Community Health Leaders
In order to stay up to date on latest treatments, drug discovery, clinical studies and how to cope with epilepsy disease every day, EpilepsyDisease.com brings you frequent articles, points of view and advice from health leaders and experts.
Current health leaders
Natalie Y. Beavers
Natalie Y. Beavers is an epilepsy survivor, advocate, and founder of the “Angels Of Epilepsy Foundation” outside of Atlanta, GA. She is a proud mother of two sons and works hard interacting with many epilepsy survivors and their families, as well as spreading awareness to get more people educated and involved within the epilepsy community. Read more.
Kayci Capps
Kayci is a mother of 3 and a school teacher. Her middle son, Will, started having seizures at 3 months old and was ultimately diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome- a rare and uncontrollable form of epilepsy. Kayci advocated successfully for legislature in Missouri making all schools seizure safe for epileptics. Read more.
Alyssa D’Amico
Alyssa D’Amico was first diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of six. It was discovered that a virus caused it. At first she had fear of what was happening and anger toward treatment. It did not take that much longer to notice that she is still the same person. Read more.
Gabrielle Foote
Gabrielle Foote is 33 years old, stay at home mom who is attending ASU for Biomedical Sciences. She has a supportive husband of four years and a 1-year-old daughter. Gabrielle was officially diagnosed with Epilepsy at age 16. However, it is believed she has had epilepsy her entire life. Read more.
Derra Howard
My battle with epilepsy began at 9 years old, I remember being at school. I was going to the snack line and it was like I was walking into a black tunnel. The next thing I remember is being in the hospital. Read more.
Caroline Johnson
Caroline Johnson is the Founder of Twisted Pink, a non-profit organization based in Louisville, KY whose mission is to provide hope and connection for people living with metastatic breast cancer by funding bold breakthroughs in research and awareness of the disease. Read more.
Stacia Kalinoski
Stacia Kalinoski’s first seizure surprised everyone. She was a healthy college runner, preparing for her junior cross country season at the University of Minnesota in 2005 when she had a seizure at her apartment. Read more.
Kathleen Lear
I am a stay-at-home mom to Matthew, born November 2002, diagnosed with intractable epilepsy in October 2008, who is currently treated by epileptologists at Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC), and Andrew, who was born February 2004 and is neurotypical. Read more.
Miles Levin
Miles Levin is an award-winning filmmaker, epilepsy advocate, and Board Member at Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California. He has lived with intractable epilepsy since age 4 and is passionate about awareness. Read more.
Nisshaa Muniandy
Nisshaa was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was six and dystonia at 17. Nisshaa had dystonia when she was six years old but her doctors failed to identify at a young age. Dystonia is rare in Malaysia and it’s new to some doctors. Dystonia is a movement disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions, while epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures, among others. Read more.
Elizabeth Savage
Elizabeth Savage was first diagnosed with Epilepsy in 2017 but her journey with seizures started years prior in 2014 just days before her 20th birthday. She lived a relatively healthy life as an active college student. Her first seizure happened during her sophomore year of college and to this day she feels like it happened yesterday. Read more.
Tim Ulmer
A head injury when he was 2 has made epilepsy a factor in every important decision of Tim’s life. Because of the relative mildness of his complex-partial seizures, he didn’t regard it an “invisible disability” until it blocked him from joining the Navy after high school. Read more.
Previous Health Leaders
Hailey Adkisson
Hailey Adkisson is a community college professor, a stereotypical Oregonian, a wife, a mother of three, and in her "free time", an unofficial PT, OT, SLP, nurse, and pharmacist to her daughter, Juniper, who has intractable epilepsy. Read more.
Natalie Boehm
Natalie Boehm is an epilepsy advocate who was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was two years old. After her diagnosis, there were many challenges with her childhood due to the medication she was on. Despite her challenges, Natalie was able to find a way to not allow epilepsy to overtake her. Read more.
Anita Meeks
Anita Meeks was first diagnosed with Epilepsy at the age of 50. At the same time, even a bigger shocker came being told that she has had Epilepsy the majority of her life, possibly well into the early years of childhood. She is a single mother to two boys, ages 30 and 14. After this diagnosis, Anita’s life forever changed. Read more.
Mandi Miller
Meet Amanda "Mandi" Miller; she has four years of freelance writing and is the quiet yet goofiest storyteller. With each publication opportunity she has achieved over a small amount of time, she has had an intense and beneficial dream of her becoming a substantial and out-of-this-world writer. Read more.
Renée Williams
Renée Williams is a multiple disabled and chronically ill epileptic in training for the Olympics for Taekwon-Do under the close guidance of their medical team and their seizure first aid-trained coaching staff. Renée is genderfluid and, while alternates pronouns in personal life, uses They/Them pronouns in professional life. Read more.
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