Dr. Schwarzschild is a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. With an undergraduate foundation in biochemistry he pursued a doctoral thesis on the neurochemistry of tyrosine hydroxylase, the enzyme controlling dopamine biosynthesis. After neurology residency and Parkinson's disease (PD) fellowship training at MGH he developed a translational research program focusing on the role of purines — adenosine, caffeine and urate — among environmental and genetic influences in animal models and clinical studies of PD. He directs the Molecular Neurobiology Lab at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease where his interdisciplinary research program spans the neurobiology, epidemiology and clinical science of Parkinson’s. His group is currently focused on the development of clinical trials to prevent PD, building off recent advances in identifying prodromally and genetically at-risk populations. In 2018 he was elected to a 2nd six-year term leading the Parkinson Study Group (PSG), a consortium of North American clinical trial sites and investigators dedicated to finding improved treatments for people with Parkinson’s. At MGH he cares for patients with PD and their families in a weekly movement disorders clinic.

Dr. Simuni graduated from Leningrad Medical School and completed an internship in medicine in Leningrad, Russia. She subsequently completed an internship in internal medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center and a neurology residency and a clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She then pursued a movement disorders fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served on the clinical faculty of the Department of Neurology for three years and held the position of Medical Co-Director of the Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders surgical program.

Dr. Simuni joined the faculty of the Northwestern University in 2000 to build and lead a multidisciplinary movement disorders center that is recognized by the Parkinson’s Foundation and Wilson’s Foundation and serves as a training model in the region. She is the lead investigator of a number of clinical trials on experimental pharmacology, non-motor manifestations, and pharmacological management of PD. She is currently the Investigator of more than a dozen clinical trials. She serves on a number of Steering Committees for the PD national clinical trials, several committees of the Parkinson Study Group and the Parkinson’s Foundation. She is the Site PI and serve on the Steering Committee for the largest PD biomarker initiative funded by the MJFF (PPMI study). Dr. Simuni is the site PI for the Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials (NEXT) Northwestern Clinical Site (U10). She has more than one hundred publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and she has lectured nationally and internationally on movement disorders.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Eggers, MD, Professor of Neurology, serves as the vice-chairman of the Department of Neurology, Phillips-University Marburg, Germany (2016 to present). He completed his medical studies in 2005 after visiting the University of Hamburg, Germany, University of Cologne, Germany and University René-Descartes V in Paris, France. His medical thesis was on “Implementation of an interactive informed consent programme before gastric banding in morbid obesity”. He completed his postgraduate education at the Department of Neurology in Cologne, Germany (Prof. Fink) with research projects in the Neuroelectrophysiological Lab of Prof. Rothwell, Institute of Neurology, Queens Square, London, UK and the Neuroimaging Lab at the Feinstein Institute for Neuroscience (Prof. Eidelberg). He received his board certification in 2011, his habilitation on “Neuroimaging of Parkinsonian Subtypes” was finalized in 2013. He was appointed as consultant of the Department of Neurology, Cologne, Germany in 2014.

His research focus are Neuroimaging of Movement Disorders, Neuropychological characeristics, symptoms and therapies of Parkinson’s Disease and integrative care research in Parkinson’s Disease. In this context he founded the Cologne Parkinson’s Network in 2011, where he established an extensive care programme with interactions between neurologists in private practice and the Department of Neurology of the University of Cologne. Since 2017 he chairs the MDS-task force on “Integrated Care in Movement Disorders” and since 2018 the German Parkinson Societies Work Group on Parkinson Networks. Since 2012 he is project leader of one project within the DFG-funded Clinical Research Group 219: “Basal-ganglia-cortex-loops: pathological interactions and their therapeutic modification” on “Connectivity changes as a pathological link between striatal and cortical changes within subtypes of Parkinson’s Disease”. He is the medical director of the Parkinson Center of Excellence and chairman of the Parkinson Network Alliance Marburg. He is author of >120 publications, including 70 peer-reviewed, and has an H-Index of 22.

Lou joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1967. After receiving her RN in June 1968, Lou was assigned to Ft. Dix, New Jersey before receiving orders for South Vietnam where she served at the 91st Evac hospital for one year. She has made 4 return trips to that country. In 2003, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease as a result of exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange during the war. For the past 18 years, she has been sharing her Vietnam experiences with students and community groups. In addition, she has served on the boards of directors for numerous not-for-profit organizations and is currently Chairman Emeritus of the board of Turning Point in Leawood, KS. Her book, “Vietnam Nurse: Mending and Remembering”, was published in 2015. She has been involved with the Parkinson’s Foundation of the Heartland and has shared her PD experiences with groups across the country, including teaching a class on managing the emotional aspects of PD. She enjoys gardening, golfing and traveling with her husband, children and grandchildren.

My name is Rose Lang and I live in The Villages, FL (Florida’s Friendliest Hometown!) My husband John and I moved to The Villages in November, 2016 from Pennsylvania. Prior to that time, we had been snowbirds for 2 seasons.

I am a pharmacist by profession and retired in 2012 after 43 years in the field. For the last 26 years I had been in various pharmacy management positions, having worked in hospital, retail, and mail order pharmacy throughout my career.

Most recently I was the Vice President/General Manager of the CVS-Caremark mail order facility in Pennsylvania. We employed approximately 700 employees, including about 100 pharmacists. I traveled extensively on job assignments and was previously licensed in 5 states (from New York to Oregon).

My husband has Parkinson’s disease, diagnosed in 2008. We belong to several exercise and support groups in the Villages and have experienced firsthand the challenges when a PD patient is admitted to the hospital. I also provide communication via a Newsletter/email to approximately 500 people in our Parkinson’s community (people with PD and their Caregivers).

I continue to be impressed with the resources and outreach of the Parkinson Foundation and the enthusiasm of the educational support staff. Following my training in Columbus Ohio as an Aware in Care volunteer, I was re-energized about being involved in the Parkinson Foundation outreach program to educate patients, caregivers, and health care professionals on the challenges of hospitalized Parkinson’s patients.

I feel that my background as a health care professional and a Parkinson’s Caregiver positions me to make a significant contribution to the Aware in Care program and to enthusiastically support those on the journey of living with Parkinson’s.