Administration, Production & Staff
Selma R. Schimmel
Derek Alpert
Eric T. Rosenthal
Juliana Lee
Angie Chiquette
Halina Irving, MA, MS, MFCC
Benjamin Pratt

Vital Options European Team
Robert Schäfer
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schmoll
Dr. Claude-Alain Planchon

 

Selma R. Schimmel Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Selma R. Schimmel founded Vital Options® TeleSupport® Cancer Network, the national not-for-profit cancer communications, advocacy and support organization, in 1983 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28. Vital Options was the first organization to address the needs of young adults with cancer. Over the years the organization has expanded to include everyone involved in the cancer experience, and in 2001 it was renamed Vital Options International to reflect its entry into the European market and involvement with global issues related to cancer.

Schimmel hosts The Group Room®, the nationally syndicated radio call-in talk show about cancer produced by Vital Options in association with Premiere Radio Networks, the largest radio network in the United States. The two-hour program reaches about a half-million listeners every Sunday in select cities in the U.S. and is also simulcast worldwide via this website. The show now broadcasts periodically in Europe and celebrated its fifth anniversary on the air in the USA in February 2001.

Schimmel is a respected consumer healthcare advocate and a prominent figure in various cancer initiatives and public-policy issues, and has served in leadership positions with numerous state and national organizations, committees and commissions. In 1999 "Talkers Magazine" named her one of the 100 most important radio talk-show hosts in America. Her book, "Cancer Talk: Voices of Hope and Endurance from 'The Group Room,' the World's Largest Cancer Support Group," was published in 1999 by Broadway Books, a division of Random House.
Email: sschimmel@vitaloptions.org

 

Derek Alpert President, Vital Options, USA

Derek Alpert became involved with Vital Options in 1985 after reading an article in the Los Angeles Times about this local young adult cancer support group in Studio City. Alpert was intrigued by this organization as he and a group of his friends had just founded their own "young adult" organization to raise money for cancer research called Concern II. After meeting with Selma Schimmel, Alpert got involved as a volunteer with Vital Options as a member of the board of directors and then a Vice President, believing that the two organizations were complimentary to one another yet quite different in their specific focus and mission. As Vital Options continued to expand beyond the Studio City "Group Room" walls, Alpert became more and more involved as an advisor and confidant to Selma, and today serves as the full time President for Vital Options International, USA, after leaving his career in the music business where he spent the past 25 years as Vice President of Motion Pictures and Music Development for Rondor Music International, the publishing arm of A&M Records.

Aside from his new career with Vital Options, Alpert also remains actively involved in the non-profit community as a leader and member of the board of director of The Concern Foundation raising money for cancer research.

Alpert is married and spends most of his "free time" participating in the activities of his three teenager children.

 

Eric T. Rosenthal Senior Correspondent and News Features Editor

Eric Rosenthal joined the management team in 1998 to establish a communications network between Vital Options and cancer organizations, societies, research and treatment centers and media throughout the country. He also serves as news director and correspondent. Rosenthal has nearly three decades experience in journalism and medical and scientific public affairs, with the last dozen years dedicated to cancer communications. In 2000 he was appointed to the Oncology Nursing Society's Consumer Advisory Panel. Founder and chair emeritus of the National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers Public Affairs Network, Rosenthal served as public affairs director at Fox Chase Cancer Center for ten years. He has served as news bureau manager for the American College of Physicians, director of public relations for Drexel University, editor of Public Affairs/Publications at The Franklin Institute and reporter with The Trenton Times newspapers.

 

Juliana Lee Production Manager

Email: jlee@vitaloptions.org

Angie Chiquette Finance Manager

 

Halina Irving, MA, MS, MFCC The Group Room Therapist

A breast cancer survivor, Halina Irving has been affiliated with Vital Options since 1988, when she facilitated groups for young adults with cancer. She is currently in private practice as a psychotherapist with a special interest in working with individuals and groups dealing with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. She also facilitates support groups and co-facilitates couples groups at the Ted Mann Family Resource Center at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, Los Angeles. Irving received her MA at UCLA and her MS in counseling with a specialization in rehabilitation, at California State University at Los Angeles. She is a licensed marriage, family and child counselor.

 

Benjamin Pratt The Group Room Producer

Joining the Group Room in 2004, Benjamin has spent the last five years in Los Angeles working with various network shows including Rush Limbaugh, Michael Reagan, Phil Hendrie and George Noory. Benjamin graduated college in 1998 with a BS in Communications and Criminal Justice. In 2004 Benjamin also became the Technical Director for the Dr. Laura Program.

 
Vital Options European Team

Robert Schäfer Communications Director, Europe

Before becoming a self-employed Communications Consultant in January 2002, Robert Schäfer gained more than 12 years of experience in PR and communications, working for major German theaters, and for the Frankfurt Goethe-University; the Central Bureau of the German Family Planning Association, Pro Familia; and Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, one of the largest PR agencies in the world. From 1995 to 1998, Robert also worked as Communications Consultant for the World Health Organization during the development, implementation, and evaluation of the European Union PHARE-funded project "Improving Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services in Bulgaria."

