Everyone who works at Meeting Life’s Challenges has had first hand experience living with chronic illness and/or disability.

Each day we use our shared experiences to help others solve problems and discover solutions to the challenges they face. Whether it's offering Tips for Making Life Easier™, connecting people with community resources and services, or providing a sounding board and a listening ear. We believe the Honduran Proverb: Grief shared is half grief; joy shared is double joy.

Deborah, Director of Marketing & Development

I have many years of experience in the PR and marketing field. An award-winning photographer/artist, who specialized in creating impressionistic images from ordinary photographs, I now express my creative side by encouraging children and adults to value and take care of our environment through stories, games and activities, and by helping them turn ordinary trash into creative works of art.

My personal story with chronic illness and disability began in the mid-90s when I became chemically sensitive after exposure to toxic chemicals during a remodeling project. Unable to tolerate even minute exposure to “normal” chemical substances in the environment, such as gasoline and diesel fumes, cleaners, deodorizers, perfumes, and scented body products, it became nearly impossible for me to go anywhere, including work, church, or the grocery store, without a physical, emotional, and/or cognitive reaction, often quite debilitating. I am happy that at least for now, I have found a balance in my life that allows me to live well and work despite my disability. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I truly make a difference not just in my own life but in the lives of others.

If you would like to talk with Deborah about  living with fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivities, email her.

Ina, Bookkeeper

After earning my BS in Education (K-8) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I taught kindergarten for a few years before becoming a full time mother. In 1986, when my younger child was a senior at the University of Wisconsin, I volunteered to help Shelley. My children are now both married and I am the proud grandmother of Olivia, David, Rachel, and Jacob.

I have personally  had experience with chronic illness, both as a mother of a child with a chronic illness and as a person with a mild form of a chronic illness that flares up from time to time. In spite of these challenges I traveled extensively abroad and lived in the U.S., Kenya, Israel, and Australia while raising my family.