Kathy Sapp, CEO
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Kathy Sapp
Kathy Sapp is CEO of the American Chronic Pain Foundation, as well as the Co-founder of Patient Mind Inc. Kathy has worked for Marion Labs, Marion Merrell Dow, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Aventis, Pharmion Corporation, and Teva Pharmaceuticals. She was responsible for forming alliances with hundreds of national and international advocacy organizations and third parties to enact mutually beneficial strategies to meet business and patient needs. Kathy managed advisory boards on a global basis while building strong relationships with advocacy organizations and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). Her established relationships include rare diseases (Huntington’s, aplastic anemia, multiple myeloma), bipolar disorder, diabetes, CV, neurology (pain, migraine, MS, epilepsy, narcolepsy), and oncology. Kathy evaluated and supported thousands of medical and patient education grants and sponsorship requests. Kathy developed collaborative agreement opportunities and built strategic advocacy plans and budgets. As a health advocate, her sponsorship of innovative and award-winning programs supported millions of people globally… so patients could engage in their healthcare rights.
Penney Cowan, Founder
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Penney Cowan
Penney Cowan is the founder and chief executive officer of the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA). She herself is a person with chronic pain and established the ACPA in 1980 to help others living with the condition. The ACPA provides peer support and education in pain management skills to people with pain and their families. The ACPA also works to build awareness about chronic pain among professionals, decision makers and the general public.
Since 1980, Cowan has been an advocate and consumer representative for pain issues. She was awarded the Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Citizen by the Institute for Public Service, Washington, and is listed in Who’s Who in America, 24th Edition. The American Pain Society awarded her the 2005 John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award, Presidential Commendation, American Academy of Pain Medicine, 2013 and the Elizabeth Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements, from the American Pain Society, 2013.
She served as: Consumer Representative for the FDA/CDER Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC) for 2012 and was appointed to Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee of the National Insitute of Health from 2013 to 2015.
Cowan began the Partners for Understanding Pain campaign in 2002 in an attempt to raise awareness about the need to better understand, assess, and treat pain. There are more than 80 partner organizations. The campaign, under the direction of the ACPA, successfully established September as Pain Awareness Month.
Trupti Gokani, MD
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Trupti Gokani, MD
Trupti Gokani, MD is an award-winning, board-certified neurologist, health & mindset coach, ayurvedic expert and Master Practitioner of NLP, who has dedicated her life to developing a unique blend of ancient wisdom with modern approaches. By melding these approaches, she’s become a highly sought-after speaker and coach, sharing holistic wellness strategies with larger-than-life media personalities like Dr. Oz, global pharmaceutical giants like Teva, and
coaching clients from all over the world. She has been a blogger for Huffington Post and served on the faculty for The Shift Network and Metagenics. She is best known for her revolutionary integrative approach to treating migraine, one of the most disabling neurological conditions, through the The Zira Mind & Body Center which she founded in 2006. As a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, she now uses this additional approach to help clients understand their unconscious mind programs which keeps them in repetitive patterns of disharmony of thoughts, words, and action, leading to misalignment with the true self and optimal health. From this experience she has created the Three Brain Optimization ProgramTM , which allows clients to discover the exact source of their disharmony. She is now offering this program of integrative coaching, using cutting edge techniques, to improve energy, mindset, focus, and clarity in purpose. She helps high performers create a strategy to move them from survival mode to thriving. This allows them to attract abundance of health, wealth and relationships in life. Currently, Dr. Gokani is the Chief Medical Officer of Saffron & Sage, a holistic healing center in San Diego. She has served in previous roles as CMO of Ancient HealthCare, LLC, an organization founded to advance the knowledge of wisdom to the world. She currently is on the advisory board of Patient Mind, LLC a non-profit with a mission to empower patients with mood and pain disorders. She is Secretary of the Great Lakes Regional Headache Society. She is also on the advisory board of Verse, an online healing arts educational platform. She is a consultant and spokesperson for Microbiome labs and is working with them to conduct research on imbalanced gut flora and neurological and psychiatric disorders. She is a consultant for BrowTine Consulting, and assisted them with the development of an online education program for migraine. Dr. Gokani graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Illinois with degrees in Economics & Biology. She later earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she also completed her training in Neurology, was Chief Resident, and pursued additional post-doctoral training and certification as a Master Clinical Psychopharmacologist through the Neuroscience Education Institute. Her early bout with insomnia in medical school led her down a path of studying eastern forms of healing, specifically Ayurveda, for twenty-five years. She initially pursued formal training in Functional Medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. At that time she joined forces with another integrative practitioner and started an integrative wellness center. During this time she managed a team of practitioners ranging from massage therapists and nutritionists to acupuncturists and physical therapists. Dr. Gokani became certified in IV Nutritional therapy and offered this therapy as a bridge for those struggling to restore energy, vitality, and reduce pain. At this time started practicing Transcendental Meditation in hopes to share this wisdom with her patients. During this contemplative time, she felt a draw to further study the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. Due to her early exposure and personal transformation with this science, she decided to become certified in Ayurveda. She thus completed certification as an Ayurvedic Wellness & Nutrition Counselor through Kerala Academy. She then later pursued additional advanced training in Ayurveda through the Maharishi Health Professional Ayurveda Practitioner Program in conjunction with Scripps Hospital. In addition to these certifications, she trained in Pranic Healing and Chakra analysis to further pursue the mind. Her passion for understanding the physical-mental-emotional-spiritual connection to health led her to delve deeper into NLP training. As mentioned above, most recently, she has become a Master Practitioner of Neurolinguistic Programming and is becoming certified as an Integrative NLP Coach. Despite all of her work in complementary medicine, she has maintained her vigor for studying western neurology and completed board recertification for Neurology & Psychiatry. She is medically certified by the American Board of Neurology & Psychiatry, and is licensed to practice in Illinois and California. Due to her passion for education and training, she has now become one of the leading faculty trainers for leading pharmaceutical companies such as Teva pharmaceuticals and has been a local or national speaker for Allergan, Abbvie, Biohaven, Lundbeck, Merck, Pfizer, Glaxo and Astra-Zenica pharmaceuticals. She has been married for 24 years and has two children, Ariya and Arman, along with her dog Blue. She resides in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Dr. Gokani published her first book, The Mysterious Mind, in 2015 and is working on her second book. She is available for speaking engagements and media appearances in addition to her ongoing work at the Zira Mind & Body Center and private coaching intensives. For more information, visit Dr. Gokani at
https://truptigokanimd.com/.
Andreia Naomi Pierce, PhD, MBA
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Andreia Naomi Pierce
Dr. Andreia Naomi Pierce is a business leader at Amazon Web Services. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on Neuroscience from the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center, her MBA from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, and she served as a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in a Biophysics lab. In her industry career, she worked in many disease states including Chronic Pain & Addiction, Multiple Sclerosis, Severe Asthma, COPD, Parkinson’s Disease, and Migraine. Her work in the pain space includes launch of one of the first FDA approved temper resistant morphine treatments, and a monoclonal antibody for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. She has received numerous awards for her business leadership, which speaks to her strong background in learning, developing and managing large teams. At Amazon, she is in charge of building a vision for Research on the AWS cloud, and to lead a team of technical and sales business development professionals in efforts to drive innovation in the way scientists across disciplines collaborate and conduct research. Strategy is a passion for her, and she does not stray too far from it in her spare time, as she practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with her husband and 10-yr old son in their own Gracie Garage in the Greater Philadelphia Area. She is also involved in her community as a local elected official in her township.
Jonathan Cohen
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Jonathan Cohen
Jonathan Cohen is an MD/PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/Carnegie Mellon University. He received his bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College. During his time in Pittsburgh he has worked with the faculty to promote pain management education through inter-professional collaborations, student interest groups, curriculum restructuring, and establishing pain management programs for underserved communities. Recent projects include developing an inter-professional student-run pain clinic for underserved community members. His research interests include understanding the biological mechanisms of pain, identifying risk factors and interventions for patients with chronic pain, and developing strategies to increase student awareness and understanding of pain management.
