board-of-directors

OUR BOARD

Kay Weeden | President

Kay Weeden lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin. She is a professional bilingual educator and storyteller. Kay has been volunteering with HHPF since 2015 with missions to Honduras. She also worked with Chet to pack the donations that are sent to Honduras in our container. Her heart is with HHPF and its compassionate connection to the underserved Honduran and Mexican people, along with so many wonderful volunteers whose mission is to learn and help others. Kay is an avid gardener and hiker!

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Linh Vuong, MD | Vice President

Dr. Linh Vuong is a Family Medicine, Sports Medicine physician in Los Angeles, California. As a Vietnamese refugee boat person whose family was sponsored to live in Madison Wisconsin in 1982, she comes full circle, back to Madison (HHPF’s home base), to do philanthropy work because, “When you grow up in poverty you have a great appreciation for the generosity of others and a motivation to pay it forward.” Dr. Vuong has been with HHPF since 2008, participating in service learning trips and teaching prolotherapy regenerative medicine in the United States and internationally. She has a private practice in the Los Angeles area with her sister, Dr. Tinh Vuong, called Acuprolo Institute, Center for Restorative Health, that offers a multidisciplinary approach to treating pain. Dr. Vuong enjoys teaching and is also an attending physician at her residency and sports medicine fellowship training program at Harbor UCLA, a county hospital that treats the underserved population. She is passionate about medical education, patient advocacy and self empowerment. Dr Vuong is thankful for her husband and family, who go along with her craziest ideas. She enjoys spending time with her family, doing Jiu Jitsu, Taekwondo, and arts and crafts with her two daughters.

Julie Olson, RN, MS | Treasurer

Professionally, Julie has worked as an RN for over 40 years, 32 of which involved working at the American Family Children’s Hospital (AFCH) in Madison, Wisconsin. While there, she had the pleasure of Coordinating a Multidisciplinary Clinic for Children with Spina Bifida for 25 years. Julie also got to be part of a Comprehensive Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic and other Pediatric Specialty Clinics over the years. Julie’s involvement with the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation goes back to 1999, when she met a woman (Catie) in Spanish Class who was a member of the HHPF mission team. They became great friends. Julie asked if she could go to Honduras with Catie and she said Yes. Julie was hooked. Since then, Julie’s appreciation of the Regenerative Medicine Field, Prolotherapy, and its many branches have kept her interest. She has continued to serve the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation in varying capacities, including as Treasurer, as a Board Member and as Mission Nurse (35+ times) in Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines. As a sandwich generation member, Julie has had extensive parent care responsibilities for the last 4 years. She is blessed to have 3 grandsons, who she and her husband enjoy spending time with as much as possible. About 4 years ago, they built a house in a sparsely populated part of the Driftless area of Wisconsin, where Julie and her family can enjoy the beauty of the nature that surrounds them. Julie enjoys gardening, walking, biking, hiking, and traveling, and time with family and friends.

Tatiana Zimmerman, RVT, RDMS | Secretary

Tatiana Zimmerman is a vascular sonographer in Durham, North Carolina. She holds a BS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography from Rochester Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Tatiana is passionate about healing venous disease and leg ulcers in third world countries. She was born in La Ceiba, Honduras. By fate, Tatiana heard of the excellent care the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation was providing in her native country. She has been participating in the annual service mission trip ever since. She takes great pride in helping her fellow Hondurans receive world class venous care. In her free time, Tatiana enjoys yoga, reading and traveling.

Brian Ralston, MD | Past President

Dr. Ralston is a family and sports medicine physician at MacNeal Hospital in the Chicago area. He earned his undergraduate degree from MIT, attended medical school at the University of Virginia, completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did a sports medicine fellowship at MacNeal. He is on the faculty of the MacNeal Family Medicine Residency Program, and he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr. Ralston has practiced prolotherapy for 30 years and includes it as part of his general family medicine practice. His 1st of many service-learning trips to Honduras was in 1995 with Drs. Gus Hemwall and Jeff Patterson, and he still loves the service-learning trips for the opportunity to teach and learn from other doctors. Dr. Ralston is a past President of the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation and served on the HHPF Board for many years. He enjoys travel, reading, golf, and playing guitar.

