About Us

• Board of Directors
• LN-4 Mission
• Project History

Reports

• Annual Report

Meet our Board of Directors

The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation (EMPHF) incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 organization on April 4, 2006 with three board members. We now have eight board members. We are a volunteer board, with no paid staff.

Michael Mendonça, President

David Horn, Treasurer

Ernie Meadows, Inventor

Maurice Le Blanc

Candy Pierce

Lain Hensley

Arthur Fine

Jim Yoder

The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation (EMPHF)

Board of Directors

First and foremost, Ernie Meadows is an industrial designer with many years of experience. Ernie worked for many years to develop the functional, inexpensive, below elbow prosthetic hand which we now know as the LN-4.  Originally designed for young victims of land mines, it has benefitted hundreds of people, children and adults, beyond the original intent. 

The LN-4 prosthetic was created to honor the memory of Ellen Meadows, daughter of Ernie and Marj Meadows, who died in an automobile accident at 18.  The name LN is shorthand for Ellen.

Michael Mendonça, EMPHF president, is co-owner of StackPlastics, Inc., located in Menlo Park, and manufactures the component parts of the hand for the foundation. Michael introduced the LN-4 to Rotary through his club in Pleasant Hill, CA, and, with his wife Janet, has taken the LN-4 project to Vietnam, Africa, and India to introduce it to others and to perfect our procedure of outreach and delivery.  He is a passionate and inspiring spokesperson for the work of the LN-4 foundation.

David S. Horn, EMPHF treasurer, also a past district governor in Rotary District 5110, is a retired accountant who handles the accounting of our income and expenditures.  He travels with his dog and BMW motorcycle around the USA, frequently presenting to Rotary clubs elsewhere—but never out of touch.

Maurice LeBlanc is our advisor on the world of prosthetics, and co-collaborator with Ernie.  A mechanical engineer from Stanford University, “Mo” is the recipient of the life time achievement award by his national professional organization in recognition of his significant personal contributions and engineering design innovations in the field of prosthetics.  He is especially interested in upper limb prosthetics, and he and Ernie continue to work on innovations in prosthetics that our foundation may be able to offer in the future.

Candy Pierce first became involved with the LN-4 Foundation when she served as District Governor of Rotary International District 5160, in 2006-2007. While District Governor she lead the effort to pilot the LN-4 project within her district and in that year raised funds for hands and the first design mold series. But her most valuable result is the ongoing support of the 67 Rotary clubs in District 5160 for the LN-4 project.  She also introduced the program to Rotary District 5000 in Hawaii that year.

Candy comes to the board with extensive not-for-profit experience; Candy has worked with or served on the boards of a number of organizations beyond Rotary, including American Red Cross, NorthBay Healthcare Foundation, CASA of Solano County, and Kids’ Country.

Lain Hensley was introduced to the LN-4 project at a leadership conference by Candy Pierce when she was District Governor of Rotary International District 5160.  Lain has traveled from Poland to Australia and all over the US for 18 years teaching facilitation skills to internal trainers, developing training programs for regional and global leadership teams, and leading teambuilding and motivational programs for Fortune 500 companies top leadership.