Alan is the co-founder and creator of Focus On Rhabdo, a on-line, community anchored advocacy group that has brought over 100 families and more than 60 clinicians and researchers together to jointly find the means to make rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer, universally survivable. Alan has been active in the childhood cancer arena since 2012 when his partner’s granddaughter was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
Educated as a research engineer, Alan spent many years in the non-profit world – both as an active volunteer and organization management. He has presided over five non-profit boards, served as Executive Director for a Chamber of Commerce, and most recently, founded the Center for Listening Disorders Research, a NJ educational non-profit focused on the broad landscape of why people have difficulty understanding spoken messages. This has brought him into numerous schools to provide in-service programs for elementary school teachers on why some children can’t (not won’t) listen and into law schools to explain the effects of cognitive depletion as it relates to complex listening situations. Alan and his partner Susan live in Plainsboro, NJ and have four sons and four grandchildren between them.
