Lorna Khawaja Learn from Everyone and Inspire Others to do the Same Company: No Wooden Nickels Location: Evanston, IL Website: www.nowoodennickels.org

Biography:
Lorna Khawaja s (née Childress) nickname growing up was teacher . Looking back over the years it s incredible to realize that no matter how much she tried to escape that tag, it was at it s core who she was. Every project she was involved in found her at some point on the teaching end of it.

Her career as a systems engineer for eighteen years gave her a solid technical background with some of the largest fortune 100 companies in the Chicago area. Then in 2000 when the dot com explosion hit her career went right with it. She struggled to find gainful employment that closely matched her field of expertise but with the state of the IT industry in flux it was next to impossible. She then went on to become a licensed insurance producer for the State of Illinois and placed property and casualty policies for several years but her heart was not in it.

While working at a large Chicago area hospital in 2002 and caring full time for her sick mother, Lorna learned that her father was also ill with prostate cancer. Drawing on her experience from performing insurance verifications for bone marrow patients she saw the difficulty they had in getting insurance company s approval for potentially life-saving procedures. She also had her own father s experiences to refer to and it then dawned upon her: if insured patients had this much of a problem what happens to the uninsured in America facing the same problems.

In February 2005 Lorna started the organization that is today No Wooden Nickels a non-profit charity dedicated to providing indirect expense assistance to low-income cancer patients while undergoing treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiation).

No Wooden Nickels business partners include the American Cancer Society and at present over 45 referral partners across the United States including high profile MD Anderson Cancer Center of Texas. Overseeing an organization which includes a board of directors of nine and 23 volunteers she is also responsible for its annual health fair for men now in its third year. The fair closely focuses on education, resources and screenings for those diseases facing the African American male in disproportionate numbers.

Lorna is a single-mom of one who is very passionate and dedicated in her fight to not only draw mainstream attention to this niche of americans in need but to also educate the African American community about the power of the non-profit world and its impact on our communities.

Availability:
Available to give presentations and lectures on starting a non-profit business, general health, health disparities and effects of cancer on minority populations.