Gary Heit
Co-Founder
Dr. Heit received his PhD in neuroscience from UCLA and his M.D. from Stanford. After serving for 6 years as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of Functional Neurosurgery at Stanford, he joined the neurosurgery staff of the Permanente Medical Group of Northern California. He went to Cuzco, Peru, on a volunteer surgical mission where he performed pediatric and intracranial surgery.
Monica A. Gerstner-Mosko
Co-Founder
Ms. Gerstner-Mosko obtained her nursing degree after being the lead neurosurgical technician at Stanford University Medical Center. Thereafter, she began practice in the Medical-Surgical intensive care unit at Stanford and is now the nurse coordinator for Interventional Radiology at Stanford University. Ms. Gerstner-Mosko has volunteered on surgical missions in Nicaragua, Peru, India and China and brings extensive experience to the organization.
Ivan Bernstein,
Board Member
Mr. Bernstein obtained his MPH and MSPAS at Touro University and his Social Psych/International Relations undergraduate degrees at UCLA. He currently works in Functional Neurosurgery and Pain Management at Kaiser Permanente. Mr. Bernstein has volunteer experience in Family Medicine locally as well as in the Fiji Islands.
Katie Parafinczk
Board Member
Katie received her B.S. in Biology from Emory University, and a DPT degree (three year doctorate) from Arcadia University. She is a senior therapist on the rehabilitation team at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City where she specializes in neurologic physical therapy. During her time at Kaiser, Katie has completed a residency to become a clinical specialist in neurology (NCS). She continues working as a faculty member and clinical mentor within the residency program.
Marc A. Vanefsky
Board Member
Dr. Vanefsky is the Regional Chief of Neurosurgery for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. He is also the director of Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery. He is an associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of California, Irvine. He completed his Neurosurgical Residency at Stanford in 1996 and was the first Cerebrovascular Fellow at Stanford.
For every $4,000 we raise, we are able to ship a 40-foot cargo container full of desperately needed medical equipment to our mission sites in Vietnam & Myanmar.
Our volunteer medical teams train the local practitioners to use the donated equipment, but we need your help to get it there!
