Chair
Helene Langevin, MD, CM - Chair
Director
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
01/31/2023
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Dr. Langevin is Director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
(NCCIH). Prior to that, Dr. Langevin was Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and professor-in-residence of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She also served as a visiting professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington. As the principal investigator of several NIH-funded studies, Dr. Langevin's research interests are centered around the role of connective tissue in chronic musculoskeletal pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture, manual, and movement-based therapies. Her more recent work focused on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue. She has authored more than 70 original scientific papers and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Langevin received an M.D. from McGill University in Montreal.
Federal Members
Elizabeth Kato, MD, MRP
Medical Officer at the Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
1/31/2023
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Dr. Elisabeth Kato is a Medical Officer at the Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). As Medical Officer, she coordinates opioid-related activities across AHRQ, including chairing opioid workgroup meetings, internal and external reporting, and representing AHRQ on intergovernmental working groups and conferences.
Walter J. Koroshetz, MD
Director
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Bethesda, MD
07/31/2023
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Dr. Koroshetz became the Director of NINDS in June, 2015. Previously, he served as Acting Director beginning October, 2014 and Deputy Director of NINDS under Dr. Story Landis. Together, they directed program planning and budgeting, and oversaw the scientific and administrative functions of the Institute. He has held leadership roles in a number of NIH and NINDS programs including the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative, the Traumatic Brain Injury Center collaborative effort between the NIH intramural program and the Uniformed Health Services University, and the multi-year work to develop and establish the NIH Office of Emergency Care Research to coordinate NIH emergency care research and research training.
Before joining NINDS, Dr. Koroshetz served as Vice Chair of the neurology service and Director of stroke and neurointensive care services at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He was a professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and led neurology resident training at MGH between 1990 and 2007. Over that same period, he co-directed the HMS Neurobiology of Disease Course with Drs. Edward Kravitz and Robert H Brown.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Koroshetz graduated from Georgetown University and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Koroshetz trained in neurology at MGH, after which he did post-doctoral studies in cellular neurophysiology at MGH with Dr. David Corey, and later at the Harvard neurobiology department with Dr. Edward Furshpan, studying mechanisms of excitoxicity and neuroprotection. He joined the neurology staff, first in the Huntington’s Disease (HD) unit, followed by the stroke and neurointensive care service. A major focus of his clinical research career was to develop measures in patients that reflect the underlying biology of their conditions. With the MGH team he discovered increased brain lactate in HD patients using MR spectroscopy. He helped the team to pioneer the use of diffusion/perfusion-weighted MR imaging and CT angiography/perfusion imaging in acute stroke.
Active in the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), Dr. Koroshetz chaired the professional organization’s Public Information Committee, led the AAN’s efforts to establish acute stroke therapy in the US, founded the Stroke Systems Working Group, and was a member of the AAN Board of Directors.
Rigoberto Roca, MD
Director, Division of Anesthesiology, Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine
Office of Neuroscience, Office of New Drugs
Food and Drug Administration
07/31/2023
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Dr. Roca is the Division Director of the Division of Anesthesiology, Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine, Office of Neuroscience, Office of New Drugs at the FDA. He has been with the FDA and involved with development and regulatory activities related to drug products since 1994. Dr. Roca is a member of the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trials Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Network (ACTTION), a public-private partnership of the FDA. He received an M.D. from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.
Friedhelm Sandbrink, MD
Director, Pain Management Program
Washington VA Medical Center Department of Neurology
07/31/2023
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Dr. Sandbrink is the National Program Director for Pain Management for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and leads the comprehensive pain program at the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center. He is a clinical associate professor at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, and assistant clinical professor at George Washington University. He participated in the VA/.S. Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines Workgroups for Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain and for Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain, both in 2017, and in the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force established by the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Sandbrink's interests include collaborative pain care, interdisciplinary pain management, opioid safety, neuropathic pain, and the study of neuroplasticity and placebo/nocebo effects related to pain. He received an M.D. from Hannover Medical School.
Scientific Members
Beth Darnall, PhD
Professor
Stanford University School of Medicine
1/31/2023
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Dr. Beth Denise Darnall is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2019, she became Chief Science Officer at AppliedVR, a digital health company. She is a pain psychologist and scientist, international speaker, and respected author. Her primary interest is helping people with chronic pain to optimize their mind-body connection to reduce their own symptoms, improve health and function, and enhance response to medical treatments (placebo response).
Christine Goertz, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Spine Institute for Quality
01/31/2023
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Dr. Christine Marie Goertz is the Chief Executive Officer of the Spine Institute for Quality. She is also Vice Chairperson at the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and serves on their Board of Governors. She is also President of Christine Goertz LLC and an Adjunct Associate at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. Her 25-year research career has focused on working with multidisciplinary teams to design and implement clinical and health services research studies designed to increase knowledge about the effectiveness and cost of complementary and integrative healthcare delivery. In addition, she has a long history of service on pain-related organizations. She has served on the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health. She has also been a member of the NIH Task Force on Chronic Low Back Pain.
Jose A. Moron-Concepcion, PhD
Professor
Washington University
01/31/2023
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Dr. Jose A. Moron-Concepcion is a Professor of Anesthesiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Missouri. His laboratory is interested in examining the molecular mechanisms underlying opioid dependence and the intersection with pain mechanisms. He has served on multiple national committees, including the National Academy of Sciences Advisory Committee to the FDA on improving the use of prescription opioids to treat pain.
