Meet Your COPD Foundation Captains!

COPD Foundation Captains are volunteers with COPD, caregivers, friends and family members or healthcare providers who use their contacts and talents and partner with the COPD Foundation to serve as state and community leaders.

Captains promote the importance of becoming a part of the COPD community. They work to spread COPD awareness in their state and local areas, mentor fellow COPD community members, and participate in online and in-person grassroots advocacy and community building activities focused on health policy issues that are important to those who have COPD. If you are interested in joining our group of volunteers, click here.

If you'd like to speak with a COPD Foundation Captain directly, please email statecaptains@copdfoundation.org and we will connect you with the Captain in your area of interest.


Jean Rommes

Jean Rommes Profile Photo Des Moines, Iowa


As State Captain I hope to represent the Foundation well as a patient advocate with every group involved with COPD. Education regarding COPD and how to live well with it is extremely important to patients; education for health professionals regarding the experience and burden of living with COPD is critical to providing complete health care; and educating the public regarding air quality, tobacco cessation, and genetics is critical to gaining acceptance and support for good public policy in regard to health in general and COPD in particular. I want to be able to help in educating all those groups.

Awards:

  • Opal Fagle Award from the Iowa Lung Association 2012
  • Edna Shattuck Advocacy Award COPD Foundation 2019

My advocacy work includes:

  • Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee to the COPD Foundation, 2016 to present
  • Primary patient Investigator for RELIANCE
  • Member Planning Committee for COPD10
  • Member Planning Committee for Readmissions 2017 in Connecticut
  • Member CBQC COPD Assessment Tool
  • Member Pulmonary Clinical Research Group 2016-2019
  • EFFORTS Board 2008 to present
  • Iowa Lung Association Board of Directors
  • Planning committee for Lung Force Expo for both Iowa and Nebraska

Presented at numerous conferences:

  • COPD10 in Birmingham, England
  • COPD8
  • Iowa Lung Force Expo 2009 – present
  • Nebraska Lung Force Expo 2016 – present
  • American Thoracic Society 2019.

All presentations focus on some aspect of life as a person with COPD.

Publications:

 



COPD Foundation State Captain Program Informational Video

The COPD Foundation is looking for new State Captains to join our community to be champions for promoting COPD awareness, improving quality of life for those with COPD, to participate in research opportunities, policy, and much more. Email statecaptains@copdfoundation.org for questions and to start the onboarding process today!