We are excited to welcome two new staff members to our PWSA | USA team! Get to know them a little bit more below:
Angela Frazier, Events Coordinator
Angela has been married for 20 years and lives with her family, including 4 children, in Austin, Texas. Her youngest, Joseph, was diagnosed with PWS when he was 2 months old and is currently in 4th grade. Angela has a love for gathering people around a cause, especially helping raise awareness for PWS. Over the years, she has helped multiple non-profit organizations with fundraising primarily through special events. It’s a natural fit for her since she has been in the hospitality and event planning industry for over 20 years. Angela enjoys travelling and spending time with her family often watching her girl at dance and her boys playing sports.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jennifer Hill, CPA, Director of Accounting
Jennifer joined the staff of PWSA | USA in January 2022 as the Director of Accounting. She lives in St. Joseph, Missouri and has BS degrees in Accounting and Business Administration from Lincoln University and is a CPA licensed in the state of Missouri. Early in her career, Jennifer worked briefly for a large public accounting firm before taking a position as the Manager of Accounting for N.W. Electric Power Cooperative for 14 years. In early 2020 she stepped away to be home full time with her growing family. She is married and has 6 children including 1 year old twins, one a daughter who was diagnosed with PWS in 2020 at 3 weeks of age. During and since that time, PWSA | USA has been a significant resource and beacon of hope for the Hill family in learning how to care for a child with PWS. Jennifer believes in the mission of PWSA | USA and is excited and honored to bring her years of accounting experience to the organization to help them accomplish it.
Jennifer Bolander has been serving as a Special Education Specialist for PWSA (USA) since October of 2015. She is a graduate of John Carroll University and lives in Ohio with her husband Brad and daughters Kate (17), and Sophia (13) who was born with PWS.
Perry A. Zirkel has written more than 1,500 publications on various aspects of school law, with an emphasis on legal issues in special education. He writes a regular column for NAESP’s Principal magazine and NASP’s Communiqué newsletter, and he did so previously for Phi Delta Kappan and Teaching Exceptional Children.
Evan has worked with the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) since 2007 primarily as a Crisis Intervention and Family Support Counselor. Evans works with parents and schools to foster strong collaborative relationships and appropriate educational environments for students with PWS.
Dr. Amy McTighe is the PWS Program Manager and Inpatient Teacher at the Center for Prader-Willi Syndrome at the Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh. She graduated from Duquesne University receiving her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Education with a focus on elementary education, special education, and language arts.
Staci Zimmerman works for Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado as an Individualized Education Program (IEP) consultant. Staci collaborates with the PWS multi-disciplinary clinic at the Children’s Hospital in Denver supporting families and school districts around the United States with their child’s Individual Educational Plan.
Founded in 2001, SDLC is a non-profit legal services organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the legal rights of people with disabilities throughout the South. It partners with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Protection and Advocacy (P&A) programs, Legal Services Corporations (LSC) and disability organizations on major, systemic disability rights issues involving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the federal Medicaid Act. Recently in November 2014, Jim retired.