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Maria T. Abreu, MD is a Gastroenterologist who specializes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She completed her medical degree at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Her postdoctoral training included an internship and residency in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a clinical and research fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Abreu is the Director of the Crohn’s and Colitis Center, Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Abreu has more than 20 years of leadership experience in basic, translational, and clinical research and mentoring. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2010 and, in 2018, to the Association of American Physicians (AAP). She completed a three-year term as Chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) in 2022. In 2019, she was elected Councilor-at-Large of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Governing Board for a term of three years. Most recently, she is President-Elect of the AGA, on the path to becoming President in 2024. She will be the fifth woman and first Latina to hold this position.

Dr. Abreu is a recipient of the 2019 Sherman Prize by The Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation, which recognizes outstanding achievements in IBD. In 2020, she received the Mentoring Award from the Immunology, Microbiology, and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IMIBD) section of the AGA. In the Fall of 2020, she received the Healio’s Lifetime Disruptor Award. This award goes to a gastroenterologist or hepatologist who consistently pushed the gastroenterology field forward through innovative treatments, practice management, patient care, or research. She is the 30th alumnus inducted into the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Hall of Fame. Dr. Abreu is frequently invited as a speaker (in English and Spanish) at symposia on basic science and clinical topics all over the world. She has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters, and reviews.

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.

LaToshia Rouse is a certified birth and postpartum doula/owner of Birth Sisters Doula Services, as well as a Patient and Family Engagement Consultant. She contracts with Institute of Patient and Family Centered Care (IPFCC), the University of Chapel Hill and several organizations to offer her expertise in patient engagement, doulas, and equity. Her journey began as a patient partner 10 years ago, after having triplets at 26 weeks gestation via an emergency vaginal delivery. Early on, LaToshia’s work focused on bringing the parent perspective to the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) and antepartum improvement committees at WakeMed Health and Hospitals, including serving as a member of the NICU’s Vermont Oxford Network (VON) team. LaToshia has served as a subject matter expert and expert team member for the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC), American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and many other organizations.

Ms. Rouse’s work has spanned all levels of healthcare, with work in research, policy, executive committee level, and board of directors with the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ). She worked on policy with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s (NCIOM) Maternal Health Taskforce and worked on policy as Co-Chair of the NCIOM’s Taskforce on the Perinatal System of Care in 2019. Her measurement work started in 2020, with the Maternal and Child Health- Measurement Research Network where she Co-Chairs the Equity Committee for the project. She is also a Co-Chair of the (National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives) NNPQC’s Executive Committee. LaToshia completed her Diversity and Inclusion Certification at Cornell University to further impact equity for families, moms, and babies. The opportunity to sit on National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)’s HEDIS and Health Equity Expert Work Group has been one of those opportunities. In reflecting on the work she’s engaged in over the last number of years, LaToshia’s passion is finding ways for clinicians and patients to have a true partnership and improve outcomes.

Kevin A. Ault, MD, FACOG, FIDSA, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. Dr. Ault is a former member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice and is an author on current guidelines concerning maternal immunization, including RSV.

Tina Tan, MD, FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS, is Professor of Pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; and a Pediatric Infectious Diseases attending, Medical Director of the International Patient and Destination Services Program (IPS), co-Director of the Pediatric Travel Medicine Clinic; and Director of the International Adoptee Clinic at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. She is currently serving as the Vice President of the Lurie Children’s Hospital Medical/Dental Staff. She is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Tan recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA – 2017-2020) and in 2022 was elected as the Vice-President and President elect of the Board of Directors of IDSA. She also served as the chairperson of the IDSA Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, Access & Equity (2017-2022). She has served as Chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Infectious Diseases (SOID – 2014-2018) and as a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID – Redbook Committee – 2010-2018). She currently serves as chairperson of the: AAP Global Immunization Advocacy Project Advisory Committee and is a Technical Advisor for the AAP/CDC Global Immunization Advocacy Project. She is a member of the AAP Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship Workgroup – Education Subcommittee, AAP Expert Pertussis Cocooning Advisory Committee, and is a liaison to the CDC ACIP Pertussis Working Group and Polio Working Group and to the Illinois Chapter of the AAP OB/GYN Immunizations and Pregnancy Outreach Committee. She is a member of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Global Health Task Force Dissemination and Advocacy Work Group. Dr. Tan is a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she serves as co-Chair of the AFM Task Force and the Vaccine Confidence Task Force. She served as a member of the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines of the US Department of Health and Human Services (2016-2019) and as a member of the Vaccine and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (2019-2022).

