Don Fry

Don Fry

Don Fry, an independent writing coach, has taught more than 10,000 authors to write faster, clearer, and with less agony. He also helps editors edit better, and managers organize better. Don has had two careers, first as an English professor at the University of Virginia and at Stony Brook University, and then in journalism. He headed the writing and ethics faculties at the Poynter Institute, and edited the Institute’s series “Best Newspaper Writing.” Roy Peter Clark and Don, friends for 40 years, collaborated on “Coaching Writers.”

In 1994, Don became an independent writing coach, working with newspapers and technical magazines, radio and television stations, and non-profit organizations. He has spread the techniques of coaching throughout the world, especially in Singapore, Scandinavia, and South Africa. He helped create the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg.

Don recently published “Writing Your Way: Creating a Writing Process That Works for You (Cincinnati: Writers Digest, 2012). This book shows professional writers how to develop their own collection of techniques appropriate to the way they think, rather than following the methods of their teachers, which may not work for them. The second half shows how to create your own writing voice.

For fun, Don creates mechanical sculptures in wood and metal that make viewers rethink classic stories. Don writes fiction for his own amusement, mostly about World War II. His second novel concerns a newspaper that attempts to solve its management problems by hiring a hit man.

Patricia M. SmithTreasurer

Patricia M. Smith

Treasurer

Patricia Smith is a licensed California CPA who has a tax practice in San Diego. She has been in the business as a sole-practitioner for over 30 years. Her medium-sized practice deals with personal, business, corporations, trusts, and nonprofit entities through tax preparations, consulting and representation before the IRS.

Pat has served on many boards of director, particularly in the nonprofit field. Her first position was as the treasurer of Able-Disabled Advocacy, Inc., then in the same position for the National Sleep Foundation. In addition she served has a director for New Entra Casa, Project Wildlife and InquireFirst.

Over the years, Pat has taught federal income tax classes at the University of California, San Diego, for students seeking credentials as Certified Financial Planners. She lectures at numerous professional luncheons. Pat participated in one of the first seminars for “Women’s Opportunity Week” in San Diego.

After recently undergoing cataract surgery on both eyes, Pat can indulge in one of her favorite pastimes, reading for pleasure. Her tastes are rather eclectic including historical novels, mysteries, science fiction and popular fiction. Another favorite is teen literature acquired from her years as a middle school teacher.

Rosemary Gibson

Public Appearances

Rosemary Gibson is principal author with Janardan Prasad Singh of the critically acclaimed book, “Wall of Silence,” which tells the untold human story behind medical errors, and also “The Treatment Trap,” which tells the public what health care insiders know about the extensive overuse of unnecessary surgeries, CT scans and other procedures and tests. Rosemary Gibson is a national leader in health care quality and safety and a Section Editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine “Less is More” series. She is principal author of The Battle Over Health Care: What Obama’s Reform Means for America’s Future, a non-partisan analysis of the impact of health care on the nation’s economy.

Rosemary Gibson

Rosemary Gibson is Senior Advisor at The Hastings Center, founding editor for Less is More narratives in JAMA Internal Medicine, and author of “Medicare Meltdown” (2013), “Battle Over Health Care” (2012), “Treatment Trap” (2010) and “Wall of Silence” (2003).

She is the 2014 recipient of the highest honor from the American Medical Writers Association for her contributions to the field of medical communication. Her writing gives voice to the public’s interest in critical health care issues of the day.

She is a board member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and serves on the CLER Evaluation Committee to advance safety in sponsoring institutions.

At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Rosemary was chief architect of its $200 million national strategy to establish inpatient palliative care programs that now number 1600, an increase from about 10 in the 1990s. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She worked with Bill Moyers on the PBS documentary, “On Our Own Terms.”

Rosemary led national quality and safety initiatives in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Pursuing Perfection, Transforming Care at the Bedside, and Rapid Response System Implementation.

She is a public member of the American Board of Medical Specialties Health and Public Policy Committee and Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. She served on the AHRQ Technical Expert Panel for Consumer Reporting of Adverse Events.

Rosemary has given presentations and grand rounds on patient safety at hundreds of hospitals; keynoted meetings of the National Quality Forum, The Joint Commission, National Board of Medical Examiners, American Academy of Otolaryngology, AONE, National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Federation of State Medical Boards, National Summit on Overuse held by The Joint Commission and AMA, Society of Critical Care Medicine, among others. She has been faculty for the Dartmouth Summer Symposium on Quality Improvement and was its 2013 “wizard.”

She speaks to public audiences at the New York Public Library, the AARP National Convention, George Mason University; legislators at the National Council of State Legislators; Women’s National Democratic Club, Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, Maine Quality Counts, Maine Area Agencies on Aging, among others.

Her books have been reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Washington Post, JAMA, Health Affairs; referenced in proceedings of the U.S. Senate; mentioned in Congressional testimony; noted in the WSJ, NYT, USA Today, Consumer Reports, and Boston Globe, O Magazine, Reader’s Digest, US News and World Report. “Wall of Silence” was translated into Japanese; the Chinese translation of Treatment Trap won the prestigious Open Book Award from China Times. Rosemary has appeared on Chicago Tonight, WBGH’s Greater Boston, Fox News, The Doctors, C-Span Book TV.

Rosemary graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University and has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics

Published Work

Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical Mistakes that Kill and Injure Millions of Americans
“A call to arms for families who have had loved ones disabled or die in the pursuit of medical treatment.” Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter

The Treatment Trap: How the Overuse of Medical Care is Wrecking Your Health and What You Can Do to Prevent It
By Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh
“This is a ‘buyer beware’ book for prospective medical care consumers. The examples of patient harm are individually important: together they create a tapestry of practice patterns that should give you the courage to constructively challenge the recommendations you get from your doctor.” Paul O’Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary

The Battle Over Health Care: What Obama’s Reform Means for America’s Future
“Published just several months before the Supreme Court upheld most of the Affordable Care Act, Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh’s new book, The Battle over Health Care: What Obama’s Reform Means for America’s Future, paints a picture of a law that, as far as they are concerned, might not have been worth saving.” HealthAffairs

Patricia M. Smith

Patricia M. Smith


Patricia Smith is a licensed California CPA who has a tax practice in San Diego. She has been in the business as a sole-practitioner for over 30 years. Her medium-sized practice deals with personal, business, corporations, trusts, and nonprofit entities through tax preparations, consulting and representation before the IRS.

Pat has served on many boards of director, particularly in the nonprofit field. Her first position was as the treasurer of Able-Disabled Advocacy, Inc., then in the same position for the National Sleep Foundation. In addition she served has a director for New Entra Casa, Project Wildlife and InquireFirst.

Over the years, Pat has taught federal income tax classes at the University of California, San Diego, for students seeking credentials as Certified Financial Planners. She lectures at numerous professional luncheons. Pat participated in one of the first seminars for “Women’s Opportunity Week” in San Diego.

After recently undergoing cataract surgery on both eyes, Pat can indulge in one of her favorite pastimes, reading for pleasure. Her tastes are rather eclectic including historical novels, mysteries, science fiction and popular fiction. Another favorite is teen literature acquired from her years as a middle school teacher.