Paul Fischerkeller, President

After Matthew Fischerkeller passed away from a congenital heart defect on April 14th, 2005, his father, Paul Fischerkeller, founded Rock For The Heart as a memorial to his son.  Paul is a native of Pittsburgh and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania under a partial athletic scholarship. Paul went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing. After college, Paul found himself in the highly competitive and intricate world of physician professional liability insurance. As a senior executive, Paul handled medical malpractice insurance sales, claims handling, analysis and investigation. Paul has worked for Fortune 100 companies and is currently the Assistant Vice President of Sales for a national Medical Malpractice Insurance firm. The firm provides professional liability and disability insurance to physicians all over the country. Paul’s work contacts lead him to the nation’s top pediatric cardiologists who now sit on the Physician Advisory Council for Rock For The Heart.

Kris Fischerkeller, Secretary

Kris is a native of Pittsburgh and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing. After college, Kris worked for Fortune 500 companies in the retail and insurance industries. Today, when she’s not fighting on her son Matthew’s behalf against pediatric heart disease, Kris is working as an elementary education aid at a local school.

Brian Lenart, Treasurer

Brian is a partner in the accounting firm, ParenteBeard, LLC. Brian supervises the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office professional tax practice and provides various compliance, consulting and value-added tax services to his clients.

During Brian’s extensive accounting career he has been employed as a Tax Senior Manager for two nationally recognized tax accounting firms. In these positions he managed and supervised tax assignments for manufacturing, professional service, financial service, healthcare, retail, distribution and nonprofit clients. In addition, he specialized in federal and state tax services for public and private clients, and provided outsourcing assistance for several clients by managing the entire tax function.
Brian earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from Duquesne University.

Brian is a member of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Association for Corporate Growth, and Financial Executives International. He currently serves on the board of directors for The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County and is a mentor through the Smart Futures Pennsylvania eMentoring program as well as the Duquesne University Accounting Program.

Brian is currently a participant in the firm’s leadership development program entitled LEAP (Leadership, Entrepreneurism and Achievement at ParenteBeard).

Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis

Michelle Chapkis has worked in the non-profit field for nearly 20 years gaining expertise in the fields of non-profit management, strategic planning, fundraising, communications and lobbying.  Currently she is executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment (WHE).  In this role she leads the organization’s education and advocacy activities focusing on prevention of human health problems linked to environmental factors, including issues associated with food and consumer product safety and sources of exposure to environmental toxins.

Prior to joining WHE, Michelle was director of land protection at Western Pennsylvania Conservancy where she managed the Conservancy’s real estate transactions (totaling over $60 million) and oversaw the conservation of over 49,000 acres of land in the Commonwealth.  Her experience includes working closely with communities; local, state and federal governments; non-profit organizations; foundations and corporations.  Ms. Chapkis has spoken at national, state, and local conferences and has been featured in several corporate audio presentations.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh and completed post graduate work at Duquesne University’s School of Law.

Brian Tedeschi

Brian is a 1988 graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and his career began at Columbus, Ohio-based SBC Advertising/Public Relations, where he served a range of retail/consumer clients. In 1991, he joined Burson-Marsteller, the world’s largest PR agency, where he helped drive public relations, issues management and public affairs for Philip Morris and other consumer-based clients. In 1995, he was named vice president, marketing, for the Steel Recycling Institute to direct national environmental marketing campaigns for the steel industry.

Working with the Think Inc. team, he has helped lead successful public relations and integrated marketing communication campaigns for some leading companies across the region and nation, including Calgon Carbon, Hyde Marine, HyperActive Technologies, Eat’n Park Restaurants, Sheetz, and Columbia Gas, among others.

Brian has served on the board of directors for the Ohio University National Alumni Association, theexecutive committee for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, as well as past-president of the Public Relations Society of America, Pittsburgh Chapter. An Eagle Scout, he also is an executive board member for the Boy Scouts of America, Laurel Highlands Council, as well as vice president of marketing for the Boy Scouts of America, Northeast Region, Area IV.

 

Walt Moorhead

Walt is a native of Pittsburgh and attended the Pennsylvania State University. Walt went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Metallurgy. After college, Walt worked for a US Steel division in many capacities finishing as the Vice President of Operations. After leaving US Steel, Walt joined Product Evaluation Systems, Inc (PES) and is now President and owner of PES, a metallurgical laboratory located in Latrobe, PA. The lab supports many fortune 500 companies for testing including US Steel, Allegheny Ludlum, Siemens, Westinghouse and Consol Energy. Walt is a member of ASTM and is chairman of the Pittsburgh Section, National Association of Corrosion Engineering (NACE). Walt also serves on the committee for the annual LUCK golf outing for the Matthew P. Fischerkeller Fund.