Anna Grill is the inspiration for Young Onset Parkinson’s Network (YOPN). She was on the fast track as a sales executive at a Fortune 200 company, and the youngest and only woman on the executive team when she was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease (YOPD) in 2007 at the age of 38. At the time, she was living her best life: excelling in her career while successfully balancing the roles of wife and mother, with two girls aged nine and seven. She led a division of 110 associates spanning a territory from South Carolina to Delaware and served as an active volunteer in her community. Afraid of being defined by her disease rather than her work, she continued in her stressful career for ten additional years without disclosing her illness to workers, family, and friends. Once Anna publicly disclosed her diagnosis, she became frustrated with the lack of resources available specifically for those with YOPD. Never one to step away from a challenge, Anna recognized the need for a building community and providing resources to others with diagnosed with Young Onset. Her vision is to specifically support the YOPD community in a holistic, positive environment. Anna is a vocal advocate, active volunteer for the Parkinson’s Foundation and Ambassador for Supernus Pharmaceuticals. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and her two grown daughters. |
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Brad McDaniels is an assistant professor and program coordinator for the Rehabilitation Studies program in the Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services at the University of North Texas. Brad earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, and after graduating, completed a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University focusing exclusively on Parkinson’s disease. Brad is currently involved in research focusing on meaning in life, loneliness, demoralization, stigma, and other non-motor issues of PD. He is also an active participant of the Davis Phinney Foundation Science Advisory Board. |
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Jennifer is the creative force behind NysnoBio, responsible for the business and scientific focus of the company as CEO. She has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including 13 years in neurodegenerative diseases at Elan Pharmaceuticals. As VP, Head of Discovery Research at Elan, Jennifer delivered multiple novel molecules for Parkinson’s disease from initial discovery to candidate selection. In 2015, she co-founded An2H Discovery, focused on ubiquitin pathway enzymes, and successfully led the company to identification of lead candidates with potent in vivo activity. In 2019, Jennifer co-founded NysnoBio to focus on the development of small molecule and gene therapy approaches for Parkin E3 ligase. She has studied the Ubiquitin pathway throughout her education, from her Ph.D. at Dartmouth, to subsequent work on E3 ligases at Caltech with Alex Varshavsky, and to her discovery of Aggresomes at Stanford with Ron Kopito, resulting in more than ten patents and over 40 publications. She has served as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals, and on the SAB of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for over 15 years. Outside the office, Jennifer has been a member of the USA Track & Field 100Km Team, earning bronze and silver medals in the national championships, and holds the record for the most wins in the Angeles Crest 100-mile trail run. |
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Hiral Shah is an assistant professor of neurology at CUMC in the Division of Multispecialty Neurology. Dr. Shah completed her undergraduate at MIT and her medical doctorate at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Shah completed her neurology residency at Columbia, serving as chief resident in her final year. Dr. Shah subsequently spent nearly a year at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, working in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse on public health aspects of neurological illnesses. She is currently a Global Mental Health Scholar, and also serves as coordinator for WHO’s project on dementia prioritization and G7 Dementia Research Agenda portfolio analysis. In addition, Dr. Shah is a Global Health and Aging Policy Fellow, with plans to examine best practices surrounding human rights protection for those with cognitive impairment and dementia. Dr. Shah is most interested in learning how to overcome barriers of stigma and discrimination to improve care access for vulnerable individuals who suffer from mental health conditions and neurodegenerative disorders. This includes the assessment of cognition and mental health among those with neuropsychiatric conditions. |
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