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LE&RN is Proud to Introduce the Alabama Chapter!

The Alabama Chapter of LE&RN warmly welcomes people living with lymphatic diseases (LDs), caregivers, families, clinicians, and anyone with a connection to LDs to join. The Alabama Chapter seeks to build community, advocate, increase awareness, and fundraise for LE&RN’s mission to cure lymphatic diseases.

Meet the Alabama Chapter

Sara Beck, OTR/L, LPTA, CLT

Chair, AL Chapter

Sara Beck is an Occupational Therapist and a Mobile, Alabama native. Sara first learned about LE when she joined the CARES Health & Wellness team in 2014. Sara found LE&RN when researching how to become an advocate and was immediately inspired to engage. When asked why she wanted to serve as Chair of LE&RN’s Alabama Chapter, she shared, “If not now, when? If not me, who?”

Liberty Freeman, OTR/L, CLT

Vice Chair, AL Chapter

Liberty Freeman is an Occupational Therapist who graduated from the University of South Alabama in 1998. Liberty became the first certified lymphedema therapist (CLT) in Mobile, Alabama, after attending the Academy of Lymphatic Studies in 2001. Liberty and Debra Taylor, PT, CLT, opened CARES Health & Wellness in 2005, motivated by their dream of providing a “one-stop shop” for lymphedema (LE) management.

Debra H. Taylor, PT, CLT

Vice Chair, AL Chapter

Debra H. Taylor has dedicated the majority of her career to serving people living with LE. Debra graduated from the University of South Alabama in 1991 with her BS in Chemistry, and from the University of South Alabama Physical Therapy School in 1996. She worked at a local hospital for ten years. Following an injury in 2001 and undergoing a bone and vessel harvest for grafting into her left hip in 2002, Debra became intimately involved with the new lymphedema management program at the hospital. The trauma and vascular changes caused the onset of leg swelling that required Complete Decongestive Therapy. She has had to manage her left leg swelling since. There was no other lymphedema program in the region, and Debra feels blessed to have been treated so early on after the injury. Motivated by her personal experience, Debra became certified as a lymphedema therapist in 2003. Debra and Liberty Freeman (Debra’s treating therapist and now business partner) opened CARES Health & Wellness in 2005.