About Us
Tyrosinemia Society, Inc. Officers
Leading the Way
Officers of the corporation are governed by an administrative board of directors and perform the day to day operations of the non-profit corporation.
Dr. Elizabeth Barnby,
DNP, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, CRNP
President and Treasurer
Dr. Elizabeth Barnby was not always a doctor of nursing practice, first she was the wife of Stuart Barnby and the mother of three children. It was her experience of raising two children with Tyrosinemia that inspired her to continue her education, especially regarding Tyrosinemia. Her children are now all adults, so she wishes to volunteer her time to the Tyrosinemia Society, Inc. When not volunteering her time with TS, Inc. she works as a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) teaching in both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Dr. Barnby also practices in a primary care clinic near her home in Meridianville, Alabama as a nurse practitioner. The clinic is called "The Doctor's Office". Dr. Barnby also enjoys doing research with other professors at UAH and other research institutions regarding Tyrosinemia and other genetic disorders. She has published approximately nine manuscripts and has three articles in print regarding Tyrosinemia. She is presently working with Dr. Baudry and Dr. Gordon MacGregor and hopes to publish new findings regarding Tyrosinemia soon. Dr. Barnby does not receive any funding for research from Tyrosinemia Society, Inc. Most of the research funding she has received have been small internal grants from the University in which she teaches. She is grateful for the support of all of her peers at UAH. Dr. Barnby was recently invited to join the Society of Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD), and she hopes to contribute to the Society as a Nurse Clinician, Researcher, and Advocate.
Tyrosinemia Society, Inc. Board of Directors
Committed to the Cause
Dr. Kader Frendi
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Kader Frendi obtained his graduate degrees in applied mathematics and mechanical engineering from Brown University. After graduate school, Dr. Frendi spent one year at Northeastern University in Boston as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. In the fall of 1990, he joined NASA Langley Research Center as a research contractor in the Structural Acoustics Branch. During his years at NASA Langley, Dr. Frendi supported several key programs starting from the basic research program to the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) program and the Hyper-X program (also known also as X-43A). Dr. Frendi made key contributions to these programs and his work was published in well-known journals.
In the fall of 1999, Dr. Frendi joined the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at The University of Alabama in Huntsville as an Associate Professor. Dr. Frendi built a vibrant research program in Computational Fluid Dynamics and more specifically in Unsteady Flows and Acoustics. Dr. Frendi attracted funding for his research from various NASA centers and the DoD to support his graduate students. Dr. Frendi built a transmission loss facility capable of testing acoustic transmission through aircraft type panel and measuring acoustic signatures from MAVS.
Dr. Frendi is a recipient of the UAH Foundation Award for Research and Creative Achievement, 2004, and the College of Engineering Distinguished Senior Faculty Award, 2016. Dr. Frendi served as Chairman of the MAE Department for three years, December 2007 to December 2010. Dr. Frendi is a Fellow of ASME, an Associate Fellow of AIAA and an Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power.
Tyrosinemia Society, Inc. Medical/Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Darlene Showalter
Darlene Showalter, DNP, RN, CNS Medical/Scientific Advisory Board Chair
Darlene Showalter became a registered nurse in 1986. Since then, she has practiced in oncology, school health, and all areas of women’s health. Her clinical positions include Staff Nurse, Charge Nurse, and Clinical Nurse Specialist in a large teaching hospital. Darlene has been in academia for 20 years and has expertise not only in didactic and clinical teaching, but in project management, curriculum design, and outcomes tracking. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of a Concept based curriculum for an undergraduate baccalaureate nursing program. She has presented at conferences ranging from state level to international level on topics such as Clinical Simulations, Care of the Client with Limited English Proficiency, and Care of the Critically Ill Client with HELLP Syndrome. She has published on clinical topics such as human lactation, telehealth, and high-fidelity clinical simulations. Dr. Showalter currently teaches at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. As a Clinical Associate Professor, she is lead faculty in the maternal-infant course where topics of inborn errors of metabolism are discussed. She also teaches undergraduate Health Assessment and Evidence-Based Practice for doctoral students. Her responsibilities include didactic teaching to large student audiences, clinical teaching and delivery of patient care, as well as on-line instruction. Dr. Showalter also serves as the Traditional BSN Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator at the UAH College of Nursing where she analyzes programmatic goals and outcomes data and works closely with faculty in devising and implanting new programs.