LadyBug Team

Featured
Suzanne Gwynn | Founder
Suzanne Gwynn | Founder

Suzanne has served as a critical care nurse for more than 30 years, in both the United States and Canada. During the first decade of her career, she served medically fragile patients who suffered from a variety of life limiting diseases in acute care settings. These experiences solidified her dedication to the field and encouraged her desire to specialize. It’s been 20 years since Suzanne began to focus primarily on bone marrow transplant, hematology/oncology and hospice care. She’s worked with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Providence Hospice and Swedish Medical Center. Working with patients spanning the age spectrum, from newborn to the elderly, and playing a critical role in the consideration and support of their families — Suzanne concluded long ago that there was a desperate need for respite and end-of-life care outside the hospital setting.

Suzanne is determined to provide a home-away-from-home for young patients and their families offering physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual support. Providing an environment and experience that focuses on the comfort and state of mind of patients and their families in the face of losing a loved one is a vision she has dreamed of and been in the process of breathing life into for many years now. Suzanne cherishes her role as mother — with two children of her own — and two grandchildren. She also embraced two foster children into her family for more than 9 years. She values family and friends in her life and is always eager to share time and to make memories with them. She believes good memories are something all should enjoy and her determination to help facilitate that for all is a significant factor in her drive to see Ladybug House thrive. Suzanne’s compassion, professional expertise, and abundance of direct experience provide an integral core to this project and her role as Director.

ARCHITECTURE, CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

Mark Conway (Land Team Lead) has over 25 years in the construction industry, currently as the Vice President of Lydig Construction. Mark has led teams focused on design and construction of offices, financial services facilities as well as leadership and training centers. His experience in working with corporate executives, business leaders and designers brings innovation and clarity to the owner.

Lane Premo (Real Estate Strategist) has over 30 years as a corporate real estate executive responsible for managing site selection and multiple asset portfolios. These have been accomplished both nationally and internationally, primarily for The Southland Corp and Washington Mutual Bank. He also served as Director, Trustee and Treasurer for NACORE (International Association of Corporate Real Estate) and the Institute for Corporate Real Estate. In his semi-retired status he has worked on selected projects as a consultant. The last being the creation of a 500,000 square foot data center near Tokyo, Japan, opened in 2015. 

Jacob Simons

 

LEGAL

Bindu Liang (Legal Team Lead) practiced law in the areas of finance and restructuring for national and international healthcare clients at a private law firm in Nashville prior to moving to Seattle in 2014. With her cross-country move, she decided to leave her successful practice and focus on the visual arts through a photography company. Bindu has a personal connection to the pediatric palliative care world through her husband, a current Pediatric Hematology & Oncology Fellow at Seattle Children's Hospital and is thrilled to be able to use her legal skills on behalf of this special population through the Ladybug House.  

Claire F. Hawkins (Attorney, Garvey Schubert Barer) helps businesses and artists build, manage, and leverage their intellectual property assets, providing a full range of counseling, prosecution, portfolio management, enforcement, and dispute resolution services for trademark, copyright, domain name, publishing, licensing, and agreement matters.

 

MARKETING & PR

Heather Brown (Marketing/PR Team Project Manager)

Grace Shin

Bethany Gower (Copyeditor) is a formally trained editor and a member of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. She has been happily editing projects for both individual authors and businesses for the last three years. Before launching out on her own, she spent several years in the nonprofit field, working in communications, administration, and project management.

Joely Johnson

Michael Calkins (Web Developer)

Bonnie Woodworth (Graphic Designer)

Kari Hilderbrand (Graphic Designer)

Emily Nassif (Social Media)

Tara Reynolds (Videographer)

Jill Snow

 

FINANCE

Thomas High (Treasurer) is an accomplished CPA with over 25 years of experience in public accounting, private industry and nonprofit organizations. He was employed for over 6 years in public accounting with Deloitte and Touche as a Senior Auditor and Management Consultant before entering the private arena. He has also served in a financial leadership capacity for a wide array of organizations on both a national and international level. He has served as a financial steward for several nonprofit entities including the Chamber of Commerce, a parochial school and food kitchen, and a foundation that raised funds for children's hospitals. 

Alvin Lai

Fred Wong

 

CLINICAL ADVISORY TEAM

Emily Friedman (MID, CPE, Design Researcher & Human Factors Specialist) leads product and service research and design efforts with an emphasis on user experience, human factors, communication and innovation. She has held positions at the consumer advocacy publication 'Consumer Reports', Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation and PATH, a global health organization.

Erin Harper (Doctoral Student, Clinical Health Psychology) specializes in the field of oncology and chronic pain. She has expertise in adolescent and young adult oncology. She volunteers her time at a camp that serves youth with cancer and their siblings and is herself a sibling to a young adult cancer survivor.

Barbara Oldenburger

Gerri Haynes is the planning administrator and first on-site administrator of Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland. Following her work there, she was the manager of a Robert Wood Johnson grant to establish a palliative care service at Children’s Hospital in Seattle — then returned to Evergreen to help establish a palliative care service for Evergreen. She continues to do volunteer consultations and teaching in palliative and hospice care and for nearly 25 years has facilitated a support group for mothers whose children have died.

 

FUNDRAISING

Ashley Holte

Therese Evangelista

Heather Brown (Grant Writer) has worked in higher education since 2007 and in sponsored project administration since 2009. In her most current role, she had over 30 sponsored projects in her portfolio that she was responsible for overseeing through the pre-awarer and post-award processes. She is with Ladybug House to research grant opportunities for federal, state and private funding as well as writing, editing and submitting letters of intent, proposals and applications for funding. 

Johnny Harris (Major Gifts) has an extensive background in project management and high-profile client services, overseeing operational budgets to increase ROI and improve overall financial results and corporate relations, most notably as a Relationship Manager at United Way of King County. In addition, he has over 20 years of experience in recruitment and development of executive contracts for National Basketball Association players with companies such as NIKE, Adidas, ESPN and Microsoft Corporation.