Shelley Berson , MD, FACS, FAASM, FAAOA
Shelley Berson, MD, FACS, FAASM, FAAOA Shelley Berson, MD, FACS, FAASM, FAAOA, founder of ZZenter, is a pioneer in approaching sleep disorders from the combined ear-nose-and-throat (ENT) and allergy perspectives. She is part of an elite group of fewer than 300 physicians combining Board Certification in Sleep Medicine, ENT Medicine, and Allergy Medicine. She was the keynote speaker at our 2018 AWAKE Initiative providing an overview of sleep apnea and its diagnosis to representatives of the FDA. Watch a video of Dr. Berson here.
Joseph Borelli, MD
A Joseph Borelli, MD is a leading expert in brain imaging and has an interest in brain imaging in patients with sleep apnea. He has over 33 years of experience in the medical field and also initiated the development of the Mobile SleepHealth App Researchkit Study for the iPhone and Apple Watch. He is a past Board Member of sleepapnea.org who suffers from chronic upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) and participated in the 2019 AWAKEtogether event. See Dr. Borelli in Portrait: Living with Sleep Apnea here
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Anne Bowdidge
Anne Bowdidge has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, shaping investor communications and public relations strategy for public biopharmaceutical companies, including Medivation, CoTherix, Affymetrix and Scios.
Prior to her communications career, she worked in research at Genentech and the National Institutes of Health. Ms. Bowdidge was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in 2013 and is a past Board Member of sleepapnea.org. See a video of Ms. Bowdidge here.
Alicia Chung, EdD, MPH
Dr Chung is an Assistant Professor of Population Health at the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development (CEHD), at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr.Chung's research interests are in family-based interventions to address childhood obesity through lifestyle behaviors including diet, play and sleep health. In her pediatric sleep research, she examines how sleep disorders affect developmental outcomes in children,and how to best support parents and caregivers overcome these challenges. She is also interested in the utility of digital solutions to aid families with evening sleep and meal routines. In her role at CEHD, she co-leads a place-based initiative to address social-emotional school readiness, as part of the Together Growing Strong Initiative, funded by the Bezos Family Foundation. Dr. Chung has served as the project manager for a web-based randomized clinical trial, to advance clinical trial participation among people of color. Dr Chung is featured in the Sleep Disturbances Among Vulnerable Populations video.
Craig Feied, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FACPh
Craig Feied, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, FACPh is a biophysicist and physician with board certifications in clinical informatics and in emergency medicine. He is a professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University and formerly served as chief health strategy officer at Microsoft. He also served as Director of the Institutes for Innovation in Medicine, in Washington DC. Dr. Feied has developed many computer hardware and software systems, including a unique practical software architecture for the rapid integration, organization, display, and mining of all data present in any medical setting, including data from all legacy systems, across many regions, all in real time. In 2006 this system was acquired by Microsoft Corporation as the enterprise core of a new Health Solutions Group. His work has been the subject of a series of five Harvard Business School case studies. Dr. Feied is currently working primarily on the development of embedded medical devices. See a video of Dr. Feied here.
Girardin Jean-Louis, PhD
Girardin Jean-Louis, PhD is a professor of population health and psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. He is Director of the NHLBI-funded Program to Increase Diversity in Behavioral Medicine and Sleep Disorders Research (PRIDE) Summer Institute and Director of the T32 Program on Translational Behavioral Cardiovascular Health Research.
Dr. Jean-Louis has been involved in several important NIH-funded studies, which have led to over 375 publications, primarily in sleep and cardiometabolic diseases, circadian rhythm, aging, and health equity. Dr. Jean-Louis’s research addresses how psychosocial and environmental determinants of health behavior prevent access to adequate care in low-income and black communities, which are disproportionately burdened by adverse cardiovascular outcomes Dr. Jean-Louis is featured in the Sleep Disturbances Among Vulnerable Populations video.
Kasey Li, DDS, MD, FACS
Kasey Li, DDS, MD, FACS has an extensive academic and credentialed career specializing in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Li is distinguished as the only surgeon in the world board certified by the American boards of otolaryngology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, as well as facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. He co-founded the multidisciplinary treatment program with Dr. Christian Guilleminault at Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic in 1998 and is the surgical consultant to numerous sleep disorder centers. He participated in an expert panel at the 2019 AWAKEtogether Summit. See a video of Dr. Li here.
Zach Miller
Zack Miller is a new sleep patient and a proud wearer of a CPAP mask. A son of an MD, Zack has been positioned at the intersection of finance, technology, and new media for over 10 years. A builder of new financial business, Zack has been an investor, consultant, and employee at some of the most exciting financial businesses around, including Tearsheet, OurCrowd, LendingClub, SigFig, and Seeking Alpha.
