Operation Not Forgotten Team

Board Chair - Steve Schiffman, Life Renewed / Operation Not Forgotten and Code Blue Founder and Executive Director, Air Force veteran,  has served as a marketing and media consultant and is an international best-selling author. He is the visionary, one of the founders, and a strategic planner for Operation Not Forgotten. His accomplishments include receiving the National League of American Pen Women’s State of Georgia Award for Achievement in Letters and winning television’s most prestigious award, a local Emmy, as well as three National Religion in Media Awards.

 Steve has organized and directed creative teams to produce award-winning commercials, which have aired on ABC, NBC, and CBS network television. As a publisher, he was asked by the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation to conceptualize and produce the original Power for Living book, which has reached millions through their national media campaign.

Aside from being a marketing and media consultant, Steve has also been a business consultant and a business owner.  Just as he has diversified creative interests, he has had a diversified portfolio of businesses.  Among the businesses he owned was a large, wholesale Cheesecake Factory in Atlanta that provided cheesecake to Kroger grocery stores, and Publix grocery stores in several states.  Additionally, he owned and managed one of the largest cruise-only travel agencies in the United States.

MORE ABOUT STEVE SCHIFFMAN   /  STEVEN R. SCHIFFMAN CV / ROTARY ARTICLE

 Board Member - Janet Labas Orman,  Life Renewed/ Operation Not Forgotten - Code Blue Co-Founder, B.S., Ed., Director of Programs and Curriculum Development is the principal author of the Life Renewed Life Coaching program. She works with Life Renewed to develop programs and curriculum for Life Renewed programs, including Operation Not Forgotten and Code Blue.  Janet also works with veterans to help them acquire veteran benefits.

Additionally, she does graphic design, website development, grant writing, and trains Program Directors and Life Coaches for Life Renewed programs.  Janet has facilitated leadership development conferences and has given educational workshops to many professional groups. 

MORE ABOUT JANET ORMAN

Board Member - Chris Pergantis, Information Officer, has a background encompassing mainframe to programmable logic chips, including COMS, Macintosh OS and MS Windows. His software development background includes over sixteen different programming languages with experience in multiple types of business and industry. Everything including robotics, visual recognition, industrial manufacturing, and business applications make up his three decades of experience. Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Southern Polytechnic Institute, and the proprietary Control Data Institute make up a variety of approaches to the learning experience. As an instructor for the Career Development Institute, he provided valuable direction to future software engineers.  He is currently the CEO of Accelerated Design, Inc. (www.accelerateddesign.com) which specializes in the development of custom software for OEM’s and VAR’s, as well as, providing custom and pre-developed applications for businesses. MORE ABOUT CHRIS PERGANTIS

Board Adviser - Melanie Dallas, LPC, CEO Highland Rivers Health is a licensed professional counselor and CEO of Highland Rivers Health, which provides treatment and recovery services for individuals with mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities in a 12-county region of northwest Georgia that includes Bartow, Cherokee, Floyd, Fannin, Gilmer, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Pickens, Polk and Whitfield counties.

During her 30-year experience in Behavioral Health, Ms. Dallas has held several administrative, clinical direct care, and leadership positions in almost every level of care from crisis stabilization and mobile crisis assessment to in-home care. Her work experience has spanned both the public and private sectors working with children, families, and adults. Ms. Dallas has focused on healing trauma and attachment issues as a clinician, as well as developing her skills as a leader by focusing on transformational leadership and organizational culture. She has extensive experience in marketing behavioral health services to the managed care market and implemented the first 23-hour crisis observation bed program in Georgia 20 years ago. Ms. Dallas has worked for the State of Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health Developmental Disabilities on several occasions which round her knowledge of State-level policy and the impact policy change has on service delivery.

Ms. Dallas currently sits on the Behavioral Health Advisory Council for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and chairs the Adult Mental Health subcommittee. She also recently testified in front of the Georgia House Study Committee on School Safety.

Ms. Dallas is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a BBA in Marketing and also holds a Master of Science Degree in Counseling from Georgia State University. She sat on the International Ethics Committee for a group of 200 trained facilitators who recently completed the daunting 2-year task of developing an innovative Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice to govern their work. Ms. Dallas also has worked as a Military Family Life Consultant under contract with the Federal Department of Defense for 5 years. She has operated as a liaison with the Georgia Army National Guard and the Georgia State Defense Force to help develop a Georgia network of trained clinicians who understand military culture and its impact on service members and their families.