David Rabago, MD | Past President

David Rabago MD is a clinician, teacher and researcher. He began professional life as a middle- and high-school teacher in Milwaukee and Chicago. After a nine-year teaching career, he moved to medicine at the University of Wisconsin while retaining his strong roots in education. Dr. Rabago loves being a family doctor and now works at Penn State. He sees patients across the life span. His academic work includes assessment of complementary and integrative therapies in areas of concern to his patients, including chronic pain. He has conducted studies of prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis and tennis elbow showing safety and effectiveness. He collaborates with colleagues in the United States and internationally. Current work includes clinical trials assessing prolotherapy for chronic low back pain, ankle pain, and the underlying mechanism of action of prolotherapy. He has been with HHPF since 2001, participating in service learning trips in Honduras and Mexico, and leading its research presence. He is a past president of HHPF and a current HHPF Board member.

Ted Harrison, MD, MBA | Past President

Ted Harrison, MD MBA is a Canadian and past president of HHPF. He currently serves as chair of the finance committee. He is retired from clinical practice, but still pursues research activities in the area of platelet-rich plasma and has published several recent studies. Dr. Harrison has participated in both the Honduras and Guadalajara missions of HHPF and believes that the HHPF helps assure a bright future for prolotherapy in regenerative medicine.

Chet Hermansen

Chet has been volunteering with HHPF for many years, and he wears many hats. Chet is the go-to person for rounding up the container donations from area hospitals and donors, as well as generously providing the space in Madison for us to store and sort them. He is also the transportation coordinator for Honduras, spending weeks there to ensure our volunteers and participants get to the places they need to be. Chet ensures that goods are delivered in a timely manner for our missions to operate properly.

Annette Zaharoff, MD

Dr. Zaharoff is a sports medicine physician in private practice in San Antonio, Texas. She created The Non-Surgical Center of Texas which is a comprehensive center for the evaluation and non-surgical treatment of MSK injuries. Dr. Zaharoff is board certified in PM&R. Her practice incorporates a team approach, which includes physical therapy, to ensure your non-surgical options are optimized. She performs regenerative therapies such as prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections, and non-invasive shock wave therapy. Dr. Zaharoff is president and a founding member of the International Association for Regenerative Therapy (IART) and serves on the Board of Directors for the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation (HHPF). She is an invited speaker for regenerative medicine courses in the U.S and abroad. She has participated as faculty for numerous prolotherapy medical trips and has served as the educational director for the UW Madison prolotherapy conference. Dr. Zaharoff is a former professional tennis player and continues her involvement in tennis by serving as a tournament physician for national and international events.

David De La Mora, MD

Dr. David De La Mora is a General Practitioner that graduated from the University of Guadalajara School of Medicine in 1988. He has studied the technique of prolotherapy to treat musculoskeletal joint pain with Dr. Jeff Patterson through the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation in the continuing medical education program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison since 2004. Dr. De La Mora studied the technique of subcutaneous prolotherapy (PIT) to treat peripheral nerves in New Zealand with Dr. John Lyftogt in 2009. For 17 years he has been the director of the HHPF Mexico chapter where more than 12,000 patients have been treated free of charge with more than 15,000 treatments of both Prolotherapy and veins. Here he is supported by a large group of volunteers both from Mexico and abroad and all of them with a great heart to serve. Dr. De La Mora has been director of the Prolotherapy Clinic in the city of Tela Honduras for approximately 9 years where he teaches this technique under the auspices of HHPF. He has taught prolotherapy and PIT classes to physicians around the world in Mexico, USA, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Argentina and Honduras. He received an honorary doctorate from Santander University in Tucson Arizona in April 2023 for his humanitarian work.

Bobby Nourani, DO

Dr. Nourani is in private practice in Orange County, CA and teaches medical students as an Associate Professor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Western University of Health Sciences, Department of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine/Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. He is board certified in pain medicine, neuromusculoskeletal medicine, family medicine and osteopathic manipulative treatment. He is published in the fields of prolotherapy and OMM. Dr. Nourani has enjoyed the HHPF service-learning experiences in Honduras and Mexico since 2010. He currently serves on the HHPF board and is a previous conference course director.

