Radio Shows

Jas Boothe has served over 13 years in the United States Army and is currently on active duty in the United States Army National Guard.
She deployed during the Operation Iraq Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom campaigns and her military career has been dedicated to working with and advocating for Soldiers and their family members.

In 2005, she was a single parent in the Army Reserves living in New Orleans. That spring, she learned she would soon be deploying to Iraq. During her mobilization, Boothe’s life was torn apart by two significant events. In August she lost everything she owned due to Hurricane Katrina. She tried to shift her focus to her platoon that was counting on her for leadership through the deployment. The very next month in September, she received a devastating diagnosis of an aggressive head, neck, and throat cancer, and was now unable to deploy.

My guest tonight is Janet Cromer, who is a psychiatric nurse and professional speaker living in Bethesda, MD. Janet is the author of the memoir, Professor Cromer Learns to Read: A Couple’s New Life after Brain Injury, which chronicles the seven year period Janet shared with her husband after he suffered a severe anoxic brain injury. For more information, please visit www.janetcromer.com.

Janet also writes the “Caregiver’s Compass” feature for Brain Injury Journey magazine, a free online subscription to Lash Publishing (lapublishing.com)

In January of 1989 Mike Strand suffered a severe brain injury followed by a 10 day coma after his pick-up was broadsided by a semi-truck. He was in the hospital for 8 weeks and had a lengthy recovery. After the first year he had completed all his rehab therapy, but as we all know, he was far from recovered. He has spent the past 24 years steadily improving himself. Since 1998 he has been a regular columnist for the Brain Injury Alliance of MN’s newsletter and he has published his best and most popular columns in a book titled “Meditations on Brain Injury” available from Lash Publishing, his second book, containing more recent columns, will be available later this summer.

My guest tonight is Tonia Wittkower. Her husband David, is a film maker whose work has been featured on TLC, History, Discovery, PBS and several other notable channels. He has won 21 film festival awards for excellence in film making. One of the most personal films he’s done is called TBI: One Woman’s Journey, about his wife.

In 1980, Tonia’s life was changed forever. This DVD follows Tonia beyond the accident that almost took her life, through the steps she and her family took when “life isn’t normal anymore.”

My guest tonight is Michael F Ciafone, author of Silent Cries: Living With a Traumatic Brain Injury. His second book Traveling Forward: Survivng With Traumatic Brain Injury is a brand new release.

Michael’s books are his memories of the injury, and his experience with life afterward. He wrote these books to inspire people to not give up the fight, even though there are obstacles. He wants other survivors to know they aren’t alone. Join us for this most enlightening interview.

Tonight Kevin & Marvelous Maggie are attending the Washington State TBI Conference, so they won’t be here. He will be giving a full report next week!! Open mic to chat tonight, or just sit back and listen to some tunes. Kevin is WTF…I’m TGIF!! (KimJ) Join me… With more and more people being diagnosed each day with a Brain Injury as a result of trauma, unemployment is on the rise. It was Ortega Y Gasset who defined “Genius”, as the ability to invent ones occupation. As the World’s first OFFICIAL TBI THRIVER, Kevin dares to share his insight and experiences to inspire others with Brain Injuries to create a More FUNctional LIFE using a unique perspective with “WTF?”.

My guest tonight is Kimberly Chapman. In 2004, she suffered two ruptured aneurysms. In 2010 the aneurysm spread. Join us tonight to hear her compelling story, and her subsequent participation in the Joe Niekro Foundation. Kim will be hosting a program with us starting next month, so stop by and meet her. 🙂

Last week we heard from the father, Ian McCallum who wrote From Cradle to Grave and Back, a book for professionals and caregivers. This week we will hear from his son, Andrew McCallum. Andrew McCallum experienced a traumatic brain injury in April of 2008 when he was 32, which resulted in a variety of physical injuries and including a craniotomy. He was able to return to work 2 years later but went back on Long Term Disability 2 years later as the effects still seemed to be perceived as having an impact on his work. Andrew has had an interesting journey of his own. Check out his website at www.mentalfloss.ca & join us for some cool surprises!

Robert Fraser, Ph.D is a professor in the University of Washington’s Dept of Rehabilitation Medicine, jointly with the Departments of Neuro Surgery, Neurology, and consultant to the Social Security Admin. Dr. Fraser is a certified rehab counselor & life care planner. He directs Neurological Vocational Services within Rehab Medicine, specializing in brain injury, epilepsy and MS. He has co-authored numerous articles and four text books to include TBI Rehabilitation.

My guest tonight is Ian R. Elliot. On May 16 1994, Ian fell asleep at the wheel going 80mph and woke up over three weeks later, in a Billings Hospital, with a major traumatic brain injury. He has since dedicated his life to thriving, not just surviving. Now helping others to do the same.

Ian is a trained rehabilitation counselor and often utilizes the arts as an empowering tool for persons with disabilities either directly or indirectly. Another treatment he’s been offering with optimistic success, is hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT). Ian is past President of the Brain Injury Association of Montana, and is currently serving as a board member of the Brain Injury Alliance of Montana. He is also on the Governor’s TBI Advisory Council, and spent six and a half years as Montana’s TBI Project Coordinator.