Highland Rivers Health is a public non-profit community mental health center, referred to as Community Service Boards, in Georgia. Highland Rivers provides services for mental health, addictive disease, and intellectual developmental disabilities at close to 36 sites over a 12-county geography. Highland Rivers Health is one of the largest CSBs in the state.

MORE ABOUT MELANIE DALLAS

Board Adviser - Dr.Harry Wetzler, M.D., M.S.P.H.O., Retired Air Force Colonel is the principal author of the Life Renewed Quality of Life Assessment Software. Dr. Wetzler is a board-certified occupational medicine physician with an advanced degree in public health (epidemiology). He is nationally recognized as an expert in medical accountability, outcomes management, and survey design.

Dr. Wetzler served as a Clinical Outcomes Specialist with the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), where he designed studies and analyzed data related to functional status and well-being in patients with asthma, diabetes, and total hip replacement. He also provided strategic consultation, data analysis, and reports for AMGA’s patient and provider satisfaction initiative. Prior to that role, Dr. Wetzler also served as the medical director for two software companies: Velocity Healthcare Informatics and Response Technologies, the first company to automate SF-36 data collection.

He gained expertise in outcomes management when he worked with Dr. Paul Ellwood at InterStudy and the Health Outcomes Institute, where he coordinated the development of 12 condition-specific outcomes measurement instruments and data collection protocols. Dr. Wetzler’s Air Force service included tours on the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and at the Department of Defense Medical Examination Review Board, where he developed an automated system to review medical examinations.

As Ofstead’s Medical Director, Dr. Wetzler provides clinical oversight for the research team, communicates with other clinicians about projects, and provides expert consultation regarding study design, data management, analysis, and reporting.
 

Board Adviser - Dr. Douglas Huber, MD, Army General Medical Officer:  Former Commander, American Legion Post 140, Buckhead, Georgia.  In April of 1965, Dr. Huber received a draft notice from my local draft board announcing that he was being inducted into the Army. At that time, all male physicians were required by law to serve in the military or another government medical service. He reported to duty at Fort Myer, Virginia, and served in the Dispensary as a General Medical Officer. The troop escalation announced by President Johnson several days after he arrived on July 1, 1965, resulted in his receiving orders for Viet Nam. At Fort Sam Houston, Texas, his unit was assembled and he was appointed the commander of a type A dispensary with two physicians, one dentist and eighteen enlisted personnel. His unit was then sent to Long Bihn, Viet Nam. Upon returning to duty in the U.S., Dr. Huber was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he completed his active duty requirement of two years. At Fort Belvoir, he received a Letter of Commendation. Because of his young age at the time of induction, he was required to serve four more years in the Army Reserves and was assigned to the 3297 Field Hospital, a 1000 bed Reserve unit that had not been activated since WWII and had multiple extensions throughout Georgia. Dr. Huber was honorably discharged in 1971. He is currently retired. 

Legal Counsel - Theodore H. Davis, Attorney, Kilpatrick-Townsend divides his practice between domestic and international litigation and client counseling in the fields of trademark, copyright, false advertising, and unfair competition law and has particular experience in trade dress and gray market disputes, litigation before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and with large-scale trademark clearance and registration projects. He is a past chair of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, on behalf of which he has testified before Congress on trademark and Internet issues, and he also has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Trademark Association, which he has represented in a number of amicus filings before the United States Supreme Court.

Tribute to Joe Taylor -  Christian, writer, musical composer, singer, guitarist, sculptor, painter, and paleontologist,  was one of those people who worked silently behind the scenes, practicing his craft and leaving an incredible legacy.   Joe went to be with the Lord in March of 2023.

Just some of the billboards he painted for Hollywood postings – mostly at Tower Records on Sunset Strip – include those for Kiki Dee, The Who, Olivia Newton-John, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, John Denver, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Carly Simon, Three Dog Night, Helen Reddy, Mac Davis, Peter Frampton, and David Bowie.

Joe was also a veteran, and philanthropist, who cares deeply about veterans and veteran issues.