SCLERODERMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice Dean for Research at Johns Hopkins University
Job Titles:
- New York Community Leader
Bio
Caryn Zucker is a New York community leader and philanthropist who has experienced scleroderma in her family. She became a member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2004. Caryn Zucker also serves on the Board of Directors for the 92nd Street Y and the Fresh Air Fund.
Bio
Dana Delany is an award-winning actor of stage, screen, and television. After meeting SRF founder Sharon Monsky in 1990, she quickly became an advocate in finding a cure. Dana Delany played a scleroderma patient in the film For Hope, directed by Bob Saget, and soon thereafter, she joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors.
Job Titles:
- CSO at Calico Life Sciences
Bio
David Knoller is a highly accomplished and award-winning producer and director, known for HBO's Carnival (2003), Big Love (2006), and Starz' Power (2015). David Knoller is also a scleroderma patient and joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2015.
Bio
Deann Wright is a community leader, attorney, and former medical researcher. Deann joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2000.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Director
Dr. Ami Shah is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center.
Dr. Shah's clinical practice is focused on the broad spectrum of patients with scleroderma and related disorders. Her research has focused on the link between scleroderma and cancer as well as on developing novel methods for estimating the risk of complications and disease trajectories in scleroderma.
Dr. Shah is a graduate of MIT and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency training at Stanford University. She returned to Johns Hopkins for her post-doctoral fellowship, where she also earned her Master in Health Sciences in Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished and Senior Investigator / National Human Genome Research Institute
- Distinguished and Senior Investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI ) National Academy of Sciences
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Senior Investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute
Dr. Dan Kastner is the Distinguished and Senior Investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), formerly the Scientific Director of the Intramural Program. His career has focused on using genetic and genomic strategies to understand inherited disorders of inflammation. He continues the quest for genes underlying human disease by the development and application of advanced gene mapping and sequencing technologies. Prior to his NHGRI appointment as Director, Dr. Kastner was Chief of the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, Clinical Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and deputy director for Intramural Clinical Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His lab focused on human genetic disorders of inflammation. Dr. Dan Kastner led an international consortium that identified the gene causing familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in 1997. In 1999, Dr. Kastner's lab discovered mutations in a TNF-receptor responsible for causing a dominantly inherited periodic fever syndrome similar to FMF, a discovery that has led to the successful use of anti-TNF agents in the disorder. His team also established the association of STAT4 polymorphisms with several autoimmune diseases and is currently studying the genetics of Behçet's disease.
Dr. Kastner has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2010. He is also the recipient of the NIH Director's Award, the Paul Klemperer Award of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Lee C. Howley Prize for Research in Arthritis from the National Arthritis Foundation, and the NIAMS Mentoring Award. In October of 2018, Dr. Kastner received the prestigious Service to America Award-popularly known as a "Sammie"-as the Federal Employee of the Year. He was honored for his lifetime achievements in researching genetic diseases, as well as for his conceptual contributions to the field of immunology.
In February 2021, Dr. Kastner was awarded the Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his ground-breaking work to establish the concept of autoinflammatory disease and the discovery of genetic causes of a number of autoinflammatory disorders. This prestigious award is one of the major international science prizes, and is considered to be a complement to - and for some researchers a precursor to - a Nobel Prize. Learn more about Dr. Kastner's pioneering research, the impact it has had on the field of immunology, and its direct impact on the lives of patients suffering from autoinflammatory diseases in this video.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Assistant Professor of Urology at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California
Bio
Dr. Eric Kau is Clinical Assistant Professor of Urology at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California and Director of the USC Institute of Urology - Arcadia. Eric has experienced scleroderma in his family and joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2015.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Rheumatology Division
Dr. Francesco Boin is the Director of the Rheumatology Division, Kao Autoimmunity Institute at Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Boin received his M.D. degree from the University of Padova Medical School (Italy). He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) and a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical and experimental rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland).
He had been Director of the Translational Research program at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center for a decade before joining UCSF in 2015 and establishing the UCSF Scleroderma Center. His clinical activity is devoted to patients with fibrosing skin disorders including systemic sclerosis, eosinophilic fasciitis, scleromyxedema as well as primary Raynaud's phenomenon and other systemic rheumatic diseases.
Dr. Boin's research is focused on the genetic basis and biology of immune cells involved in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis. He has been investigating the role of effector T cells in driving pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic pathways leading to scleroderma-specific tissue damage. He is also interested in discovering new molecular or cellular markers to reliably measure disease activity and to predict clinical outcome in patients with systemic sclerosis.
