A Historic Betrayal by the National MS Society - An Organization founded By & For Caregivers

The National MS Society shockingly fired 90 year old Fran Itkoff - a widow, former MS caregiver, & decorated 60 year veteran volunteer of their organization. Here’s what happened.

Fran Itkoff

Meet Fran.

Fran Itkoff is a 90-year-old Lakewood California resident who has been by all accounts - a dedicated volunteer with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for nearly six decades (that’s 60 years - yes).

Fran with her late husband, who was an MS sufferer and to whom she provided care for many years.

Fran’s husband suffered from multiple sclerosis. This, apparently, was a motivating factor for Fran to get involved with her local chapter of the MS Society, and in the end have a stellar volunteer career with them - leading the Lakewood/Long Beach Self-Help Group, which she continued long after her husband passed from the disease.

The National MS Society was started in 1946 - it was formed by, and for family caregivers who just wanted to help, and to give back to the community.

As an aside - this is a dynamic I am extremely familiar with when it comes to caregiver support and patient advocacy groups like the MS Society, or the Alzheimer’s Association (a group I know very well), which was started in 1980 by family caregivers - simply people in the community - looking to advocate for better support and treatment for sufferers, and their families.

Pictured - Sylvia Lawry, who founded the MS Society in 1946 in part due to her brother, Bernard, who died from his illness in 1973

Volunteers & family caregivers are what makes organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association, the MS Society, or the National Alliance for Caregiving tick - these older adult family members - very often older women, often spouses and widows (although sometimes daughters), typically have been, or are, caregivers themselves.

Fran Itkoff typified this.

By all accounts, for her efforts she was nothing less than stellar and a powerhouse for the MS Society and their mission, receiving several awards for her contributions, including a Volunteer Lifetime Achievement award in 2008. and her husband was recognized as the National MS Father of the Year, an honor that included a visit to the White House in 1978 to meet President Jimmy Carter.

Pictured: Fran Itkoff’s daughter Ellen in 1978 posing with President Carter

Pronouns…

The controversy surrounding Itkoff seems to have begun over the last year or so when Fran started noticing some strange things, apparently popping up in people’s email signatures.

Instead of just signing their names on emails, Fran noticed people, overwhelmingly (or exclusively) women, were now adding things like “She/Her/Hers” or “She/Her/Theirs” at the end of their email signatures.

So, she sought clarification, and was told that this was now being encouraged because it was considered “all-inclusive” (a term I previously associated with vacation resorts like Club Med).

Pictured - Kali Kumor’s LinkedIn Profile Page (which was deleted a few days ago after Fran’s story came out)

This brought her to the attention of the above person - Kali Kumor, the “Community Engagement Manager” for the National MS Society. Fran asked Kali, apparently, out of what appeared to be pure confusion, how engaging in this strange email-signature ritual could be considered “all inclusive.”

The email was sent out at 4:56pm on a Friday to Fran. Courtesy of Libs of TikTok, who originally broke this story.

This was the result.

Just before 5pm… on a Friday, no less - they sent this email to Fran, informing her that because of her behavior (just… asking questions?) she has been judged to have failed to “abide by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guidelines.” With that, she was fired.

“All Inclusive” Means Sacrificing 90yo Dedicated Volunteers & their MultiDecade Careers Serving Others

Fran with her daughter Elle during their interview with Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok Fame

So, this story broke into the public consciousness w/ the reporting of Chaya Raichik, who runs the extremely well-known (and reviled amongst certain political circles) Twitter / X account known as “Libs of TikTok.” Full interview is below - it’s worth a viewing:

Raichik does a good job interviewing Fran and her daughter.

This is a terrible story.

Since Chaya’s reporting broke on 2/9/24, the following has happened:

• The MS Society has issued an additional statement, essentially doubling down on their decision to fire Fran, stating they had the “best intentions” and “did their best to navigate a challenging issue” in firing Fran.

  

  MS Society’s outgoing President on YouTube making what is a now-obligatory statement by most NGOs in the Western World, on so-called DEI policies: http://tinyurl.com/ytdr35bc

• Their current President, Cyndi Zagieboylo, who, according to the website Nonprofitlight.com makes nearly a half-million dollars per year in compensation, announced her plans to retire on 2/13/24.

  

  Oops

• Kali Kumor, the MS Society’s “Community Engagement Volunteer” and apparently was the middle manager who fired Fran (with the blessing of Cyndi, no doubt) has deleted her LinkedIn profile

  

• Far from dying down, the controversy about Fran’s firing has only seemed to increase - quickly spreading even into the more tightly narratively-controlled bounds of legacy media.

What Fran’s Firing Means to Me

As I note in the title of my article - I see what the MS Society did as a historic betrayal. Groups like the MS Society, Alzheimer’s Association, the National Alliance for Caregivers, and many, many others - they are built on the backs of people like Fran.

Instead, they are simply tossed aside for what is simply “woke” politics.

This is cynical, and destructive. I believe that the MS Society should go the same way as a certain watery, tasteless alcoholic beverage company.