Our Board of Directors
Lynn E. Thompson
President and Treasurer
Lynn Ellen Thompson began her studies as an artist at the age of 16 working privately with several artists. She graduated from NYIT with a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts and a Masters degree in Communication Arts. As a professional artist, Lynn has worked with publishing houses, engineers, as a medical artist, and has exhibited her artwork in galleries across NYC and Long Island. Originally commissioned to design multi-media teaching aids for the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation, Lynn went on to work with and eventually run the foundation for 17 years. With the foundation, Lynn used phonemes and traditional orthography to help teach English to children and adults with special needs, regular readers, and the multi-lingual.
Annelise Suarez
Secretary
Annelise is a young professional in the fashion industry. As a vegetarian, her passion lies with animals and doing anything to help them. She donates to several animal rescue organizations across the globe and is hoping to start one of her own one day in the future. As a friend of Lynn’s, and one who has spent much time with Gerben, she is honored to be on the board and support finding a cure for lymphoma for dogs.
Kelly Torres
Officer and Secretary
Kelly Torres is a college student majoring in medicine. She currently is hired to search for donations and have charity functions especially in summer at fairs in Long Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania for The Betty E. and Chester C Thompson Foundation and for the Gerben Foundation.
Lisa Gorelick Suarez
Vice President
Lisa Gorelick Suarez graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC with a BA in Interior Design. She has worked in various areas of Interior design such as Corporate Offices, Retail and Residential. Lisa’s specialty for the last 20 years has been in Kitchen and Bathroom Design.
Bruce Stevens
Bruce Stevens grew up in Westchester County and attended college majoring in psychology and business in Florida where he obtained his first dog, a black lab, as an adult. His parents always had a dog as he was growing up. It wasn’t long until he acquired a second lab while living in Florida post graduation.
A few years later he traveled the country with his Irish Setter and ultimately settled back in NYC and East Hampton as he pursued a career in technology. In the early 80’s he and his late wife bred Golden Retrievers which was a wonderfully satisfying endeavor. Bruce has owned 7 Golden Retrievers and currently he and his wife own a white-British-Swedish Golden named Oscar.
Bruce retired 14 years ago and has enjoyed fishing, travel, tennis, volunteer work with The Lighthouse and Meals on Wheels. His dogs and cats have been his children along with nieces and nephews.
Dr. Luis Schang
Dr. Luis Schang is the Director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Animals and humans alike suffer from viral infections, and new viruses continue to emerge on the scene year after year. To learn about viral diseases, Dr. Luis Schang uses small molecules with drug-like properties to probe the ways viruses cause infections. He is most interested in finding common features among the many viruses that cause disease in animals or humans. With his research, Schang is learning more and more about how viruses, despite their tiny size, make big problems in health. He’s also uncovering important information on how to use only a few drugs to fight infections with many different viruses, or even stop them before they start.
Brian Rind, DVM
Dr. Brian Rind is a veterinarian and owner of the Great Neck Animal Hospital. He has practiced small animal medicine and surgery there since 1974. Brian graduated proudly from the Veterinary College at Cornell in 1965. He grew up on a dairy farm in Ulster County, NY and has been involved with animals his whole life. He has known Lynn Thompson for many years and Gerben since a puppy. He happily accepted Lynn’s invitation to join her board to try to help eradicate lymphoma from the canine population.
Jaya Kunnel
Jaya Kunnel, Contemporary Rehabilitation Services founder, has had over 30 years of experience in a wide range of clinical, academic and administrative aspects of Physical Therapy practice and is fluent in both English and Hindi. Jaya’s passion over the past 18 years has been in the area of manual therapy. Jaya’s strong background in biomechanics and yoga have helped her to create a unique blend of structural and functional rehabilitation methods and has published The ABC Approach to Health & Wellness, A Step-By-Step Exercise Guide. It is her lifetime commitment to care for every one of her patients by delivering total individualized care programs for the restoration of their physical, psychological / emotional and spiritual well being.
Joan Lynch
Joan Lynch is the Executive Director of Long Island Center for Independent Living, (LICIL) an agency that provides services to assist people with disabilities to live as independently as possible in their communities. She has been with LICIL for 33 years interacting with consumers and learning something new every day. Joan is on the Board of Directors as past president of the Levittown Chamber of Commerce, where she serves on the installation, scholarship, and festival committees. She is also a member of the Levittown Lions Club. Joan was a recipient of an award from the Levittown School District for her commitment and service to the community. She is an avid reader and shares her life and home with 2 Labrador Retrievers.
Matthew Russell
Born in New Rochelle, N.Y. and raised in the Adirondack Mountains, Matthew Russell is a freelance editor and writer with more than two decades experience as a print journalist. From 2011 to 2018, Matt served as a Federal Emergency Management Agency reservist, deploying all over the U.S. in response to natural disasters in support of FEMA’s External Affairs division. He now lives and works in Albany, N.Y.
