Pamela Schein Murphy is a native New Yorker with a B.A. from the University of Rhode Island and a Masters Degree in Journalism from NYU. Following graduation, she worked as an editor for several magazines including Fitness, Elle, Mirabella and Glamour. In 1994 she launched MADISON, an upscale lifestyle magazine focusing on fashion, design, art and popular culture. Following a very successful four-year run, she worked for several years as a pre-launch consultant and later as editor-at-large for the magazine Tango.

In 2005, Murphy founded Lucky Day Pictures. There she worked with writer/director Edward Burns on his eighth film, Purple Violets, starring Selma Blair, Debra Messing, Patrick Wilson and Burns. After completion of the film  in December 2005, she and Burns decided to advance the collaboration through the founding of their production company, Wild Ocean Films in early 2006.

The idea for The R.E.S.T Initiative emerged when Murphy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 and underwent a double mastectomy followed by 16 weeks of chemotherapy treatments. After surviving chemo — a process largely defined by endless hours of waiting, apprehension and discomfort — she decided that it would be possible to counterbalance some of the anxieties of the treatment process itself while simultaneously providing health benefits to the patient. It became clear that the way to give back would be to provide other cancer patients with a respite from treatment — in the midst of what feels like a series of never-ending delays, needles, machines and compounded by the fear of the medicine itself, there can be comfort. Out of identifying a way to make patients focus on themselves and their wellness during the counter-intuitive, though necessary, treatment that is chemotherapy, The R.E.S.T Initiative was born.

Murphy resides in New York City with her husband, Marc Murphy, and their two children.

Megan DeSales Colarossi was born and raised in Southern California, but has proudly called New York City home for over ten years. Before finding herself on the East Coast, she was first drawn south to receive her B.A. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In 1997, Megan signed on with CNN where she worked behind the camera producing various news programs for the cable network, including CNN Newsstand: Entertainment Weekly, CNNfn Entrepreneurs Only, and Headline News Primetime Live. After five years at CNN and hundreds of live-breaking news events later, Colarossi followed her passion for music and headed to MTV News where she interviewed everyone from U2 to President Clinton. For the next six years, she traveled around the world for the music channel producing various award winning pro-social programs about the war in Iraq, the tsunami in Indonesia, and the poverty crisis in Africa.

Colarossi endured the experience of watching her father survive cancer, and in large part, that is why she has joined R.E.S.T. After learning of Murphy’s desire to start the Initiative, Megan jumped on board in earnest to help turn the selfless idea into a reality for all.

Megan resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, enjoying life with her husband, Chris.

Jacqueline Herbach. LMSW, LMT has worked in complementary medicine for over twenty years. She has been a licensed massage therapist since 1986 and has worked with various populations including patients with cancer, MS, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS. She has also practiced massage for pregnancy, sports injuries, and anxiety issues. Jacqueline was at Memorial Sloan Kettering's Integrative Medicine for over five and a half years and while there worked with both adults and pediatric cancer patients using not only massage, but her skills as a licensed social worker. Incorporating traditional psychodynamic interventions with techniques such as guided imagery, meditation, and Ericksonain hypnosis she found that patients responded in a positive way to these complementary techniques.

Jacqueline is a certified 500-hour yoga instructor as well as a certified personal fitness trainer and has taught throughout New York City. Using yoga and exercise she has found it to be another way to alleviat e stress and manage such symptoms as anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, effects of chemotherapy and other treatments. Jacqueline also has a background in performance and writing and from that she finds it brings focus, energy, and humor into her work. She plans to bring all these modalities together to ease the trauma of being diagnosed with an illness and finding a way to move though the process with dignity and grace.