Dr. Tan is the Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatric’s Redbook Atlas of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and the Redbook: A Quick Diagnostic Deck. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (Official Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society – PIDS), Internal Medicine Reviews, and Vaccines.

Dr. Tan is the Co-Chairperson and US Representative to the International Steering Committee of the Global Pertussis Initiative (GPI); a member and consultant to the Steering Committee of the Latin America Without Pertussis Initiative (PAHEF, SLIPE); a member of the Expert Pertussis Core Team for Latin America & the Caribbean: Pertussis Action Plan 2020; a member of the Board of Directors of the World Association of Infectious Diseases and Immunological Disorders (WAidid); and a member of the US National Pertussis Task Force (AAP and Every Child by Two).

Dr. Tan’s interests include pertussis disease and vaccines, pneumococcal disease and vaccines, CA-MRSA infections, antibiotic resistance, vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, general infectious diseases, vaccination of cancer patients with routinely recommended adult preventative vaccines, and vaccine education for healthcare providers and patients.

Margaret R. Jorgenson, PharmD, BCTXP, is a clinical pharmacist at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin with 14 years of experience caring for abdominal transplant recipients. Dr. Jorgenson specializes in infectious diseases and has focused on optimizing patient outcomes through quality improvement. Her primary area of interest is treatment and prevention of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease.

Roy D. Bloom, MD, graduated from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa. Following his residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he completed nephrology fellowship training at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and medical director of its Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. Dr. Bloom has mentored over 25 transplant nephrologists, several of whom now hold leadership positions in transplantation across the United States. His scholarly activity spans co-authorship of more than 200 publications, with areas of interest including transplant policy, viral infections in transplantation, biomarkers, clinical immunosuppression studies, and post-transplant outcomes.

Dr. Bloom has previously served on the American Society of Transplantation’s (AST) board of directors as well as most of that Society’s committees related to patient care, education, and practice improvement. He has been a member of various AST, Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), and Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) work groups. He has co-chaired the AST/American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Transplant Course and is an AST/ASN Transplant Nephrology Core Curriculum faculty member. He previously served as a transplant representative on the ASN Public Policy Board and is currently a member of the AST Public Policy Committee and the ASN transplant work group that advises ASN leadership. He is a founding member of the AST Medical Directors Task Force. He was a work group member of the AST Biomarker Consensus Conference in 2022 and recently co-chaired the AST Controversies Conference related to long-term care of transplant recipients.

Dr. Bloom currently serves on the Cutting Edge of Transplantation annual meeting planning committee. He is an associate editor for the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Daniel Kaul, MD, is a professor of internal medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is the director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Service and the program director of the Infectious Disease Training Program. He has published widely on the management of cytomegalovirus in immunocompromised patients. Dr. Kaul serves on the program committee for the American Transplant Congress and is on the editorial board for the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch Infectious Disease. He has been the local principal investigator on numerous clinical trials of antiviral agents and has also conducted investigator-initiated trials.

My name is Jeff Wertalik and I’m 47 years old and have been dealing with extreme hyperlipidemia since about 2005. I come from a family of hearty eaters complete with relatives who LOVE to feed people. It’s the type of environment where food is family. I’m also a larger person genetically as well. I’m a 6’5″ former Division 1 offensive lineman with the frame to match. So, food and I have always had an intimate relationship. Along with a healthy appetite, I was also an average to above average consumer of alcohol. After college and I parted ways (due to injury and depression), I ended up working at a large local liquor store stocking and selling wine, beer, spirits, and gourmet cheeses.

I began to have some blood work issues in 2005. In 2012, I weighed the most I ever had in my life and was living in total excess and experienced had my first episode of pancreatitis. As the pain intensified, I went to the emergency room where blood was drawn and immediately separated before the nurse’s horrified eyes. My triglycerides came back at over 7,000 mg/dL. I was in the ER for 5 days. I started watching my diet, taking the prescribed medicine from a new doctor I began seeing, losing more weight and was on my way to fixing the issue.

For the next 7 years I dealt with five more pancreatitis attacks, a needless gallbladder removal, and multiple dieting trends. I was still being told by doctors that I simply needed to improve my health with little to no direction and even meeting with nutritionists whose advice was “eat less food and more veggies”. I did have some success with extreme dieting (made me miserable) and bloodwork never came close to “normal”.

