Brain Support Network (BSN) has five board members. All are motivated to serve as a result of their experience with a family member who was diagnosed with an atypical parkinsonism disorder. Board members bring a variety of legal, managerial, and medical expertise to BSN.
Robin Riddle, Board Member and CEO, learned about neurodegenerative decline when her late father, Larry, was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) in 2004. With the help of three other caregivers, in July 2004, Ms. Riddle started the “San Francisco Bay Area PSP Support Group.” This Group became Brain Support Network in 2005 with expansion to include MSA, CBD, and LBD. The donation of Larry’s brain in 2007 to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, was Robin’s first organization of a brain donation. In June 2011 the “PSP Genetics Study Group”, including scientists from Mayo, published in Nature Genetics a landmark study using Larry’s brain tissue that identified three new genes linked to PSP. The 1,000th brain donation she arranged was her father-in-law’s, Hall Evans, BSN’s first benefactor. She also arranged for her step-father’s brain and dear friend Steven Russell’s brain to be donated for research.
Earlier, in the corporate world, Ms. Riddle worked in marketing for high‐tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Covad, Unisys, and NetGravity. She holds BA and MA degrees from Stanford and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School.
Mindy Lumm, Board Member and Secretary, joined BSN’s NorCal Support Group in 2013 after her late mother, Susan, was diagnosed with CBD (confirmed through brain donation). Mindy joined Brain Support Network as its Secretary in early 2017. She works in high-tech as a project manager.
Linda Higueras, Board Member, joined the Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) caregiver support group in 2008, California, after her father, Carlos, was diagnosed with LBD. After Carlos passed away, Linda became the primary caregiver for her mother, who suffered two strokes before passing away. In 2010, Linda organized a conference for 200 family caregivers on non-Alzheimer’s dementias in Sonoma County, California. This conference was one of the first events organized by Brain Support Network. In November 2015 Linda organized a dementia caregiver conference in Santa Rosa.
Linda’s career is in Human Resources; she has worked in winery, retail, and financial services industries. She is the first Human Resources director of Williams Selyem Winery. She joined the BSN Board in 2014.
Candy Welch, Board Member, Support Group Meeting Facilitator, joined BSN in 2005 and was the first meeting facilitator for MSA. Candy cared for her husband, Bob, who was diagnosed with MSA in December 2002, until he died in 2008 at the age of 57. She has continued to volunteer as primary support group organizer and support group MSA discussion facilitator.
Candy has represented BSN as a speaker at national events and has hosted several joint webinars with the Stanford Medical School. She joined the BSN Board in 2016.