Who We Are
Amigos Hospitalito Atitlán is governed by a seven member Board of Trustees. We have all travelled extensively in Guatemala. Some of us are medical professionals and others offer a variety of skills to our efforts. We are all volunteers, working from volunteer facilities, in an attempt minimize administrative overhead and maximize the impact of your financial support. At this time we have no paid staff and our only overhead consists of legal, accounting and bank transaction related expenses.
Bonnie O’Neill, Board Chair Bonnie is president of O'Neill & Associates, a consultant to nonprofits and philanthropic organizations she founded in 1996. Prior to that, in 1986, she co-founded Alexander O'Neill Haas, an Atlanta based international fundraising consulting firm. Bonnie has worked with hundreds of nonprofits and directed numerous capital, annual and endowment campaigns for a wide range of charitable causes. A popular speaker, Bonnie has been a featured presenter at international conferences of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals (AFP), has served as a faculty member at the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, and as a guest lecturer at Emory University, Duke University and Kennesaw University among many others. Her presentations, workshops and seminars cover many subjects including best practices of annual funds, major gifts programs, capital campaigns, board development and volunteer training.
A 1984 graduate of Leadership Atlanta, Bonnie helped establish MedShare International, a U.S. based nonprofit that distributes surplus medical supplies and equipment to needy hospitals and clinics in countries throughout the economically developing world. Since it began in 1998, MedShare has distributed more than $60 million worth of medical supplies and equipment. Bonnie served as Chair of its Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2005. In March 2006, in recognition of her work with MedShare and many other nonprofits, Bonnie was named Atlanta Woman of the Year by Atlanta WOMAN Magazine.
A graduate of Rosemont College, Bonnie also attended the Sorbonne in Paris and is fluent in French. She is an avid traveler and has participated in numerous international volunteer programs in Central and South America. Currently, Bonnie splits her time between Atlanta and Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, where she and her partner David Adams have recently built a home in San Marcos La Laguna.
Narda Sherman, Secretary Narda is a physician assistant from Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the Oregon Health Science University she worked for many years at General and Burn Surgery for The Surgical Center, Inc. and the Oregon Burn Center. Since 2007 she has traveled repeatedly to Guatemala on volunteer medical trips, working at Hospitalito Atitlán as a clinician in Family Medicine and as a volunteer coordinator. Prior to studying medicine, Narda spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer and, later, as a consultant for The Carter Center, working in Cote d'Ivoire, designing and supervising the National Program for the Eradication of Guinea Worm. She has taught at, and served as the Director of, the Montessori Institute's Children's House, a private school in Denver, Colorado. Holding a Master's Degree in Education from Loyola University, and a Bachelor's Degree in International Politics from the University of California, she is currently working towards a Certificate in Nonprofit Administration at Portland State University. She has lived in England, France, Sweden, Peru, the US Virgin Islands, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire, and speaks Spanish and French. She is married and has two young children.
Ulysses Sherman, Treasurer Ulysses is a principal of Aspen Capital Management, a diversified real estate merchant-banking firm located in Portland, Oregon. At Aspen he is responsible for originating, structuring and managing residential and commercial real estate loans and investments. He also manages several closely held, discretionary investment funds and serves as president of a portfolio management company specializing in alternative investments. Before his work in real estate and finance, Ulysses worked as a water resources engineer, performing municipal water resources planning for the City of Boulder, Colorado and hydrologic studies of mines in Central America. He also served six years on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Childpeace Montessori School, where he assisted the placement of tax-exempt bond financing and associated interest rate swap to fund the purchase of the school’s facilities. Ulysses served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Côte d'Ivoire after obtaining degrees in Physics (B.A., Williams College) and Civil Engineering (M.S., University of Colorado). He speaks French and is studying Spanish. He is married and has two young children.
