Volunteer Spotlight: Denise Zabawski

Testimonials

“We support Road of Life because of its great work against a dreadful disease. We believe that ROL will impact the knowledge of health for children everywhere.”

– Jack Staph, Executive Director of the Cleveland Marathon, Half Marathon & 10K

“In the past, I have always had a difficult time incorporating a health curriculum into the classroom. With so many standards to meet in the core subjects like Math, Reading, and Writing, Health curriculums often get pushed to the side. However, the Road of Life health curriculum has changed that in my classroom.”

– Kimberly Frank, 4^th grade teacher at Tanque Verde Elementary School in Tucson, AZ

“I believe the ROL program is a worthy effort that will make a positive difference in the lives of children.”

– Karen L. Gilliam, Ph.D. Manager of the Office of Diversity at The MetroHealth System

“I was speechless when I came across the Road of Life website. I am thrilled that the lessons are available to our school for free. The lessons are extremely interactive, encouraging all students to participate. They also cross several subject areas, not just health.”

– Agatha Kusenda, Guidance Counselor at Brainerd Baptist School in Chattanooga, TN

“Road of Life improves the health knowledge of all students that are involved in the program. We even featured their work in the College’s Annual Report Magazine.”

– Lori Bolton, Assistant Director for the Practice Education and Career Services in The Ohio State University College of Public Health

“Road of Life focuses on educating children on fitness, nutrition, and overall good decision making that will lead to healthier lives and greatly reduce the risk of developing cancer later in life. We recognize the work that ROL is doing and we want to help ROL create an Adolescent and Young Adult specific program to expand ROL’s program to this age group. We look forward to working with ROL..."

– John J. Letterio, M.D., Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital

“This program is easy for our teachers to integrate the curricula in their classrooms. Due to the fact that the classroom curriculum is aligned to National Health Standards as well as State Academic Standards, teachers do not have to veer away from teaching the required core academic subjects of math, English language arts, social studies, and science.”

– Mary G. Maul, Principal of Scranton K-8 School in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in OH

“By providing this information to children, we are teaching them that they are not only responsible for their personal health but in the future they can choose to be responsible for helping others become healthier. The sheer diversity of each curriculum demonstrates ROL’s ability to solve the main problem of chronic illness.”

– Denisha E. Garland, MPH, SIT with the Cincinnati Health Department

“Road of Life is a unique and exciting organization. ROL takes the idea of cancer prevention a few steps further and tries to establish good lifestyle choices and habits with children, long before they are potentially faced with a cancer diagnosis. I believe in ROL because of their unique ability to pull resources from different sources, such as the medical community, the public health community, and the education community.”

– Sharon E. Kim, Clinical Research Coordinator at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center

“I am a very strong advocate of the Road of Life: Cancer Prevention for Kids program and the innovative work they have done with Columbus Public Schools.”

– Andrew Ginther, Columbus City Council (Former Columbus Public School Board Member)

“We are confident that the Road of Life Program will help improve the knowledge and build awareness of health for children in Cleveland.”

– Eileen Korey, Vice President of Communications at The MetroHealth System

“Road of Life’s innovative programs have a very important role to play in keeping some of America’s most at-risk communities healthy.”

– Laurel Shoaff-Tranick, Program Manager for the Corporation for National and Community Service

“All the lessons in the After School Program were easy to use and integrate into our current programs. The kids loved learning lessons while enjoying the activities; the facilitators loved the user-friendly content. After using Road of Life’s programs, the children experienced an increase in knowledge through education, a change in attitude through awareness and exposure, and a change in behavior through action and performance.”

– Lisa Palmer, Executive Director for the Olde Southside Community Partnership

For the Media

Volunteer Spotlight: Denise Zabawski

Organization News

Written by Press Release

Friday, 28 March 2008 00:00

This month's Volunteer Spotlight is on Denise Zabawski, the CIO and VP of Information Services at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and a member of ROL's Board of Directors. Zabawski is an I.T. professional with 20 years of experience in multiple industries and has implemented several multi-year, multi-million dollar IT projects, including electronic medical records. Her most recent experience is in strategic planning and development of sustainable systems and processes.

Denise Zabawski heard of ROL via Groundwork Group, a community solutions center which helps match technology leaders with local non-profit organizations. As a technology leader for Nationwide Children's Hospital, Zabawski is very concerned about the rising cost of healthcare in the community. She believes prevention is the best way to influence the trend, especially because children are bombarded with many advertisements for junk food. She knows there is a critical need to get the right information to kids, since the best time to start good life-long habits is childhood.

As a ROL Board Member, Zabawski has formed a technology committee to guide the long term direction of the technologies that support ROL's mission. She also looks for opportunities for corporate funding and for opportunities for Nationwide Children's Hospital and ROL to form partnerships.

In addition to volunteering with ROL, Zabawski is a member of the Healthcare Information Management System Society (HIMSS) and a delegate of the Child Health Corporation of America CIO Forum. Her personal commitment to serving her community shines through her involvement as a block watch coordinator, a Pet Promise volunteer and foster home provider, service on the Stonewall Columbus Board of Trustees, and work with the Columbus AIDS Task Force.

Zabawski is excited to see ROL expanding in all aspects, especially its five year goal to serve over one million kids. Zabawski does her part in staying healthy by taking spinning and swimming classes. Once the weather breaks, she looks forward to gardening with lots of spring vegetables.

The Ohio State University College of Public Health makes a difference in the health of the public, advances knowledge through multidisciplinary research and education, and reaches out with knowledge, service and leadership to Ohio and the world.

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The GRIES FAMILY FOUNDATION, established in 1986 in Cleveland by Ellen D. Cole and Robert D. Gries (a descendant of philanthropist NATHAN DAUBY†), has supported HIGHER EDUCATION, EDUCATION, cultural programs such as the performing arts, and HOSPITALS & HEALTH PLANNING, primarily in Cleveland. It has concentrated on charities of interest to the trustees.

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Rainbow is a world leader in the treatment of children with heart disease , cystic fibrosis , sickle cell disease and endocrine and metabolic disorders . As part of the Ireland Cancer Center , the National Institute of Cancer, Rainbow’s comprehensive pediatric cancer center offers the most promising treatments to children.

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