Lisa’s son CJ was diagnosed with an HH in 1997, when he was just 3 months old. The process of getting doctors to listen and ultimately getting a correct diagnosis at that time was extremely challenging. Lisa and her family traveled to Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne Australia for surgery, as there were no HH treatment centers in the US at that time. CJ’s surgery was successful – a partial resection, and he was seizure-free for the time being. Lisa and her family returned to their home in Phoenix, AZ where she convinced the surgeons at Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) to learn the innovative surgical procedure and develop the first comprehensive HH treatment protocol. Unfortunately, the seizures returned for CJ several years later and he went on to have 2 more surgeries at BNI to ultimately resect all of the remaining HH. CJ is currently seizure-free and working towards living independently.

Lisa is one of the founders of Hope for HH and is committed to using her experience and knowledge to change the way clinicians and researchers define HH as a syndrome, advance comprehensive treatment options, and fund critical research.

Lisa spent 12 years on Active Duty in the US Air Force as a Communications Officer. Lisa also has a BS in Computer Information Systems from Colorado State University and an MBA from Golden Gate University.

In addition to her role as Hope for HH Vice President, Lisa is also Director of Research and leads our Medical Advisory Board.