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Community Health Leaders

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By Editorial Team

4 min read

In order to stay up to date on latest treatments, drug discovery, clinical studies and how to manage neuromyelitis optica every day, Neuromyelitis-Optica.net brings you frequent articles, blogs, points of view, and advice from leading health leaders and professional medical experts.

Current Health Leaders

Sandra Adda

Sandra is 53 years old and has been living with NMOSD for 15 years. A native of New York, she has spent most of her life in Florida, where she was a senior sales marketing associate for a Fortune 500 company until the day that her life changed forever. Read more.

Avery Allmond

Hello my name is Avery and I’m 24 years old. I was diagnosed with NMOSD in 2017, then quickly learned I actually have MOGad. I am a former college track runner and due to the severity of my attack at the time, I gave up the sport I loved. Read more.

Teaira Daniels

My name is Teaira Daniels. I am 38 years old and from Cincinnati, OH. I am a Licensed cosmetologist; I have 1 child my daughter Amariyah who passed away July 1, 2009, 13 days from turning 2 from Pompe Disease. Read more.

Deneisha Ellis

Hi my name is Deneisha Ellis. I am 32 years old. I am from Inglewood, California. I am a Lash Tech. I am an aunt of three girl. They best thing that has happened to me. They are the light of my life. I was diagnosed with NMO in 2015. Read more.

Cindy Fincham

My name is Cindy Fincham, I'm the mother of two beautiful adult daughters. My oldest Ria was diagnosed in 2012 with Neuromyelitis Optica (NMOSD). I and her younger sister are her full time caregivers. Read more.

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Helen Lear-Grant

Helen is a disability travel blogger based in Scotland who was diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica in 2014. She took one life-changing illness and turned it into a life-changing experience. Read more.

Daniel Marino

My name is Daniel but go by Dan or Danny. I'm 33 and living in North Carolina, originally from upstate New York. I am a happy cat dad who loves his fur baby. She is my world and cuddle buddy. I am a pretty big Marvel and horror movie nerd. Sadly, nothing scares me anymore. I also enjoy all kinds of music and love to dance and be silly. Read more.

Lisa McDaniel

Lisa McDaniel’s awareness of rare disease began in 2007, after the onset of Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) in her 5 year old son, Collin. She learned what it took to be a “Rare Mom” and fought for her son’s life. After Collin’s death in 2012, Lisa switched gears and went to work for the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation (GJCF), where she serves as the Director of Patient Advocacy. She uses her extensive caregiver experience to help other patients and families living with NMOSD. Read more.

Haleemah Sarwar

Haleemah is a 19-year-old Law Student in Scotland who has been advocating for NMOSD since diagnosis. She was diagnosed with NMOSD in late September of 2021 after a three-month-long fight to get diagnosed. Read more

Kshirja Singh

I am a wife, a mom to a 10-year-old girl, and an NMOSD Warrior. For as long as I can remember, I have been an overactive person: traveling around the world, a big-time foodie, and just on the run - always! I would not sit still. On November 9th, 2021, I was diagnosed with Read more.

Aldelly Vasquez

My name is Aldelly and I’m fabulously living with neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s disease). A rare demyelinating inflammatory disease that has changed my world. I’m in my early 30’s, a mother of two young active boys, a proud daughter of immigrant parents, a sister and so much more. Read more.

Previous Health Leaders

Marlene Austin

I am not an expert on NMO or MS or any of the many diagnoses I had received over the time I’ve dealt with symptoms, but I’ve got my little bag of tricks that have helped me normalize the new me that comes home slightly different than the person who went into the hospital with a flareup. Still, every step I take as I walk reminds me that I have NMO and my abilities have changed. Read more.

Shekita Green

Shekita Green is the mother of 2 teenagers, the wife of an Army Vet and an entrepreneurial spirited businesswoman. In January 2013, she first began experiencing terrible nerve pain, back pain and numbness in her fingers and toes along with piercing headaches. Read more.

Monica Jones

Monica Jones, affectionately known as “Mo” to those close to her is an NMO warrior and a Type 2 Diabetic. Having been a diabetic for over a decade Mo was used to hitting bumps in the road, but it was the NMO diagnosis that knocked her off her feet. Read more.

Chelsey Judge

Chelsey studied immunology at Case Western Reserve University, completing her PhD in 2016, and further studied immune mechanisms involved in HIV as a research fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. Read more.

Chelsey Tucker

Chelsey Tucker resides with her husband, 5 children, and 3 goldendoodles in Nashville TN. Most people would agree that Chelsey Tucker lives anything but an ordinary life. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 21, Chelsey began a course of disease modifying treatments in hopes that the MS living inside her body would slow in progression. Read more.

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