Meet the Team
Elizabeth Naylor
Executive Director (AKA Chief Inspiration Officer)
Elizabeth was born in Great Barrington, MA the youngest child in a family of 13. She moved to Naples, FL where she graduated high school and went onto University of Florida. From there she moved to Yosemite National Park and lived for 5 years, before moving to Napa Valley, where she has resided for the past 27 years. She started her own event planning company- An Event to Remember in 1998 and for nearly 20 years she designed weddings and special events for clients all over the world.
The greatest event of her life came in November of 2004 when her daughter Sophia Madelyn was born. She made a decision in 2013 to close her doors and went to work at Goose & Gander Restaurant in St. Helena as their Event Director, she was with them for 8 years and than the world stopped due to Covid. She took that time to reflect on what she wanted to do moving forward and decided after Covid she would get involved with nonprofit foundations. Just as she was about to embark on her new career, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and everything shifted to her health.
A year and half later, multiple surgeries, 6 months of chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation she is now the Executive Director for Crush Cancer Napa Valley (CCNV).
“This is exactly what I wanted to be doing, and now I have the opportunity to give back and help others," says Naylor. It is her full time job and she works tirelessly. “This fills my heart like nothing ever has, and I look forward to taking CCNV to the next level…..stay tuned.
Kendall Pollart
Secretary (AKA Multitasking Rockstar)
Kendall graduated from Providence College in 2021 with a degree in Global Studies. Her research was primarily focused on women’s equality and reproductive healthcare. After graduating she took a job with AmeriCorps where she worked for a small non-profit whose mission is to end hunger in the state of Maine. After her first year of service, she transitioned into another position with AmeriCorps, working for the Department of Agriculture and Forestry as a program leader. She hopes to focus on gender equality and women’s healthcare in the future.
Jane P. Ehrman
Co-Chair
It has always been clear to me that my purpose is to make a positive difference in the world around me. Serving others through Crush Cancer Napa Valley is the next step on my journey to use my gifts and skills to support persons with cancer, and their caregivers, to reach their best possible outcome.
When I was 37, I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer that had already metastasized. I was given a 35% chance of maybe living five years. I had a mastectomy with immediate reconstruction and went through six months of chemotherapy. Twelve years later I had a recurrence for which I underwent six weeks of radiation treatment. Fortunately, early in my cancer journey I learned about and used mind/body practices to discover my inner resources. In this way, I used cancer, the disease, as a road to discover that I had within myself powerful resources to move successfully through this life-threatening challenge. My personal discovery was the beginning of my passionate drive to help others tap into their inner resources to make powerful, positive changes in their own lives. I am an international speaker and also have a small private practice, Images of Wellness, LLC helping teens and adults address stress, anxiety, peak performance, serious illness, and behavior changes. I was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, graduated from Youngstown State University, and received my MEd, with an emphasis in mind/body medicine from Pennsylvania State University. I did post-graduate training at the Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. I hold certifications as a wellness coach, practitioner of Interactive Guided Imagery™, an advance practice clinical hypnotherapist, and a trained end-of-life doula.
During my 16-year career at the Cleveland Clinic, I was a mind/body coach and the lead behavioral health specialist. At the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative and
Preventative Medicine, I worked in patient care with children and adults and supported professional staff in their personal wellness. I developed and implemented health education curricula for shared medical appointments. I also led self-care workshops for professional staff. During my time at the Clinic, I co-taught a mind/body medicine course to first- and second-year medical students at the Case Western Reserve University College of Medicine alongside Dr. Tanya I. Edwards, the medical director and founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine. I have co-written ten professional research articles, mostly through my work at the Cleveland Clinic.
I have done extensive advocacy work. I founded the Women’s Health Information Network, Inc. (WHIN 1992-1995) a non-profit organization based in Youngstown, Ohio dedicated to educating the public about breast cancer and other women’s health issues. I participated in the national campaign to obtain funding for breast cancer research from the U.S. Department of Defense through advocacy efforts for the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) meeting with then-President Clinton and Hilary Clinton. I was the state coordinator for the NBCC in Ohio from 1992-1998. I have also worked closely with the Veterans Administration and the military to provide guided imagery audio programs for stress relief, preparing for surgery, recovery from illness or injury, and PTSD recovery. I have created numerous innovative programs and conferences related to several areas of wellness, including navigating the cancer journey for persons with cancer and their caregivers, also resilience, compassion fatigue and burnout prevention for professional caregivers, first responders, educators and other professionals, as well as general stress management. Early in my career, I was an adjunct faculty member at Youngstown State University and taught a cutting-edge wellness course. In 1997 I relocated to Cleveland, Ohio and served as the administrator for the student health center and interim director of the wellness center at Baldwin-Wallace University where I led a campus paradigm shift from disease management to prevention and wellness. For several years, I was a national health consultant for the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries where I created and implemented national conferences.
I relocated to Napa in June 2021 with my husband Jim. We have three grown children, Sarah, James and Mark and two grandsons. I love walking, hiking and consider dark chocolate an attitude-enhancer
Meet the Founder Emiritus
Rayellen Jordon, retired founder of CRUSH CANCER NAPA VALLEY, is a lifelong resident of Napa Valley. Early in her working career, a training opportunity at Queen of the Valley Hospital allowed her to became a tumor registrar, documenting the clinical journey of all new cancer patients, from onset of symptoms through diagnosis and staging, treatment, annual follow-up, and then reported all statistics to the American College of Surgeons for national reporting. Later, she worked as billing manager of a large chemo-oncology clinic in San Francisco, witnessing the “other side” of cancer, where vulnerable patients undergoing toxic treatment were struggling to maintain home, work and family life. Those patients needed help.
In 2010, Rayellen and her family founded Sisters Crush Breast Cancer through the family-owned business, Sisters Boutique in Yountville, CA. This grassroots effort brought community and businesses together annually to raise funds for breast cancer fighters. After seven successful years, the goal of helping all cancer patients was realized by founding a non-profit and transitioning to Crush Cancer Napa Valley.
