BOARD OF DIRECTORS BIOGRAPHIES

Stephen Wallace, President

Steve Wallace has been a member of the PLAN Board of Directors since 2006 and was elected President of the Board in November, 2010.  He also has served as a member of the PLAN Life Trust Committee for the past several years.  Steve’s first year as President was devoted largely to understanding PLAN’s financial position.  If re-elected, his primary goal would be to work towards assuring a sound financial future for PLAN’s second 25 years. He and his wife Claire have a beloved son who was diagnosed with schizophrenia twenty years ago, as well as a daughter who is an important support to them all.  They look forward to having PLAN serve as trustee of a trust that will look after their son’s needs after they no longer can. Steve started his professional life as an engineer with the Boeing Co. in Seattle after graduating from Case Institute of Technology in 1961.  He received a Ph.D. in Physics in 1971 from the University of Washington.  After short-term positions at the University of Florida and Harvard University, he moved to Maryland in 1974 to take a faculty position at the University of Maryland, College Park.  He was appointed to the rank of Professor in 1983 and served as Chair of the Department of Physics in 1994-99. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Southeastern Universities Research Association from 2000 through 2009, chairing that body in 2004-05. Steve retired from teaching July 2009 and he is now Professor Emeritus and Research Professor at Maryland.   

 

Glenn Flittner, Vice President

Glenn and his wife Evelyn have been PLAN parents since 1998.  Their son Kurt, now age 45, was diagnosed having bipolar-schizoaffective disorder in 1996.  Glenn is the past-President of the Board of Directors.  He has A.B and M.A. degrees in Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries from the University of California, Berkeley.  While serving on active duty as a Naval Officer for four years in the Post-Korean War interval, he received a Certificate in Applied Meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School.  Upon returning from active duty in 1957, he completed a Ph.D. degree in the field of Fisheries at the University of Michigan, which was awarded in 1964.  He maintained active Naval Reserve status for 28 years, retiring at the grade of Captain.  His career involved research in the fisheries, ocean and atmospheric sciences in several sister agencies within the Department of Commerce’s National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, culminating in the position of Director, Office of Research and Environmental Information, National Marine Fisheries Service, before retiring in January, 1994.  Glenn has served on the Trust Committee since 2000, on the Board since 2002, and as Chairman from November, 2002 through 2010.  He has agreed to continue serving PLAN as Vice President of the Board and Chair of the PLAN Life Trust Committee.

Tad Olson, Treasurer

Tad is a CPA in public practice with Williams, Stearns and Associates, PC in Reston Virginia.  He has over 30 years experience and specializes in not-for-profit financial statements and tax returns.  He returns to the PLAN board after a four year hiatus.  Tad’s father was a psychiatrist for the State of Maryland and was the last one to conduct home visits.  Tad has a daughter with spina bifida and resides in Gaithersburg.  He has agreed to serve as PLAN’s Treasurer.

Ann Wexler, Secretary

A Washington area resident since 1973, Ann holds a BA degree in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh, with postgraduate work in Educational Research and Statistics.  She also holds an AA degree with Honors in Nursing from Montgomery College.  Ann has two grown sons, 41 and 44; the oldest son is mentally ill and has been a PLAN client since 1998.  Ann has substantial experience in Critical Care, ICU, CCU and Special Care nursing, having worked at Washington Adventist Hospital, Takoma Park, for over 25 years.  As a PLAN family member, she is strongly committed to PLAN’s extensive service goals and objectives.  She has established a Special Needs Trust for her son Mark. Ann has agreed to serve as Secretary to the Board.

Anthony Distefano

Anthony (Tony) Distefano joined the Board of Directors on March 20, 2008.  Tony and his wife Sally (whom he lost to cancer in May, 2007) have been active supporters of PLAN and the Support Group since April, 2004.  He has resided in Montgomery County since 1972.  A native of Providence, R.I., Tony received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and served first in the National Guard and then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  He has held positions as Industrial Designer/Exhibitioner at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History and the U.S. Department of Commerce, ultimately becoming responsible for managing the design staff and facilities at the Commerce Department’s Herbert Hoover Building in the District of Columbia.  After retirement from Federal service, Tony has consulted privately for the General Services Administration and the General Accounting Office.  He has served as Trustee for the Malen Leonard Trust since 2004 and the Oleta S. Williams Trust since May 2007.

 

Ann Plunkett 

Ann Plunkett, the mother of a 44-year-old son with schizophrenia, has been a PLAN member for over 10 years and she served as Secretary for several years. Ann’s family was significantly assisted by PLAN following her son’s one-year hospitalization at Springfield Hospital near Baltimore, Maryland. Ann graduated as a Registered Nurse from Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing in 1952. She worked there as a staff nurse for one year and came to Bethesda, Maryland in 1953 to work at the newly opened National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. She worked first in the Cancer Nursing Service and then the Oral Surgery Department of the Dental Institute until 1959. She also worked part-time in the Nursing Services of all the Institutes from 1960 to 1981. Ann was the Supervisor of the Aphoresis Clinic, NIH Department of Transfusion Medicine, for many years before retiring in 1992.  While there, she participated in many research procedures including the first Gene Therapy program instituted by NIH. 

Claire Wallace

Claire has served for many tears on the Personal Plan Review Committee.  Since 2006 she also has been a key member of the volunteers that organize and file PLAN’s medical records and communications between case workers and clients. The wife of Steve Wallace, she was very active in the PLAN Support Group in the early 1990s. PLAN helped them through the early phase of their son’s disability, and they have been grateful and active since then.  Claire holds a BA in psychology from Case-Western Reserve University, and worked in the Harvard President’s office and as a legal secretary and office manager in Washington, D.C.