Acknowledgements
To my wonderful advisors, Tory Courtney, Ed.D., and Jerry Brunetti, Ph.D., for being willing to take on a difficult project and for being empathic, professional, articulate, and knowledgeable advisors.
To Tory for her encouragement, friendship, leadership, direction, and careful scrutiny and review of my drafts.
To Jerry for his pleasant oversight and thoughtful, critical analysis of the drafts.
To Dr. Rosemary Petersen, Ph.D., for teaching me the importance of the theoretical basis, and for giving me self-confidence several years ago when I really needed it.
To Nancy Baum, M.A., for her direction and encouragement.
To the Saint Mary’s Library staff. To Access Services librarian, Sharon Walters, for teaching me how to get on the Internet and other valuable research tips. To Velde Elliot and Pat Reitz for borrowing the intralibrary books in as inexpensive a fashion as possible.
To the Automated Computer Services staff, especially Nicola Reichert, for helping me to become computer literate.
To the School of Education Computer Lab staff. To Randy Vogel, M.A., for showing me Excel applications. To Tim Miller for his work on the brain illustration using Claris.
To the Sonoma County Library, Rincon Valley Branch, especially reference librarian, Linda Lindman, for helping me navigate Books In Print and other interesting library references. Thanks also to head librarian Jain Erla, Roger Harris, and Kay Rogers for their expertise and making my days at the library pleasant ones.
To neuropsychologist Dr. Howard Freedman for his comments regarding the first draft of my TBI Survivor Survey.
To psychologist Dr. Rebecca Partridge for reviewing the first draft of my TBI Survivor Survey.
To Dr. Candy Boyd and Dr. Lanna Andrews, talented program advisors, and to all of my professors at Saint Mary’s College. A bit of each one’s knowledge made it into my thesis in one form or another.
To Jane Rising for her laughter and cheerful attitude.
To the East Bay Head Injury and Peer Support Group, the Santa Clara Traumatic Brain Injury Model Project Support Group, and the Santa Rosa Head Trauma Support Group.
To Santa Clara Support Group coordinator, John Hatten, M.S. Ed, M.R.C., for being so enthusiastic about my project and life for TBI survivors.
To Gina Moreci, certified therapeutic recreation specialist, for sharing TBI information with me.
To survivor Kris Knudson, group facilitator, for sharing her memory system with me.
To Tim Nuveen for sharing his “Head Injury for Survivors.”
To Sonoma County Head Trauma Network President, Alan Schackman, for encouraging me regarding the thesis and inviting me to participate in the network.
Special thanks to pilot study participant, Diana Schmidt, M.A., for her insights regarding the survey.
To Shirley Nakano, M.A., for helping me envision the project several years ago.
To Alfred Hannenberg, M.B.A., for the excellent Excel tutorial.
To J.R. for all of the great computer tips.
To all of the survivors who took the survey. Thank you for sharing your experiences and opinions.
Special thanks to Mrs. Stephanie Taulsen for listening to it all and giving sound advice about it all.