Our leaders are passionate about providing healthcare equity and access to heart transplant recipients who simultaneously suffered heart failure and financial distress, and about maximizing their financial, physical, and emotional well-being as they begin their second chances at life. Everyone volunteers their time.
Denise Redeker, Founder & Executive Director
I received my new heart, my second chance at life, in January 2018. Once I recovered, I knew that I wanted to give back in some way to the transplant community that has helped me so much. I began volunteering with Donor Network West, my local Organ Procurement Organization and found a niche that I could fill there in educating the public about the benefits of organ donation and transplant. But it wasn’t until September of 2019 that I found a way to help that was desperately needed, unfilled by anyone else, and possibly could save lives and certainly could improve recovery after a heart transplant. I learned of a patient whose transplant was being delayed due to his inability to pay for the post-transplant temporary recovery housing near the hospital that his doctors would require for at least a month. This is unaffordably expensive for many families after a transplant in a San Francisco Bay Area hospital. I knew that something as solvable as money shouldn’t delay someone’s second chance at life, especially since I knew that many people die while waiting for a matching organ. I enlisted friends and hosted a fundraiser in my own backyard raising $12,000 to help him. Later, a father told me that his daughter recovered from her heart transplant in their car because he couldn’t afford recovery lodging in the same area. I myself quickly qualified for the lifesaving procedure and I benefitted from recovering in private lodging, instead of a communal environment, when I was weak and highly immune suppressed to prevent my body from rejecting my new heart. I want others to have the same experiences. I wondered how financially challenged patients could have the same. That is why in early 2020 I formed Heartfelt Help Foundation. I’m so grateful for my second chance and feel obligated to make it count in ways that give back to the transplant community – that no one asks to be a member of, but all of us appreciate.
Read more about Denise’s story here.
Jim Redeker, Finance Director & Corporate Secretary
Jim is second of the three co-founders. He crafts HHF’s strategy, focus, grant writing, financial operations, administration, and website. He retired as a Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Forensic Interviewer from a career in financial crimes investigations, legal compliance and business ethics, and auditing in insurance, utilities, and banking.
Matthew Redeker, Director
Matthew is the third co-founder and helps to guide HHF’s strategy and operations. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and works full time as Sr. Vice President of Corporate Development for an international real estate software business.
Brady Shaw, RN, CCRN
Brady found a passion for organ transplant patients when he worked as a cardiothoracic and transplant intensive care nurse and learned remarkable life stories and outcomes. He has a personal connection to heart transplant in that his young cousin passed while waiting for a suitable organ. Brady currently works for a transplant-focused medical device company. He serves HHF by fundraising, educating the public about medical and financial needs of transplant patients, and following up with people we supported to learn their outcomes.
Amanda Schmier
Amanda is a professional event planner who previously served the Foundation as a Director for a few years. She now creates our graphic designs, social media, and event information which are key to our brand and our non-grant fundraising.
Susan Bales
Susan has advocated for organ donation and transplant patients since the all-night vigil in the hospital during Denise’s surgery. A retired educator, small business owner, and winemaker, she edits our many internal and public documents and does follow up with people we supported to learn their outcomes.
Francisco Jaramillo
Francisco is a two-time Emmy award-winning television producer who edits the testimonial videos that patients themselves record for HHF’s website.
Time, Talent, and Tenacity: Seeking additional Directors and Specialists
Would you consider helping us maintain the momentum, grow and polish our operation, and provide for recovering patients who need your help?
We seek additions to the Board of Directors: people to guide, decide, and be responsible for the important issues in operating a nonprofit of our size and future, and who dig-in to the small tasks that make it happen. We also seek specialists with skills applicable to fundraising, mentoring, researching and interviewing and writing (journalism), editing video and audio, negotiating with vendors (hotels and landlords), applying for grants, accounting/bookkeeping, maintaining and updating a website, promoting via social media, and maintaining databases.
If you have time, talent, and tenacity to spare and share, we’d love to hear from you!