About Us

This website is an information forum that covers a range of topics of interest to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia patients and their families. The site is patient-produced and patient-funded. It takes a patient-oriented point of view. We are particularly interested in new therapies and clinical trials. The articles presented in this site are intended to provide current, relevant  information as well as the writers' considered evaluation and discussion of that information. Much of the material concerns recent research at major cancer hospitals and other research institutions. The discussions are centered on abstracts and articles from research publications and scholarly journals from a number of countries. Links are provided to original sources of the research data wherever possible.

This website, CLLTopics.org, can be accessed by anybody with an Internet connection. It addresses a collection of topics that are of interest to those afflicted or affected by the disease, namely, CLL, its diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic options and future possibilities. The intent of this site is to educate, inform, and support its readers.

The authors of the articles on this website do have a variety of useful backgrounds and many of us are technically trained in non-medical fields. As a team, we have learned a great deal about the disease and its treatment through personal experience and the investment of a great deal of time and energy in investigating the disease and therapies for it. Our collective knowledge and experience may offer insights and guidance.  

Please do remember that the writers of the articles on CLLTopics.org are not medical professionals and do not provide medical advice or recommendations for treatment. Please consult and follow the advice of your own healthcare providers.

Our best wishes
for your
good health.

The
CLL Topics
Team

On December 16, 2024, CLL Topics announced the first patient-sponsored clinical trial in CLL. See the announcement on the Project Alpha page.

As of the same date we added a  Donations page which tells you how to send your contributions to help us in our work. If you think what we do is worthwhile, please do send us a contribution. Click the button below to visit our Donations page.

CLL Topics, Inc.

PO Box 168

Sedona, AZ 86339-0168

Copyright © 2024 to 2024. CLL Topics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Mr. William (Bill) W. Duffy II comes to CLL Topics with considerable experience as an administrator in the public sector. He is an expert on information and technology management. He has academic credentials in public administration (MPA, Harvard University) and political science (AB, Providence College, RI). Bill Duffy served in the US Army for 2 years, then 4 years as a Department of the Army civilian in Germany, before going on to serve in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Education, the White House (Executive Office of the President) and the United States Information Agency. His career has included private practice as a management consultant and diplomatic assignments overseas in Poland, Argentina and Uruguay. Retired from Federal Service, he is currently Director of Information Management for the Department of Social Services in Cecil County in MD. He has participated in a variety of community leadership roles throughout his career. Bill was diagnosed with CLL in August 2024. He is a resident of Pennsylvania, where he live with his wife of 20 years Jennifer, one child left at home and 2 in college.

Dr. Judith E. Fisher is an educator with a doctorate in instructional systems technology. For the past 25 years, Dr. Fisher has specialized in the  design and development of education and training materials for the adult learner. Dr. Fisher received her Ph.D. from the University of  Southern California after completing a B.A. in English and Speech from Marquette University and an M.A. in English from Central Missouri State University. She has worked with a large number of business clients on customized solutions for a range of training needs including marketing, communications, technical education and end user support. Her current endeavors include the development of graduate level courses for  web-based learning at the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida, where she now works. Dr. Fisher is the author of several  non-fiction texts. Two of her books have just been translated into Italian and published in Europe. Dr. Fisher received a National Endowment  for the Humanities Fellowship for advanced studies. She was appointed to Outstanding Educators of America, the Honorary Association for Women  in Education, and The Society of Delta Epsilon. She is currently a member of the eLearning Guild, and she is a frequent presenter at academic conferences and seminars. Judith was diagnosed with CLL in May 2024. She is a resident of Florida.

