Finance and Audit Committee

FINANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEE

The Finance and Audit Committee monitors all fiscal affairs of CHADD to ensure that the financial policies established by the Board are being met and that the fiscal integrity and accountability of CHADD is being maintained. Duties include reviewing and recommending revisions and/or new fiscal or investment policies and standards; reviewing budget recommendations and submit jointly with the Executive Committee a recommended organizational budget to the Board of Directors; in conjunction with staff, developing and submitting monthly financial reports to the Board of Directors; and in conjunction with staff, reviewing all unrestricted and investment funds annually to determine amounts to be allocated into long term investments.

Shirelle F. Pearson, MBA, GBA, Chair

Shirelle F. Pearson is an account manager with Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) in their New York City employee health and benefits office, with over thirty years of experience in insurance carrier, human resources, and group benefits consulting. She also extends her knowledge to her graduate students as an adjunct professor at the New York Institute of Technology. She sought resources to support her newly diagnosed son and found CHADD quite valuable in her ADHD educational pursuits, for herself and family. In 2014, she accepted the role of treasurer for the Nassau County chapter and accepted the additional role of coordinator in 2018. Having recently assumed membership on CHADD’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, she is currently pursuing an ADHD parent coaching certification. Her career has allowed her the opportunity to effectively communicate across organizations and implement thoughtful benefits and wellness recommendations, positively affecting the lives of thousands of employees and their families. She is a published essayist who enjoys helping clients empower employees through emotionally intelligent strategies, which foster better health, employee satisfaction, higher productivity, and loyalty. A member of MMA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion council she participated in its Aspire mentorship program. She also volunteers as the director of programs with the New York Metro Area chapter of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists (ISCEBS) and its chapter working group. She is a lifelong learner and critical thinker who believes that collaboration is the best way to build a strong village that elevates everyone. She earned her BBA from Adelphi University, her MBA from Dowling College and Group Benefits Associate Certificate from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in partnership with Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her crowning achievements are her marriage of twenty-five years and the role of doting mother to her two sons.

Ingrid Y. Alpern, JD, LLM in Tax

Ingrid Alpern practiced tax law in Washington, DC, for many years. Alpern has helped to raised awareness about ADHD and provides support to families coping with ADHD through her long-term work as a volunteer for CHADD and as a Parent to Parent teacher. She also serves on CHADD’s Finance Committee. Alpern brings to CHADD the expertise she developed as a tax attorney in legal research and writing and analysis of complex matters.

Vincent Buttaci, JD

Vincent N. Buttaci, JD, is a member of Buttaci Leardi & Werner LLC, a boutique health law firm with offices in New Jersey and New York. He focuses his practice on representing nonprofit and for-profit behavioral health facilities and health systems in all aspects of care delivery, access, and reimbursement. Additionally, he has nearly twenty-five years of experience representing nonprofit healthcare associations in matters of advocacy, legislative action, and public policy reform. While in law school, Buttaci struggled with undiagnosed adult ADHD and later learned about coping with neurodiversity. His experience spurred him to establish the Wellness in Career Program at The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, which provides workshops to law students on building self-awareness and addressing time management, stress, and anxiety. He first became involved with CHADD after his daughter’s ADHD diagnosis and is thrilled to join the board of directors to support the organization’s ongoing mission.

Stephen Chen

Stephen Chen is a board-tested operational leader and CFO who connects people and initiatives that can improve business and societal outcomes at the intersection of technology and business transformation. Chen was educated at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, New York University, and Brown University. He is a public and private board member of several companies, including Phunware, Kent Moore Capital, BioIntegrate, and formerly Anchor Fundings. He was previously the chief investment officer for a UHNW commodities-based family office and started an alternative asset fund that was collateralized by assets in excess of $2B. Chen brings twenty years of executive experience in financial services and technology, where he has built up particular expertise in sales, capital markets, strategic partnerships and investments, as well as growing and scaling business operations in the United States and Asia. He is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce in New York City, the Urban Land Institute, New York Investment Network, and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. His philanthropic work has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, ABC, and NBC. He has spoken at Yale, Brown, NYU, and Columbia University and is the recipient of the Orphans International Global Citizenship Award, the Dragon 100 Fellowship, and the C.V. Starr Fellowship. He has been profiled in two books, Luck Does Not Exist by Mario Calabresi and Inspired! by Vik Venkatraman.

Jeremy Didier, LSCSW, LMAC

Jeremy Didier, LSCSW, LMAC, has over fifteen years of extensive experience working with children, parents, and adults with ADHD in both her personal life and as an ICF/JST/ADDCA-certified ADHD coach with ImpactParents. She currently provides assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic services for adults with ADHD in her private practice at the Jordan Psychological Center in Kansas City. She is also the group founder and co-coordinator of Kansas City’s award-winning CHADD chapter, ADHDKC, twice recognized as the organization’s chapter of the year. Prior to being elected president of CHADD’s board of directors, Didier served on the board in many capacities: as secretary, as co-chair of both the chapter advisory board and the governance committee, and as a volunteer leadership trainer and chapter mentor. She is a nationally recognized speaker and a frequent contributor to national media outlets such as the Washington Post and NBC Nightly News. A passionate advocate for justice-involved individuals with ADHD, she specializes in the underdiagnosis of girls and women with ADHD and the intersection of ADHD and addiction. Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she was honored to be selected for Chris Zeigler Dendy’s inaugural advocacy training program at “Camp Dendy.” Didier holds a master of social work from Fordham University and a bachelor of science in journalism from the University of Kansas. Her favorite job is being mom to five fabulous kids, four of whom also have ADHD among other neurodiversities.

Brian Foy

Brian Foy has been coordinator for CHADD of Iowa since 2016. Prior to that, he was treasurer for that group for over fifteen years, when six small chapters merged into one super chapter. Brian and his wife Jane were founding members of a parent support group in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1986 after their daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. He currently lives in the Davenport/Quad Cities area in Iowa, where he is a clinical instructor for the masters in speech-language pathology program at St. Ambrose University. Prior to his work at St. Ambrose, he was a speech language pathologist with the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency for twenty-two years. He was also an administrator with the agency from 2000 to 2014, serving as “low incidence disabilities coordinator” over a five-county area.

Christine Kotik

Suzanne Sophos, CMPSS

Suzanne Sophos is a neuro-inclusivity advocate who has been engaged in family and child work since 2010. She is the executive director of CHADD of Greater Los Angeles and the manager of the ADHD Empowerment Community™. She previously directed CHADD of San Fernando Valley, twice recognized as Chapter of the Year. Sophos serves as co-chair of CHADD’s chapter advisory board and is a member of the planning committee for the Annual International Conference on ADHD. She received the CHADD Volunteer of the Year award in 2022. Sophos grew up in Texas and received her communications degree from Texas Christian University before moving to Los Angeles with her husband. Her background includes serving as a social-emotional learning specialist, peer support specialist, ADHD educator, writer, and family coach. She has also been trained, certified, and previously served as a foster parent through the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Her work is informed by her education, professional experience, and life experience as an ADHD/2e individual and the parent of an ADHD/2e child.