Robert studied Drama at Vienna University, and holds a diploma in Public Relations from the German Academy of Public Relations. He has significant experience in international healthcare communications, and a profound understanding both of the profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Email: rschaefer@vitaloptions.org

 

Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schmoll Secretary General, Vital Options International, Germany

Director, University Hospital for Internal Medicine IV, Oncology/Hematology, Martin-Luther University, Halle, Germany;
Chairman of the German Association of Medical Oncology;
President of the Cancer Society of the German State of Sachsen-Anhalt.
Professor Hans Joachim Schmoll studied at the Medical University in Hanover, Germany and the Cornell University Medical College in New York, USA. He graduated in 1970 and is now Director of the Department of Internal Medicine IV, Hematology and Oncology at the Martin Luther University in Halle, Germany since 1995 and temporary Director of the Clinical Institute for Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry since 1997. Prof. Schmoll completed his training in Medical Hematology and Oncology at the University hospital in Munich and Hanover, where he worked in several various departments in different positions. In 1970 he obtained his MD in Hanover. Since 1982 Hans-Joachim Schmoll has been lecturer of Internal Medicine and was Professor for medical Oncology and Hematology from 1984 - 1995 at the University in Hanover. Professor Schmoll is founding Chairman of the Cancer Society of Sachsen-Anhalt. He is member of the advisory board of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). In addition, he is Chairman of the Urological Group of the German Cancer Society, and a member of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Genitourinary and Gastrointestinal Study Groups, as well as the protocol review committee.

Professor Schmoll is a member of numerous other international oncology societies, including the American Society for Medical Oncology (ASCO). He is a member of the editorial board of numerous scientific journals such as the European Journal of Cancer, the Annals of Oncology and Onkologie. In 1981 Professor Schmoll was awarded the Johann-Georg-Zimmermann-award for Cancer research and in 2001 with the German Cancer award.
Email: hjschmoll@vitaloptions.org

 

Dr. Claude-Alain Planchon General Secretary, Vital Options International, France

Department of Nuclear Medicine, The American Hospital of Paris
Dr. Claude A. PLANCHON was born in France in 1949. He made his medical studies at the University René DESCARTES-PARIS V and supported his medical thesis in 1977 with Professor Maurice TUBIANA as a President, one of the most eminent French oncologists, and member of the French Academy of Medicine. He devoted himself very early to functional imagery, first in the field of interventional radiology, then in Nuclear Medicine. In 1975, he entered the department of Professor Maurice TUBIANA to the GUSTAVE-ROUSSY Institute of Villejuif, most significant of the anti-cancer centers in France. There, he developed his knowledge in Biophysics and Medical Computing and became a specialist recognized in thyroid pathology; there, he had the exceptional opportunity to be able to collaborate with Professor Henri BISMUTH' team of Paul-BROUSSE Hospital in the first hepatic transplantation. In 1975, he obtained the Saclay-Diploma of Studies relating to the applications with medical biology of the radionuclides and in 1977 he graduated with the Saclay-Diploma as a Specialist in Nuclear Medicine. Leaving Villejuif, he entered the same year the department of Professor Roger PEREZ, founder and head of the Nuclear Medicine Department of the American Hospital of Paris, with whom he became one of the closest collaborators. There he improved in exploration of cerebral pathology and in particular for brain tumors, he developed the techniques of bone scanning in parallel, not only in the field of cancer, but also with regard to sports pathology. In 1985 he obtained the diploma of University Studies for Medical Oncology with the Faculty of Medicine Pierre & Marie CURIE- PARIS VI.

Dr. PLANCHON is a member of the "Active Medical Staff" of the American Hospital of Paris since 1977; he is an active member of the Administration Council of the National Trade Union of Nuclear Medicine and belongs to many Scientific Societies like the French Society of Biophysics and Nuclear Medicine, the French Society of Private Practice Oncology and the French Society for Protection against Radiation. He is also a scientific journalist and wrote many articles devoted to Nuclear Medicine in collaboration with well-known French oncologists; he is invited to congresses as well in Europe as in South-America. In September 2000, on holiday in Los Angeles, he met by chance Ms. Selma R. SCHIMMEL at a special event given within the framework of "Dance for Life" for which his American half-brother, the famous Danseur-Etoile Larrio EKSON, made a choreography "Running out of time". Dr. PLANCHON likes to say: "I have found in Ms. Selma R. SCHIMMEL an inspired and inspiring personality with an exceptional charisma who could certainly move mountains…that explains why I adhered so quickly to the concepts of VITAL OPTIONS and decided to join the team, to facilitate her international expansion, in particular in France where our Judeo-Christian traditions have firmly established a natural barrier to the free expression of patients suffering from cancer, that word still being considered a taboo…".
Email: caplanchon@vitaloptions.org