Zack received his AB in Economics from Harvard College and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Anne Marie Morse, DO
Anne Marie Morse, DO is the Director of Child Neurology and Pediatric Sleep Medicine at Janet Weis Children’s Hospital – Geisinger Health System (Danville, Pennsylvania). She is a board-certified and fellowship-trained pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine specialist. She has significant clinical experience and interest in pediatric and adult patients with central disorders of hypersomnolence. In addition, her research interests extend more broadly to include investigating the relationship of sleep with neurologic disease. Some of her current research involvement includes participation in studies evaluating neurodevelopment and sleep, down syndrome and sleep, OSA and neurocognition, and stroke and sleep. In terms of community based efforts, Dr. Morse has developed a school based sleep surveillance program that is being piloted this year to improve the recognition of pediatric sleep disorders in middle and high school students. See a video of Dr. Morse here.
Elena Oberstein, MD
Elana Oberstein, MD is a rheumatology specialist in Miami, FL and a board certified internist with a subspecialty in arthritis and autoimmune disease. She graduated from University Of Miami School Of Medicine in 2001, having over 19 years of diverse experience as well as specializing in rheumatology with interests in pain and sleep, and upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS).
Dr. Oberstein participated in ASAA’s Speaker Series and the 2020 AWAKEtogether Summit discussing the management of pain and sleep amongst her autoimmune and inflammatory populations. Dr. Oberstein helps bridge a gap between ASAA and the Spanish-speaking community by conducting patient education in Spanish
Brian Pachter, DO
Brian Pachter, DO is an Internal Medicine Specialist and Board Certified General Practitioner with over 16 years of experience in the medical field.
He graduated from Nova Southeastern University College Of Osteopathic Medicine medical school. He is a partner at Physicians Group of South Florida and Team Director at Seasons Hospice, Miami. As a general practitioner, Dr. Pachter is first line to assist his patients with their sleep concerns and issues.
Sairam Parthasarathy, MD
Sairam Parthasarathy, MD is a University of Arizona Professor of Medicine, Division Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Director for the UAHS Center of Sleep & Circadian Science, and Medical Director for the Center for Sleep Disorders. He is a critical care medicine specialist in Tucson, AZ and has over 30 years of experience in the medical field. He is a board member of the Sleep Research Society (SRS). He is an expert in the study of health disparities. Dr. Parthasarathy’s work with PCORI has brought the Peer Mentor Program to ASAA. He has participated in our 2020 AWAKEtogether Summit and our Speaker Series.
Mark Patterson, MD, PhD
Mark Patterson, MD, PhD is a board certified pediatrics specialist and has over 31 years of experience in the medical field. His practice provides primary medical care for children of all ages, from toddlers to teens. In addition to general pediatrics, he has a special interest in narcolepsy and cataplexy. Dr. Patterson is the father of a narcolepsy patient. He also teaches third-year medical students and pediatric residents. See a video of Dr. Patterson here.
Ashok Sastry, MD
Dr. Sastry is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology. He is on staff at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Doctor’s Hospital of Sarasota, along with HealthSouth and ComplexCare Rehabilitation Hospitals. Dr. Ashok Sastry completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine and Nephrology fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He has trained in all aspects of nephrology, including chronic kidney disease, hypertension, transplantation, and dialysis. Watch a video of Dr. Sastry here.
Azizi A. Seixas, PhD
Azizi A Seixas, PhD is the Assistant Professor at NYU School of Medicine, as well as a sleep expert in the fields of sleep and health technology. His work as a biomedical researcher, scientist, and health-tech innovator sits at the intersection of health behaviors, technology, and lifestyle and strives to create better healthcare solutions for all. Dr. Seixas is an expert in health disparities and is chair of the Young Investigators Research Forum of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). In 2020, Dr. Seixas was chosen by Cell Press as one of a hundred most inspiring Black scientists in America. Dr. Seixas participated in the 2020 AWAKEtogether Summit and is featured in the Sleep Disturbances Among Vulnerable Populations video.
Christina Semonick, M.S., CCC-SLP
Christina Semonick, M.S., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist. She graduated from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada with an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology. She holds a certificate of clinical competence (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). As an experienced clinician, she founded Clarity Speech Therapy in Mountain View, California to specialize in the neuromuscular speech and swallowing disorders that often co-occur with sleep apnea. Ms. Semonick participated in an expert panel at the 2019 AWAKEtogether Summit. See a video of Ms.Semonick here.
Peter Stein, Phd
2018 AWAKE Sleep Apnea Initiative and featured in the 2019 SLEEPtember Series. He is a sleep apnea patient who struggled greatly before successful treatment.
His job suffered, and the turning point for him was where he fell asleep at the wheel causing a drowsy driving head-on collision. See an interview with Dr. Stein here.
Robert J. Thomas, MD
Robert J. Thomas, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Physician, Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep. He is affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and specializes in Sleep Medicine in Boston, MA. He founded the ACGME-accredited sleep medicine training program at the BIDMC, and directs the Beth Israel Deaconess-Needham sleep center. His research interests include central/complex sleep apnea, circadian rhythm disorders, and brain health in sleep disorders. He has developed novel analytic technologies and FDA approved diagnostic and therapeutic products. See a video of Dr. Thomas here.