March 2020

Ketamine For Depression

Ketamine infusions treat clinical depression and other mental heath conditions. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

The year 2020 brings us a new year, a new decade, and the opportunity for a new beginning. I’m Dr. Bal Nandra, Medical Director of IV Solution and I want to tell you how ketamine infusions can treat your clinical depression and change your life in a few days.

As far back as ten years ago, ketamine was noticed to have a profound and rapid effect on improving the symptoms of depression, and many strong clinical studies have since repeatedly supported this. In fact, ketamine can be up to 80 percent effective for treatment of resistant depression, or TRD, which is defined as clinical depression that has failed treatment by two or more antidepressant medications that were taken for an adequate course of therapy.

Because of its success in treating depression, ketamine has been and continues to be also studied in treatment of other mental disorders with very good results. It is for this reason that ketamine has been called “the most significant advancement in mental health in half a century.” As part of this revolution, IV Solutions & Ketamine Centers is the first and most experienced private medical facility to make this treatment available in Chicago. The clinic offers customized therapy in a confidential setting with anesthesiologists, registered nurses, private treatment rooms, and skilled staff.

Developed in the 1960’s as an anesthetic drug, ketamine has been used to successfully treat depression for more than 10 years. It has a safe profile when administered by an experienced anesthesiologist. It works by blocking the brain’s NMDA cell receptors, which raises levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate. Ketamine also remaps and stimulates growth of nerve elements for long-term relief of clinical depression and essentially does a “reboot” of your brain. In fact, sophisticated imaging studies on mouse brain nerve cells has shown that ketamine can stimulate this nerve growth or neurogenesis as early as 24 hours after a single ketamine infusion.

Although primarily used to treat major depression, ketamine can also be just as effective when used to treat bipolar disorder, anxiety, PTSD, and even OCD utilizing modified protocols. It is typically effective within hours to days with minimal side effects, as opposed to oral antidepressants which are only effective in about 40 percent of patients, take a month or longer to work, and have many undesirable side effects. Many patients have improvement after their first or second treatments and are comfortable while they are receiving the treatment. Many people, with the guidance of their physician, may be able to decrease or even eliminate their other medications over time.

After the series of six 45-minute infusions for depression done over a period of 2 to 3 weeks, patients typically report relief of symptoms for many weeks to months, after which time booster infusions may be scheduled as needed. Patients can inquire directly for the treatment or can be referred by their physician or mental health professional. Our clinic prefers to integrate your psychiatrist and mental health providers into your care.

“I noticed a change the day after my first treatment,” says patient Kathy Wrubleski. “I think clearly, I make decisions effortlessly, I am calm. I’m fully present in the moment and I get goose bumps just thinking about how much I am now loving life. I liken it to waking from a coma. I have to learn how to live again.”

IV Solutions and Ketamine Centers is located at 300 Village Green Road, Suite 225 in Lincolnshire and at 712 N. Dearborn Street in Chicago. For more information, call 844-9-IV-MEDS (948-6337) or visit chicagoivsolution.com or ketaminechicago.com to watch and listen to our many patient testimonials, news, and radio stories.

Dream Believer

Alyssa Pazdan. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR // HAIR, MAKEUP & STYLING BY CONSTANTINE JAMES

Luxury travel advisor ALYSSA PAZDAN lives with her family of five nestled between Barrington Hills and Lake Barrington. She’s been married to husband Dave for nearly 20 years and feels blessed to have three wonderful children—Carson (16), Lucciana (12), and Francesca (9), and their lovable Goldendoodle, Reagan. After moving around a lot as a youth and living in Chicago for ten years, Pazdan and her husband picked Barrington to settle down and build their home 14 years ago.

“I can’t think of a better place to raise my family. Barrington epitomizes a traditional family-oriented community with Midwest values,” says Pazdan. “I like the fact that within Barrington, I can find myself hiking through a prairie in the morning, taking a trail ride in the afternoon, going to lunch in the village with friends, and then attending a fundraiser that night.”

Pazdan is passionate about her work as a luxury travel advisor, which allows her to plan everything from a river cruise on the Nile in Egypt to exploring Patagonia in Argentina, a private chauffeured tour of Ireland to seeing the Northern Lights in Scandinavia, a multigenerational vacation in Turks and Caicos to skiing the Swiss Alps.

She manages to juggle family, career, and philanthropy every day. Her kids are involved in volleyball, soccer, dance, and two travel softball teams. She helps with Kids Feeding Kids Club, a charity founded by her son. And she is actively involved with Barrington Junior Women’s Club, Barrington Children’s Charities, Countryside Cares, the PTO, and Barrington Women in Business. She also supports the ALS Association and the Les Turner Foundation after losing her mother to ALS.

