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Based in New York, Breathe Easy Play Hard (Foundation) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to young athletes with asthma and youth with asthma who simply want to stay fit-and the team of parents, coaches, teachers and peers (along with their physician) who care about their health and well-being.
The Foundation's mission is to provide clear, concise and accessible educational, guidance and self-help resources for young people with asthma in easy-to-understand terms. We will do our best to de-mystify complicated medical jargon. |
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BEPH is committed to helping build the teamwork necessary between young people, parents, coaches, teachers, peers and physicians to effectively meet the challenges and obstacles presented by asthma. BEPH has one purpose in mind: Support the goal of being the best you can be with the action that can help make it happen.
BEPH envisions a world where all youth will exercise-with and without asthma-so that they may reap the myriad of health, psychological, and physical benefits it will bring them for the rest of their lives.
BEPH envisions a world where each and every parent, coach, teacher and loved one is better equipped with the easy-to-understand information necessary to help recognize undiagnosed or misdiagnosed young people with asthma. |
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Got asthma? So what. You can still be a competitive youth athlete.
Got asthma? So what. You can still actively play sports or exercise to stay healthy.
Yes, you can win with asthma. Yes, you will win with asthma. In both sports and life. |
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JANIS I. SCHAEFFER, M.D. - FOUNDER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Janis I. Schaeffer specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and management of young people (birth through the age of 21) with a variety of breathing and lung diseases. For more than two decades, Dr. Schaeffer has focused on the effects of asthma on young athletes in particular, and on the overall importance of exercise for youngsters maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle.
In 2008, Dr. Schaeffer founded the Breathe Easy Play Hard (BEPH) Foundation, as part of her ongoing medical and personal commitment to lifelong learning and advocacy for youth athletes with asthma and the benefits of exercise.
Under Dr. Schaeffer's tutelage, the BEPH Foundation has held special youth athletes-with-asthma clinics with professional sports franchises, for example, the New York Rangers and New York Knicks and is currently preparing customized clinics for numerous other National Hockey League, National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer teams.
She is currently developing customized "Winning With Asthma" seminars and workshops that will be rolled out to sports camps and clinics, school professionals (coaches, gym teachers, and nurses), as well as after-school sports programs.
Most recently, Dr. Schaeffer has been studying the multiple environmental triggers and pollution factors faced by young athletes who will compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her major concerns include: dealing with the effects that pollution and environmental conditions will have on exercise-induced asthma; the critical correlation between optimizing asthma control and ensuring the best athletic performance possible under challenging circumstances; and the need for an athlete to adjust his or her "normal" self-management plan to mitigate the effects from exposure to severe environmental triggers.
Dr. Schaeffer believes it is equally important that the pulmonologist understands the quickly changing emotional, psychological and social landscape that may affect an athlete with asthma's performance and overall health risk factors presented by such potentially unprecedented environmental stress.
In private practice for the past fifteen years, Dr. Schaeffer has consulted on thousands of young patients exclusively for pulmonary and chronic lung conditions, including asthma.
Prior to private practice, Dr. Schaeffer was Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (ICU) at Schneider Children's Hospital (North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center) on Long Island, N.Y. for almost ten years.
Dr. Schaeffer is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Chest Physicians and a long-standing member of the American Thoracic Society. She has been recognized as one of New York Magazine's "100 Best Doctors".
Dr. Schaeffer continues to serve as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Yeshiva University's prestigious Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
A graduate of New York University and SUNY Downstate Medical School, she completed her fellowship training in Pediatric Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University-College of Physicians and Surgeons, Babies Hospital in New York. She also conducted research on the control of respiration in newborns and authored numerous scientific publications.
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LYNN M. TAUSSIG, M.D. - BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Lynn M. Taussig is currently a Special Advisor to the Provost (for the Life Sciences) at the University of Denver and a consultant to National Jewish Medical and Research Center, considered to be the #1 Respiratory Hospital in the United States for ten consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. He also serves as the chair of the steering committee for the National Institutes of Health's Childhood Asthma Research and Education (CARE) Network.
A pioneer in pediatric pulmonology, he retired in 2006 after more than a decade as President/CEO of National Jewish.
Prior to the position, he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Director, Steele Children's Research Center at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center. A faculty member of the University of Arizona for two decades, Dr. Taussig began the Pediatric Pulmonary Section at the institution. More than 25 years ago, he initiated the Tucson Children's Respiratory Study, an ongoing major longitudinal study of the risk factors for asthma.
The pre-eminent pediatric pulmonologist is the author of more than 165 scientific publications and six books and monographs and the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society, the Kendig Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Alumni Achievement Award from Washington University School of Medicine,
Dr. Taussig is a graduate of Harvard University and Washington University School of Medicine.
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JAMES (JIM) L. DOLAN - BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CABLEVISION SYSTEMS CORPORATION
CHAIRMAN, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
During a career spanning nearly four decades, James L. Dolan has established himself as a leader in the telecommunications and entertainment industries. As president and chief executive officer of Cablevision Systems Corporation, he has been the driving force behind Cablevision's transformation from a small cable television system to one of the country's leading media, entertainment and sports companies.
Under Mr. Dolan's direction, Cablevision has created the nation's largest fiber-rich contiguous broadband network in the country's number-one market. This network delivers a full suite of telecommunications services to millions of residential and business customers across its entire New York-area footprint. These services, which include the company's Optimum-branded video, voice and high-speed Internet offerings, are among the most popular digital cable services in the nation today.
Mr. Dolan also serves as chairman of Cablevision-owned Madison Square Garden, where he oversees the management of the Garden's many entities, including the arena complex, professional sports teams, regional sports and entertainment networks, and popular performance venues such as New York's Radio City Music Hall and Beacon Theatre, and The Chicago Theatre. Mr. Dolan also is responsible for Rainbow Media Holdings, a Cablevision subsidiary and programming pioneer that manages some of the country's most watched and recognized national and regional cable networks.
Mr. Dolan is a member of Cablevision's board of directors and executive committee. He sits on the board of the public television station Thirteen/WNET, and is an honorary board member of Cable Positive, the cable industry's AIDS action organization. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, an organization he helped found in 1998 that has since become the nation's largest private not-for-profit advocate in the fight against pancreatic cancer.
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If you wish to contact BEPH specifically for marketing, fund raising, donations, community relations, speaking engagements, media relations and interview purposes:
Contact: Stan L. Friedman
By email: stan@beph.com
By phone: 415.726.9876 |
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