Board of Directors

Councilman Roth grew up in what was once called Perrine and is now known as Palmetto Bay. He first came to Homestead in 1990 when he worked as a store manager at Spec’s Music. Going through Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Councilman Roth saw Homestead’s community spirit and fell in love. Since then, he has been serving Homestead’s residents as a private citizen and now as a Councilman. In 1993 he reopened a local landmark restaurant, and in 1999 he started working as a local real estate agent with the Keyes Company where he still works today. Councilman Roth is also a co-founder of This Is For The Kids, Inc.—a fundraising charity which supports other children’s charities in the area. Larry has supported PATCHES in several capacities since 2008 and has been an integral part of PATCHES growth alongside Founder, Kyle Smith.

In addition to his work in the hospitality industry, Eric is also an active member of the community, serving as a Board Member of Patches PPEC and Board Member of Comic Kids. His involvement in these organizations demonstrates his commitment to making a positive impact on the lives of children and families in South Florida.

Throughout his career, Eric has held key positions in various companies, including Director of Operations, Vice President of Operations, and Director of Operations/Concept Leader. He has been directly involved in all food and beverage decisions, menu development, project management, and capital fundraising efforts for multiple locations.

Kyle and her friends put on their tool belts and their hard hats and worked weekends for over a year, in between their regular full time jobs, to make PATCHES happen. In 2005 they opened PATCHES for medically complex children in Homestead. Soon after we outgrew its walls and in 2008 a larger center was opened in Florida City, as well as a second center in Fort Pierce, Florida.

PATCHES is a place where miracles happen everyday thanks to the vision and strength of Azona Kyle Smith, RN, BSN, CEO, Co-FOUNDER of PATCHES.

Pamela S. Rodriguez is a co-owner of Driftwood Capital, a hotel-industry focused financial services group, where she worked in asset management, HR, and corporate treasury until her retirement in 2021. Pam has always enjoyed supporting Miami nonprofits, including the Baptist Health Foundation Giving Society, Jackson Memorial’s Golden Angels, The Everglades Foundation, and Women of Tomorrow. She is now fully dedicated to raising money for PATCHES PPEC as a Heartbeats for PATCHES board member, and is very excited about helping to turn the vision of a permanent campus for PATCHES into a reality.

Teresa is particularly proud of her support for the Guardian Angels, a group within the Jackson Health Foundation that works to enhance and expand pediatric specialty programs at Holtz Children’s Hospital. She will approach her work as a board member for PATCHES as she approaches all challenges, driven by the motto, “The purpose of life is to matter, To be productive and useful, and to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.”

Ambassador Walters, whose granddaughter had died of leukemia in 1970 at Variety Children’s Hospital, resigned his post to the Vatican and became chairman of the hospital and committed to building a new hospital in Miami so that children would not have to leave to get the best of care. He decided to change the name to Miami Children’s Hospital, and to protect a large seven figure gift to the Hospital, Ambassador Walters created the Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation. In 1983 I joined him and for the next 31 years I worked for the Foundation. Truly a labor of love, I worked with volunteer groups, hosted breakfasts, luncheons, dinners, Galas, Telethons, worked on three Capital Campaigns, established relationships with the doctors and staff of the hospital, cultivated corporate donors, and toured celebrities and prospective donors around the hospital.

I retired in 2014 intending to travel and spend time relaxing in my garden! Well, I still do that but a chance meeting with Jen Resnick led to a visit to PATCHES and I was hooked! It’s impossible to walk away and not feel a big tug to help make life easier for Kyle, the children and the incredible staff. It has been a pleasure to help Jen create Heartbeats and an amazing team of volunteers, knowing that we can make a difference and to showcase this unique center for the medically fragile children of the area.

In 2000 Jennifer wrote and produced the documentary “Liberation of the Spirit” a film about Magda Watts, a Hungarian child survivor of the Holocaust, which played annually on NPR from 2000-2005. Recently this beautiful film was shown by the Bavarian Memorial Foundation in Nuremberg, in an exhibition to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust who perished in the camps at Nuremberg and Flossenberg. In 2011 she wrote and edited and published Magda Watts’ memoir “Dafka a memoir”. In 2001 -2008 she taught courses of screenwriting, film analysis and editing at Gulliver Prep.

Jennifer has devoted many years fundraising and friendraising and successfully writing grants for the programs at PATCHES. In 2018 she became the founding member of Heartbeats for PATCHES, devoted to raising funds and friends to support the mission of PATCHES.

Now joining the board of PATCHES, Yazz is excited to bring her extensive experience in public relations, strategic planning, passion for giving, and community engagement to help advance the organization’s fundamental purpose, to care for children in need. Her unique background and skills in communication and storytelling will be invaluable assets in amplifying the organization’s mission and impact.

Through the years she served as corporate director of education for Baptist Health, a hospital consultant throughout the US and Western Europe, and senior VP and chief nurse for Jackson Health System. She has held a Governor’s appointment to the Florida Center for Nursing and is a past president of the Florida Nurses Association. Now retired, she is a paddler and former Board member of the SOS Breast Cancer Survivor Dragon Boat Team.

She and her husband of 57 years, have a daughter who is a Certified Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, a son who is a Miami Dade College professor, and a foster child who is a well-known special education advocate and owner of Little Scholars Tutoring in Texas. Leah has a deep understanding of the needs of children at PATCHES. She is pleased to have joined the Board and to help PATCHES achieve its vision to expand services for such a special population of children.

Ryan is a proud Duke University alum, Miami sports fan, husband, and father. He greatly values the relationships he has built through his legal practice and professional activities, including his community-focused pro bono work over the years, and is excited to join the PATCHES board and help further its incredibly worthy mission and vision.

Joanie Ippolito, RN, BSN, began her career in 1977 after earning her Associate of Science Degree in Nursing from Broward College and in 2000 graduating from the Florida International University School of Nursing. Her career spans adult critical care, high-risk maternal-child health, neonatology, and pediatrics.

Joanie helped open a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), admitting its first premature infant, and later led the development of a 30-bed pediatric long-term care unit. She served as a school nurse for pregnant and parenting teens, where she created the STOMP (Smart Teens Oppose More Pregnancies) program and brought critical community resources to young families.

As co-founder of PATCHES, Joanie helped her fellow co-founders build the organization from the ground up, literally and figuratively, doing whatever was needed. The driving force to keep going, to break down walls and to build new ones was to reach the goal of creating a safe, compassionate place where medically fragile children and their families could thrive regardless of ability to pay. After a year of hard work, determination and lots of prayer, PATCHES opened in 2005. Since then, Joanie has been dedicated to improving the lives of medically complex children and the families who care for them in the role of Co-CEO and Co-Founder/Consultant.