Leadership in Philanthropy Award

For our 35th Anniversary, AAMDSIF is proud to recognize each of this year’s leaders in philanthropy recipients who are all honored and applauded for their ongoing annual philanthropic support to AAMDSIF since the year 2000.  All recipients have contributed at least 150 donations and also made a donation in the past year.  AAMDSIF is proud to recognize each leader for their financial support to help ensure the success of AAMDSIF so that we continue to help other patients and families who are diagnosed each year with a bone marrow failure disease.

Bill Shulevitz, an AAMDSIF board member from 2013 to 2015, was diagnosed with MDS in 1999.  Active in the New York business community, Bill has had many accomplishments, including founding the Cadillac Uniform and Linen Supply Inc. and serving as a management consultant and financial planner.

His wife Marion is a rabbi who works at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in New York. They have been generous supporters of AAMDSIF, as well as numerous Jewish communities.

The Edward P. Evans Foundation has been awarded the Leadership in Philanthropy award in recognition for its support of the AAMDSIF MDS Clinical Research Consortium.

Established in 2012, the MDS Clinical Research Consortium consists of 6 leading medical institutions that collaborate on unique clinical trials to advance treatments and improve outcomes for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The Consortium fills a major gap in MDS-related clinical research in the U.S. by providing a new “critical mass” of patients and patient data to support the evaluation of promising new compounds…

For over 30 years, the friends of Allen and Harriet Goldberg raised money in honor of their son, Earl, who passed away at the age of 14 from aplastic anemia.  Some of the $171,000 they raised supported an AAMDSIF Research Grant to Dr. Seth Corey of UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center for his study of the effects of an enzyme on controlling the demise of blood cells. Earl and his family inspired patients, families and friends across Chicago and nationwide to raise awareness and support to fight this bone marrow failure disease. As AAMDSIF has grown to reach more people than ever before, and local…

Led by Jo Alley and her husband, Ron, this dedicated group of volunteers has raised almost $125,000 through their fundraising events over the past 15 years including their Boot, Scoot and Boogie evening and the sales of holiday cards raising awareness about bone marrow failure diseases.  This tight-knit group of patients, families and friends continues its work in memory of loved ones lost to these diseases including Jo and Ron’s son Shawn – a 25-year aplastic anemia survivor who lost his battle in 2010.

Mary Ellen and Bill Madden, and their family, have given with unparalleled generosity to AAMDSIF over the past two decades since they lost their daughter Mary Pat Madden-Grieshaber to aplastic anemia. They, along with son, Marty Madden and daughter, Margie Ward, have been champions of AAMDSIF since its early days.

The Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation brought together two extraordinary women – JoAnn Yahn and Dr. Lisa Minter – who both lost daughters to aplastic anemia and have contributed through volunteerism, philanthropy and scientific research to find cures for bone marrow failure diseases.  These two women met for the first time at the AA&MDSIF’s 25th Anniversary Dinner. 
JoAnn Yahn, from Upstate New York, lost her 20-year old daughter Torry to aplastic anemia in 1997.  She has since turned tragedy into opportunity, raising more than $230,000 for research through an annual hometown…

JoAnn and Don Yahn have raised more than $200,000 over the past decade in memory of their daughter, Torry, who battled aplastic anemia as a teenager.  The Torry Yahn Research Study grants funds for medical research to find a cure for aplastic anemia.  Beyond their extraordinary fundraising efforts that culminate in their Annual Chicken BBQ and Auction, their compassion serves as a lifeline and source of strength for families facing bone marrow failure disease.