Lyn Dickey Lyn drove to Guatemala in 1980 and dreamed of returning someday to live on the shores of Lake Atitlán. After receiving a Bachelor's in Fine Arts in Photography from Stephen’s College, a women’s college in Missouri, she spent twenty-five years as a mother, photographer and artist in Eureka Springs Arkansas. During these years she continued to travel to Mexico and Central America. In 1988, she worked with the City of Eureka Springs, writing a grant for a curbside recycling program that is now state-of-the-art. Lyn started her own Natural Foods business, and when it sold in 2001, she and her husband built a solar-powered home near Santiago Atitlán on the shores of Lake Atitlán, fulfilling her longtime dream. Lyn has served as Treasurer of the Guatemalan nonprofit organization, Asociación Pro Salud, Educación Y Desarrollo “K’aslimaal”, since it’s founding in 2003. K’aslimaal was formed to re-open an abandoned hospital on the outskirts of Santiago Atitlán, which was inaugurated in April 2005. Six months later the devastating mudslides of tropical storm Stan destroyed the newly opened Hospitalito Atitlán. Lyn was instrumental in the resumption of medical services fifteen days after the disaster in a back-packers hotel. Her roles at K’aslimaal include public relations, grant writing, fundraising, coordination of the renovation and construction activities, Financial Comptroller for the K’aslimaal Board of Directors and chief photographer. She is learning the Tz’utujil language, driven by her love of the people of Atitlán. She enjoys the visits of her three children and grandchildren and making pitaya wine.
Bill Cuneo Bill retired in 1999 from a career in business and financial consulting. The following year he traveled for the first time to Guatemala where he visited several communities, including Santiago Atitlán, and experienced the rich culture, gentle ways and immense poverty of much of the population. Bill returned home with a great desire to help the people of Guatemala. He started raising funds and his efforts resulted in establishing two churches, a primary and secondary school in El Sitio, and a carpentry school in Patzun. He founded the Marin County Guatemala Mission which supports several organizations in Santiago Atitlán and other areas in the western highlands. Bill and fellow members of his church, St. Rita's in Fairfax, California, regularly load and send containers of equipment and supplies for the schools and for Hospitalito Atitlán. Each year, Bill leads a group trip to Guatemala from St. Rita's. They spend time in El Sitio and Patzun, meet with the teachers and school children and then visit Hospitalito Atitlán where they see first hand the results of their hard work and generosity. Bill is a native and resident of San Francisco.
Brian L. Strom M.D., M.P.H Dr. Strom holds multiple degrees, including a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (Yale University in 1971), a M.P.H. (University of California, Berkeley), and an M.D. (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1975). He has been on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine since 1980 where he has many roles, both clinical and administrative: Professor in the departments of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Pharmacology, Vice Dean for Institutional Affairs, School of Medicine, and the Senior Advisor to the Provost for Global Health Initiatives.
Dr. Strom founded The Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB). This center has over 550 faculty, research and support staff, and trainees. It receives over $38 million per year in extramural support, out of a total budget $58 million. In addition to authoring nearly 500 papers, Dr. Strom has been principal investigator for over 225 grants, including over $70 million in direct cost alone. He has been invited to speak at more than 360 events outside his local area, including the keynote speaker for numerous international meetings. Dr. Strom has been a consultant to NIH, FDA, CDC, USP, AAMC, JCAHO, foreign governments, most major pharmaceutical manufacturers, and many law firms.
Dr. Strom is the 2008 recipient of the John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine, awarded by the American College of Physicians, one of the most prestigious awards in Internal Medicine.
Robert Meyer, M.D. Dr. Meyer is a practicing pediatrician and Medical Director of the Windsor Street Health Center of the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Associate Pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Pediatric Residency Director at The Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Meyer is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he completed his Pediatric Residency as Chief of Residency. Dr. Meyer first visited Guatemala in 2006 for a week of intensive Spanish immersion. He has since spent 2-4 weeks each year as a volunteer physician at the Hospitalito Atitlán. He is married and the father of two wonderful young adults.
Terry Foose Williams Ms. Williams is a business and communications consultant in Denver, Colorado. She has worked extensively throughout Latin America for the past 30 years, building and supporting development programs in the areas of health care, education, and humanitarian relief. During the past ten years, much of Terry’s work has focused on the nonprofit sector in the areas of organizational development, management, team building, and productivity. As a Latin American Representative for a Denver-based nonprofit, Terry did medical needs assessment of clinics and hospitals throughout Latin America. She, also, wrote and produced numerous fund-raising videos for medical clinics, schools, and orphanages in Central and South America.
Terry first became involved with Hospitalito Atitlán ten years ago when she helped to provide medical supplies from the US. Since then she has provided organizational and management consulting. Terry feels strongly about the importance of helping Latin America people to develop the tools to help themselves and be responsible for their own future. Terry holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University, a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University, a B.A. from Tufts University, and CN in Nutrition from the American Health Science University.