Nancy Di Salvo

International Affairs Director

Nancy DiSalvo is our new International Affairs Director! A tireless international volunteer for the GBS|CIDP community since 2013 and a Board Member since 2019. Nancy has educated and supported numerous patients worldwide.

Nancy was born in Palermo, Italy. At age four, her family moved to the USA as legal immigrants and settled in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and had wonderful childhood memories, wild and healthy, playing baseball and kickball on the corner off Galbreath Avenue. The family moved back to Italy when Nancy was thirteen and began a new life. While Nancy was experiencing her first time in the working world, she was diagnosed with GBS at age 20. After years of a slow and prominent recovery, she was soon diagnosed with CIDP (2006).

She became a member of the early GBS Foundation in 1997, where she found comfort and support in facing the diagnosis. Through Nancy’s involvement in the Foundation, she soon became the Italian International Liaison and a member of the Board of Directors.

Her American past has been her international “wild card” on the job market; the bilingual experience brought her to be an interpreter in EU social funds activities for vocational classes, and subsequently a UPMC Italy employee for over 19 years. In 2023, Nancy represented our community at a PID Forum at the EU Health Commission; she has been advocating with the EU regulators regarding the recent SoHo (Substances of Human Origin) Regulation promulgated within the European Union.

“Meetings and traveling around the world, connecting with patients, caregivers, and specialists… what CIDP had taken away from, CIDP has given back in countless ways thanks to the Foundation.

My hobbies include taking care of my plants on my terrace, playing guitar, canoeing, and cooking. I am very much involved in my local church as a member of the Franciscan Third Order. ” – Nancy