T. J. Leake, 32

By Martha Byrnes

On the first beautiful spring weekend in May, T.J. Leake and his wife Anne Marie pushed their twin sons in a stroller alongside other volunteers in the annual March for the Babies benefit for the March of Dimes. Leake is board vice chairman and begins as chairman next January. Last year “The Leake Boys” team raised more than $5,000 during the walk, in honor of sons Benjamin and Joshua, 2, and were recognized as the highest grossing family team in the Northern Illinois Division.

A Decorah, Iowa, native, Leake is recognized not only for his career success in business law and business succession planning, but also as an energetic March of Dimes volunteer. Leake’s liberal arts education at Luther College, where he earned Academic All-America ranking in tennis, and the Review of Intellectual Property Law at Chicago’s John Marshall School of Law, helped him secure his position as an associate at the Rockford office of Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP. But nothing could have prepared him for the challenges of being a parent of premature twin boys with developmental disabilities.

Born at 24 weeks gestation, Leake’s sons spent more than four months in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Rockford Memorial Hospital. The Leakes learned in regular meetings with doctors that some of the medicine and treatment used to help the babies in the NICU were based on March of Dimes-funded research. Towards the end of the hospital vigil, neonatalogist Dr. Jose Gonzalez asked Leake to consider volunteering for the March of Dimes.

T.J. currently is working with Dr. David Deutsch on a parent advisory committee to advise doctors on how to improve services to families. He also has been instrumental in recent donations of $16,000 from the March of Dimes for educating Rockford’s expectant parents and parents of premature newborns. The Leakes believe their sons will reach their fullest potential in part due to the efforts of the organization.

For updates on the boys, visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/Leakeboys.