NPF Receives Award at Digestive Disease Week
2010 Public Service Award Recognizes
Founders of National Pancreas Foundation
New Orleans, LA – (May 1, 2010) – The founders of the National Pancreas Foundation, Patter Birsic and Jane Holt, are recipients of The 2010 Public Service Award from the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT).
The SSAT will recognize Birsic and Holt with its prestigious award in a public forum at the Opening Session of its Annual Meeting held on Monday, May 3, 2010 at 7:45AM in Room 244 of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans during the Annual Digestive Disease Week Conference.
Birsic and Holt founded the NPF in 1997 and since then have built it into the leading non-profit organization to support the research of diseases of the pancreas, such as pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis, and to provide information and humanitarian services to those who are facing such illnesses.
The two women were selected for the 2010 award in recognition of the major impact they have made by creating awareness of gastrointestinal health. Specifically, the SSAT cited the achievements of the National Pancreas Foundation to support scientific inquiry; provide trustworthy information for the public; and offer an educational mission to develop future generations of pancreas-focused physician scientists.
As evidence of the constant resolve to provide as much information and readily available input as possible for both the physician and patient, the NPF just revealed its massive overhaul to its entire web presence with an all-new, comprehensive website that is filled with all of the latest information and health topics related to the pancreas. The new website at www.pancreasfoundation.org contains the latest health news, posting forums, listings of ongoing scientific trials and research results, medical facts, possible treatments and recommendations, interactive discussions; support chats, and more.
THE STORY OF THE NFP
It was fate that brought Holt and Birsic together in 1996. They began to share their experiences and frustration with the lack of information and medical progress in the field of pancreas diseases. They decided it was time for a change and the NPF was officially established in 1997.
PATTER BIRSIC
Patter Birsic’s determination to create the National Pancreas Foundation was fueled by the devastating loss she felt at the death of her sister-in-law, Joan Birsic Dawson, at the age of 40 from pancreatic cancer. Birsic was fueled by trying to make sense of this incomprehensible event that so deeply affected Joan Dawson’s two daughters (7 years and 5 years old at the time of her death) and the entire Birsic family.
Formerly a Vice-President at Federated Investors, a major mutual fund company based in Pittsburgh, Birsic brings the tools to address the administrative, legal and operational issues required to create and maintain the foundation. She is a member of the International Cancer Research Partners, a network of cancer research funding organizations applying a common language for discussing and comparing cancer research, and is the Chair of the Patient Advocacy for the Pancreatic Cancer Program Project led by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. In addition, she is a member of the Women Leaders Initiative United Way program, and a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities and at her church and school. As Co-President, the National Pancreas Foundation has become a full-time volunteer job for Birsic.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Birsic resides in Pittsburgh.
JANE HOLT
Having spent more than a decade surviving chronic pancreatitis, Jane Holt knows first-hand the need for greater awareness, research needs and education about diseases of the pancreas.
Holt has spent more than 25 years committed to volunteer work in the Boston area. As a young mother, she became very involved in educational activities for her children. In the 1980s, Holt volunteered for many parent-teacher initiatives such as Understanding Handicaps, Discovering Ourselves, and Future Problem Solvers of America. In 1988, she began her commitment to the Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute working on numerous fundraising initiatives, as co-chairwoman for countless galas, and as Co-President of the Friends from 1996-98. She is the Chair of the Digestive Disease National Coalition and a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council and National Commission for Digestive Diseases.
A graduate from Skidmore College with a B.A. in Biochemistry, Holt lives in Boston.
