Mentor Profile
by Juanita Sloss
I am a 40-year-old special education teacher. I have degrees in psychology and elementary education, with an endorsement in special education. I am an enrolled member of the Blackfoot tribe of Indians, Browning, Montana.
In 1989 I completed my M.Ed. in reading education. One of my main pursuits in education is finding and implementing different techniques to teach mathematics and science for kids, both regular education and for disabled kids. Throughout my life I have struggled with depression, low self esteem, people telling me that I'm not working up to my potential, living on the edge, looking for excitement, getting lost, getting in trouble for saying inappropriate things, addictions...you know the story, yet I'm really smart!! Anyway on January 30, 1996 I was diagnosed with severe hyperactivity and severe attention deficit disorder!!! Now I know what the solution is to my life and many of my students! Amazing, huh??
Currently, I am very interested in researching and developing a plan for transition services for Native American kids in rural areas. I'm also trying to find a good doc because I'm developing a RSI (repective stress injury). This explains my limited computer access lately.
Mentor Profile
by Paul A. Zaveruha, M.D.
- I'm an overweight 50 year-old guy with a beard, a wife (no beard), three kids (27, 25 and 15-year-olds---big gap there, eh?), one dog (mine), three cats (hers), too much cholesterol and a strange sense of humor.
- I am a surgeon in private practice on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound with a special interest in Trauma and Emergency Medical Services. I am on the Auxiliary Faculty in the Department of Surgery at University of Washington and previously was on active staff as assistant professor of Surgery at UW.
- I am currently in the extended degree program at UW trying to finish my thesis for the Master of Public Health degree in my spare time (that'll be grade 28 and I still can't spell).
- I have a long-standing membership in computer nerd-dom. I went through college using a slide rule (a what?), went on to a TRS-80 in 1978, an Apple-ll in 1982, the MacIntosh family through the rest of the 80's and still some now, the IBM and Windows world since 1990 and the Internet for the past 3 years.
- Six years in the Air Force. Only crashed and burned once (not recommended).
- Fly fishing is good (catch and release only).
- Why am I here? Computers + Medicine + Public Health + YOU (and a friend who may be a DO-IT kid next year).
- Other hobbies: Synchronized Swimming whenever the team (Burl Ives, Orson Wells, and Jackie Gleason) and I can get together.