a lung transplant coordinator position, and she has loved it since the very first day. Kim was interested in being on the board for the LTF to help raise money for research to cure the chronic rejection process that has taken several of her post-lung transplant patients’ lives.
Harry Collins
Christiansburg, VA
Harry earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Virginia Tech University. Harry organized the First Annual Lung Transplant Foundation Golf Tournament in June 2011 and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the foundation. He started the Virginia Chapter of the LTF and serves as president. He also started the 1st Virginia Chapter Golf Tournament. In 2016, he was elected to the Town Council for Christiansburg, VA. He’s also a member of the town’s planning commission.
Harry was diagnosed with COPD and had a bilateral lung transplant at Duke University Medical Center in March 2010. He resides in Christiansburg, VA, with his wife, Sherri, and enjoys spending time with his four children, two stepchildren and seven grandchildren.
Kelly Margolis Dagger
Raleigh, NC
Kelly Margolis Dagger is a lawyer practicing at Ellis & Winters LLP in Raleigh. She focuses on business litigation, employment law, and criminal defense. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and their dog. Kelly enjoys running in her free time.
Tim Berger
Tim Berger is Executive Vice President – Global Tax at MasterCard. He is responsible for all planning, compliance and reporting as it relates to U.S., foreign, state and local income and franchise taxes and indirect taxes.
Tim joined MasterCard in February 2009. Immediately prior to joining MasterCard, he served as Vice President, Global Taxation at Sealed Air Corporation, with responsibility for all aspects of global taxation. Prior to Sealed Air, Tim spent a total of 13 years over 2 tours with Becton Dickinson and Company (a leader in the medical device industry) in positions of increasing responsibility, with the majority of tenure spent as Director-International Tax with primary responsibility for tax planning, transfer pricing and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to returning for a second tour with Becton Dickinson, he ran the tax function of GenTek/General Chemical Corporation. Prior to his first tour with Becton Dickinson, Tim held positions of increasing responsibility with Ingersoll-Rand and KPMG.
Tim is a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”) and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (“NJCPA”). He also is a member of the Board of the Greater New York Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in addition to sitting on the board of The Lung Transplant Foundation. Tim’s son and daughter are CF patients and his daughter underwent a double-lung transplant in November 2019.
Mr. Berger holds a B.S. in Accounting from Rider University and a Master of Science in Taxation from Pace University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New Jersey.
Rod Spadinger
Dallas, TX
Rod earned a Bachelor’s Degrees in both Accounting and Finance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and followed that by subsequently being awarded an MBA in International Marketing and Finance from DePaul University. Rod’s professional career consists largely of employment with Bank of Hawaii for nearly 20 years, with most of that time spent as an underwriter in the Bank’s Small Business Loan Department.
He has Cystic Fibrosis, and received a double lung and liver transplant at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas at the age of 44 years. In an effort to give back, Rod Co-Founded the CF Vests for Life Foundation, where he is the Executive Director and Treasurer. He also has served as the Treasurer of the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation for approximately six years.
Brian Bennett
Treasurer, Raleigh, NC
Brian Bennett is a partner with McMillan Pate & Company LLP, a Raleigh CPA firm that provides audit, tax and consulting services to privately held businesses, not-for-profit organizations and employee benefit plans. Brian primarily focuses on tax consulting and compliance for businesses and individuals. Brian is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and a Master of Accounting degree from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Brian resides in Cary, NC with his wife and two sons.
George Chatneuff
Floyd, VA
George earned his accounting degree from Virginia Tech. He was a licensed CPA in Virginia until his retirement. George has worked in a variety of areas in accounting including public accounting and banking. The last 15 years of his career were with the Radford University Foundation, Inc. as the accounting manager.
George was diagnosed with idiomatic pulmonary fibrosis and had a single lung transplant at Duke Medical Center in January 2018. George now devotes much of his time managing the 100 acre woodlands where he and his wife, Cindy, live in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. He and Cindy enjoy traveling and visiting their three daughters and young grandchildren scattered throughout the southeast.
JESSA FORD DEPEW
Atlanta, GA
Jessa Depew earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Tennessee and a Doctor of Pharmacy through the University of the Pacific. She completed a postdoctoral Medical Affairs Fellowship through Rutgers University and Daiichi-Sankyo. Jessa currently works as a Senior Director over Field Medical Affairs for a small pharmaceutical company specializing in rare genetic diseases, and she previously spent many years working in fibrotic and pulmonary diseases. Jessa has dedicated her time to the Lung Transplant Foundation in honor of a close family member with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. She lives with her husband, Dr. James Depew, and their three children in Atlanta, GA.
Paul Sun – Esquire
Legal Counsel, Raleigh, NC
Paul Sun graduated magna cum laude from Wittenberg University and earned a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University. He received his J.D. degree from Duke University. Paul is currently a partner at Ellis & Winters in Raleigh, NC and focuses his practice primarily on business litigation and appeals. He lives with his wife, Ellen Goldstein, and their two daughters in Raleigh, NC. He is connected to the transplant community through Ellen’s brother, Jeff Goldstein. Paul enjoys biking in his spare time.
Jonathan Reiss
South Orange, NJ
Jonathan earned his undergraduate accounting degree from George Washington University. Currently, he is a director of internal audit at PriceWaterhouse Coopers. An avid volunteer, he is the president of the Northeast Chapter of the Lung Transplant Foundation and involved with the Special Olympics, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. One of his family members is a bilateral lung transplant recipient who has dealt with bouts of rejection that have been successfully treated. This experience drives Jonathan to support LTF in its goal of finding a long-term solution to chronic rejection. Jonathan lives in Scotch Plains, NJ.
Janice M. Sutton
Huntertown, IN
Janice Sutton joined the Lung Transplant Foundation as the Program Manager for the Joseph J. Carter Mentorship Program in 2018. She is responsible for coordinating the development, implementation, and evaluation of Mentorship activities designed to support members of the lung transplant community. During her career as a successful retail manager, Janice excelled at building high-performance teams and customer satisfaction.
Janice is passionate about the people and causes close to her heart. Since receiving a double-lung transplant in 2012, she has devoted her time to her family, as well advocating for organ donation and finding ways to educate, inform, and give back to the transplant community.
Janice and her husband live in Huntertown, IN, and have three sons.
Linda J. Walsh, BS, TTS
Miami, FL
Linda J. Walsh is a finance and business development professional with expertise and extensive knowledge in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors.
With 25 years of experience, she is a hands-on leader with key strengths in strategic and financial planning, securing corporate funding and sponsorships, tactical execution and leadership of initiatives that enhance operations, customer service while optimizing profitability.
Linda has a demonstrated record of developing and executing financial and operational controls that improve PNL and competitively position organizations.
As Chief Community Engagement Officer at the COPD Foundation, Linda is focused on expanding support for all individuals affected by COPD and related chronic lung conditions.
She is passionate about educating, empowering, and engaging all stakeholders of patient communities as many of her family members are directly impacted by these diseases.
Linda received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park and is certified as a Tobacco Treatment Specialist.