Our passion is creating an organization that is focused on Stroke Rehabilitation—Reimagined.
Deb has successfully survived three strokes which drove our desire to give back and help survivors, families and friends find your inner hero to Champion the Challenges of Stroke.
Deb Shaw is a three-time stroke survivor and the leader of Champion the Challenges. She had an Ischemic Brain Stem Stroke in September 2016, which affected her right side. This was followed by another stroke, in December 2016, weakening her left hand and lowering her blood pressure. Then she suffered a third stroke in her retina in May 2019. She is an advocate for self-improvement by utilizing the latest tools that technology has to offer. Deb is a former Head of Global Customer Service for a technology company. She previously held executive positions, working with influential business and government leaders.
Bob Shaw is an advocate of motivational self-improvement, and a passionate technology leader. He is the proud husband of Deb for 33 years and her teammate in the start-up of Champion the Challenges. He is a former President and CEO of a private network and security access company that was successfully acquired in 2013. He is a keynote speaker and executive coach for start-ups and high growth public companies.
Advisory Board
Passionate, genuine, innovative, evolving, patient, and empathetic are the core attributes of our Board of Advisors. This talented team will help us achieve our mission to reimagine stroke rehabilitation for the world.
Joan Wrabetz is the COO of Fyusion, Inc. Her prior executive management roles include VP of Marketing for the datacenter systems business unit of Western Digital, CTO of Quali Systems, and CTO for the advanced technology division of EMC. Joan holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, an MSEE from Stanford University, BSEE from Yale University.
Amir is an entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in creating products that improve lives. Amir is the Founder and CEO of Sixense Enterprises Inc., a leading developer of immersive computing solutions across industries, including healthcare, training, and education.
Tom Ryan has spent his career building companies based on disruptive technology, serving in executive and advisory roles for both public companies and venture capital backed startups. For the last ten years, he has focused on data-drive applications and machine learning. Tom is also a stroke survivor and advocate since 2016.
Courtney Salvey, Ph.D. — A thought leader in digital health using humanities-born critical thinking skills to challenge healthcare convention and advance a vision-driven digital revolution in healthcare. Passionate about questioning the status quo, creating industry and academic intelligence, and defining and implementing a vision for the future of digital health. She has 15+ years developing systems in service of human flourishing, especially health. Previously, Penumbra and UnitedHealth.
Tom Laszewski is a LAD heart attack and cardiac arrest survivor. Tom is an author, inventor, and tech advisor focused on paying it forward. Tom is advising numerous AI and GenAI companies on business strategy and product innovation. Tom started and lead the AWS Global Systems Integrator team, and created the AWS Private Equity Transformation Advisor program. Tom has advised hundreds of CTOs, CPOs, and CIOs. Tom established the Ma Pesch foundation which provides scholarships to aspiring technologists.
Brendon Hale is an executive who has professional experience, which includes tenures at corporations UnitedHealth Group and Penumbra, and with universities, which include Indiana University and Mississippi State University. During his career, he has utilized his academic training in Human Performance and Neuroscience to lead the science-based development of national and international health and wellness programs, the evaluation of digital therapeutic (DTx) and immersive healthcare solutions, and the commercial scale implementation of DTx and immersive healthcare solutions.
Dr. James Lu uniquely understands the human body and its capacity to heal. He has over 25 years of medical expertise in acupuncture and physical therapy, and is regularly requested to conduct international lectures. He was also National Champion in Chen Taichi for 5 consecutive years in China and the United States. In addition to his clinics, Dr. Lu provides integrative acupuncture and rehabilitation to the inpatient rehabilitation unit of Good Samaritan Hospital, Mission Oak Campus in Los Gatos, CA. Licensed Physical Therapist | Doctor of Physical Therapy | Licensed Acupuncturist | Diplomat of Oriental Medicine |Orthopedic Certified Specialist | Manual Therapy Certified | Certified Scalp Acupuncture Specialist.
Dr. Peter Nelson, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology) brings the experience of a physician who has suffered a career-ending ischemic stroke. He understands the patient and doctor’s perspective of the medical world. His journey includes not only having to retire from his profession but also navigating the early days of life after a stroke when there wasn’t a lot of post-stroke therapy or support. He is well-known in the stroke community and continues to give back to new stroke survivors and their families. We are honored to have him as a critical member of our advisory board.
Rezvan Moghaddam (mo-gaad-dam) served as the first full-time Executive Director of the Pacific Stroke Association (PSA) from 2003 to 2023; a non-profit organization with the focus on raising awareness about stroke through community-wide campaigns and providing support for stroke survivors and family caregivers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to her work at PSA, Rezvan was the Development Director at the Sutter Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice Foundation for five years. Prior to joining the VNA & Hospice Foundation, Rezvan was with the United Way of the Bay Area as a Campaign Advisor. Rezvan started her career as a research fellow in the socio/economic department at SRI International in Menlo Park.
Michael Ham has served on 17 different nonprofit Board positions in the Ohio Miami Valley over his career. His vision, civic knowledge and strategic skills have given him the unique opportunity to provide guidance and direction across many local city projects and advise those twice his age, having graduated from Wright State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Affairs in 2013. He has been honored as Troy Outstanding Young Man of the Year 2015, Troy Board of Education, in addition to twelve more distinguished awards. Michael, has been honored at the civic, national and international levels, He certainly knows how to Champion the Challenges of life, as Michael has accomplished all his success while living with cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.
Gideon Marks brings more than 30 years of perspective from his successful track record, leading technology companies in financial, business and corporate development roles.
During his tenure he took three companies public on NASDAQ and led four other companies to successful acquisitions. He has also been involved in building numerous companies from scratch to various stages of maturity.
Jeff Bellinghause is an engineering leader with expertise in software systems, hardware integration, and large-scale deployment. At Valve, he led development of the Steam Controller and early VR prototypes, architected the Steam Input API used by millions, and contributed to the OpenXR standard, earning over a dozen patents across hardware and interaction technologies. At Amazon, he served as a Principal Engineer building machine vision platforms, combining advanced software algorithms with custom hardware systems to drive automation and improve large-scale operational efficiency. He has 20+ years of leading teams from concept through to delivering impactful products. Previously, Penumbra, Sixense, Valve, Amazon.