Throughout his academic career, Dr. Boin has been involved with teaching and mentoring medical students, residents and post-doctoral fellows .
Dr. Gregory Gordon joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation's leadership team as Chief Medical Officer in 2024. As the CMO, Greg provides strategic leadership for the overall direction as well as the daily operations of the CONQUEST Platform Study. He additionally supports the SRF team's community outreach and patient engagement activities. Greg has held multiple leadership roles in the biotech industry over the past fifteen years.
Greg is an internist and began his career working as a primary care physician at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston. In 2008, he transitioned to a full-time position in the pharmaceutical industry. He has spent most of his career at local biotech companies, where he has been part of teams responsible for successfully bringing multiple treatments to patients, including linaclotide (Linzess™), darvadstrocel (Alofisel™), and setmelanotide (Imcivree™). Before joining SRF, Greg led a team of physicians overseeing the development of potential treatments for multiple neurologic and pediatric diseases at PTC Therapeutics.
Greg is a native of Larchmont, New York. Before attending medical school at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, he earned a JD from Columbia Law School and worked as an attorney in New York City. He now lives in Brookline, just outside of Boston, where he and his wife raise two sons.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Pediatric Scleroderma Clinic at UPMC Children 's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Dr. Kathryn Torok is the director of the Pediatric Scleroderma Clinic at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She juggles seeing patients in the clinic, conducting her own research to help develop more effective therapies for localized and systemic scleroderma in children, and mentoring the next generation of pediatric rheumatologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
She is the Principal Investigator of the National Registry of Childhood Onset Scleroderma (NRCOS) in which she collects standardized clinical assessments alongside blood and skin biopsies to investigate key molecules promoting scleroderma in kids and clinical associations. This is both initiated by her own research questions as well as collaboration with several other investigators to understand the immunophenotype of pediatric scleroderma to work towards better treatments and understanding of the disease.
Dr. Lorinda Chung, MD, MS, is a Professor of Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology) and Dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Scleroderma Program and Co-Director of the Multi-disciplinary Rheumatologic Dermatology Clinic with Dr. David Fiorentino.
Dr. Chung is actively involved in clinical, translational, and epidemiologic research on systemic sclerosis and related connective tissue diseases. She is the principal investigator for multiple clinical trials of new potential therapies for scleroderma patients.
Dr. Chung receives ongoing funding from the Scleroderma Research Foundation for the Stanford Scleroderma Program and as the Co-Director of the Northern California Scleroderma Research Consortium. She is currently serving as the President of the international Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Co - Founder of Several MPM
Bio
In his for-profit life, Dr. Luke Evnin is a well-known venture capital investor and is a Managing Director and co-founder of MPM Capital, one of the premier firms in the life science venture arena. Dr. Evnin has been dedicated to building and financing breakthrough life science companies for roughly 28 years.
Over the past few years, Luke has been a co-founder of several MPM portfolio companies and has contributed as a key inventor for the technology of these companies. Across his venture career, he has served on over 30 public and private life science company boards.
Dr. Evnin is also a scleroderma patient, having been diagnosed in 1998 with the limited sub-type of the disease. Luke joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 1999 and has served as its Chairman since 2002.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief Medical Officer, EVP
Bio
Dr. Omar Baker is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, EVP, for UnitedHealth Group. In this role, he brings his deep expertise in practicing medicine and managing of large group practices to develop new capabilities that advance enterprise clinical operations and integration.
Prior to Deputy CMO, Dr. Omar Baker was the executive vice president, Strategic Initiatives & Innovation for OptumHealth and chief medical officer, Health Services where his primary focus was providing insight and guidance on a broad range of clinical, strategic, operational, and financial initiatives.
Previously, Dr. Omar Baker was an Executive in Residence and Senior Vice President of OptumHealth; before that, he was President/CEO of Riverside Medical Group.
Of note, Dr. Omar Baker was the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award from the New Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Omar Baker was honored by Becker's 2018 Rising Stars Under 40 as one of healthcare leaders under 40 years old as a rising star in the industry. He was nominated as Physician of the Year by NJBIZ Healthcare Heroes 2018. He also chaired and led Governor Murphy's healthcare transition team for the state of NJ and provided guidance and made recommendations on the state's $15 BN Medicaid budget.
He is Board Certified in Pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from The George Washington University and completed his residency in Pediatrics at NYU Medical Center.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
Erika Darrah, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed a Ph.D. in Immunology and a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins under the mentorship of Dr. Antony Rosen.