Bali, Indonesia

Visit the Land of the Gods, Bali, for a holistic wellness “girls trip” retreat where the focus is on the body, mind, and spirit. I’d stay in one of Bali’s boutique luxury resorts nestled in the jungle to appreciate Bali’s sheer natural beauty of looming volcanoes, lush terraced rice fields, waterfalls, stunning beaches, and magical temples.

Israel

After designing a trip for a client recently who proclaimed his trip to Israel deeply changed him, it has moved to the top of my list. I’d like to experience the Holy Land retracing the footsteps of Jesus and visiting places like Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and the Sea of Galilee—and also swim in the Dead Sea.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

With its exotic opulence, I feel that Dubai must be seen to be believed. I’d love to visit this city and see a manmade island with ultramodern architecture, resorts, and luxury shopping. I would want to experience a desert safari with off-roading, sand boarding, barbeques, and of course camel rides! My kids would surely want to hit the slopes on the indoor ski mountain.

The Future Is Female

In their pursuit for gender equality, Dominique and Gabrielle Roberts are double trouble. PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK ISHMAN // HAIR, MAKEUP & STYLING BY CONSTANTINE JAMES

For sisters and Hinsdale natives Dominique and Gabrielle Roberts, the future is female. The duo co-founded Code Your Chances, a nonprofit organization that teaches young girls the importance of computer science and the opportunities they can create for themselves by learning to code, along with their namesake film studio Nikka & Ella Productions, where they created a space to tell meaningful and primarily female-centric stories.

“I think the film industry has a long way to go toward gender and racial equality,” says Gabrielle. “As a female in two heavily male-dominated fields, I think it is so important to make spaces for, and to encourage, other women at every opportunity.”

For Gabrielle, it’s personal. As a woman in the field of computer science, she says she often faced gender discrimination in the form of microaggressions that eventually made her feel as if she did not belong. “This happens every day to girls who express interest in STEM fields,” says Gabrielle.

Dominique can sympathize. “As a woman in law, I understand the challenges of pursuing a career where most senior positions are filled by men,” she says. “But at least law is a career path many little girls are conceptually aware of. There are a lot of bright girls across the country who have never even considered a computer science-based career. We’re trying to change that.”

To do so, they host fun and interactive workshops—with partners like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America—for young girls in which they introduce them to the basics of computer science and its importance in the world.

“I’ve been shocked at how much even just a conversation about my computer science experience has affected the girls we work with,” says Gabrielle. “Their eyes light up like they can imagine doing it, too. In our Code Your Chances workshops, we take time to highlight achievements made by females in computer science, so girls have visible role models.”

Using crafts, movies, songs, apps and games, they help them build confidence in a field that’s often described as intimidating. To further promote education, Code Your Chances also donates used laptops to educational centers and community partners.

“Nearly everything is influenced by computer science,” says Dominique. “Our lives are run by code. Think: every app we use to connect with others, every digital platform we use to source our news, every algorithm banks use to determine loan approvals, and every algorithm employers use for hiring. If women are not contributing to these systems and products, the gender biases we spend so much energy discussing will be embedded in the fabric of our future. It may not be intentional, but it is inevitable.”

All that said, both Nikki & Ella Productions and Code Your Chances remain side passion projects for the two sisters. Gabrielle, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California, was just accepted as a Schwarzman Scholar, a prestigious award granted to promising future leaders in politics, business, and science. During the year-long master’s program in China, she’ll study the Chinese film industry and Chinese audiences.

“In the next two years, the Chinese film industry will become the largest in the world in terms of box-office sales,” says Gabrielle. “We need to include these huge global markets, like China, in the films we create. Film is an invaluable medium for cultural exchange and connection. The more people your film can reach and affect, the stronger its impact will be.”

Simultaneously, she’ll continue her work in the cutting-edge field of virtual production, a subset of visual effects that combines live-action techniques with VFX. Instead of filming in front of a green screen and then waiting for an artist to finish the composite to see the preliminary result, virtual production allows filmmakers to see the visual effects in real-time, as seen in the most recent version of The Lion King and in many of the new Marvel films.

Dominique, a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and of Oxford University, works for Sidley Austin in London but is currently on temporary assignment in the Hong Kong office for six months as part of the international arbitration team. As a creative outlet, she’s also the creator, producer and editor of the historical podcast “Wonder Women,” which helps address gender imbalances in historiography and focuses on important stories that have been left out of traditional curriculums, like the first female state senator and the fourth wife of a Mormon polygamist.

