Executive Team

Brecken Chinn Swartz, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Brecken Chinn Swartz, Ph.D., has served as the Executive Director of HandReach since its founding in 2002. With an academic and professional career in communication, international affairs, and educational development, her dream is to bring the best hands in the world together to address the devastating loss of human capital caused by untreated trauma injuries. Dr. Chinn Swartz finds her greatest inspiration in her adopted daughter Zhou Lin, who at age 11 survived an explosion that nearly cost her legs and hands. Zhou Lin, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, has now fully recovered and assists with HandReach's work in China.

Qi McIntosh

China Program Director

Born and raised in Beijing China, Qi has built a successful software development career with companies such as DEC, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. Calling Massachusetts home for the past 13 years, Qi considers herself a lucky wife and mother and, through her deep dedication to HandReach, strives to pass on her good fortune by enriching the life of wounded children.

Laura Smith

Program Coordinator

Sharing a deep commitment to growth, healing and transformation, art educator Laura Smith facilitates artistic processes with communities and individuals. Having spent three years working with communities in Central America, Laura is currently working on a Masters degree in Expressive Therapies at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Serving also as HandReach's Program Coordinator, Laura is looking forward to gaining a new perspective about the impact that drumming, the expressive arts, and holistic approaches in a clinical setting can have on healing and resilience.

George Goodwin

Research Coordinator

After graduating from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science, George went to Japan for work as an English teacher, during which time he was hit by a drunk driver and his car engulfed in flames, resulting in months of burn treatment and reconstruction in Japan. George returned to the United States in 2006, and since 2007 has been a graduate student in Public Health at the University of Nevada. George says, "Having been through the process of surviving burns over 60 percent of my body, I can say that I am intimately familiar with the process of burn recovery, and that it is anything but easy. I'm happy to offer support, information, or help as I can to anyone who has been though a similar situation." George volunteers as HandReach's Research Coordinator, linking the organization with burn prevention and treatment efforts across the globe.

Jeanne Harran

Web Developer

As the newest edition to the team, Jeanne is working to effectively communicate HandReach's mission and goals on the organization's website. She completed her Bachelor's of Industrial Design from Syracuse University in 2009; focusing her thesis work on understanding the challenges that people with disabilities face everyday living in an able bodied society.

Mimi Mao

Project Assistant

Mimi is a Chinese graduate student from Ohio University. She has a Master's degree in International Developmental Studies, for which she worked on a project proposing to help children with disabilities in China. She is currently studying for a second Master's degree in Economics, while serving as HandReach's Program Assistant taking care of patients and project work both in the United States and China.

Martin Isaac

Beat Brigade Director - Boston

Martin Isaac spent his early childhood years on the Caribbean island of Montserrat where he was submersed and entranced by the steel drum rhythms. That love has stuck with him throughout his life; he has studied hand drumming, world rhythms, and instruments, including the Gyil (a Ghanaian Xylophone), from masters all over the world. A Massachusetts certified early childhood educator, Martin has been working with children for over a decade. He has a strong background in event facilitation, program management, and curriculum creation. He brings his love for music and fun wherever he goes to embody a present day "Pied Piper!"

Outreach Team

Judy Gu

Born in China and raised in Toronto, Judy currently lives in Qingdao, a city on the coast of Eastern China, and is a student at the International School of Qingdao. She has been actively involved in supporting non-profit organizations around the world since 2007, and has a strong passion for helping those in need. She hopes that she can use her love for writing and photography, along with her bilingual skills, to help HandReach share its identity and mission internationally.

Jolene "Zhou Lin" Chinn Swartz

Jolene is currently a student at Dean College, majoring in Arts Management. She served as the original inspiration for HandReach to launch its Children's Healing Initiative and focus its mission on burn and trauma care through her inspiring journey of recovery from her own burn injury, which she sustained in a kerosene explosion at age 11, affecting the lower 55% of her body. A gifted graphic designer and master of bookkeeping, Jolene has chosen to dedicate her volunteer efforts to HandReach through accounting and donor relations, hoping to enhance her ability to further nonprofit efforts benefitting other young burn survivors worldwide.

Kristen Yeung

Communications Intern

Kristen Yeung is the outreach coordinator for HandReach at the University of Maryland. She is a journalism student at the University of Maryland College Park (Class of 2013) and a contributing writer for Girls' Life magazine.

Julian Thake

Julian is a retired schools administrator and who spent the greater part of his career arranging education for kids with all kinds of special needs. He believes very strongly that we are all part of one another, and helping HandReach is a great way of putting that belief into practice

Board of Directors

Lorna Hayward

Li Li

Vanessa Vega

Steven McIntosh

Monica Pessina

Jessica Hagerman

Geri McEachern

Brock McConkey

Board President

Board Vice President

Board Secretary

Board Treasurer

Rehabilitation Committee

Psychosocial Committee

Nursing Committee

Orthopedic Committee

Board of Advisors

C. Scott Hultman, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S.

J. Alan Chambers, M.D.

Robert Sheridan, M.D.

Steven Gardner, M.D.

Robert Schneider, O.T.R./L, C.H.T.

Suzanne Curley, O.T.R./L, C.H.T.

Gleeson Rebello, M.D.

Li Li, C.P.T.

Lorna Hayward, EdD., MPH, C.P.T.

Ann Charrette, PT, DPT, MS, PCS

Monica Pessina, Ph.D., MEd., OTR

Brock McConkey, C.P.O.

UNC Chapel Hill

Mass General Hospital

Shriners Hospital for Children

Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital

Bethesda Hand Rehabilitation

Mass General Hospital

Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital

Northeastern University

MCPHS

Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital

Shriners Orthopedic Hospital