Christine Nai-Mei Sang, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Anesthesia
Harvard Medical School
01/31/2023
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Christine Sang, MD, MPH is Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. She is a pediatric and adult anesthesiologist and an acute post-operative/post-traumatic and chronic pain specialist. Dr. Sang is the founding director of the Translational Pain Research Program at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, where they conduct Phases 1a (First-in-Human) through 2a (proof-of-concept) clinical trials in a variety of acute/post-traumatic and chronic pain indications. Her focus is on approaches to and relevant designs for clinical translation.
Todd Vanderah, PhD
Professor and Department Head of Department of Pharmacology
University of Arizona, Tuscon
07/31/2023
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Dr. Vanderah is Head and Professor of Pharmacology and is a Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona. His research interests include mechanisms of cancer pain, neuronal integration in pain pathways, neurochemical release during conditions of neuropathy, neuronal plasticity, opioid receptor pharmacology, and novel targets for drug discovery. He has authored over 135 original research articles. Dr. Vanderah earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona.
David Williams, PhD
Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine (Rheumatology), Psychiatry, and Psychology
University of Michigan
01/31/2023
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Dr. David A. Williams is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology at the University of Michigan where he serves as the Associate Director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Co-Director of Research Development within the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, and as a senior faculty member within the Institute of Healthcare Policy and Innovation. He is both a clinician and researcher with publications in the areas of chronic illness management, e- and m-health services delivery, patient-reported outcomes instrument development and validation, and mechanisms of pain perception/modulation. He is the immediate past President of the American Pain Society and serves on numerous scientific editorial boards and scientific review committees both nationally and internationally.
Public Members
James W. Broatch
Executive Vice President and Director
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association
01/31/2023
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Jim Broatch, MSW has served as RSDSA’s Executive Director for 15 Years and serves on RSDSA’s Board of Directors. In addition to leading RSDSA, Mr. Broatch serves as a compassionate, knowledgeable point of contact for individuals newly diagnosed with CRPS or those suffering for decades with the intractable pain and disability caused by CRPS who reach out to RSDSA for direction.
Maggie Buckley, MBA
Board of Directors
The Pain Community
07/31/2023
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Ms. Buckley is a board member of The Pain Community (TPC), an organization whose overarching goal is to improve the overall health, well-being, and quality of life of people with pain. Prior to being on the board of TPC she was Director of the Ehlers-National Foundation, President of the Northern California Chapter of EDS, Board member of the American Pain Foundation, Patient Liaison to the Board of Directors of the Academy oflntegrative Pain Management, Board of Directors of the American Pain Foundation, and the Board of Directors with the Pain Community. She has been published in a variety of venues including EhlersDanlos. com, USA today, The Western Pain Society newsletter, Pain Community News, and Pain Practitioner Magazine. Ms. Buckley earned an M.B.A. in Accounting from Golden Gate University. She also holds a Patient Advocate Board Certification.
Julie Eller
Director, Patient Centered Strategies
Arthritis Foundation
07/31/2023
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Ms. Eller is Director of Patient Centered Strategies at the Arthritis Foundation where she leads the Foundation's more than 130,000 national grassroots programs which bring together dedicated volunteers to share their arthritis stories with their state and federal elected officials. Ms. Eller has also represented the Arthritis Foundation on numerous pain-related roundtables to highlight access to care issues and her own experience managing pain. She also manages the Arthritis Foundation's grassroots advocacy network, empowering over 130,000 patients and caregivers to share their stories with decision-makers to break down barriers to care and bring visibility to arthritis. She earned a B.S. in Public Health from Stockton University.
Sue Pinkham
President of the Board of Directors
The Coalition Against Pediatric Pain
01/31/2023
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Ms. Sue Pinkham is the President of the Board of Directors at The Coalition Against Pediatric Pain (TCAPP). Her duties include presiding over Board meetings, fundraising, and working to fulfill the mission of TCAPP. The TCAPP's mission is to support and unite families affected by pediatric pain, educate others regarding long-term consequences of pediatric pain, increase awareness of special needs of children affected by pediatric pain, fundraise for organizations that operate to alleviate pediatric pain, and provide resources for and funding to families and professionals affected by pediatric pain. Ms. Pinkham has a daughter who was diagnosed with CRPS/RSD in 2005 and EDS in 2012. She has been involved in raising funds and awareness of CRPS/RSD since 2008.
Irma R. Rodriguez
Chair of the Board of Directors
Interstitial Cystitis Association
01/31/2023
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Ms. Irma R. Rodriguez is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Interstitial Cystitis Association (ICA}. The ICA Board guides strategic planning and organizational direction. Board members offer support for and spur interest in programs and services and provide fiduciary oversight of organizational activities. Ms. Rodriguez is a patient and longtime supporter of the ICA and has experience with advocacy, research funding, and education in interstitial cystitis. She maintains an active leadership role in professional organizations and the community.
Ex-Officio Members
Rena D'Souza, DDS, MS, PhD
Director
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
Tara Schwetz, PhD
Associate Deputy Director
National Institutes of Health
Nora D. Volkow, MD
Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Director
National Institute of Nursing Research