Medical Meeting

Dr. Erin Neil is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan, where she is the Director of the Pediatric Neuromuscular Program and Co-Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic. She serves as the Medical Director for the State of Michigan’s SMA Newborn Screening program, which includes administrative and clinical oversight for care of newborns diagnosed with SMA.

Dr. Neil completed medical training at the Kansas City University, College of Osteopathic Medicine; pediatric neurology training at the Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University/Children’s Hospital of Michigan; and Neuromuscular fellowship at University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas.

. Proud is the director of the Neuromuscular Clinic and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Center at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD), working collaboratively to provide a comprehensive approach to patients with neuromuscular diseases. She attended college at the University of Virginia where she majored in Neuroscience, and then studied at Eastern Virginia Medical School where she received her Doctorate of Medicine. Dr. Proud pursued general Pediatrics training in Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University and then trained in Neurology to receive special qualifications in Child Neurology at Stanford University. She remained at Stanford for her Neuromuscular Medicine fellowship and then returned home to Virginia to join her current practice as part of Children?s Specialty Group, serving the patients at CHKD in Norfolk, Virginia. During her subspecialty training at Stanford University, Dr. Proud participated in landmark clinical trials including one that supported FDA approval of the first treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). She has continued this interest at CHKD where she now serves as primary investigator for several clinical trials evaluating novel treatments for patients with various neuromuscular conditions. Her research focus is in the development and conduct of therapeutic trials for SMA and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Dr. Proud serves as the medical director for the CHKD Novel Therapeutics and Gene Therapy Center, with a commitment to optimizing clinical care and offering participation in clinical research to patients and families with rare disease.

Christina Ha, MD, FACG, is an Associate Professor with the F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel Immunology Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai She received her BA from Harvard College and her MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed an internal medicine residency and GI fellowship at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and as the Present-Levison Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Fellow at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. After fellowship, Dr. Ha joined the faculty as Co-Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center and Associate Fellowship Director for the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. From there, she joined the Tamar and Vatche Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases as the Associate Director of Clinical Programs for the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine prior to moving to Cedars-Sinai. Her clinical research interests focus on the impact of aging on the natural history of inflammatory bowel diseases, particularly with respect to therapeutics, morbidity, and mortality. Dr. Ha is the Director of the IBD Fellowship Program at Cedars-Sinai and has been involved in medical education initiatives locally and nationally.

Dr. Aline Charabaty is the Clinical Director of the GI Division and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) Center at Johns Hopkins-Sibley Memorial Hospital. She completed her residency and GI fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital, where she joined the GI faculty and established and led the IBD center for 13 years before joining the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty in January 2019. Dr. Charabaty lectures on IBD at national meetings and has advocated for patients with IBD on the Hill. She also uses social media to educate colleagues and IBD patients. She founded @MondayNightIBD, a twitter platform that brings clinicians together to discuss the management of complex IBD cases, for which she received the Healio Gastroenterology Disruptive Innovator Award during ACG 2019.

Dr. Charabaty has been the Chair of the Greater Washington DC/Virginia Crohns and Colitis Foundation Mission Committee since 2012 and served on the CCF National Scientific Advisory Committee Patient Education and Physician Education Committees. She is actively involved in educational and/or advocacy activities and committees with the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). Dr. Charabaty was selected as a Washingtonian Top Doctors by her peers on consecutive years.

Millie D. Long, MD, MPH, is board certified in internal medicine, preventive medicine, and gastroenterology. Dr. Long received her medical degree from University of Virginia in 2002. She then completed residency in internal medicine and a chief residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed fellowships in gastroenterology and hepatology, preventive medicine, and inflammatory bowel disease, all at University of North Carolina. She is currently Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship Program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Long’s clinical practice is at the UNC Multidisciplinary Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) Center. Her research interests include prevention of complications of IBD, women’s health, and clinical epidemiology. Dr. Long has contributed to over 200 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and review articles and to the medical literature. She is the current co-Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. She also serves as an invited reviewer for journals such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Gastroenterology.

Dr. Long is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology, where she serves on the Board of Trustees. She is also a fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, where she co-chairs the Clinical Research Alliance.

Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, MHCM, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine and a gastroenterologist that specializes in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She has recently transitioned to the University of Cincinnati after successfully building the first standalone multidisciplinary IBD Center and serving as the Medical Director at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center for five years. Dr. Afzali is now the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and Associate Chief Medical Officer of UC Health Systems and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She received her medical degree and completed both an Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. While in fellowship, Dr. Afzali worked in outcomes research and epidemiology and graduated with a Master’s in Public Health. She recently obtained an additional Master’s in Health Care Management for physician executive leadership and business administration from Harvard University. Her areas of research interest include clinical outcomes and clinical trials for investigative therapies and diagnostics in IBD. She is a healthcare redesign leader with interests in clinical operations and transformative medical care delivery. Dr. Afzali has extensive peer-reviewed publications and is a clinical trialist in over 20 investigative drug and diagnostic trials. She is also an invited lecturer on national and international programs and serves on several international advisory boards and scientific committees. Dr. Afzali is the incoming Chair of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Educational Affairs Committee and the incoming Chair of the World Gastroenterology Organization (WGO) Publications Committee, as well as Co-Editor of the WGO quarterly global newsletters.

David T. Rubin, MD, FACG, AGAF, FACP, FASGE, FRCP (Edinburgh) is the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine, a Professor of Pathology, Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center at the University of Chicago Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Rubin earned a medical degree with honors at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowships in gastroenterology and clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, where he served as Chief Resident and Chief Fellow. He also serves as Associate Faculty at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Associate Investigator at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is a member of the University of Chicago Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics. He is the chair of the National Scientific Advisory Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, where he also serves as a Board of Trustees member. Dr. Rubin is the deputy chair of the Executive Committee of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Prior to these appointments, he served as the Director of the Fellowship in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Chicago for 11 years. In 2018, Dr. Rubin completed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Leadership Development Course for Physicians.

Dr. Rubin is a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh). He is on the Board of Trustees for the ACG. Among numerous awards and honors, Dr. Rubin was chosen by his peers as a member of Best Doctors (recognized for superior clinical ability) and America’s Top Physicians (gastroenterology). Additionally, he twice received the ACG’s Governor’s Award of Excellence in Clinical Research (2003 and 2013), and the UChicago Postgraduate Teaching Award in recognition of significant contributions for fellowship education (2006). In 2012, he received the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Rosenthal Award, a national leadership award bestowed upon a volunteer who has contributed in an indisputable way to the quality of life of patients and families. He has previously served as an Associate Editor of the journal Gastroenterology and Editor-in-Chief of the ACG On-Line Education Universe. In 2020, Dr. Rubin received the Sherman Prize for Excellence in Crohn’s and Colitis.

Dr. Rubin is an editor of a best-selling book Curbside Consultation in IBD, now in its 3^rd edition, was an associate editor of the 11th edition and is senior editor of the upcoming 12^th edition of Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and an author or coauthor of over 500 articles on treatment and management of IBD, cancer in IBD and novel paradigms, as well as the first author of the 2019 ACG Guidelines for ulcerative colitis. His current research is in the area of novel approaches to monitoring of IBD (wearables and point of care intestinal ultrasound), prevention of progressive complications from uncontrolled inflammation, and a variety of collaborative and translational studies related to the causes of IBD and its complications. His H index is 74. He is also a featured media contact for issues related to IBD, appearing on satellite radio, television, print media and maintains a popular and verified twitter feed @IBDMD with over 20,000 followers.