Who are the people behind pdplan4life?

Sheryl Jedlinski is a professional writer living in the Chicago suburbs with her husband Tony. When diagnosed with PD in 1998 at the age of 44, she decided to target her writing skills to advance issues important to the Parkinson’s community.

Sheryl volunteers her time and skills to several different Parkinson’s organizations. Most notably, she is on the Board of the Midwest Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA). As Communications Director, she writes, edits, and designs a quarterly newsletter and the chapter web site, and assists in the development of promotional materials.

A strong advocate for embryonic stem cell research and clinical trial participants’ rights, Sheryl’s letters to the editor regularly appear in newspapers across the country. As a member of the Parkinson Pipeline Project, she co-authored “Ethical Issues in Clinical Neuroscience Research: A Patient Perspective,” which appears in the July 2007 issue of Neurotherapeutics: The Journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics.

Sheryl has participated in several exercise-related clinical trials and in the original CoQ10 trial.

Jean Burns is retired and lives with her husband in a suburb of Phoenix. She is a former software trainer and web developer. Diagnosed in 2003 at the age of 51, Jean is active in several Parkinson’s organizations including the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN)..

She was honored by AZ-APDA in 2006 as its distinguished volunteer, and PAN awarded her the 2009 Milly Kondracke Award and the 2007 Murray Charters Award for outstanding service to the PD community.

Jean is heading a grassroots movement for a national symbol for Parkinson's disease: the stylized tulip at right, designed by Karen Painter, of Washington state.  This symbol will represent all people with PD - without regard to organizational affiliation. Read their story.

Jean speaks to groups about the importance of participating in clinical trials. She participated in the PRECEPT and POSTCEPT clinical trials as well as four other studies.

Jean uses art to spread PD awareness. Her work can be seen in neurology offices throughout the U.S.

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