About Preemies Today

Board Members

Mary Beth HazelgroveMary Beth Hazelgrove - Executive Director
Marybethhazelgrove@preemiestoday.org
Mary Beth Hazelgrove has been leading projects and programs for Preemies Today  since 2004 and has served as editor of the Newsletter since September 2007.  Ms. Hazelgrove earned her B.A. in History from the University of Mary Washington.  She also holds a license to teach elementary education from the state of Virginia and has taught in Fairfax County Public Schools.  Prior to teaching, Ms. Hazelgrove was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eastern Europe.  During her three years in the Peace Corps, she taught English in a small village school and led local community and grass roots development projects including a Moldovan National Earth Day celebration.  Ms. Hazelgrove is the mother of a daughter born at 26 weeks in 2002 and a full-term daughter in 2004.  Her interests are treating and preventing developmental delays in children.

Betty ConalBetty Connal, RN, MS - Treasurer
Mary Elizabeth Connal is a registered nurse with 40 years experience in maternal child health.  She is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia Pacific University.  Ms. Connal is a certified bereavement counselor and a certified child care health consultant. Mrs. Connal has worked in clinical areas in hospitals and health departments, participated in research projects, developed education programs, and administered large community health programs.  She has administered local and state grant funded programs , was previously the Program Director of Inova HealthSource and the Director of Northern Virginia Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition and the Northern Virginia Perinatal Council. Betty Connal has been a volunteer with March of Dimes for over 30 years. She  is currently the Executive  Director of  Sudden Infant Death Services of the Mid-Atlantic.

Heather HallHeather Hall - Secretary
Heather Hall has a B.A. in English from the University of Mary Washington. She worked in finance for several years before becoming a stay-at-home mother.  For the past three years she has been assistant editor of the  Preemies Today Newsletter and has been a member of the Preemies Today Board since 2008.  She is the mother of two boys.  Her eldest son was born two months premature and her youngest was born five weeks early. Mrs. Hall is knowledgeable in the areas of speech, delays, hypotonia, and ADHD.

 

Judy BenderJudy Bender, MSW - Member  of the Board
Judy Bender has a Masters in Social Work and is the mother of twin boys born at 28 weeks  gestation in 2001.   She is knowledgeable about alternative treatment options for developmental delays as well as the complex issues with feeding disorders.  Mrs. Bender has been serving on the Board of Preemies Today since 2009.

 

 

Danette CruthirdsLTC Danette Cruthirds, CRNA, PhD, ANC, USA -
Member of the Board
 Dr Danette Cruthirds is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) with a Master's degree in Nursing and a PhD in Neuroscience. A Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army she has nearly 20 years of nursing experience in a variety of settings from small community hospitals to large Medical Centers.  Areas of clinical experience include newborn nursery, intensive care and for the last 10 years nurse anesthesia.  Her area of study in bench science research focused on estrogen receptors and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  She is a mother of two children born prematurely and has first hand experience of the NICU journey.  Dr Cruthirds has been serving on the Preemies Today Board since 2006 and has assisted in the organization of several fundraisers.

Melanie NewMelanie New, M.Ed. - Member of the Board
Melanie New graduated with a B.A. from the University of Richmond and received a Master's degree in Counselor Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She subsequently worked as a secondary school counselor in addition to providing career and educational counseling services to college students and adults contemplating career changes in the Richmond area. Following her move to Alexandria several years ago, she worked for some time in the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, she is a stay at home mother of four young children, including twins born at 27 weeks gestation in 2008. In addition, she has been involved with a number of non-profit groups over the past several years. Most of her volunteer work has focused on child and family welfare. She has also helped with the NICU parent support group at Fairfax Hospital and has served on many parent education panels and assisted with various projects. Her particular areas of interest are the long-term impacts of of prematurity on cognitive and emotional development in school-age children. 

Joseph ScafidiJoseph Scafidi, MD - Member of the Board
Dr. Joseph Scafidi, is a child neurologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr Scafidi trained in pediatrics at UMDNJ in Newark, NJ and completed his child neurology training at Children’s National in 2008. Upon completion of fellowship training, Dr Scafidi’s clinical practice is focused on Neonatal Neurology and his specific clinical and research interest is on premature brain injury and development. He is currently in the laboratory of an internationally-recognized expert in brain development, Vittorio Gallo, PhD at Children’s National Center for Neuroscience Research. In the laboratory, Dr Scafidi is using an animal model that faithfully mimics the same alterations in brain development found in humans born <1500 grams (Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants). Using this animal pre-clinical model permits the study of the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms responsible for variable degrees of injury and recovery. With this model, they are studying the brains natural potential for plasticity and repair after developmental injury. The goal of this research is to develop a specific therapy that is based on biological principles to utilize the brains natural process to repair itself. 

Morgen MacDonaldMorgen MacDonald - Member of the Board
Morgen MacDonald has a degree in interior design and worked in the model home and furnishings industries for 10 years.  She and her husband moved to Virginia in 2005 from Southern California and both now work for the Federal Aviation Administration.  Their son was induced seven weeks early due to HELLP syndrome and spent three weeks in the NICU.  In 2009, Morgen became a volunteer coordinator for a local working moms' playgroup where she learned about Preemies Today from another member.  Morgen and her husband are advocates of natural living, including alternative therapies, cloth diapering and attachment parenting.

Bilingual Consultants

Margaret W. BehrnsMargaret W. Behrns, Bilingual Health Communication Specialist
Margaret Behrns is a bilingual and bicultural professional with 10 years experience working on Federal public health initiatives, especially issues facing minority populations.  She has managed the development and implementation of bilingual health communication campaigns geared for Latino audiences, including research, planning, development, pre-testing, Federal approval processes, duplication, dissemination and outreach. She holds a Master of Arts in Community Health Education from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from The Catholic University of America, 1992. Ms. Behrns has a four year old daughter who was born at 27 weeks at Georgetown University Hospital.

Yokaira LandronYokaira Landron, Translator
Yokaira Landron was born in the Dominican Republic and holds a degree in marketing.  She is experienced in Customer Marketing and was entrepreneur in her country.  She came to the United States to seek better health care services for her daughter. Her daughter was born at 25 weeks in the Dominican Republic. Ms. Landron works at the Children’s Hospital Boston helping families with kids with special needs and is also a Special Education Advocate. She is a member of the Family Advisory Committee at the Children's Hospital Boston and a member of the "Milagros para Niños" Latino Fund Raising Campaign at the Children's Hospital Boston.  She has also served as a workshop host for the Early Intervention Program, The Federation of Children’s with Special Needs and for some school districts in Massachusetts.