OUR EXPERTS
Dr. Ray Dorsey
Ray Dorsey is a practicing neurologist at Atria Health and Research Institute in New York. He is also the director of Atria’s Center for the Brain & the Environment, a nonprofit research initiative that investigates the environmental causes of brain diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and more.
Ray is one of the world’s most read, cited, and followed neurologists. With his colleagues, he wrote Ending Parkinson’s Disease: A Prescription for Action, a book that provides a prescription for preventing and ending the world’s fastest growing brain disease. His new book – The Parkinson’s Plan - debuted at #5 on the New York Times best seller list.
Ray previously was the David M. Levy Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester. Before that, he directed the University of Rochester’s Center for Health + Technology, was elected chair of the international Huntington Study Group, and led the movement disorders division and neurology telemedicine at Johns Hopkins.
In 2015, the White House recognized Ray as a “Champion for Change” for Parkinson’s disease.
Prof. Bastiaan Bloem
Bas Bloem is a consultant neurologist in the department of neurology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His studies include gait and balance disorders, and the development and evaluation of person-centered medicine. Since 2018, he has been doing a lot of work on the relationship between Parkinson’s and exposure to toxins in our environment. Along with Ray, Bas was a coauthor on Ending Parkinson’s Disease. He has published more than 750 peer-reviewed papers, including several large clinical trials appearing in high-end scientific journals. He is ranked among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world.
Bas is past president of the International Society for Gait and Postural Research. He recently became an Officer (secretary-elect) for the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. Since 2017, he has served on the Executive Scientific Advisory Board of The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. In 2018, he was elected as member of the “Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen” (the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), the oldest scientific society in the Netherlands. In 2018, he won the Tom Isaacs award as a recognition of his longstanding achievements in the field of Parkinson’s disease
Carey Gillam
Carey Gillam is an American investigative journalist and author with more than 30 years of experience covering food and agricultural policies and practices, including 17 years as a senior correspondent for Reuters international news service (1998-2015). She has specialty knowledge about the health and environmental impacts of pervasive pesticide use and industrial agriculture, and has won several industry awards for her work. Her first book Whitewash- The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science was released in October 2017, and won the coveted Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Carey's second book, The Monsanto Papers - Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man's Search for Justice, was released March 2, 2021.
Carey has been asked to speak all over the world about food and agricultural matters, including before the European Parliament in Brussels, the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, and to public officials, organizations and conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Argentina, France and The Netherlands.
After leaving Reuters, Carey spent six years (2016-2021) working as a reporter and data researcher for the public health investigative research group U.S. Right to Know. She currently writes as a contributor for The Guardian, and is managing editor of The New Lede, a journalism initiative of the Environmental Working Group.
Dr. Caroline Tanner
Carlie Tanner is the Director of the Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center (PADRECC) at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She is also Professor of Neurology at the University of California - San Francisco. For more than 25 years, her research and clinical practice have been directed toward understanding the causes of Parkinson’s disease and to developing better treatments.
She has conducted pivotal work on environmental and genetic risk factors for Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions, while remaining active in patient care, teaching and being published extensively. Her current research projects include conducting participant reported-outcomes, harnessing technology to increase participation in clinical research and access to care, the early identification of persons at risk of PD and the design and performance of trials to prevent PD. She is also the Prinicipal Investigator of Fox Insight, an online clinical study facilitated by the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) that aims to build a large cohort of people with Parkinson’s to provide the research community with critical insight into the lived experience, genetics and variability of Parkinson’s.
In 2020, Carlie was awarded the Tom Isaacs award for her impact on the lives of those living with Parkinson’s.
Dr. Samuel Goldman
Sam Goldman is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Department of Neurology.
He has published extensively on the epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on elucidating potential environmental risk factors (e.g., pesticides, solvents, smoking, and traumatic brain injury) and on the interaction of these risk factors with genetic susceptibility. His recent work has focused on identifying and characterizing clinical features of very early Parkinson’s disease – an essential step to advance the development of future disease-modifying therapeutic interventions.
Sam attended medical school at the University of Texas, Houston, and trained in preventive medicine at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also obtained his MPH in environmental health science.
Dr. Brittany Krzyżanowski
Brittany Krzyzanowski is a research assistant professor in the Neuroepidemiology Research Program and the Barrow Neuro Analytics Center of the Department of Neurology at Barrow Neurological Institute.
She is a geographer with expertise in spatial epidemiology and human-environment interaction research. She studies the effects of environmental exposures on neurodegenerative diseases. She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Association of Geographers, the Minnesota Population Center, and the Population Association of America.
Brittany earned her doctorate in geography from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and her master’s degree in experimental psychology from Central Michigan University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the neurology department at Washington University School of Medicine.
The expertise of the Krzyzanowski Laboratory includes spatial data analysis, geostatistical modeling, chronic disease epidemiology, regionalization, and environmental health. Additional research interests involve health disparities, climate change, neurological disorders, air pollution, geographic masking, patient data privacy, and dynamic geographic visualization.
Karen McCormack
Karen McCormack is a retired Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist who spent over 40 years with the agency.
During her career at EPA, she first worked in an EPA laboratory as a research coordinator and in that capacity, conducted research on pesticides. Later she transferred to EPA’s Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she worked in various positions in the pesticide program as a scientist, policy analyst, and communications officer. Karen also worked in a number of offices at EPA, including the Office of the Assistant Administrator for pesticides and toxics.
Since retirement, Karen has been outspoken about industry influence on the EPA, particularly in the Office of Pesticide Programs. . In 2022, she testified before Congress about lack of EPA oversight in regulation of pesticides used in pet products.
Kevin Hylton
Kevin Hylton is an environmental scientist with more than forty years of experience in air, water and hazardous waste media, from sampling and wet chemistry to environmental regulatory compliance to remedial design and project management.
His formal training is a BS in Environmental Science from Florida Tech, an MS in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and held a certification in Project Management. He’s held positions in basic industry, public utilities and consulting. He has authored several professional papers, co-authored a book on environmental management and holds a patent on a hazardous waste detoxification process. For the last twelve years of his professional career, he operated his own consulting business focused on managing large scale environmental cleanup projects with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars.
Following his wife’s diagnosis with Parkinson disease, Kevin closed his business and retired. In 2022, along with a few like-minded people, he co-founded the Rochester Parkinson Network, a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to providing information, resources and allies to those affected by PD. He currently serves as its President.
Dr. Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) C, Organic Chemistry and is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
He is the Managing Director of Equa Pharma, a pharmaceutical company specializing in Commercial Consultancy.
Chris lives in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK with his wife, Liz, who has Parkinson’s disease.