BETH LAMBERT

Executive Director

BETH LAMBERT is a former healthcare consultant and teacher. As a consultant, she worked with pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and other health care companies to evaluate industry trends. She is the author of A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children (Sentient Publications, 2010). She is also a co-author of Epidemic Answers’ Brain Under Attack: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers of Children with PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalitis. In 2009, Beth founded Epidemic Answers and currently serves as Executive Director. Beth attended Oxford University and graduated from Williams College and holds a Masters Degree in American Studies from Fairfield University.

Maria Rickert Hong

MARIA RICKERT HONG

Co-Founder; Education and Media Director

MARIA RICKERT HONG is a Co-Founder of, and the Education and Media Director for, Epidemic Answers, the 501(c)3 sponsoring non-profit of The Documenting Hope Project.

She is a former sell-side Wall Street equity research analyst who covered the oil services sector at Salomon Smith Barney and Lehman Brothers under Institutional Investor #1 ranked analysts. Later, she covered the gaming, lodging & leisure sector at Jefferies & Co. and Calyon Securities. She quit working on Wall Street when her first son was born. Prior to working on Wall Street, she was a marketing specialist for Halliburton in New Orleans, where she also received her MBA in Finance & Strategy from Tulane University.

She is the author of the bestselling book Almost Autism: Recovering Children from Sensory Processing Disorder and the co-author of Brain Under Attack: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers of Children with PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalitis. Maria is also a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. Her work can be found on EpidemicAnswers.org, DocumentingHope.com, Healing.DocumentingHope.com, Conference.DocumentingHope.com and MariaRickertHong.com

JANINE BURNHAM-RUTH

Operations Manager

JANINE BURNHAM-RUTH is a holistic homeschooling mom of two boys. Janine’s professional training includes Neurodevelopment, Sound Based Therapy, Reiki, Meridian Energy Balancing through TKM and Jin Shin Jyutsu, Autonomic Response Testing to identify energy blockages, their causes, and what will relieve them, Retained Neonatal Reflex Integration, and Homeopathy. Janine is passionate about finding the deepest core disturbances to health and well being and using energetic and natural means to resolve them. In her community, Janine started a local Holistic Moms Network chapter and co-developed Conscious Parenting for Aware Kids. Besides professional pursuits, Janine enjoys organic gardening, traditional cooking, spiritual endeavors, and seeing life through the adventurous eyes of her children.

HELEN CONROY

Partnerships Director

After a fifteen-year career as Vice President and Relationship Manager at a major Fortune 500 company, Helen shifted her career to focus on supporting families living with autism.  She worked as a Development Director at a non-profit organization dedicated to helping families with children with developmental delays and she also founded The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. Helen is the co-author of three books, The Thinking Moms’ Revolution: Autism Beyond the Spectrum, Evolution of a Revolution: From Hope to Healing, and Revolutionary Grandparents: Generations Healing Autism with Love and Hope. Helen and her husband, Doug, have three beautiful children, including Harrison, who is diagnosed with autism and on the path to healing. They live in Naples, Florida.

Josie Nelson

JOSIE NELSON

Director of Programs

JOSIE NELSON is an ethicist, an advocate, a certified health coach, and a lifetime student of holistic health. With degrees from both Georgetown University and the University of Chicago Divinity School, Josie planned a traditional academic career but a detour into management consulting changed everything. While her doctoral dissertation lay undone, Josie worked first with industrial engineering clients and later on business ethics initiatives. As a consultant for Fortune 500 firms, she learned many things about the health industry. Since 2002, she has dedicated herself to understanding the rise in childhood illness, especially autism and related disorders, from an historical, political, ethical, scientific and environmental health perspective. She has witnessed the profound impact of an approach to health that includes informed consent, access to real food, integrative medicine, and healing modalities not typically embraced by mainstream medicine. She once held elected office in the District of Columbia and lived to tell about it. She has been blessed with two healthy children, a fine sense of humor, and many wise teachers.

Shandy Laskey MA CCC/SLP FNTP

SHANDY LASKEY

Director of Community Development

SHANDY LASKEY is an integrative speech-language pathologist and pediatric feeding specialist, as well as a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, and Epidemic Answers Health Coach. She is a fierce nutrition advocate for children impacted by complex picky eating, neurodevelopmental disorders, and special needs. She is continuously advancing her knowledge in functional and bio-individual nutrition therapies for these specific demographics of children.

Shandy is the founder and CEO of Speaking of Health & Wellness, LLC. Through her own health and wellness journey, she learned the profound impact of nutrition and lifestyle on cognition and overall well-being first hand. Shandy has an intense passion for integrating holistic nutrition and lifestyle strategies into her work with families. She provides virtual and local parent coaching to guide families on identifying ways to address the underlying causes of their child’s condition and/or related symptoms, while also teaching integrative strategies for learning, behavior, communication and mealtimes.

Shandy Laskey MA CCC/SLP FNTP

COURTNEY HUELL

Executive Assistant

COURTNEY HUELL is a licensed massage therapist and certified integrative nutrition health coach with master’s degrees in public health and holistic nutrition. She is a strong advocate for preventative self-care and integrative approaches to health care delivery. Courtney is the former owner of Route Wellness, LLC, a private practice in which she combined her skills in massage therapy and health coaching to help women identify and remove barriers to self-care, effectively manage stress, and create sustainable practices for long-term weight loss. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Temple University. Courtney lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and three children.