About Us | Leadership
Staff
Our Staff
Our office is staffed by full and part time employees and many, many volunteers who help both in the office and behind the scenes at our special events. Read more about our staff and email them with any questions. Some of our part time employees are not in the office everyday, but they’ll respond as soon as they can. We look forward to hearing from you!
Marci Kuttler Bossow Schankweiler (say that 5 times fast) is currently Founder and CEO of For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation, which she started with her late husband, Peter R. Bossow, in 1999. In her tenure as President, Marci, with her team of employees, volunteers and colleagues, has solicited funds to support the organization’s goal of providing respite experiences to adult cancer patients and their caregivers. Thousands have benefited from the life-altering services that FPS offers.
Marci’s level of energy and enthusiasm leads many to question if she is, in fact, a human being. Her staff is fairly sure that she knows a secret and has found a way to inject more than 24 hours into each of her days.
Before the inception of FPS, Marci practiced law in the Philadelphia firm of Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman and Goggin and at the Law Office of Thaddeus Mikulski in Trenton, NJ. Yes, you read that correctly. She left a lucrative career in law in order to give her time, talent and money to FPS. She has never regretted the decision, but becomes nervous when she thinks about ways to fund her daughters’ college careers.
She is active in her local community and can often be found at her family’s bakery business in Sea Isle City, NJ and Doylestown, PA. She was an adjunct professor in the Communications Department of LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA and in the College of Business from The College of New Jersey. Marci is an alumna of Mt. St. Joseph Academy and pursued a teaching degree in Mathematics from LaSalle University, where she later became an honorary brother of the Sigma Phi Lambda Fraternity and enjoyed rowing on the crew team. She attended Temple University Law School and completed her law degree in 1995. She later received an LLM in Taxation in May, 1998, also from Temple University Law School.
Marci was raised in Doylestown, PA and is the oldest of nine children. Marci’s siblings and their spouses are always on hand to fund the majority of FPS’s live and silent auctions – with only minor pleading from Marci. Marci has remarried. She currently resides in North Wales, PA, with her husband, Mark (a man with great and unrelenting patience), and their two daughters, Maura Grace and Rose Marie, who are both honorary FPS staff members.
FPS is Marci’s passion and she enjoys spreading this passion wherever she goes! Today, she enjoys sharing her story and the many entrepreneurial lessons she has learned in her presentation, Pause on Purpose.
Cristine is our Director of Annual Giving. She has over 20 years of experience serving the nonprofit healthcare community in various fundraising and community program roles as an employee and volunteer. She finds that discovering and utilizing other’s strengths is vital to creating impactful volunteer relationships and she loves helping donors connect their passions to fulfill the mission of FPS.
Carol is our Program Director. She has been a nurse in Oncology and Hospice for many years in Bucks County and finds enjoyment in caring for others. Carol has been married to her high school sweetheart, Tom, for over 30 years and has the “Schwind Gang” of 5 children who keep her quite busy when not with us!
Pam is our Mission Coordinator. Pam is a coal miner’s daughter and is originally from the small western Pennsylvania town of Dayton (It is south of Punxsutawney Phil’s home).
Pam graduated high school with a class size of 57, and enrolled at Penn State University, Main Campus. She graduated Penn State with a degree in Economics, and worked in her field for the first half of her career serving the needs of Penn State, the Borough of Norristown and the Borough of Doylestown in the fields of economic development and grant writing. She then had the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom for her daughters and became a full time volunteer for her church and her daughters’ school, serving on both the Pastoral Council and the Home and School Board. Most recently Pam served as the school secretary at St. Rose of Lima. Pam strives to attend to the needs of our Program Department and office with a smile. Pam’s family includes her husband Bob (who she met on Valentine’s Day in Patee Library at PSU), two adult daughters, Bridget and Christine, and her bulldog, Ernie. Pam and her family enjoy traveling by motor home and have had the chance to visit many sights – Key West to Acadia, Yosemite National Park to Walt Disney World. She also enjoys cooking and baking for her family and friends.
