Welcome to NELAD Resource Foundation!
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Who We Are
Mary Lorusso DiBara
President and co-founder-Mary Lorusso-DiBara
Mary Lorusso DiBara has spent her entire professional career in non-profit management. Now retired, she founded and was president of a company specializing in fund raising and grant writing. She has served on numerous nonprofit Boards, most recently serving as the president of the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester; and was a founding board member of the Central Mass. Lyme Foundation. She has co-facilitated a Lyme support group in the Newport RI area, and is a patient advocate working primarily in Rhode Island.
She has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Counseling Psychology.
Mary is passionate about helping individuals and families who are affected by Lyme disease and other vector-borne illnesses. She has chronic Lyme and several co-infections. But even before she was diagnosed, Mary sought help for her younger sister Darlene who, like so many other Lyme patients, was misdiagnosed for years. Who could have imagined when she finally found a Lyme-literate doctor to help her sister that she, too, would be diagnosed. And who could have imagined that several other family members . . . brother, nieces, and nephews . . . would also be diagnosed. One brother has severe cognitive impairment resulting from Lyme and co-infections.
In her role as a founder and President of the NELAD Resource Foundation, she has dedicated her “retirement years” to being a vital resource for those struggling with Lyme and Associated Diseases.
Darlene DiBara O'Connor
Vice President and co-founder-Darlene DiBara O'Connor
Darlene DiBara O’Connor is a Wraparound Coordinator for Worcester Public Schools. A former Wellness Coordinator and Education Coordinator for Mass Audubon in Worcester, Ma, she is also a certified Massachusetts educator with 30+ years of experience. Darlene was proudly a Conference Committee Member, Speaker Coordinator, and presenter for the Central Mass Lyme Foundation for several years. She has given interviews for the local newspapers, media, and Netflix, for a documentary about chronic illnesses.
Over the years, Darlene, has delivered numerous talks about Lyme and its associated diseases for schools, church groups, nurses, and other health care professionals.
In 2016, Darlene, along with other advocates, testified at the Massachusetts State House in Boston to assist in passing a law to ensure that Lyme patients would receive necessary antibiotic treatment coverage beyond 30 days. Inspired by her own families’ struggles, and the crucial need for more knowledgeable and experienced Lyme literate therapists, she is pursuing a new career in the mental health field-focusing on trauma therapy.
Compelled to assist individuals and families who are afflicted by these insidious diseases, she and her siblings have pridefully launched this Northeast regional, 501c3 foundation for Lyme and other related illnesses. Even though Darlene is a chronic Lyme survivor herself, shepassionately and gratefully continues to assist and support her numerous family members,including her two sons, on their path to wellness and prosperity.
Michael DiBara
Board Member and co-founder-Michael DiBara
Michael DiBara grew up in a small Central Massachusetts town where his appreciation for the outdoors began. As a teenager, he enjoyed riding mini-bikes on trails
around the Wachusett Reservoir and searching for edible mushrooms
in the serene woods with his father and brother.
These Massachusetts’ experiences led him to get a BS in Business Administration at Worcester State University.
As an environmental professional, he earned his master’s degree in public administration as a 2002 recipient of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Fellowship for Excellence in Public Administration at Suffolk University in Boston.
He enjoys spending quality time with his family, hiking, gardening and beekeeping.
Josie Fox
Board Member and co-founder-Josie Fox
Josie provides administrative support to the foundation and appreciates the importance of our mission with first-hand experience of how Lyme disease can affect an entire family.
She received a BS in Early Childhood Education from Framingham State College and enjoyed years of teaching Kindergarten and Second Grade at a small private school. She often commented that she learned as much from those youngsters as she taught them!
Currently retired, she loves spending time with her family and Golden Retriever and fills her days updating and decorating her home, antiquing, knitting, and visiting with friends.
Michelle Scavone
Board Member-Michelle Scavone
Michelle Scavone is a director of NELAD, Northeast Lyme and Associated Diseases Resource Foundation. She has been self-employed as a PA Accountant/IRS tax agent for over 30 years and has owned additional businesses with her late husband, such as a utility contracting construction company for 10+ years, and a shirt design business. Her specialty is working with small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Michelle is a director of Timothy Scavone Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc. and is a secretary and director of Kids Club Inc., which are also non-profit 501C3 organizations.