“While studying for my history masters at Oxford, I noticed all of our assigned reading in the first term was written by men,” explains Dominique.
“This was not due to any bias from the faculty, but rather was a reflection of the fact that most historians until the second half of the twentieth century were men. The natural result of this is that our school history curriculums include very little mention of inspiring and important women.”

Fittingly, Dominique’s dissertation at Oxford was on the role of women in the creation of the film industry. “What most people don’t realize,” she says, “is that Hollywood was largely created by women.”

Nowhere is that more evident than with these two sisters who are singlehandedly changing the industry in which they work. Between both Dominique and Gabrielle, they’ve produced numerous critically acclaimed films, like Gabrielle’s undergraduate and postgraduate theses “Summon a Fiend” and “Dig” and Dominique’s “Emerald City,” a female-centric story about the transition from university to post-college adulthood.

Through it all, they rely on each other for inspiration.

“I’m grateful to be able to work with my sister,” says Gabrielle. “She is my most trusted ally in any creative project I dive into and we are a cohesive team. We are attuned to each other’s strengths and weaknesses and understand how to best support one another.”

When home in Hinsdale, they prefer to catch up over breakfast with their parents. “We are pretty loyal to Egg Harbor and Citrus Diner, where you can find us nearly every day when we are home,” says Dominique. “We go to Citrus so often that we are friends with the entire staff, including our favorite chef, José.”

It’s only a matter of time until the paparazzi catches on.

History Major

Barrington High School’s Mara Janess—just a sophomore—fires a one-under-par, second-round 71 and wins a one-hole playoff to become the Fillies’ first individual state champion since girls golf became an Illinois High School Association sport in 1974. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

Mara Janess’ first day as a golfer was like a youngster’s bad Halloween day.

The Barrington High School sophomore was nine years old at the time of her golf baptism.

“What I wore that day was barely a golf outfit,” a smiling Janess recalls. “There’s a picture of me, right before I headed to a golf course. I did not look anything like a golfer. I looked kind of funny, and I had only three clubs in my bag.”

How far has Janess come since then, in a relatively short period of time? This far: BHS held a “Mara Janess Day” in late October after she became the first female golfer in school history to capture medalist honors at the state meet. She joined former Broncos Erik Ciotti (1994) and Gary Hallberg (1974) as the only BHS state champions in the sport; Hallberg, 61, topped the final leaderboard at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship in 1979 as a Wake Forest University Demon Deacon, and he continues to compete professionally as a PGA Tour Champions player.

Janess—in a tie for 11th place, with a round of 76, after the first day of the two-day Class 2A state tournament at Hickory Point Golf Club in downstate Forsyth—shot a one-under-par 71 on Day 2 to tie Glenbrook South High School junior Maria Perakis after 36 holes. Janess’ back nine featured four birdies. Clutch. Clutch. Clutch. Clutch.

The 5-foot-8 Filly, following a 90-minute wait, then parred the par-four ninth hole to edge Perakis by a stroke on the playoff hole October 19.

The first to hug Janess afterward was senior teammate and Wake Forest-bound golfer Caroline Smith, a three-time top-10 finisher at the state tournament.

“It sinks in a little more each day,” Janess, choosing a verb every golfer loves, says of the accomplishment. “The first week and a half after the state meet, I thought, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ ”

Little went wrong for Janess (also the reigning Mid-Suburban League Tournament champion) on golf courses in the summer before the start of her sophomore year. The daughter of Scott and Carla Janess won three Illinois Junior Golf Association tournaments and shot a three-under-par 69 in the Chick Evans Junior Amateur at Itasca Country Club in July. Her national Junior Golf Scoreboard ranking in her age group improved dramatically—from around 1,500 to 177.

“Her talent, her competitiveness, I saw it all throughout Mara’s freshman season; we all did,” says first-year Fillies golf coach Tim Martin, who guided BHS to its fourth consecutive state runner-up showing. “Her game then just took off, reached another level, last summer. She’s a really long hitter [250 yards off the tee], accurate, and she’s amazing around the green. Put her on a course and she transforms from a nice, humble person into a highly competitive golfer.

“Mara,” he continues, “thrived under pressure all season for us; the more pressure, the better.”

Janess, who finished in a tie for 19th place (80-75) at state as a freshman, flourished alongside Smith, too. With her third-place-tying (74-74) effort at Hickory Point GC last fall, Smith became the first Filly in program history to earn four top-15 finishes at state.

