SBC USA
Board of Directors
Suzanne Whitney
Board Treasurer
Suzanne Whitney grew up sailing on Chesapeake Bay as a young child when her father bought a Penguin for her brother and her when she was five years old. Since that time, she has raced and cruised with her family all over the Chesapeake Bay and as far north as Maine. Suzanne and her husband, Beau, sailed C & C sailboats for many years until purchasing their current Sabre 42 sailboat in 2010. She has sailed with Special Olympics from 2010 to the present and with Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating from 2019 to the present. Her professional career has been in education, working as a French teacher, a lower school teacher, and guidance counselor. Throughout that time, Suzanne kept busy with numerous volunteer organizations including the Outreach Committee of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ruxton, Maryland, the Food Pantry at the Assistance Center of Towson Churches, the Gibson Island Yacht Squadron, the Gibson Island Historical Society, two area Garden Clubs, and is currently serving on the board of the Chesapeake Bay Sabre Association. She became interested in and then involved with Sail Beyond Cancer Annapolis after hearing Suzanne Snyder speak at a Chesapeake Bay Sabre Association annual meeting. Recalling the importance of sailing with her father as he battled colon cancer, and experiencing her mother’s struggle with breast cancer, Suzanne understands the value of SBC. She and her husband began captaining their boat for SBC - Annapolis in 2022.
TJ Henderson
Board Member
TJ Henderson is proud to join the SBC USA board.
He is an experienced sailor, picking up sailing in high school in the Great Lakes. He has been racing , crewing, & cruising big boats for over 40 years. TJ is also a semi-retired Emergency Room physician of 33 years.
He is excited to donate his time, experience, and expertise to the SBC USA board and more importantly to the special crews that we serve through Sail Beyond Cancer.
Jan Vente
Board Member
Jan Vente is a lifetime sailing enthusiast, starting at the age of eight on the Friesian lakes of his native country The Netherlands. As a young adult, he pursued a foreign exchange student program in the United States where he started his automotive career after graduating from Northwood University. His career path took him on an international trajectory, working as an executive for major global car manufacturers in the U.S. and in Europe. During his years in Michigan, Jan frequently sailed the Great Lakes, obtained his USCG Captain’s license and his ASA Sailing Instructor certification. Jan relocated to the Salem, MA area where he came into contact with SBC NS and offered his skills as a volunteer captain for the mission sails. He recently joined the SBC USA board, where he’s excited to help with the development of central standards, best practices, and developing a training curriculum which will help new chapters get up to speed quickly.
Whit Wales
Board Chair
Whit believes that resilience is fostered by acceptance and that acceptance often arises when an experience transcends our attachment to a given situation. He has come to understand that for many people sailing provides that transcendent experience.
"In my involvement in Sail Beyond Cancer, I have had the privilege to share and document through photography and film people whose perspective on their physical and mental state, as well as their relationship with others, has been transformed - and for the better - by simply being able to breathe and break bread with family members and friends on a boat powered by wind, water and sail. As current board chair, I am determined to create greater awareness and to help bring as many people in this region as possible to a Sail Beyond Cancer experience."
Tim Flaherty
Board Secretary
Tim Flaherty of Solomons, Maryland, has a long background in local radio, television, and newspapers here in Maryland. He has helped develop both local and national advertising campaigns. Those campaigns also reached into the realm of “new media” to include internet-based communications. Tim has been on the boards of directors of the Annapolis Ski Club (Crabtowne Skiers, Inc); The Cove Point Beach Association, where he was President and CEO for two years; the Television, Internet and Video Association of Washington, DC, where he was President and CEO for two years; and of the Southern Maryland Sailing Association, where he served two years as Commodore and CEO. Tim worked with Suzanne to publish a short article in Sailing Magazine recently that focused on SBC and her founding efforts. As a sailor, Tim can attest to the healing and uplifting power of being under sail. He is inspired by Suzanne’s effort to create SBC, and was humbled by her request that he consider serving the organization as a volunteer and a board member. Everyone has been touched by cancer in some way. Sail Beyond Cancer is a unique, beautiful, and creative way to blend our passion for sailing with the healing and comforting properties of life under sail, thereby helping those impacted by the disease.