Job Titles:
- Michael R. Bloomberg Chair
Franck Barrat holds the Michael R. Bloomberg Chair and is a Senior Scientist in the Autoimmunity and Inflammation Program and a Member of the David Z. Rosensweig Genomics Research Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Barrat is also Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University.
Prior to joining HSS, Dr. Barrat spent over 15 years conducting research and developing new drugs in the biotech industry. His research is centered on how specific immune cells and cytokines contribute to diseases such as scleroderma and lupus, two complex and incapacitating disorders for which there are currently no cures or effective treatments.
Dr. Barrat's expertise is in the function and regulation of immune system cells in disease settings and his approach combines the use of mouse models and in vitro studies on human cells with the ultimate goal of applying this work for the benefit of patients.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Fredrick M. Wigley M.D. is the Martha McCrory Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Associate Director, Division of Rheumatology, and the Director of the Scleroderma Center at the Johns Hopkins University.
He established The Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Centerin 1990 to provide excellent patient care to patients with scleroderma, Raynaud's phenomenon and related disorders; to perform clinical and basic science research and to provide educational opportunities. He continues his passion for patient care and clinical research, as well as mentoring young investigators in Rheumatology. His primary research interest focuses on scleroderma, Raynaud's phenomenon, and related disorders.
He was recently a co-editor on two books entitled, Scleroderma: From Pathogenesis to Comprehensive Management and Raynaud's phenomenon: A Guide to Pathogenesis and Treatment. In 2009 he received the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Clinician Scholarship Award, and in 2011, he received the ACR Masters Award. In 2014 he received the Martha McCrory Professorship Endowed Chair in Medicine.
Gerlinde Wernig is a physician-scientist by training a pathologist and hematologist/oncologist and a junior investigator at Stanford at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Her laboratory studies fibrotic diseases, a condition of excessive scarring of tissues.
Job Titles:
- Development Manager
- OUTREACH and EDUCATION
- Senior Director, Community Outreach & Education
- Vice President, Programs & Operations
Bio
Gloria Blecha joined our team as Development Manager in January of 2020. She was later promoted to Director of Community Engagement and is currently our Senior Director of Community Outreach & Education. She is a successful fundraising professional with over 13+ years of experience fundraising for health-based nonprofit organizations.
Gloria began her career in the nonprofit sector at Hospice East Bay, after 3 years of working in air quality testing research and project management and a cumulative 20 years of working in retail including Nordstrom. She found that her skill set - project management customer, problem solving, attention to detail and customer service - was a match for fund development work and found her passion for cause related fundraising.
Her excellent donor-relation and event planning skills along innovative ideas resulted in continued growth for the Hospice East Bay as well as a promotion from Development Coordinator to Development Associate. During that time, she also graduated from John F. Kennedy University's Fundraising Academy. She later served as the Annual Fund Manager for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.
After living all over the world due to her father's career in the Army, Gloria finally settled in California and graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Saint Mary's College. She now lives in Walnut Creek with her husband, two daughters, and many plants.
Job Titles:
- Communications Manager
- Director of Communications
Bio
Hannah Young joined our team as Communications Manager in August of 2020. She was promoted to Senior Communications Manager and is now our Director of Communications. She is an accomplished fundraising and communications professional with 7 years of experience.
Hannah first started working with nonprofits at ODC, a San Francisco dance organization. As their Development Associate, she managed successful solicitation campaigns, supported major fundraising events, and helped transform their database usage. From there, she moved on to working with San Francisco Ballet, where she focused specifically on communications, liaising between the marketing and fundraising teams. In response to the extreme financial shortage SF Ballet faced from losing ticketing revenue during COVID-19, she helped guide the content and design strategy for an emergency fundraising campaign that raised over $5 million in less than four months.
Originally from Idaho, Hannah's lived in California for over eleven years, the most of which have been in San Francisco with her cat, Nala.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes
Howard Y. Chang M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes, Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Genomics, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Professor of Dermatology and of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Chang earned a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT, M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed a Dermatology residency and postdoctoral training at Stanford University.
His research addresses how large sets of genes are turned on or off together, which is important in normal development, cancer, and aging. Dr. Chang discovered a new class of genes, termed long noncoding RNAs, can control gene activity throughout the genome, illuminating a new layer of biological regulation. He has invented new methods for defining the shapes of RNA and DNA genome-wide. The long-term goal of his research is to decipher the regulatory information in the genome to benefit human health.
