Meet the Board of Directors

Barry Liben - Board Chairman, elected in 2011. Barry, along with his family, has been a member of the NSA since 1998 and he has served on the Board for 10 years. Barry’s primary focus has been in securing the financial stability of the NSA and fundraising, enabling more energy to be used for outreach, education and support. The Alvin Liben Fund, created in memory of Barry’s father in 2005, has raised almost $300,000 since its inception. These funds are used for scholarships for families who would otherwise be unable to attend the Annual Conference and for special projects and NSA initiatives. Additionally, Barry has been instrumental in ensuring that our Annual Conference live auction is a success.

Barry is President and CEO of Tzell Travel/Travel Leaders Group, an international travel management company with headquarters in New York City. Since 2002, Tzell Travel has donated the NSA’s office space, infrastructure and support within their New York office. Barry lives in Livingston, NJ and Manhattan with his wife Sindy, and often finds his home filled with his 3 beautiful children and their spouses.
 

Bill Smith - Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee, elected in 2005. Shortly after hearing about our 2000 annual conference in Chicago, Bill made contact with the NSA and has since been an active member of the Chicago Metro North chapter. Bill holds BA (Math) and MBA (Finance) degrees. He retired from the insurance industry in 1999 and has been pursuing other interests, including his hobbies of amateur radio and playing tournament bridge.

Cathy Olish - Secretary, elected 2011. Special Projects and Volunteer Coordinator. Cathy is from Ferndale, Michigan and has been a member of the NSA since 1999. She is co-chapter leader of the Royal Oak (Detroit) adult chapter and the Royal Oak Kids/TWST chapter. She is also the moderator of the Covert-S Yahoo group, which is an on-line support group for covert people who stutter. She has facilitated over 35 workshops at NSA conferences and currently manages the First Timers Program for conference attendees. She is also the former Assistant Editor of NSA's Letting GO newsletter and received the prestigious NSA Member of the Year award in 2004. Cathy works in Human Resources at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ernie Canadeo - Ernie has been an NSA member for over a decade and has served on the NSA board of directors for 6 years. Ernie’s involvement with the NSA, in addition to marketing and fundraising, has included being the creator of NSA Kids and Stutter Buddies. He has worked hard to increase the number of families reached by the NSA, and as a result the NSA has more than tripled the number of families attending its conferences in the past 3 years, and dramatically increased the number of programs available to them. He expanded the NSA Research Symposium which is now being recognized as one of the leading applied research symposiums.

Ernie is the founder and President of The EGC Group, an advertising and marketing agency based in Long Island New York, and lives with his wife and twin boys in Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island.
 

Jim McClure – Jim was a chapter leader in Chicago for more than 20 years, served on the NSA board from 1997 to 2003 and returned to the board in 2008. His work over the years as the NSA’s public relations director has increased awareness of stuttering and the NSA. Jim has conducted research on the experience of people who stutter, is a frequent contributor to stuttering publications and was named to the NSA’s Hall of Fame in 2007. He also serves as the consumer representative to the Specialty Board on Fluency Disorders.

Jim started his career as a newspaper reporter, worked in corporate public relations and his own consulting practice, and is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows. He also commanded two Navy reserve units and retired as a captain. Jim is mostly retired in Albuquerque, NM, and has two grown children.
 

NSA Staff (not on the Board of Directors)

Tammy Flores - Executive Director.  Tammy has been with the NSA since 1994 and has served as the Executive Director since 2006.  She relocated from California to New York to accept the position, and loves working with the wonderful membership on a daily basis.

Mandy Finstad - Editor of Letting Go and Family Voices, Social Media Coordinator, and co-webmaster. She is also the co-leader for the Northern Virginia TwST Chapter, and an active member of the NoVA Adult Chapter. Mandy resides in Arlington, VA with her husband, PWS Jean Finstad, and their two dogs - Emmett and Graham. She graduated from George Mason University with a B.A. in Psychology and continued on to graduate studies at The Catholic University of America and University of Ulster. Mandy has been invited to speak to several groups and give numerous interviews on being the spouse of a person who stutters.