Patricia Kavanagh, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her education from Boston University School of Medicine, Boston MA, in 2003. Her research interests include sickle cell disease, health services research, health disparities research, population health research. Dr. Kavanagh has a national reputation in systems approaches to improve the care of children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). The Quality Lead for the Department of Pediatrics, and attending physician in the BMC Pediatric ED, she and colleagues defined and refined treatment standards for children with sickle cell disease, relevant to the Boston-area patient population but also globally. Her federal grants include a K23 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She led the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Sickle Cell Disease Newborn Screening Program at BMC. Online profile

TaLana Hughes is faculty member of Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program (SCDTDP) representing a parent/community-based organization (CBO), where she helps ensure the alignment of strategic goals, enables consistent team communication, participates in quarterly Oversight Steering Committee meetings, and contributes to project strategy decisions by sharing the patient/family/CBO perspective. She also chose the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois (SCDAI). As part of SCDAI, she has dedicated herself to reaching out to communities throughout Illinois to support those with sickle cell disease. SCDAI hosts baby showers for parents of infants, support groups, presentations at community institutions like churches and schools, and other programs to teach families how to access resources and necessary treatments. She also works within the healthcare system and seek to improve how providers treat sickle cell disease. Having managed grants for SCDAI and its partners, advocated for government support in Springfield and on Capitol Hill, and developed partnerships with all of the sickle cell centers throughout the state, she hopes to help increase the number of providers who have the skill and experience to address these patients’ needs. Online profile

Johnson Haynes is the Director at Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center and Professor of Internal Medicine at University of South Alabama College of Medicine. His specialties include Adult Sickle Cell Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. Online profile

In dedicating her career to education and research of sickle cell disease and related disorders, Ms. Brown has served a variety of healthcare-related non-profits. Currently, she is the Board Chair for the Community Health Charities of California, and also a board member of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, and Painted Turtle Camp, a summer camp for children with life-threatening illnesses. She also lends her leadership skills serving as the Director of Camp Crescent Moon. In 2012, Ms. Brown was recognized for her work by the American Camp Association when she received the Legacy Award for the ACA Southern California/Hawaii section. Ms. Brown is a graduate of California State University, Los Angeles where she earned her B.A. in education and psychology. Online profile

Dr. Nina Anderson, completed her doctoral studies from Thomas Jefferson University School of Nursing.  Her areas of expertise are in chronic disease management, holistic health and sickle cell.  Dr. Anderson is the founder of Tova Healthcare in association with Tova Community Health, Inc., which provides high quality of holistic comprehensive care and services to people living with complex chronic medical condition(s) like Sickle Cell Disease. Dr. Anderson founded the community-based Sickle Cell Specialty Treatment Center in Delaware.  She created the James Faucett III 5K Run/Walk & the TOVA Awards aimed to increase the awareness of Sickle Cell Disease Anemia.  Nina continues to take violin master classes and is a founding member of Umoja Strings.  She is also a strong advocate for the arts and music education.  In her spare time, Nina enjoys the outdoors, attending concerts and spending time with her family and friends. Online profile

Her research is dedicated to identifying targeted mechanisms and therapeutics that modulate endogenous genes to treat serious diseases, such as reactivating the genes for fetal globin to ameliorate sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, through inhibiting specific repressors. With Dr. Douglas Faller, she is applying a therapeutic to induce viral EBV genes and then use anti-viral agents to destroy lymphomas in which EBV resides. She also works on mechanisms and therapies to correct blood cell deficiencies. Research Interests: Translational targeted therapeutics, molecular mechanisms of globin gene expression, pharmaceutical development Clinical Interests: Hemoglobinopathies, thalassemias, viral lymphomas, cytopenias Online profile

Dr. Betty Pace is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist in Augusta, Georgia and is affiliated with Georgia Regents Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin and has been in practice for more than 20 years. She is one of the 8 doctors at Georgia Regents Medical Center who specialize in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. Online profile

Dr. Ify Osunkwo, a specialist in hematology and Sickle Cell Disease at Levine Cancer Institute in Carolinas HealthCare System, makes it her mission to improve the quality of life for Sickle Cell patients. Specialties: Hematology - Medical Oncology Education: Medical School, University of Nigeria Online profile

Dr. Kato is a hematologist with an active translational research interest in sickle cell disease, especially disorders of the blood vessel wall that may contribute to pulmonary hypertension. He takes care of adults with sickle cell disease, and leads clinical and laboratory bench research to learn the causes of pulmonary hypertension and other forms of vascular dysfunction and to develop new treatments to improve or prevent it. Dr. Kato's research specialties have been in blood flow physiology studies, clinical trials and proteomic analysis of plasma to unravel new mechanisms contributing to complications of sickle cell disease and to the development of red blood cells in the bone marrow. He and his team have formulated a model to suggest that pulmonary hypertension, stroke, leg ulcers and priapism share features of vasculopathy and more severe hemolytic anemia, and that pain crisis, acute chest syndrome and avascular necrosis share evidence of poor blood circulation due to viscosity. These two groups overlap and are not completely distinct. Online profile

Dr. Buchanan serves as a Clinical Instructor in patients with hemoglobinopathies. Dr Buchanan has been involved in clinical research and care of patients with Sickle Cell Disease locally and nationally. Experience in national clinical trials includes Props I, Pre-operative transfusion study and STOP. She has recently submitted a proposal for a national collaboration in the modulating effect of various opioids on the development of the acute chest syndrome in patients with sickle cell disease. Dr. Buchanan has been a member of the NIH Sickle Cell Disease advisory board and is presently a board member of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA) and the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia. Recent training includes a master’s degree in epidemiology. Dr. Buchanan is the Co-Director of the Division of Pediatric Research as well as Director of Research for the MSM pediatric residents, which involves in the training of research principles and study design. Online profile