Mr. Loyd Keith Friedlander is an attorney who has been involved in the insurance industry. He is founder and president of Loyd Keith Friedlander Partners, a regional insurance agent/broker in the Northeast. He has a Doctor of Law degree from Emory University and a BA in English from the State University of New York in Buffalo. He was admitted to the Bar in New York State in 1983. His company, LKF Partners, is licensed in four states and specializes in developing and marketing property and casualty insurance programs for designated industries. The firm currently employs 19 and has sales exceeding $15,000,000 annually. LKF Partners is a premier provider of standard, creative and alternate risk management solutions to mid-size and larger businesses. Keith has professional memberships in a number of legal and insurance organizations. He and his wife Carmen live with their two children in Lloyd Harbor, New York. Keith’s mother was diagnosed with CLL in 1984.

Dr. Sherry  Gardner is a licensed clinical psychologist with a doctorate in psychology. Dr. Gardner has also worked as a newspaper reporter, registered nurse,  hospital epidemiologist, and faculty member at the McGaw Medical School at Northwestern University in Chicago. She has academic credentials in psychology (Doctor of Psychology, University of Denver),  epidemiology (graduate work at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University), a diploma in nursing (Evanston Hospital school of  nursing) and a BA in English Literature from Michigan State University. Sherry has a number of publications to her credit in the areas of  epidemiology and pediatric infectious diseases, and has received awards and certificates of merit from her hospital employers.  Sherry was diagnosed with CLL in 1999. She is a resident  of Colorado.

Dr. Robert Morgan is currently serving on active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army at Fort Knox, KY.  Dr. Morgan spent 6 years enlisted in the Navy working on the Naval Nuclear Power Program as a nuclear chemist. He received his BS degree while in the Navy from the University of the State of New York and received his Doctorate of Medicine from the Medical College of Georgia. He served 3 years in Germany as a general practitioner. His residency was in diagnostic radiology at Madigan Army Medical Center. Dr. Morgan now serves as the Assistant Chief of Radiology at Fort Knox. He was named Educator of the year in 2024 at Ireland Army Community Hospital at Fort Knox and received the Radiological Society of North America Resident Research Award. He will be retiring from the military next year and plans to go into private practice. Robert was diagnosed with CLL in December 2024.

Dr. Chaya Venkat, the founder of CLL Topics, is a scientist, engineer and educator. In her professional career she has taught undergraduate chemistry, spent years in the lab as a research scientist, worked as a petrochemical process engineer and as an intellectual property manager. She has twenty one petrochemical process patents in her name. Her academic qualifications include an interdisciplinary doctorate in chemistry and education from the University of Michigan, a BS and MS in chemistry from Madras University and the IIT, Madras, respectively, and an MS in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She retired in the year 2024 after 19 years of work at Mobil Oil involving a variety of assignments. In her final assignment as Senior Intellectual Property Manager, she negotiated license agreements with major oil and petrochemical companies worldwide and managed a sizable business portfolio. She has had a number of publications in petrochemical trade journals. She was a recipient of the 2024 Thomas Alva Edison award for industrial engineering for one of her patents. Since the summer of 2024 when her husband was diagnosed with CLL, she has invested her time and energy in reading the research literature on the disease, communicating with clinical research professionals and writing - indeed, since her retirement, CLL Topics has become her full-time, pro-bono job.

Mr. P. C. Venkat has a background as a commercial and investment banker. He has degrees in electrical engineering (B. Tech., IIT Madras) and business  administration (MBA, University of Michigan). His career in the financial services industry has spanned 27 years as an executive with such employers as Citigroup, BankAmerica and Wachovia, as well as periods as a consultant and independent investment banker. His transaction history includes a long list of merger and acquisition advisory and financing deals. His most recent professional assignment was as a turnaround specialist and crisis manager with Sales Support Services, a leading provider of outsourced business services. This exercise was concluded successfully in 2024 with the sale of the company. He was diagnosed with CLL in 2024. More recently he has invested his time in gaining web programming skills and coming up the learning curve on CLL. His current full-time, pro-bono vocation is as Publisher, Editor and Webmaster of CLL Topics. P. C. lives in Arizona with Chaya, his wife of 33 years and partner in CLL Topics.