“A huge role model for me,” Janess says of Smith, the Class 2A state runner-up in 2017 and a three-time Mid-Suburban League Tournament champion. “Being such a good golfer, she helped me considerably, made me a better player. If I had a swing issue, Caroline was there to fix it. If I needed to talk with her, about golf or about anything, she was there. Always. You couldn’t ask for a better teammate than Caroline.”

Scott Janess, a former Benet Academy basketball player who picked up golf in his 30s, was there when his daughter blasted a memorable tee shot at Barrington Hills Country Club’s par-five first hole. Mara hadn’t competed in her first sanctioned golf tournament at the time of the round, but that initial drive traveled straight and far.

And the sound of her club striking ball was a magnificent one.

“I think it went 100 yards,” Mara recalls. “I was shocked, totally shocked. I looked at my dad, and I was still in shock. I bonded with him on golf courses as I got more interested in the sport. Time on golf courses with him became our thing.”

An Illuminating Affair

Tablescapes casts light on the patients at Chicago’s Angel Harvey Family Health Center.Laura Alter, Tracy Fussaro, Kimberly O’Gorman. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

On your mark, get set… set!

For the 22nd consecutive year, the ladies of the Hinsdale Auxiliary of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago (IWS) will follow these directives for Tablescapes—a signature fundraiser that invites members to lend their imaginations to artfully arranged dining tables.

The benefit, to be held at noon on March 22 at The Westin Chicago Lombard, will feature boutique shopping, a silent auction, and—of course—an array of namesake tablescapes. Raffle tickets will be available for guests to win everything displayed on their favorite table.

The theme for 2020 is “Illuminate!” Auxiliary members, who are divided into groups and led by designated table captains, have interpreted this title in various creative ways: There is a “Bright Lights, Big City” table inspired by a “downtown chic” aesthetic; a “City Lights” design for more romantic vibes; and a casual campfire set-up conceived by Junior Board members.

But the concept goes much deeper than the twinkling displays.

“One of the reasons we chose ‘lluminate’ this year was that not only will it be striking and dramatic to see the ballroom decorated this way,” says IWS Hinsdale president Laura Alter. “But the second and more important meaning is that we are providing light to people’s lives.”

Kimberly O’Gorman, who is co-chairing the event for her second year with fellow member (and first-time chair) Tracy Fussaro, echoes Alter’s sentiments. “It’s about bringing a ray of hope to these families,” she says.

The IWS was established in 1911 by a group of volunteer nurses, physicians, and women to provide fresh, safe milk to infants. The primary goal was to lower infant mortality rates. Today, in its current form, the Angel Harvey Family Health Center of the IWS of Chicago is a full-service community health center providing medical care, dental care, optometry, and behavioral health services to both children and adults.

“It’s all tied together,” explains Alter. “Maybe dad loses his job and mom is trying to hold it together, but it’s difficult to make ends meet. As a result, their children might have nutritional or dental issues because they don’t have the resources to get the care they need. We are trying to treat the whole family and make it a one-stop health shop.”

In October, members of the Hinsdale Auxiliary (the oldest of 13 chapters) made a visit to the center to observe the fruits of their labor. With $90,000 raised from last year’s events, plus donations earned by the Hinsdale Junior Women’s Club, the Angel Harvey Family Health Center was able to purchase a new state-of-the-art dental X-ray machine.

A setting for the “Bright Lights, Big City” table

“Going down to the center, I can’t go into it without getting teary eyed,” says O’Gorman. “How much they do and provide is so touching.” She says that the goal of this year’s benefit is to help fund a new teen anxiety counseling program.

“There’s a lot of anxiety that comes with being impoverished,” she says. “Social media causing low self-esteem can be a problem. But these teens also face uncertainty: Where will their next meal come from? Can they keep their lights on? This program will help those who are the most underserved deal with those issues.”

Tablescapes will provide plenty of incentives for attendees to help the IWS reach their 2020 goals. WGN-TV reporter Ben Bradley will serve as emcee for a second year (“If anyone can keep 500 ladies quiet after they’ve had a few drinks, it’s him,” quips Alter). And impressive auction items and raffles prizes will include a trip to Maui and a Florida golf vacation.

The program will also include special guests—members of the IWS who will discuss how the Auxiliaries’ support has impacted their lives for the better.

“It’s so rewarding in that we have this small group here in Hinsdale—between 30 and 50 ladies—and everybody is hands on,” says Alter. “What we do makes a direct impact on people’s lives. Every dollar helps them. It’s not going to an advertising campaign, or we don’t just use ten cents out of the dollar. It’s really important that we do this, because quite honestly, the IWS wouldn’t be able to operate or stay open without our help—they rely on us to help pay for some of the programs they are providing.”