On April 16th, of 2019 my life was changed forever as I met with my first lipid specialist, Dr James Underberg. He looked at my history, my labs, and my story and knew almost exactly what was going on with my body. He went through and explained all the medical terms, genetics, issues, and the fact that there was little treatment available…. and I could not have been happier. An immense weight was lifted from my shoulders as I finally was able to see that this was not my fault. Yes, I could have done better in my choices, but this deck was stacked against me from the start. One of the biggest changes that I needed to make was alcohol. Dr. Underberg said that he would consider it malpractice to say anything other than I needed to put it all behind me… and I haven’t looked back. It was the easiest decision that I ever made. That’s saying something because, I am still working at the liquor store and am a buyer of domestic wines for the chain.

Over 4 years have passed and I’m still not the perfect patient, but I am constantly working, fighting, and moving forward in this battle against my body. I found some amazing people within the community and am working on helping others find their way through this crazy genetic puzzle. Throughout my life, I’ve always taken solace in the fact that there are others who are facing the same struggles that I am and working through them. So, I’m doing my best to do the same, sharing my story to let others know that there is hope and we can get through this together.

Alan Chait, MD is Professor Emeritus in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He is the past Head of this Division, past Director of the University of Washington’s Nutrition Obesity Research Center, and past Principal Investigator of a NIH-funded Program Project on Macrovascular Disease in Diabetes.  Dr. Chait has had a long-standing research and clinical interest in Disorders of Lipid Metabolism.

Joseph L. Witztum, MD is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California, San Diego. For more than 40 years, Dr. Witztum has made major contributions to the field of atherosclerosis. Alongside Dr. Daniel Steinberg, he first described the role of OxLDL in atherogenesis, providing fundamental information on its properties and evidence that it existed in experimental models and humans. He first showed that oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) was immunogenic, leading to both adaptive and innate immune responses to what he termed “oxidation-specific epitopes,” which fundamentally contributed to the concept that atherosclerosis was a chronic inflammatory disease.  After discovering the IgM natural antibody E06 that specifically bound and neutralized oxidized phospholipids (OxPL), he and his colleagues have shown the central role of OxPL in mediating inflammation and toxicity in a wide variety of settings.  Using transgenic mice that express the E06 antibody, they have shown that targeting OxPL ameliorates many disease processes, including atherosclerosis, NASH, myocardial ischemia-reperfusion, and osteoporosis.

Dr. Witztum has had a career-long interest in lipoprotein metabolism, and has been actively involved in both basic and clinical studies to develop novel therapies for unmet needs, especially in the context of hypertriglyceridemia and elevated Lp(a) levels. Most recently, he has contributed to the development of antisense therapy targeting apoC-III, Lp(a), and ANGPTL3. His research has resulted in more than 500 manuscripts and has an h-index of 167. Dr. Witztum has been an Editor of major scientific journals for over 35 years,  including being Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lipid Research.

Dr. Witztum received his Bachelor’s Degree from Vanderbilt University, his MD from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and his residency training at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. This was followed by a fellowship and faculty position in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Washington University School of Medicine. He has been at UCSD since 1979.

Eric D. Achtyes, MD, MS graduated from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan and earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Achtyes completed medical school at the University of Michigan, his internship at the Michigan State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies (MSU-KCMS) and his adult psychiatry residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean/Harvard program where he served as chief resident on the addictions inpatient unit at McLean Hospital. Following residency, Dr. Achtyes was an attending psychiatrist treating patients and conducting research at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health services for 15 years, serving as the Director of the Division of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine for the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine for 11 years and the Medical Director for Network180 for 9 years.  He is currently a Professor and Chair in the department of Psychiatry at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in Kalamazoo, Michigan where he teaches and mentors medical students and psychiatric residents.

Dr. Achtyes has been an investigator on more than fifty-five clinical trials in depression and schizophrenia, including both industry and federally funded research projects from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and has authored more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of Human Genetics, British Medical Journal, Journal of American Medical Association, Journal of American Medical Association Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, and Nature Medicine. He is currently an Associate Editor for the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.  Dr. Achtyes has served as the President of the Michigan Psychiatric Society and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In 2022 he was named ‘Physician/Psychiatrist of the Year’ by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Michigan.