Founder and Editor:
                                                     
                    Maryann Spurgin, Ph.D.                                                             
                   
E-mail: MESocofAmerica@yahoo.com (E-mail messages are checked infrequently.)  

Board of Advisors:                                             

                    Raymond F. Colliton                          
                    Michael S. Allen, Ph.D.                                     
                    Joseph M. Cummins, DVM, Ph.D.
                    Donald L. Peters, J.D.

                   

Biography

FOUNDER/EDITOR

Maryann Spurgin, Ph.D.

                   Maryann Spurgin holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. As an undergraduate, she attended Georgetown University on a two-year program in Europe studying languages including classical Greek. She also attended the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of Madrid, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in languages from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  She worked as a writer and editor for a Tulane University magazine for one year before attending graduate school at the University of Texas, where she obtained both a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy, after which she taught philosophy at the University of New Orleans.

                Maryann came down with acute mononucleosis resulting in M.E. disease on March 2, 1982, during her second year of graduate school.  She stopped teaching in 1987 and spent her time reading philosophy of science and medicine. She subsequently worked as a writer and has published over ten political and scientific-review articles on medical topics. Her article "Chronic Obfuscation," which reviewed Hillary Johnson's Osler's Web on corruption within government medical research, appeared in the magazine The Nation in 1996. For several years she edited the American M.E. Review, a research-review publication distributed by the M.E. Society of America (no longer in circulation). She also has written articles on medical politics for The Times in Shreveport, LA. Besides science and philosophy, her other interests include classics, politics, and the dramatic and musical arts.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Raymond F. Colliton
               Raymond F. Colliton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. Prior to becoming ill with ME/CFS in 1988, he had a career in systems administration for a Fortune 500 company, then went on to develop his own small business consulting firm. He has had extensive experience in pension plan and employee benefits plan design and management. Mr. Colliton is currently the managing owner of the Co-Cure Project, a large international information distribution e-mail list and Web site, both of which are devoted to science and advocacy issues surrounding ME/CFS and fibromyalgia.

Michael Stuart Allen, Ph.D.
                Michael Stuart Allen received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Queens College in New York City. He worked for twelve years as a clinical psychologist, and for ten years as a multi-media consultant.  Dr. Allen retired in 1991 after he became ill with M.E. disease. At that time, he was working on a biography of the well-known psychiatrist Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949), a project which Dr. Allen was unable to complete due to his illness.

Donald L. Peters, J.D.
               Donald L. Peters has an undergraduate degree in economics with a minor in philosophy from Rutgers University and a law degree from Georgetown University. Prior to retirement, he specialized in tax law. 

Joseph M. Cummins, DVM, Ph.D.
                Joseph M. Cummins graduated with a Ph.D. degree in microbiology from the University of Missouri in 1978. Dr. Cummins received his DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) degree from The Ohio State University in 1966. Dr. Cummins was on the faculties at the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University before founding Amarillo Biosciences, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company seeking FDA approval for an orally administered interferon alpha (IFNa). Dr. Cummins has 50 scientific publications and is the inventor on 14 issued US patents. His major scientific interest is the interactions of cytokines and the mucosal immune system. Dr. Cummins helped organize the special issue of the August 1999 issue of the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research devoted to oral IFNa.

 

DISCLAIMER:

                The M.E. Society of America was founded by Maryann Spurgin, Ph.D., who also wrote and continues to edit this Web site. Board members serve as occasional consultants only. Final editorial decisions regarding text and which articles to post and/or review are made by the Editor for which she assumes full and sole responsibility.  Text on this website was written and edited by Maryann Spurgin except where other authors are cited.  Each author is responsible for his or her own claims.

                Our materials may be reproduced by not-for-profit publications as long as nothing is cut or altered, copyright notices are included and items are attributed to the M.E. Society of America. They may be photocopied, distributed, and e-mailed, but not put on Web sites without permission. Anyone may, however, freely link to our Web site. We give permission to other M.E. groups to photocopy and distribute our materials to physicians and patients to facilitate access to research for those not on e-mail.  The M.E. Society of America does not dispense medical advice or recommend treatment, or physicians, and assumes no responsibility for treatments undertaken by readers of the American M.E. Review. We are a research-information and advocacy group only.