PhD, Temple University, Vice President for Preclinical Development, Excision BioTherapeutics

Dr. Jennifer Gordon was diagnosed with EGPA in 2014. She holds a Ph.D. in Pathology and spent the last 30 years working as a biomedical researcher studying neurological disorders and infectious diseases. She recently retired from academia and is now consulting at Excision BioTherapeutics, a biotech start-up company developing CRISPR-based gene editing for the treatment of HIV and other viral diseases. Jenn is active in the vasculitis community. She is a patient partner in the Vasculitis Patient Powered Research Network (VPPRN) and a member of the VPPRN-VCRC EGPA Registry Joint Steering Committee. You can find her blog online at www.vasculitides.com or follow her on Twitter at @vasculitides.

MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic

Professor of Medicine, Consultant, Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Mayo Clinic College of Medicine & Sciences, Rochester, Minnesota

Dr. Specks has had a long-standing interest in ANCA-associated vasculitis. These diseases have been the focus of his clinical activities as well as widely published research. He’s made substantial contributions to the understanding of the pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis, the refinement of ANCA test methodologies, and our understanding of optimal clinical applications of ANCA testing. Dr. Specks is an expert for respiratory manifestations of vasculitis and has had a keen interest in novel therapies for ANCA-associated vasculitis. He introduced rituximab to the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis and was co-principal investigator of the Rituximab for ANCA-associated Vasculitis (RAVE) trial.
https://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/specks-ulrich-m-d/bio-00026319

MD, MAS Associate Professor Director, Vasculitis Center, University of California, San Francisco

Associate Professor, Director, Vasculitis Center, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Sharon Chung is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Division of Rheumatology. She directs the UCSF Vasculitis Clinic, serves as a Medical Consultant for the Vasculitis Foundation, and is a member of the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium. Dr. Chung's research interests include identifying the genomic factors that influence disease susceptibility and clinical heterogeneity of the systemic vasculitides. She is currently the chair of the ACR committee to develop guidelines for the management of systemic vasculitis. Follow her on Twitter @sharonchung_sf
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-sharon-chung

MD, Associate Clinical Professor, Founder and Director, Vasculitis Program University of California, Los Angeles

Associate Clinical Professor, Founder and Director, Vasculitis Program University of California, Los Angeles, Santa Monica

Dr. Tanaz Kermani is a vasculitis expert and Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at University of California Los Angeles. She is the Founder and Director of the multidisciplinary UCLA Vasculitis Program. Her research interests are in the epidemiology, complications and outcome assessment of large-vessel vasculitis, especially giant cell arteritis. Dr. Kermani is a clinical investigator in multiple international collaborative endeavors in the field of vasculitis. Her research has resulted in numerous publications.
https://www.uclahealth.org/tanaz-kermani

MD, Co-Director, Vasculitis Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Co-Director, Vasculitis Center, Division of Rheumatology and Immunology Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee

Dr. Jason Springer completed medical school at the University of Louisville and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Utah where he was mentored by a vasculitis specialist, Dr Curry Koening. He completed his general rheumatology and vasculitis fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. After his fellowship he went to the University of Kansas Medical Center where he developed a vasculitis center over the past seven years. In August 2020 Dr. Springer started a position as co-director of the vasculitis center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He serves on the VF Board of Directors and chairs the VF Research Committee.
https://search.vanderbilthealth.com/locations/vanderbilt-rheumatology

MD, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology University of Pennsylvania Chief, Division of Rheumatology

Chief, Division of Rheumatology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Dr. Merkel is the Chief of Rheumatology and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Merkel is an internationally recognized research and clinical expert in vasculitis and scleroderma, two diseases he has studied for over 25 years, and is an author on over 300 scientific publications. He is the Principal Investigator of the NIH-Sponsored Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC), a leading international research infrastructure for vasculitis clinical investigation. Dr. Merkel’s research focuses on clinical trial design and conduct, outcome measure development, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomarker discovery.

Dr. Merkel received his MD from Yale University, his MPH from Harvard University, completed his residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Merkel receives the majority of his research support from the National Institutes of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, with additional funding from industry sources and private foundations.
https://www.pennmedicine.org/providers/profile/peter-merkel

Executive Director

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