Donna is our Mission Support and her passion for serving others started while caring for grandparents in her childhood home. Her engaging personality enables Donna to naturally develop relationships with volunteers, travelers and supporters of the FPS community. Donna’s favorite vacation memories are the times away with family at the beach – always filled with lots of laughter, action and adventure!
Tricia is a Program Coordinator and has been an oncology nurse for 35 years. She has worked in inpatient and outpatient settings as well as an oncology nurse navigator in Philadelphia, Maryland and North Carolina. She and her husband have two grown children. She loves spending time at the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Mariann is a Program Coordinator, a native of Philadelphia, which is where her tough streak comes from, and has been a Registered Nurse for 40 years. She received her R.N. from Fitzgerald-Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, and her B.S. in Psychology from Philadelphia University. She has held a variety of nursing and nursing management positions at Holy Redeemer Health Care System, the University of Washington at Seattle, Oxford Hospital in Philadelphia, and at Fox Rehabilitation Center.
Mariann and her husband, Herb, were the successful proprietors of MaryAnn Pastry Shoppe with locations in Doylestown, Pa, and Sea Isle City, NJ. She is a favorite in the FPS office due to her frequent contributions of powdered donuts, cinnamon buns and other decadent pastries. Mariann and Herb are the parents of nine children (including Founder/President, Marci Schankweiler) and reside in Doylestown and Sea Isle City. She is active in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Doylestown, and St. Joseph’s Church in Sea Isle City.
Julia Neff is our Marketing and Design Associate! If you see her at her desk scrolling on Instagram, we promise she’s working. “Neff” is a recent graduate from Arcadia University, and calls South Jersey home. Neff was the camp director for a non-profit in Camden, NJ for five summers, and it was there that she fell in love with doing work that is meaningful.
Neff loves to adventure, from international travel to local hikes. She also has a cat named Rusty and about 30 plants!
Emma is your go-to for our For Pete’s Sake Walk! and Annual Peter R. Bossow Jr. Memorial Golf Tournament. She is a 2022 Loyola University Maryland graduate with a Marketing BA. Emma has spent time volunteering for FPS and many other non-profits as she is passionate about community and a chance to impact others positively. After graduation from Loyola, Emma gained marketing experience locally in Norristown, PA, before she flew to Big Sky, Montana, for a summer to work in hospitality and explore the mountains.
Emma is always up for an adventure, especially if it means she can spend time with her family and friends. She loves country music and training for marathons. In the summer, you can find her on the beach in Ocean City, NJ, and during the winter, you can find her on the ski slopes.
Alison has been working as a fundraising professional for over 20 years in various areas including annual giving, alumni relations, major gifts and volunteer management. She has since focused her career on database management, using her experience in all development positions to achieve goals effectively.
Alison grew up in Montreal, PQ Canada and moved to Ontario where she attended high school followed by Western University where she graduated with a BA in English. In 2011, her husband was moved to Attleboro, Massachusetts where they now raise their two children, Jayin and Diya and two dogs Kali and Lucy.
Being a Canadian native, her kids are avid hockey players and play on more teams than she cares to share! On the off season (which is really never – hockey never ends) it’s onto lacrosse and golf. When you can’t find her at the rink or the road driving her kids around living their best life, she is thawing out at any beach or lake she can find.
Her favorite memories are times spent boating, playing pickleball and fishing with her huge extended family on Fawn Island in the St. Clair River between Sombra, Ontario and Marine City, Michigan.
As an Respite Recipient herself, Nicole knows firsthand how amazing the FPS Community is! Nicole and her husband, Jay, have 2 sons, 2 daughters, and 1 son-in-law, a very spoiled and sassy English Bulldog, and two guinea pigs. They love to go camping during the spring and fall. Her favorite memory is seeing her sons having the time of their lives while on FPS Respite at Woodloch!
Amber Mercado, Foundation Relationships and Grants Manager, has been with FPS since August 2006. She is a graduate of La Salle University just like Marci and Pete.
She spends her leisure time singing “Wheels on the Bus” to her three young boys, napping, and reading really intellectual books. She is completely selfless except when it comes to sushi.
