Renée Rosado is a development engineer working for a software vendor in California. She was raised in California and loves to travel, especially to the islands of Hawaii. She likes long distance bike riding, golf, cooking and entertaining. Her hobbies also include researching the family tree, photography, working with stained glass and other arts and crafts."I was blessed in life by learning about love, relationships and commitment by being married to a wonderful man for 20 years." Her late husband, Dennis Rosado, passed away in September 1989 of complications from surgery for a VHL brain tumor. Renée has remained very close to Dennis’ family, and committed to helping to improve diagnosis and management of VHL.

Renée chairs the Fund-raising Committee, working to find grant funding for VHLFA programs. She will be glad for your suggestions and assistance.

Madge Hall, Public Relations.

Madge brings a diverse background to the VHL Family, having worked in the insurance field in Oklahoma City and Houston; Office Manager for a Fortune 500 corporation in Houston; Officer and Public Relations for a Chemical Company in Houston, as well as in Education and the Oil Industry in Oklahoma City. She is now "retired" and works on a part-time basis, and is looking forward to devoting more time to the VHLFA. A newly elected member of the Board of Directors, she chairs the Public Relations effort. She is also Chairman of the Oklahoma Chapter. She asks that you be generous with your suggestions to assist her in doing the best job possible, which will be helpful to all of our VHL family.

Madge first became aware of the VHL Family Alliance when her son’s former pediatrician sent her a copy of the VHL Family Forum just before the first conference, which was held in Kansas City. She will tell anyone who will listen, at least once, that was one of the happiest moments of her life; to learn she and her son were not dealing with VHL alone and that progress was being made in research of the disease. Like so many of us, even though she had been "dealing" with VHL for many years, because her husband also had VHL, most of those years were spent "in the dark," and uninformed. Thanks to the VHLFA, that’s no longer the case!

As published in the VHL Family Forum 5:4, December 1997. For permission to reprint, please contact VHL Family Alliance, editor@vhl.org. Further information is available from the VHL Family Alliance, info@vhl.org.