Famcare Board

Verena Gutmann
Chair
Educational Head of Department responsible for the Educational Management of 100 youngsters from 14-20 years. Also responsible for the formation of the Austrian PWS Association and chairperson for 10 years. Verena was an auditor for IPWSO before joining the board. She has a daughter with PWS living in the Regens Wagner Institution in Absberg /Bavaria/Germany. Verena was an IPWSO Trustee from 2016-2022.

Amalia Balart
Amalia is a Masters graduate in Special Education and has worked as a Bilingual Therapist to help children with attention deficit disorder, poor executive function and learning disabilities. She worked for 26 years as Head of Juniors at The Newland School in Chile. Amalia is a member of the Board of the Chilean PWS National Association. She created the Chilean PWS network of families throughout the country, organising them by zones, each with a Coordinator that reports to the central Board. She is one of the authors of the book “Síndrome Prader-Willi Guía de Apoyo y Recetas para Celebrar de Manera Saludable”. She founded Corporación Señales, a non-profit organisation to provide schooling, training and labour opportunities for people with special needs. Amalia is mother to an adult woman with PWS. Amalia has been working closely with colleagues in Latin America through the Red de Especialistas Latinoamericanos Síndrome de Prader Willi, to strengthen the bonds between the PWS associations in the region and to support smaller PWS groups to develop and grow. Amalia was an IPWSO Trustee from 2016-2022.

Susanne Blichfeldt
Consultant (Neuropediatrics). Susanne has an adult son with PWS. She is also a member of our Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board.

María Elvira Garcia Ronderos
María Elvira was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She is an Industrial Engineer, and specialised in finance and organisational development and is also a Practitioner in Neurolinguistic Programming. She worked for 33 years in different sectors of the economy. She wrote the book “The Smile Thief”, published in 2017, which is the testimony of a family with a special child. She has been married for over 40 years to Mauricio Sánchez with whom she has four children; the youngest, Carlos Iván, has Prader-Willi syndrome. She has been President of the Asociación Colombiana Síndrome de Prader-Willi since 2019. María was part of the organising committee of international symposiums on PWS in Colombia in 2019 and 2021.

Jackie Gill
Parent of an adult daughter, Jackie is a past IPWSO Board member and worked with PWSA UK for over 20 years, specialising in writing and producing information, including the UK PWS Journey, and website articles for parents, people with PWS and professional carers.

Georgina Loughnan
Georgina is based at the Prader-Willi syndrome specialist clinic, Metabolism and Obesity Services at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW, Australia. She is involved with the New South Wales PWS Association and now with Prader-Willi Syndrome Australia. Georgina has worked with IPWSO for many years through the Famcare Committee as well as being a former member of the IPWSO Board of Trustees.

Yvonne Rochford
Yvonne is based in Ireland. She has an honours degree in Management and Business Studies, from Queen’s University Belfast. Yvonne has worked in Operations, on a National level for almost 10 years. Her most recent role has provided consultancy to both public and private sector businesses. Along with her professional work, Yvonne has been a board member with Prader Willi Syndrome Association of Ireland since 2020. Yvonne’s daughter was born with PWS in 2019.
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IPWSO was established so that PWS associations, families, clinicians and caregivers around the world could exchange information and support and have a united global voice under one umbrella.
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The latest medical and scientific research and information, plus guides into common medical issues affecting people with PWS.