She is also a proud co-founder and treasurer for 'Be Love Ministries Inc.', an additional nonprofit, which is a Christian Ministry, 2022.
She and her husband were both diagnosed with Lyme disease.
Her husband passed away in 2020, after suffering for a very long time from chronic Lyme and Babesia. After educating herself, she devoted her time to finding out what her husband was ill from, while she began researching and studying as much accurate info as she could find out about Lyme and its associated diseases. During this process, she discovered that her husband’s illnesses could be traced back to a tick bite from 2014.
It was also revealed that Michelle also has Lyme disease but continues to become better with several treatments prescribed and monitored by her Lyme practitioner. She has helped several people get a proper diagnosis of Lyme and its associated diseases and has now dedicated her life to helping others who suffer from these diseases. She is a devout Christian and is fulfilling God’s will in helping others.
She is currently working on a documentary for Lyme and its associated diseases.
Sheila Statlender
Board Member-Sheila Statlender
Sheila M. Statlender, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in-practice for more than 25 years in Newton, Massachusetts. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Massachusetts Psychological Association and the
National Register of Health Providers in Psychology.
Dr. Statlender specializes in the impact of chronic illness, including academic, vocational and personal adjustment issues. She provides supportive counseling and assistance with healthcare advocacy to many patients
diagnosed with tickborne diseases and their families.
She is the co-author of “Lyme and tick-borne diseases: A primer for mental health practitioners,” published in a refereed journal of the American Psychological Association (https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000163).
Dr. Statlenderis a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), an organization comprised of healthcare professionals committed to the comprehensive understanding, study and treatment of Lyme and other tick borne diseases, and has presented at a number of professional conferences. She helped to develop a training program sponsored by the Lyme Connection and the Leir Retreat Center in Ridgefield, Connecticut, designed to educate mental health professionals regarding the impact of Lyme and other tick borne diseases.
Dr. Statlender has been very involved in legislative efforts in Massachusetts. She represented ILADS as a governor-appointed member of the Commission to Conduct an Investigation and Study of the Incidence and Impacts of Lyme Disease in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which issued its report in 2013. As a member of the Massachusetts Lyme Legislative Task Force, she worked closely with the legislature to enact physician protection legislation in 2010. In July, 2016, she was actively involved in the successful passage of a Lyme disease treatment coverage bill.
Dr. Statlender also has been active on the federal level. She served as a member of the Access to Care Services and Support to Patients Subcommittee of the Health and Human Services Tickborne Diseases Working Group (2018-2019), and again as a sub-committee member of the secondHealth and Human Services Tickborne Diseases Working Group in 2019-2020. She participated as a Consumer Reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Department of Defense Tick-Borne Disease Research Program - FY18.
On a personal note, Dr. Statlender and her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, reside in Framingham, Massachusetts. They are the parents of three adults who were treated for disseminated Lyme disease as children.
Robyn Dudek
Board Member-Robyn Dudek
Robyn Dudek is a Rutland, Massachusetts resident, which is where she met Darlene O’Connor, who she has nicknamed, her “Rutland Angel!” After witnessing first-hand what Lyme and its co-infections did to her healthy, confident, smart and beautiful friend,
Robyn began reading and learning as much as she could about these illnesses.
After asking Darlene to meet with Robyn’s niece, who had been very ill for several years, with no answers and needless surgeries, she sadly, was experiencing a loss of a fulfilling life. With help and guidance from Darlene and NELAD Resource Foundation, her niece is finally on a path to healing. It has been a long journey, but Robyn helped her niece by researching foods she could eat, while spending weeks and months
preparing these foods to assist in her healing.
Robyn’s niece is thriving and she has become a Biomagnetic Therapy Practitioner, who now helps other Lyme patients! Robyn’s heart is full knowing that two of the most amazing people in her life, Darlene and her niece, are doing so well, and both are finally on a path to wellness-after being so ill from Lyme and its associated diseases.
Robyn feels beyond honored to be chosen to be a part of this board,
so she can continue to help many others down their path to wellness too.