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About Us

About our Founder, Elizabeth Mays

Mission Statement
American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) is a non-profit organization dedicated to patients and their families coping with eosinophilic disorders. APFED strives to expand education, create awareness, and support research while promoting advocacy among its members.

About APFED
The American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in December 2001 by a group of mothers of young children living with Eosinophilic Disorders. We are a patient advocacy group dedicated to improving the lives of those living with eosinophilic disorders.

Our Goals:
Our mission is multi-faceted: Education, Awareness, Support and Research. Each of these points is equally important to the community dealing with eosinophilic disorders. Without education and awareness there can be no fundraising for research; without research, awareness and education become stagnant; without support, these chronic and painful disorders can become all consuming and the other three points suffer. APFED’s goal is not to tackle one aspect or another, the APFED Mission represents that “We Get It!”  We understand what living with an eosinophilic disorder is all about.

What We Do
We at APFED strive to:
Create a credible source of information for physicians and patients.
Reach out, find and support those who feel alone with their pain (patients and families).
Unite the physician and patient communities in an effort to empower both sides with a better understanding of one another
Teach the general public to understand what "eosinophilic" means to affected families.
Promote and support research into the cause and cure of eosinophilic disorders.

How We Do It
Patient Education Conferences: These conferences feature seminars given by foremost specialists in the field. They have proven to be effective in increasing awareness and empowering parents and patients with an understanding of their own illnesses.  Meeting others living with the same disorders often creates support relationships that can last a lifetime.  Our conferences continually stress the necessity for further research and participation in research studies.

Educational Materials: Our web site, educational materials, books and promotional items are all developed to be easy-to-read, up-to-date, accurate and user-friendly. Maintaining a standard of excellence is a key component with regard to these reference materials. Our Medical Advisory Board reviews all of the medical information APFED publishes for its content and accuracy. Because of this high standard, the organization has been featured, quoted, cited and referenced in medical journals and teaching manuals for medical students and professionals, television news stories, newspaper articles and magazines covering the subject of eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders.

Medical Advisory Panel: Our Medical Advisory Board is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of leading physicians and scientists who donate their time to the organization and its mission.  These dedicated professionals are integral to APFED's success as a patient advocacy group.

Where We Are Headed
The future and long-term vision of APFED is to become an all-encompassing eosinophilic advocacy organization. With the exception of asthma and eczema, which are covered by several other nonprofit organizations, APFED hopes to represent all eosinophilic disorders. By continuing to cultivate successful working relationships with physicians' organizations we hope to bridge the gap between patient and doctor. This will lead to faster diagnosis, more support for research, new treatments, and one day, a cure.

Financial Reports
2011 990
2011 Audited Financial Statements

Board of Directors

Wendy Book MD
President

Linda Roth RN
Corporate Secretary

Pradyumna Tummala MD
Chairman of the Board

 

 

Elizabeth McCarty
Vice President

Cindi Sutter
Director of Publications

Tom Fanning
Web Coordinator

 

 

Gerald Gleich, MD
Board Member

Victoria DeLano
Board Member

 
 
 

Medical Advisory Panel
MAP Chairperson
Margaret H. Collins, M.D.
Associate Professor Pathology, Pediatrics
University of Cincinnati Staff Pathologist
Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Seema Aceves, M.D., PhD
Allergy and Immunology
Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, CA
Assistant Adjunct Professor Pediatrics,
University of CA, San Diego

Steven J. Ackerman, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and Medicine, College of Medicine
The University of Illinois at Chicago

Amal Assa'ad, M.D.
Professor, University of CincinnatiDirector Allergy and Immunology Fellowship
Associate Director, Division of Allergy and Immunology
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

F. Dan Atkins, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Colorado Denver Health
Science Center

Professor of Pediatrics
National Jewish Health, Denver CO

Benjamin Enav M.D.
Eosinophilic and Autoimmune
Gastrointestinal Diseases Program
Inova Pediatric Digestive Diseases
and Nutrition Center
Fairfax, VA.

Glenn Furuta, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Colorado Denver Health
Science Center
The Children's Hospital

Nirmala Gonsalves, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Gastroenterology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Sandeep Gupta, M.D.
Director of Endoscopy
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Indiana University School of Medicine
James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children

Chris A. Liacouras, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Pediatrics University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Attending Physician Pediatric Gastroenterology
Co-Director Department of Endoscopy
Medical Director of Clinical Trials
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia PA
 

 

 

Jonathan E. Markowitz, M.D., M.S.C.E.
Director, Pediatric Gastroenterology Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
University of South Carolina School of Medicine--Greenville

Philip E. Putnam, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Director of Endoscopy Services
Cincinnati Children's Hospital
University of Cincinnati

Marc E. Rothenberg M.D., PhD
Director and Endowed Chair
Division of Allergy and Immunology
Professor of Pediatrics
Children's Hospital Medical Center
University of Cincinnati

Jonathan M. Spergel, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Allergy and Immunology
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Nicholas J Talley, M.D.
Center for Enteric Neurosciences and Translational Epidemiological Research (C.E.N.T.E.R.)
Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville

Srdan Verstovsek, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Leukemia The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Houston, TX

Michael E. Wechsler, M.D.
Associate Physician
Department of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts

Barry Wershil, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Blume Biomolecular Scholar
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Section Chief, Pediatric Gastroenterology