Dr. Chang's honors include the Judson Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, Alfred Marchionini Research Prize, American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, Damon Runyon Scholar Award, and elected membership to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and National Academy of Medicine. His work was honored by the journal Cell as a Landmark paper over the last 40 years and by Science as an "Insight of the decade."
Job Titles:
- CEO and President at Sonoma BioTherapeutics
Bio
Jeff Seaman has 21 years of experience in the Financial Services sector and loves learning and growing his industry knowledge each day. He is currently employed by JP Morgan Asset Management and is celebrating his 14th year with JPM covering the Carolina's and Tennessee. Jeff plays tennis when he can, but really enjoys cheering on his three daughters as they pursue their dance, soccer, and swim dreams. He is an avid Baltimore Orioles fan.
As the parent of a child with scleroderma, Jeff understands why scleroderma research is so critical, and he joined the SRF Board of Directors in 2023 to help advance the search for a cure.
Bio
Joanne Gold joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation's leadership team as Deputy Director in 2019 and was promoted to the position of Executive Director in June of 2020. As ED, Joanne leads the organization's strategic vision on patient engagement, disease awareness, fundraising, communications, and strategic partnerships in support of SRF's ambitious research agenda. She brings a 30-year track record of nonprofit leadership and fundraising expertise to the role and a longstanding commitment to nonprofits advancing treatments for life-threatening illness.
Joanne began her nonprofit career in Southern California, volunteering at the Los Angeles Free Clinic and later serving in various Development positions at notable national health care nonprofits including The Muscular Dystrophy Association and City of Hope Cancer Center. After relocating to San Francisco, she joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area as Chief Development Officer, and she later served as Senior Director of Development at Common Sense Media, a national organization supporting safe media and technology for children. Just prior to joining SRF, Joanne led a two-year project to scale and expand development operations at Family House, a pediatric guest house for families of children being treated for life-threatening illness at UCSF.
A native of Newton, MA and graduate of The George Washington University, Joanne and her husband raised their two (now grown) sons just south of San Francisco in the coastal town of Pacifica, CA, where she is an active community volunteer.
Bio
Kate Ceredona joined the SRF as Director of Philanthropy in November 2022. She is a development professional with over 9 years of experience raising major support for both higher education and health care related causes. Originally from Massachusetts, Kate relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a MA in Sociology from UCLA. Through her research, Kate explored the lived experience of those suffering from chronic illness, a topic inspired by a family member diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Kate represents the SRF from Los Angeles, where she lives with her two cats.
Livia Casciola-Rosen Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a doctoral degree in Medical Biochemistry, she pursued postdoctoral training in Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She initially joined the faculty in the Department of Dermatology at Johns Hopkins, and subsequently became a faculty member in Rheumatology.
Dr. Casciola-Rosen's research has focused on the shared mechanisms underlying the autoimmune rheumatic diseases, with an emphasis on scleroderma and myositis. In collaboration with Dr. Rosen, she has used disease-specific autoantibodies as innovative probes to define the events that initiate and drive the autoimmune response in the rheumatic diseases. Her work currently addresses the following areas: (i) defining the cells in vivo which express the highest concentrations of autoantigens targeted in specific phenotypes, and demonstrating that these cells are the targets of immune attack; (ii) understanding the autoantigens targeted in cancers associated with rheumatic diseases, and elucidating the underlying mechanisms, and (iii) identifying novel antibodies that have utility as clinical biomarkers.
In addition to overseeing the research laboratory, Dr. Casciola-Rosen directs the Sample Processing and Immunoassay Research Core in the Divisional Rheumatic Diseases Research Core Center (RDRCC). She also co-directs the Rheumatology Fellowship program, which provides research mentorship and career guidance to trainees. Dr. Casciola-Rosen, together with Dr. Ami Shah, co-leads the Precision Medicine Program in Rheumatology. This mechanism-focused initiative uses data from prospectively followed patients to define subgroups in the different rheumatic diseases based on distinct phenotypic features, trajectories over time, and mechanism-based measurements. Dr. Casciola-Rosen collaborates with Drs. Shah, Zeger, and Rosen on translational projects at the nexus of basic, clinical, and statistical research.
Job Titles:
- President and CSO at Versanis Bio
Job Titles:
- Chairman and Professor of Biomedical Data Science
Dr. Whitfield is Chair and Professor of Biomedical Data Science, and Professor of Molecular & Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He is Co-Director of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Big Data in the Life Sciences Training Program, which promotes integration of the experimental and population sciences, cross-training students to be equally comfortable in the computational sciences as they are at the bench.
