Biographies
Meet the professionals and patients from the round table
Meet the Stakeholders "At the Table" this Episode
Rheumatologist Professional:
Dr. Kim is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine. He also founded and directs the Washington University Lupus Clinic. Dr. Kim’s research group is focused on addressing the unmet needs of human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including understanding and leveraging the biomarker potential of complement activation products, testing novel noninvasive imaging platforms such as photo acoustics to detect lupus nephritis, understanding the relationship between sleep quality and lupus activity, and restoring eroded social support in patients with SLE.
Rheumatologist Professional:
Jerik Leung is a graduate student in the Master of Public Health Program at Saint Louis University, College for Public Health and Social Justice (SLU CPHSJ) focusing in behavioral science and health education. He has been involved with lupus-related health research for the past four years, beginning during his time as an undergraduate student at Washington University, where he met Dr. Alfred Kim and conducted a senior thesis project in medical anthropology seeking to understand the primary obstacles of living with lupus from the patient perspective. This work and the necessity of the patient voice in guiding research and treatment priorities has formed the basis of Jerik’s current work with Dr. Kim and Dr. Elizabeth Baker, Professor of Behavioral Science and Health Education at SLU CPHSJ, on understanding and developing interventions related to social support and impact on quality of life among those living with lupus using a community-based approach. After graduate school, Jerik intends to continue on a career path in health sciences research with a specific focus in autoimmune diseases.
Person living with AiArthritis diseases:Kelly is a speech-language pathologist, author/blogger, and a patient advocate. She has been living with autoimmune arthritis since age 14 but wasn’t formally diagnosed until age 32. That diagnosis has changed more than 5 times over the past 18 years. Through social media, she connected with fellow patients and co-founded the International Foundation for Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory rthritis. She has represented her state of Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill for the American College of Rheumatology multiples times, and speaks of the patient perspective at medical/pharmaceutical conferences. Kelly believes in the power of the patient voice and sharing our stories to raise awareness, education, and advocacy.
Person living with an AiArthritis disease.
Tiffany is the CEO at IFAA and uses her professional expertise in mind-mapping and problem solving to help others, like her, who live with AiArthritis diseases work in unison to identify and solve unresolved community issues. For the last several years, she has continued her education in research, including becoming a professional focus group moderator, and translated this experience at IFAA to develop award-winning, innovative projects that are taking patient engagement to next levels.
Tiffany has served on several advisory boards, including those to advance patient voices in policy, clinical trials, and precision medicine. In addition to reviewing grants at PCORI and for the Department of Defense, she was the sole patient grant reviewer for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin diseases from 2015-2018. She currently participates as a Patient Research Partner for OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology), co-leads the IFAA-led, international effort to advance patient voices in rheumatology research (the ACTion Council) and has dedicated her professional career to developing other patients to utilize their voices to impact the future of millions.
