Episode 45: Patient Engagement in Research: The Parkinson’s Advocates in Research Program (PAIR)

Karlin Schroeder is the Senior Director of Community Engagement at the Parkinson’s Foundation, where she leads the Parkinson’s Advocates in Research program (PAIR). Through this program, Karlin runs the Parkinson’s Foundation Learning Institute, an intensive multi-day course that has trained over 300 people with Parkinson’s and their care partners in the research process and provides tools and resources for successful collaboration with research teams. Karlin creates and directs projects to incorporate patient expertise into research with industry, academic centers and government. Her work includes improving diversity in patient advocacy in Parkinson’s disease and defining metrics in patient engagement in research. She is a member of Patient Focused Medicines Development and the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative Steering Committee.

Kevin Kwok is the Head of Patient Engagement at Theravance Biopharma in the Bay Area. Previously, he was a partner at a leading executive recruiting firm, where he led the North American Life Science practice. Kevin earned his doctorate degree in clinical pharmacy from the University of Michigan. An avid lifelong wannabe athlete, Kevin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in in his late 40’s. He has taken control of his Parkinson’s with bold irreverence, optimism and biting humor. As a self-proclaimed amateur “PD satirist”, he has been a speaker and patient advocate for several foundations and has been featured on national news programs and webcasts, speaking about living a high-impact life, thanks to traditional therapies and a “zen-aggressive lifestyle.” Kevin joined the Parkinson's Foundation Parkinson's Advocates in Research program in 2014.