Meet the Team
Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, MD/DrPH
Dr. Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman is the Solovy Arthritis Research Society Research Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She is a doctoral-trained epidemiologist and a practicing rheumatologist for Northwestern Medicine with more than 34 years of experience performing clinical research in systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE. Many of these clinical investigations focus onthe impact of lupus in multiethnic cohorts examining clinical, laboratory, and health-related outcomes locally, nationally, and internationally. These studies have examined health disparities in SLE patients with kidney, bone, and heart complications. Dr. Ramsey-Goldman has collaborated with communities, public health officials, and patient organizations in Chicago on two projects with Hispanic patients in Chicago, Roadmap for Education and Access to Care for Chicago Hispanic LUPUS (REACH LUPUS) and MONARCAS. The goals of these projects was to improve lupus awareness and to change health-seeking norms in three different Hispanic communities. To emulate the success of REACH and MONARCAS, a new project called LUPUS CONVERSATIONS for Black/African-American communities in Chicago and Boston was designed and developed with our community partners. The goals of the LUPUS CONVERSATIONS program not only target the improvement in the awareness of lupus, but now also includes improving awareness of clinical trial participation. We are grateful to you for joining the program and for the funding of the projects by the Office of Minority Health in the Department of Health and Human Services
Patricia Canessa, PhD
Dr. Patricia Canessa is the Director of Diversity and Health Equity at the Illinois Public Health Association, addressing programmatic and Public Health policy issues that directly impact health disparities outcomes in the Illinois and Midwestern region. She holds an academic position at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine where she serves as Field Director of the National Lupus Outreach and Clinical Trials program, a partnership with Harvard Medical School and numerous African-American institutions and communities located in Boston and Chicago. Dr. Canessa is a two-time graduate at Northwestern University in Chicago with degrees in Family Therapy and Executive Management. And a doctoral degree in Family Systems Interventions at the Family Institute, in Rome, Italy. Dr. Canessa is an accomplished researcher in the field of ethnography and public health. Prior to her current positions she served as Executive Director of Salud Latina/Latino Health, a regional Public Health capacity building organization, for a period of 14 years. She also co-led he Racial Equality Project, one of the first studies on diversity integration in the national social community non-profit workforce. Dr. Canessa is an expert consultant in the formulation and adaptation of culturally-competent evidence-based interventions, such as the Lupus African-American model which addresses prevention and management of chronic diseases that affect minority groups; and as such she has served the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) through the past 20 years.
Candace Feldman, MD/MPH/ScD
Dr. Candace Feldman is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical school. She is a doctoral-trained social scientist and practicing rheumatologist who conducts health equity research using electronic medical record and billing claims databases and she has expertise in the use of behavioral science theories to design and evaluate interventions to address disparities in care. Dr. Feldman has also nationwide analyses to understand infection risk and vaccine uptake among individuals with autoimmune diseases and to define lupus-specific avoidable outcomes and related disparities specifically around vaccine-preventable illnesses. She collaborated with Dr. Ramsey-Goldman on several of these studies. Dr. Feldman has published work on Critical Race Theory and the application of this to rheumatic diseases, including a qualitative study in partnership with Dr. Ramsey-Goldman examining the role of structural racism and racial discrimination on clinical trial participation among individuals of color with lupus. She is dedicated to understanding needs of individuals of African ancestry with lupus and systemic rheumatic diseases in Boston, Chicago, and other communities in the US and abroad.
Rodlescia Sneed, PhD, MPH
Dr. Sneed is an assistant professor in the Division of Public Health at Michigan State University (MSU). She is a social and health psychologist who utilizes community-engaged approaches to understand how chronic disease prevention and intervention efforts work best in community settings. She also is the Course Director for the MSU Master of Public Health (MPH) course on Community Engagement in Public Health Practice. Dr. Sneed is a Research Scientist with the Michigan Center for Urban African-American Aging Research (MCUAAAR), and an investigator with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Policies 4 Action Program. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Sneed earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in Epidemiology at Columbia University and a PhD in Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.
Kreager Traber, BA
Kreager is a research assistant at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience at Middlebury College in 2019. She is interested in studying disparities in health and healthcare, and hopes to attend medical school to continue her studies as a physician and public health researcher. Ms. Taber will be starting Duke Medical School in August 2021.