The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Maryland/Southern Delaware Chapter is proud to announce its 2019 Board of Directors and Campaign Chair for the organization’s Take Steps Walk – the nation’s largest fundraising walk dedicated to finding cures for digestive diseases taking place in Maryland on Saturday, June 8, 2019 at Canton Waterfront Park in Baltimore.

The Board of Directors will be led by Board President Jenn Johnston. Johnston, who lives in Ellicott City, is Chief Operations Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for Global Franchise Group, the franchisor of popular Quick Service Restaurant brands Great American Cookies®, Marble Slab Creamery®/MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream & Treatery®, Pretzelmaker®, Hot Dog on a Stick® and Round Table Pizza®. She is a fundraising powerhouse and former Chair of the Board of Trustees for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Maryland Chapter and an active member of LLS’ Light the Night Walk in Atlanta and GFG’s corporate campaign raising almost $3 million. Her personal impact is over half a million dollars for LLS. Johnston is volunteering her fundraising and leadership talents to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation because she knows several people affected by digestive diseases and believes there is hope for a cure. Other Board Members include Paul Azoulay (IBM), Ray Wittelsberger (CPC Worldwide), Dr. Shari Kohn (Dentistry for Kids), Tom Warzinski (McCormick & Company), Benjamin Mobley (PNC Wealth Management), Patty McCormick Klein (Great Horn Financial), Shakira Garcia (Horseshoe Casino), William Herrfeldt (Venable, LLP), Sally Shapiro-Gould (Northwest Chamber), Michele Nelson (Armada Global), Dr. Jonathan Efron (Johns Hopkins Medicine), and Lisa Rogers (4K Foundation).

“I couldn’t be more thrilled and excited about our new Board and campaign leadership. To have esteemed corporate leaders willing to lend their support, experience, and reputations to our cause – to find a cure for inflammatory bowel diseases – puts us in great position to create more awareness and raise much needed funds in 2019,” said Chrissy M. Thornton, Maryland/Southern Delaware Chapter’s Executive Director.

Chairing the annual Crohn’s & Colitis Take Steps Walk is Mike Finkel. Finkel, a resident of Columbia, is the CEO of Sparksoft, a healthcare IT software development company. For the past 20 years, he has made it his personal mission to fix the challenges faced by healthcare professionals and make it easier for them to provide the best possible service to their patients. Mike and his family have been personally effected with Crohn’s Disease as he has a 12 year old son diagnosed with the disease. Mike, along with the Sparksoft family, participated in Take Steps 2018 raising the highest dollar amount of donations amongst all teams. He is looking forward to an even larger turnout of participation and donations for Take Steps 2019 and raising awareness for a cause that is of great importance to him personally.

The 2019 Take Steps Baltimore Walk will take place at 4 p.m. on June 8 at the Canton Waterfront Park in Baltimore. This year’s goal is to raise $200,000 to help the Foundation remain in the forefront of IBD research and to provide support and resources to the approximate 3.1 million Americans currently living with IBD. Local sponsors include Johns Hopkins Medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center, McCormick & Co., BGE, Venable LLP, and PNC Bank.

About the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation

The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to finding the cures for Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, and to improving the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases. It was founded in 1967 by Irwin M. and Suzanne Rosenthal, William D. and Shelby Modell, and Henry D. Janowitz, M.D. Since our founding nearly five decades ago, the Foundation has remained at the forefront of research in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Today, we fund cutting-edge studies at major medical institutions, nurture investigators at the early stages of their careers, and finance underdeveloped areas of research. In addition, our professional education workshops and programs, along with our scientific journal, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, enable medical professionals to keep pace with this rapidly growing field. We are very proud that the National Institutes of Health has commended us for "uniting the research community and strengthening IBD research." Beyond research, the Foundation is collaborating with healthcare providers to improve IBD quality of care, as well as educating, supporting, and empowering patients and their caregivers through patient-centric education and advocacy programs. www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org