John Finkenstadt, MD

Dr. Finkenstadt has devoted his medical career to treating disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Originally Board Certified as a Family Physician, he subsequently went on to obtain a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Sports Medicine. In the 1980’s, with the support of the medical group of Prepaid Health Plan (PHP), Dr. Finkenstadt was able to establish a Department of Musculoskeletal Medicine. Early in his training, he was introduced to Orthopaedic Medicine (non-surgical orthopedics) as developed by Dr. James Cyriax which started his journey into a better understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. Prolotherapy was the first regenerative treatment modality added. Dr. Finkenstadt was fortunate to have been trained personally by Dr. Gus Hemwall. He remains grateful to Dr. Jeffrey Patterson and to his many colleagues associated with the Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation. In addition, Dr. Finkenstadt has had the opportunity of serving on multiple medical mission trips to Central and South America. He is a past president of the American Association of Orthopaedic Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pain Management. Several university based research projects and clinical studies have been developed and completed by his office.

W. Francois Louw, MD

Dr. Louw is a founding member and treating physician at the Bill Nelems Pain and Research Centre, the biggest comprehensive pain clinic in Canada. Dr. Louw is triple certified in GP Anaesthesia, ER medicine and Pain Medicine with multiple research interests in these fields. He serves as Clinical Associate Professor, UBC Dept. of Family and is a Past President of the Canadian Association of Orthopaedic Medicine. He also serves as the Chief Medical Officer of EntheoTech, a bioscience, research-driven company. The Hackett Hemwall Patterson Foundation is near and dear to his heart, as he has seen firsthand the incredible, uplifting work that this group is doing in Honduras, as well as in Mexico. Dr. Louw is also very grateful for the training he received from this organization in prolotherapy, which set his career on a new and professionally gratifying course many years ago. Hobbies include hiking the many trails in beautiful British Columbia, paddleboarding on the lake close to his home on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, skiing with the clan at Big White Mountain nearby, making music, traveling and many more. Dr. Louw is passionate about improving both physical and mental health, exploring new paradigms, always with deep compassion and putting the patient at the center.

Paola Ortiz, MD

Dr. Paola Ortiz is a physician from Uruguay who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Uruguay in 2002. After completing the USMLE Exam in the United States she gained her ECFMG certification and in 2006 she undertook training/fellowship in Venous disease at the Naples Cardiac and Endovascular Center. She later undertook further training at both the Miami and NYU Langdon vein center. In 2022 she successfully completed a Postgraduate degree course in Vascular Surgery, Phlebology and Lymphology in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently undertaking an MBA in Phlebology at The European University of Madrid. Dr. Ortiz has more than 20 years experience in venous treatments and is a member of the vascular department of Pasteur Hospital where she works as vein specialist. In addition she has been an active member of the Naples Medical Educational Center faculty since 2017 where she offers hands-on activities in Central America, and Naples, Florida U.S.A. In 2012 she founded a private vein clinic in Uruguay and is currently co-director and physician, performing venous diagnosis and treatments. Her love for humanitarian activities started when she joined the Lyon club in her childhood - finding the outreach work in the community both challenging and extremely rewarding. When Dr. Ortiz joined HHPF in 2014, she got to infuse her passion for humanitarian activities with her passion for venous diagnosis and treatments. She worked alongside Rick Owens and Mary Doherty with whom she both learnt from and enjoyed working with due to their dedication and love for the foundation. It was infectious and she too shares the love of both the foundation and the humanitarian activity they have undertaken. In 2016 Dr. Ortiz was invited to volunteer as co-director and facilitator at the La Ceiba site which she loved and has continued in this role to present day. Most recently she has been asked to become a member of the board which she has graciously accepted and is very excited about her further involvement in the organization. Dr. Ortiz is also an advocate for continual advancement academically through continual education ensuring she is at the forefront of the latest techniques available so in turn she can offer them to her patients. In her spare time she loves to travel, experiencing new cultures and connecting with people from all around the world. Her other hobbies include any outdoor activity such as kayaking, she also finds a fascination with stamp collecting.

Deborah Raehl, DO

Dr. Raehl is a board certified family physician who has spent her career teaching full-scope family medicine at the Prevea Eau Claire Family Medicine Residency in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She was introduced to prolotherapy by Jeff Patterson, D.O. in 2006 and has been actively engaged in learning, teaching and practicing prolotherapy since then. From an osteopathic viewpoint, the addition of prolotherapy to her practice made perfect sense. Dr. Raehl particularly enjoys the HHPF Honduras service learning trips. Serving on the HHPF board gives Dr. Raehl the opportunity to help educate new prolotherapists and introduce prolotherapy to mainstream primary care. Dr. Raehl’s favorite interests are Nordic skiing, wilderness adventure and trout fishing.