Dr. Whitfield's research is focused on development of gene expression biomarkers, mining big data, systems biology and genomic networks in systemic autoimmune disease. He has focused his research on understanding the heterogeneity in and identifying novel therapeutic targets for systemic sclerosis (SSc) and in applying this information to better treat patients with the disease.
He was the first to identify the intrinsic gene expression subsets in SSc skin, which are now being used in SSc clinical trials. Multi-tissue networks developed by his group have demonstrated consistent, deregulated processes across end-target tissues in SSc, pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), suggesting an immune-fibrotic axis is a key driver of SSc pathogenesis.
Bio
Regina Hall is an award-winning actress of television and screen. Regina is most notably known for her work in the Scary Movie, The Best Man, and Think Like a Man franchises. Her work in Support the Girls earned her Best Actress honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and the African-American Film Critics Association. In 2020, Regina signed a first-look deal with Showtime, where she will develop projects to executive produce and potentially star in through her company, Rh Negative.
In 2006, Regina Hall became personally invested in scleroderma research after her mother was diagnosed and began treatment for the condition in 2006. Regina joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2021 after being introduced to the Scleroderma Research Foundation by board members Bob Saget and Dana Delany.
Job Titles:
- Development Database Manager
Bio
Ruben Cordoba joined our team as the Development Database Manager in February 2023. He is an accomplished development and nonprofit professional with over 9 years of experience.
Prior to joining the Scleroderma Research Foundation, Ruben held various roles at organizations such as the Rheumatology Research Foundation and Save the Children.
Ruben brings a strong analytical mindset and technical expertise to his role, along with a deep commitment to supporting the SRF's mission and achieving its goals.
Born in Colombia and raised in Miami, Ruben has a passion for travel and music.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator at Boston Children 's Hospital
Dr. Flynn is a Principal Investigator at Boston Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department at Harvard University. Prior to his appointments at Boston Children's and Harvard, Dr. Flynn was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of 2022 Nobel Laureate, Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, where he discovered cell-surface glycoRNAs, establishing a direct link between RNA biology and the cell's secretory pathway.
He completed his MD and Ph. D. in Cancer Biology in the Medical Science Training Program at Stanford University, where he was mentored by Dr. Howard Chang. He obtained his B.S. in Biology from MIT where he worked with and was mentored by Dr. Phil Sharp.
Job Titles:
- Expert
- Professor of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Scott L. Zeger is the John C. Malone Professor of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a joint appointment in the Department of Medicine. He is the University's co-Director of Hopkins in Health, the Johns Hopkins precision medicine partnership of the University, Health System, and Applied Physics Laboratory.
He conducts statistical research on regression analysis for correlated responses and on methods for precision medicine. He has made substantive contributions to our understanding of the effects on health of smoking and air pollution, the global etiology of children's pneumonia, and has developed multiple precision medicine decision support tools.
Dr. Zeger has served as expert witness to the U.S. Department of Justice and several states in their civil suits against the tobacco industry and as a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for the Merck Research Laboratory. He is a member of the Springer-Verlag editorial board for statistics and was the founding co-editor of the Oxford University Press journal Biostatistics.
Dr. Zeger's work has been recognized with several awards including most recently an honorary doctorate from Lancaster University in England and the 2015 Karl Pearson Prize from the International Statistical Institute with long-time colleague Dr. Kung-Yee Liang for their development of Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Dr. Zeger is most proud of his Golden Apple Awards from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Student Assembly for excellence in teaching.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine
Bio
Sharon Dobie is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine. As a Family Medicine physician, educator, and author, her career focused on health equity and service. Her son died of complications of scleroderma at age 31 in 2017, and she became a member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors that same year. She hopes to increase awareness among younger generations about scleroderma and to find new treatments and a cure.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair
- Founder
- Member of the Board
Dr. Dietz is Victor A. McKusick Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Genetics in the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Dr. Dietz's research is focused on elucidation of the etiology and pathogenesis of connective tissue disorders including a wide spectrum of conditions associated with fibrosis such as scleroderma. His lab is best known for in-depth studies that involve the creation and characterization of animal models of human diseases, with use of novel mechanistic insights to develop and test treatment strategies.
Dr. Dietz has received multiple prestigious awards including the Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics, the Taubman Prize for excellence in translational medical science, and the Harrington Prize from the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute. He is an inductee of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Academy of American Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Bio
Violetta (Vi) Merin is a New Jersey-based community leader and philanthropist. A friend of Sharon Monsky, Vi has been involved with the SRF since before our formal founding. She became a member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2017. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Arthur Zimtbaum Foundation.