Mr. Labuda is the Founder of Conquer Chiari, a 20 year patient advocate, and a Chiari researcher. As a Chiari patient himself, he knows firsthand the pain and frustration of dealing with this disease. He has written hundreds of patient focused articles on Chiari and is the author of "Conquer Chiari: A Patients Guide to Chiari Malformation". He is also credited with 16 peer reviewed journal publications. Mr. Labuda holds an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology ('25) and BS in Electrical Engineering and has over 35 years of business experience across a range of industries and disciplines.
Mr. Kushner is Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Modern Transportation Systems and has over 25 years of business and marketing experience in industries ranging from aerospace to telecommunication/Internet to software and logistics. Mr. Kushner is active in the non-profit sector and is a Director of the American Respiratory Alliance. He holds a Master's in Management and Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mr. Lee is a business and high technology professional with 30 years of experience across a variety of industries and vocations. Currently he is the VP of Products at Journey Robotics, a developer of robotic products designed to reduce employee exposure to dangerous and heavy lift situations. He is an expert in the application of cutting-edge technology to innovative business practices. Mr. Lee holds a degree in Business from Boston University.
Mr. Tomczak is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over 25 years of world-wide, financial management experience, including 6 years at Price Waterhouse. Mr. Tomczak is currently Chief Financial Officer at Inmedius, a Boeing Company a global leader in delivering innovative, performance-oriented applications and services that capture, create, manage and deploy technical information assets.
Dr. Nwotchouang completed his Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Akron and his Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at Aachen University in Germany. He has contributed to over 15 peer-reviewed journals related to Chiari malformation. His research has revealed crucial information about the volumetric differences in the clivus bone between Chiari patients and healthy controls. He is currently a Scientist in the Pharmaceutical Segment of Cardinal Health, a global healthcare Fortune 500 company.
Dr. Mueller achieved her Doctorate in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University and has over 25 years of neurosurgical nursing experience. She is currently working with Dr Oro at the Chiari Care Center in Aurora Colorado. During her career has treated hundreds of Chiari and syringomyelia patients. Dr Mueller has authored multiple publications in peer reviewed journals and is currently active in several research projects.
As a mother of a Chiari patient, Mrs. Nebel has a great passion to help the Chiari community. She is the point of contact for Conquer Chiari Walk Across America and all community fundraisers. Heather works directly with our volunteers to help create events across the country to unite Chiari patients and families together. Heather has a strong sales background working in Insurance and Financial Services for nearly 10 years. She started as a volunteer for Conquer Chiari in 2012 before accepting a position in 2015. Heather states, “I am honored and excited to be a part of the Conquer Chiari team and look forward to help continue the groundbreaking work that has been started.”
In order to remain independent, and adhere to our policy of not aligning with a specific doctor or hospital, Conquer Chiari does not have a formal medical or scientific advisory board. However, Conquer Chiari has built an extensive network of contacts with the medical and scientific leaders in the world wide Chiari community, and consults with these experts on an ongoing, as needed basis. Since we provide significant research funding, we believe that it is important to maintain a constructive, but arms length, relationship with the medical and scientific community in order to avoid conflicts of interest.