Who We Are

David Cook brings extensive experience in nonprofit governance and organizational finance, as well as expertise in guiding coalitions of diverse stakeholders in pursuit of common legislative and policy initiatives. Formerly General Counsel of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Deputy General Counsel of the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, he has practiced law for more than 40 years. Mr. Cook and his wife Ann Thompson Cook are longtime supporters of the movement for end-of-life options.

Vincent Wiraatmadja is an experienced policy advocate working at the intersection of climate policy and technology. Before joining the Climate Center, a climate non-profit, in 2021 as its first Government Affairs Manager, Mr. Wiraatmadja worked for more than half a decade at the Weideman Group, where he represented Compassion & Choices in its successful effort to enact California’s End of Life Option Act in 2015. Mr. Wiraatmadja’s portfolio also encompassed representation of numerous clean energy and clean transportation companies before the Legislature and regulatory agencies. During the course of that work, he was at the center of numerous efforts to enact policy frameworks that enabled the development and adoption of the climate-focused technologies California needs to achieve its ambitious goals, ranging from heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles to resilient distributed energy systems. Mr. Wiraatmadja now uses this robust combination of policy knowledge, legislative strategy, and understanding of the business environment to support the Climate Center and its focus on accelerating climate action timelines in California through legislation and other policy mechanisms.

Karen Pye, retired, provided public health consulting for over 40 years. Her expertise includes program planning, management and evaluation in community-based health care and health education settings. Ms. Pye has always been active in her community, providing pro bono evaluation mentoring to nonprofits serving unhoused families. She served on the board of a residential crisis center for women and their children, and she volunteers with the Council on Aging to provide support to housebound seniors. Ms. Pye holds a Masters’ in Public Health and lives in Arizona with her husband.

Debbi Gibbs has been actively involved with Compassion & Choices and Compassion & Choices Action Network since 2000. Her grandmother spent the last few months of her life distributing copies of Elisabeth Kubler Ross’ book, On Death and Dying, and preparing for a good death from the effects of cancer. Her mother was active in reproductive rights. Ms. Gibbs is the director of Just Managing, a music agency, and has worked as an executive director in the broadcasting and entertainment industry for many years. She holds an architecture degree and lives in New York with her son.

Recently retired, Jill Gordon was the CEO and co-founder of KidSnips, Chicagoland’s leading children’s hair salon chain with  8  salons and more than 90 employees. Jill currently serves on the board of We-ACTx for Hope a Kigali, Rwanda HIV/AIDS healthcare organization.

Previously, Gordon has served as a board member and Investment Committee Chair  of Planned Parenthood of Illinois from 2017-2024. She formerly served on the board of Tuesday’s Child (a behavioral intervention program for at-risk, highly-stressed families from all income levels) from 1998-2018. She has been co-chair of CARE Chicago Women’s Initiative since 2005, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds, advocacy, and creating awareness for the large international, humanitarian organization CARE.

Gordon graduated with a BS in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School.

Since retiring in 2024 Jill is traveling extensively internationally, catching up on her reading list and watching very bad reality TV.

Nancy Hoyt is a counseling psychologist and educator who worked with adolescents in underserved Chicago schools. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA in organizational and counseling psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. She and her husband have been involved with Compassion & Choices for more than two decades.

Samantha Sandler’s wide range of interests have found expression in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds. She spent many years developing rental housing in New Jersey. She developed an art print business while raising her family in London. She did clinical social work at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and Beth Israel in Newark, NJ. In the not-for-profit area, she has served on various boards supporting disabled young adults in a residential facility, supporting a local YMCA and contributing to the goals of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Her interest in Compassion & Choices began initially with a Compassion & Choices lecture on living wills and quickly extended to attending and then sponsoring events to introduce others to the organization.

Mark Weideman is founder and principal of the Weideman Group, a California-based legislative, strategy and public affairs consulting firm. Weideman is Compassion and Choices’ chief lobbyist in California and spearheaded the strategy that led to enactment of California’s End of Life Option Act. Mr. Weideman received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his law degree with honors in written and oral advocacy from the University of California Law San Francisco. He is a registered lobbyist with the State of California and a licensed attorney with the State Bar of California.