She promises guests an event that will be “quite meaningful, but also a ton of fun.”

For tickets to Tablescapes 2020, visit hinsdaleiws.com. For information on The Angel Harvey Family Health Center of the IWS, visit infantwelfaresociety.org.

Fermented Modernism

“The Tao Of Us” 24” X 24” acrylic & marker on canvas ART PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATO THORNYCROFT

In November 2015, artist Michael Ball flew to Chicago from San Francisco to help his mentor ISz with a gallery exhibition in their joint hometown of Peoria, Illinois. The Friday before the Saturday opening, artist Wendy Thornycroft returned from two weeks in Japan determined to attend the show in support of her friend; that is, ISz.

The rest, as they say, is history. Thornycroft and Ball spent the night talking, then started a texting relationship that eventually graduated to lengthy phone conversations and one year later, in the fall of 2016, the couple married.

“My Beach No Beach” 28” X 55” acrylic & marker on canvas

“We’re like George and Lennie,” says Ball. “We’re inseparable and are happy simply being around each other. We enjoy each other’s presence and are very likeminded.”

That translates to their work. After sharing a studio for a short time, the two decided to collaborate and took alternate turns at the canvas until they soon started working on the same piece at the same time in a style all their own, dubbed “fermented modernism.”

“We’re big fans of abstract expressionists from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s,” says Ball. “We take that older style and ferment, or change, it to be something a little more current and visually new. The style of our work tends toward what Wendy did before we met, which is much more ethereal.”

“Mission to Mars” 26” X 55” acrylic on canvas

As a high school student at New Trier in Winnetka, Thornycroft says she was “all about art” and would not have graduated without the support of art department chair Lynn Duenow. She later studied at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and at the San Francisco Art Institute, spending most of her time on sculpture. She’s been said to inherit the American tradition of abstract expressionists but with a personality and style all her own.

For Ball, guidance came from his family and, specifically, his grandfather. Self-taught, Ball started drawing as a little kid and grew up making paintings for his high school friends. In the 1970s, he turned from realism to abstraction, and his style emerged, one punctuated by linear images with color, pattern, and texture between the lines. He credits ISz as his biggest learning influence.

Wendy Thornycroft and Michael Ball PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY BY KERRI SHERMAN

With both Ball and Thornycroft’s work, they’re said to stimulate thought and make the observer live a great variety of different experiences.

“I want the viewer to lose their mind, forget about where they are and let their eyes take them to another place,” says Ball. Adds Thornycroft, “I want people to look at something and hopefully be as moved as I am when I’m working on it. I like to see people have that enthusiasm.”

Thornycroft says working together has helped both of them push past their comfort zones, which she says is always a good thing. “The struggle is anytime Wendy doesn’t do what I tell her to do,” laughs Ball.

Perhaps because of their love, the two say emotion plays a large role in their work, which they describe as passionate. When looking for inspiration, Thornycroft says she finds ideas in traveling, new cultures, and nature. She and Ball went to Bilbao, Spain two years ago to experience the Guggenheim Museum, and Thornycroft even dedicated a series to the Iguazú Falls in Brazil.

“It’s drugs for me,” jokes Ball. “Really, though, it’s very spontaneous. The inspiration is just being alive and still on two feet. The planet, the universe, we’re all part of the same cosmic dust, and my work is a reflection of that. Spiritual, right?”

Thornycroft teases him: “I’m in tears over here.”

Thornycroft counts American painter Joan Mitchell as a favorite artist, joking that it’s because her work is “like mine.” Ball’s favorites include ISz, of course; along with Pablo Picasso, a favorite of Thornycroft’s, too; Jackson Pollock; Mark Rothko; and German painter Albrecht Dürer.

Art permeates everything the couple does. For 20 plus years, Thornycroft has been a member of the North Shore affiliate of the Museum of Contemporary Art and, this April, she and Ball will open their home for the organization’s Board Walk.

“We live in a dollhouse,” says Ball. “Our furniture stylings are eclectic, and we have a whole lot of art on the walls. Our home is small but esoteric.”

In their free time, the pair like to cook and garden—they have a four-foot cast concrete reproduction of the Greek sculpture “Venus de Milo” in their front yard—and visit museums, like Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art in Evanston.

“I struggled to find my own voice, and it took the better part of the ‘70s and ‘80s before it finally popped for me,” says Ball. “Now this is all ours and nobody else’s, which is pretty groovy.”

For more information, follow them on Instagram @tball_gallery.