Nicole Kelly
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Nicole Kelly
A communications strategic planning consultant and writer, Nicole is retired after ten years as a Principal and Communications Practice Leader for Buck Consultants in Pittsburgh. She previously held the same positions with the William M. Mercer Company for eight years. Prior to her consulting work, she was Manager of Corporate Communications for Allegheny International and held public relations positions at Allegheny General Hospital. She also taught in the Chatham University Masters of Professional Writing program. Her areas of expertise include communications strategic planning; opinion research, including both surveys and focus groups; multimedia personalized communications; video and web site development; executive communications; and broad human resources communications. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Nicole has served on the Board of Directors of the American Chronic Pain Association for more than 30 years. For the ACPA, she has developed educational videos, print materials, surveys, and the organization’s web site and was instrumental in launching the Partners for Understanding Pain September Pain Awareness Month campaign. She is a past president of the ACPA board of directors. A Pittsburgh native, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Joanne H. Schneider, RN, PH.D.
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Joanne H. Schneider, RN, PH.D.
Joanne is a Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist and Adult Nurse Practitioner in Psychiatry/Pain Medicine in the Neurological Institute Center for Pain at the Cleveland Clinic. She has worked as a multidisciplinary team member in the Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program for 23 years, which treats individuals with chronic pain, addiction and psychological issues. As part of her role, she evaluates patients to assess, plan and implement treatment of their chronic pain, orchestrate the care of a team of patients undergoing treatment in the Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program, plus addresses psychological, substance use and relapse prevention issues. In addition, she see patients for follow-up to assess treatment outcome, provided medication management, and psychotherapy. She helps educate nursing staff, medical students, and residents in art of pain management.
Board Members Emeritus
- Joseph Baim, Ph.D., Baim Associates
- Charles Lidz, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts
- Darlene Lovasik, R.N., M.N. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Edward Covington, M.D; Director of the Neurological Center for Pain in the Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Officers
Kathy Sapp, CEO
American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Kathy Sapp
Kathy Sapp is CEO of the American Chronic Pain Foundation, as well as the Co-founder of Patient Mind Inc. Kathy has worked for Marion Labs, Marion Merrell Dow, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Aventis, Pharmion Corporation, and Teva Pharmaceuticals. She was responsible for forming alliances with hundreds of national and international advocacy organizations and third parties to enact mutually beneficial strategies to meet business and patient needs. Kathy managed advisory boards on a global basis while building strong relationships with advocacy organizations and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). Her established relationships include rare diseases (Huntington’s, aplastic anemia, multiple myeloma), bipolar disorder, diabetes, CV, neurology (pain, migraine, MS, epilepsy, narcolepsy), and oncology. Kathy evaluated and supported thousands of medical and patient education grants and sponsorship requests. Kathy developed collaborative agreement opportunities and built strategic advocacy plans and budgets. As a health advocate, her sponsorship of innovative and award-winning programs supported millions of people globally… so patients could engage in their healthcare rights.
Scott Farmer, MBA
COO, American Chronic Pain Association
Bio
Scott Farmer, MBA
20 years in medical education and 300 educational activities created, Scott has educated on 33 pain and emotional health conditions. Websites and smart interactive programs are his focus. Technical skills include web and app development, e-learning, PowerPoint, animation, video production, illustration, branch logic, needs assessment, corporate wellness systems, data collection, outcomes, and grant writing. Scott has an MBA, and is the Co-Founder of Patient Mind Inc., as well as the CEO of Brow Tine Consulting, LLC. He has authored one book and illustrated five books. Scott is the co-founder of MigrainePro© and the producer of WorkMigraine© and Primary Care Migraine© for the National Headache Foundation. His mission is to give people the resources and confidence needed to manage physical and emotional pain through high-quality and engaging education.
