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Regan R.

Joan W.

Ashley N.

Ryan R.

Zoe R.

Vanessa K.

Courtney W.

Chantelle M.

Denise M.

Ben Nowell, PhD,
Principal Investigator

W. Benjamin Nowell, PhD, MSW, is Director, Patient-Centered Research, at the Global Healthy Living Foundation (GHLF), CreakyJoints® and Principal Investigator (PI) of ArthritisPower® Patient-Powered Research Network. He directs ArthritisPower along with co-PIs Shilpa Venkatachalam, PhD, MPH (GHLF) and Jeffrey Curtis, MD, MS, MPH (University of Alabama at Birmingham). Ben leads all research activities conducted by the organization, including facilitating studies conducted with academic, government, and industry partners. His research interests include examination of the factors that facilitate patient engagement as research partners, the use of patient-generated data for use in real-world evidence, and shared decision making in rheumatologic and musculoskeletal conditions. Prior to joining GHLF, Ben worked as a medical social worker and Community and Long-Term Care Coordinator for the Ottawa Regional Stroke Centre and as Research Coordinator for an evaluation of participant outcomes in Arthritis Foundation chronic disease self-management programs for arthritis. He holds a Master’s degree in Social Welfare (MSW) from the University of California at Berkeley and a doctorate in Social Work (PhD) from Columbia University.

Shilpa Venkatachalam, PhD, MPH,
Co-Principal Investigator

Shilpa Venkatachalam, PhD, MPH, is Associate Director, Patient-Centered Research, at the Global Healthy Living Foundation (GHLF), CreakyJoints® and Co- Principal Investigator (PI) of ArthritisPower® Patient-Powered Research Network. Dr. Venkatachalam completed her undergraduate degree in Mumbai, before moving to the United Kingdom to complete a master’s degree in literature at the University of Durham, and earned her PhD in critical theory at the University of Nottingham. Following significant life events that required navigating health systems as patient and a caregiver, she earned an advanced master’s degree in global health from New York University (NYU), during which she also won the prestigious Paul Ambrose Scholars Program fellowship awarded by the by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. Her research interests include patient engagement, chronic pain management and shared decision making in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. She was among 25 chosen by The Young Persons Chronic Disease Network in collaboration with American Cancer Society and the Harvard Global Equity Center for The Global Cancer Advocacy Training in 2015 and she has been a regular panelist for video conference presentations on Global Health Topics by the Ambassador’s Club at the United Nations as part of a UNITAIR initiative. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2017.

Jeff Curtis, MD, MS, MPH,
Co-Principal Investigator

Jeff Curtis, MD, MS, MPH is Professor of Medicine, U. of Alabama at Birmingham and Co-Principal Investigator of ArthritisPower® Patient-Powered Research Network. He served on the Core Expert Panel for the ACR’s 2008, 2012, and 2015 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in RA and was the Deputy Director for a collaborative project between the FDA, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and a number of academic centers studying the safety of biologic agents using multiple, pooled national data sources. The evaluation of the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and safety of the medications used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis are among Dr. Curtis’s research interests. He also serves as the co-PI of the UAB Coordinating Center of the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) electronic health record-based registry Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry. He was appointed a member of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Herpes Zoster workgroup. He was a member of the ACR’s task force to update recommendations for the management of glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis (GIOP). He served on the ASBMR Task Force on Atypical Subtrochanteric and Diaphyseal Fractures. Additionally, Dr. Curtis is a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). He has been on the editorial board for Arthritis & Rheumatism, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS) and Arthritis Care and Research (AC&R).