The Affected person Management Council (PLC) is made up of Social Well being Award winners and Well being Union Affected person Leaders. The PLC helps Well being Union with occasion planning and brings the affected person perspective into many alternative initiatives. This important group additionally encourages engagement throughout Well being Union communities.
Meet the 2023 PLC members under.
Social Well being Award winners
Jill King: Rookie of the 12 months
Jill navigates her life with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis by way of writing and discovering group. She overtly discusses incapacity and sickness insurance policies on social media to attach with different individuals. Jill additionally works to spotlight the consequences of incapacity on psychological well being and based the primary incapacity advocacy group at Georgia Southern College.
Erica Carrasco (aka Achy Smile): Artistic Contributor
Erica is a fierce migraine advocate for her household and others. She has hemiplegic migraine, and her 2 youngsters have ocular and vestibular migraine. She has been part of Headache on the Hill, has advocated for doctor coaching, and is a accomplice of the American Migraine Basis and the Affiliation of Migraine Problems.
Elle Cole: Caregiving Champion
Elle is a mother of dual ladies, certainly one of whom lives with sickle cell illness and sort 1 diabetes. She is an advocate for each illnesses in addition to a talented author, speaker, and educator. She produces the podcast VitaminSC3 with the Sickle Cell Group Consortium to share affected person tales and produce hope.
Aaron Blocker: Revolutionary Researcher
Aaron lives with Crohn’s illness and an ultra-rare genetic bone illness referred to as hypophosphatasia. He’s a affected person advocate for each, and his aim is to amplify the affected person voice. He has created a web based group of greater than 30,000 individuals affected by IBD. Aaron can also be a scientific researcher and works in healthcare.
Natalie Hayden: Group Cultivator
Natalie is the creator of a long-standing weblog about her life and experiences with Crohn’s illness. She particularly enjoys sharing tales round being pregnant and motherhood that may convey consolation to others. She has many advocacy roles in pharmaceutical analysis, social well being, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Basis, amongst different organizations.
Mildred Velez, Fibromyalgia Care Society of America (FCSA): Greatest Workforce
The FCSA was founded in 2015 by Mildred Velez. Mildred, who lives with fibromyalgia, observed a niche in present nonprofit exercise and needed to supply companies to everybody in want. The FCSA’s Middle of Excellence helps smaller teams of individuals with fibromyalgia with workshops and assist teams round ache, psychological well being, and symptom administration.
Rachel Hill (aka The Invisible Hypothyroidism): Social Media Grasp
Rachel is an award-winning creator of a number of books in addition to a speaker, author, and thyroid affected person advocate. She has labored with the Nationwide Academy of Hypothyroidism in addition to many podcasts and well-known web sites. She covers all points of thyroid illness, together with psychological well being, fertility, relationships, and extra.
Ella Balasa: Healthcare Collaborator
Ella has been residing with cystic fibrosis since she was a toddler, resulting in numerous hospitalizations. Regardless of having 25 % lung perform, she has not slowed down. She is an avid affected person advocate, author, and scientist. She has served on analysis committees and deliberate conferences for the CF group.
Melissa Talwar, Help Fibromyalgia: Advocacy Trailblazer
Melissa is a longtime fibromyalgia advocate and group well being coach. She has constructed the nonprofit Help Fibromyalgia Community, which focuses on group teaching, training, analysis assist, and advocacy coaching. She is a board-certified practical medication well being coach, additionally holds different certifications, and has an curiosity in biohacking as a strategy to wellness.
Kristal Kent: Lifetime Achievement
Kristal is an Military veteran navigating life with fibromyalgia. She is an advocate within the continual ache, fibromyalgia, and veteran communities. A lot of her work is within the training, laws, healthcare rights, and incapacity areas. She serves on many boards and panels, together with on the Cleveland Clinic and the Fibromyalgia Care Society of America.
Well being Union Affected person Leaders
Racquel H. Dozier
After experiencing a scarcity of assist, bother discovering data, and her personal life-threatening expertise with lupus, Racquel created Lupus In Color. Lupus In Shade caters to the wants of individuals of all colours of the rainbow who’ve lupus, each in-person and internationally. Racquel is also an creator and has labored within the social work house.
Diana Castaldini
Diana is a contract author and editor residing with ankylosing spondylitis. She has written for a lot of media shops and well being and wellness manufacturers. Diana is passionate concerning the worlds of vitamin, wellness, and life-style medication. She can also be within the results of stress and the intestine on autoimmune illnesses.
Jackie English
Jackie has been residing with alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency for over a decade. She was an authorized nursing assistant (CNA) for greater than 20 years. Jackie began an alpha 1 nonprofit with a pal and has served as an advocate and assist group chief for these in the neighborhood.
Davina “Dee” Conner
Davina is an advocate, activist, and award-winning podcast host. She works on HIV prevention entry campaigns and has {many professional} roles devoted to dispelling stigma round residing with HIV. Dee hosts the podcast Pozitively Dee Dialogue and began the nonprofit Poz Haven Basis to supply psychological well being assist.
Tatiana Corbitt
Tatiana struggled with the signs of sort 1 narcolepsy by way of her graduate research and the beginning of her skilled profession. She studied the advantages of service canine and skilled her personal from when it was 8 weeks outdated. She strives to share her life with narcolepsy to assist others work by way of limitations.
Isela Devora
Isela began having signs of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) when she was a young person. She goals to unfold consciousness of HS and to show others learn how to use their voice to talk about their experiences, too. In her group, she works as a social employee and advocate for victims of crime.
Charles Anthony Ulloa
Charles Anthony served as his mom’s main caregiver whereas she battled bladder most cancers. He lives every single day #StrongLikeSusan. Exterior of his well being advocacy, he’s a fierce monetary literacy advocate. Charles can also be keen about wellness choices like Reiki and crystal therapeutic.
Vickie Wilkerson
Vickie lives with each psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. She likes to say, “Psoriasis is the present that retains on giving.” She is a psoriasis advocate, serving as a group ambassador and one-to-one mentor for the Nationwide Psoriasis Basis.
Ellen Reed
Ellen is a champion for compassionate end-of-life care, and she or he established a non-public apply in grief and loss. Her efforts awarded her the Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020 from NYU’s Rory Meyers School of Nursing. Ellen was recognized with metastatic ovarian most cancers in 2018. She then revealed a e book about her profession and therapeutic.
Lauren Dykovitz
After her mother, Jerie, was recognized with Alzheimer’s illness, Lauren took on the position of caregiver. She served on this position for a decade and goals to share her experiences to assist assist others. She writes for her private weblog in addition to a number of different media shops. She has additionally revealed two books about her journey.
