BELIEVE – Stroke Recovery Foundation is fortunate to have an incredible Board of Trustees who contribute to the strategic direction and play a critical role in ensuring stroke and brain injury survivors in need receive the financial support and resources they deserve to continue on their journey to recovery.
Michael Erwin
Michael Erwin, Chair, is a stroke survivor. Erwin spent 40 fruitful years in a dynamic career in retail before a stroke changed his life. After graduating with an accounting degree, he began his career working for J.C. Penney in many of their subsidiaries as a Controller. He was known as a troubleshooter for 27 years, before he retired from JCP as the Director of Capital Funding and New Ventures. Erwin spent the latter part of his career in Merchandise Financial Planning for a new internet company and ended his career as a Senior Vice President of Merchandise for a closeout merchandise company.
Erwin formed this Foundation for people to Believe in themselves, to Believe in a new world, to smile each day and to find your strength and courage!
BELIEVE! Mark 5:36
Kris Bracy
With a passion for serving others, Kris Bracy brings more than 30 years of financial accounting and consulting experience to BELIEVE – Stroke Recovery Foundation. She began her career as an auditor with Price Waterhouse and then balanced the joys of motherhood with the challenges of running her own consulting practice. As a consultant, Bracy enjoyed helping identify and solve problems for her clients, many of which were non-profit organizations. Eventually, she gravitated to the Raleigh real estate industry where she currently holds a financial leadership position at one of the most philanthropic and well-respected commercial real estate firms in the state. Bracy is a Certified Public Accountant and has a B.S. in Business Administration from Meredith College.
Jennifer Erwin
Jennifer Erwin brings a diverse skill set from more than 30 years of professional administration and management experience with various industries, including hospitality, staffing, textiles, retail, real estate and land development. Her strength lies in the ability to adapt and build strong business relationships while pinpointing operational challenges, and subsequently, implementing best practices for success. Erwin knows the effect of brain injury all too well as the wife and caregiver of a stroke survivor and having lost her sister to a traumatic brain injury. Her passion is to help and encourage others on their road to recovery.
Abbe Simon
Abbe Simon, M.A., CCC-SLP, has been a speech language pathologist for 25 years and is a certified integrative health coach. She specializes in working with people impacted by stroke and emphasizes that a diagnosis does not just affect the person who has it. Her work has spanned the continuum of care and includes acute hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation, outpatient clinics, long term living facilities, aphasia centers, and her own private practice. ICOMMUNICARE, LLC offers clients who have aphasia and care partners of people with neurological disorders, person centered treatment and coaching. By implementing a life participation and relationship centered approach, she provides real life, practical, and evolving ways to improve communication, health, and wellness. Simon is thrilled to join the Board so that she can continue to improve the lives of people touched by strokes.
April Starling
April Starling is a Public Relations professional with more than 20 years of experience working for top healthcare public relations agencies in New York City, and now, in North Carolina. Starling’s main focus has been in healthcare, nonprofits and special education. Her expertise lies in strategy development, messaging, brand launches, crisis communications, building advocacy relationships and marketing materials. She represents myriad clients in her own Public Relations company, Link Communications.