The Incyte Ingenuity Awards Program

Peggy Burkhard is the Executive Director of the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link (nbmtLINK), an independent non-profit organization, founded in 1992. The mission of the nbmtLINK is to help patients, caregivers, and families cope with the social and emotional challenges of bone marrow/stem cell transplant and CAR-T cellular therapy from diagnosis through survivorship by providing vital information and personalized support services. Burkhard began her career in New York City in the publishing business before moving to Michigan and working for several organizations and non-profits as a public relations and marketing professional. Prior to joining nbmtLINK, Burkhard had spent the last 20 years promoting organ, tissue, and eye donation with the Donate Life Coalition of Michigan. The nbmtLINK provides several services and resources designed to meet the needs of bone marrow/stem cell transplant patients, survivors, caregivers, and health professionals around the globe. Various services include several original publications written in easy-to-understand language, a Peer Support On Call program, an award-winning Marrow Masters podcast, popular Lunch & Learn monthly call-in programs, a Celebrating Second Birthdays program, webinars and podcasts, and an original Emmy-award winning documentary, The New Normal. Now in its 29th year, the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link continues to provide educational, psychosocial, and personalized support to people facing this daunting medical journey. The nbmtLINK has formed alliances with many of the major transplant centers in the US. These LINK partnerships provide an avenue of communication between the organization and these hospitals. Additionally, the LINK collaborates with other major cancer-related organizations such as the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Be the Match, DKMS, and the National Institutes of Health.

Meredith Cowden, MA, LPCC-S, received her Master of Arts degree in Art
Therapy and Counseling from Ursuline College in Ohio in 2011. She is working as a psychotherapist in private practice with LifeStance Health, Inc. Her therapeutic work is primarily focused on trauma, building personal resilience, and living with chronic illness. Meredith is a cancer survivor of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and had an allogeneic bone marrow transplant in 2001. This subsequently led to the development of chronic GVHD, which she has been living with for 20 years. Since this diagnosis, Meredith has focused on education and support for those who are living with the aftereffects of a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Her family started The Meredith A. Cowden Foundation in 2007 to address educational and support needs surrounding blood cancers, HSCT, and GVHD. The Foundation’s mission is to raise awareness of the impact of leukemia and GVHD, to fund research for GVHD, and to provide financial support for nonmedical expenses associated with blood cancers. Meredith has collaborated with nbmtLINK, BMTinfonet, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and several additional national and international organizations, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies, specifically presenting on life post-transplant and living with chronic GVHD. Additionally, she has been a member of the NIH GVHD Consensus Consortium Steering Committee and led the 2020 NIH Chronic GVHD Consensus Conference Patient Advocacy Summit. She is currently chairing the NIH Patient Advocacy Advisory Committee (PAAC), working to address unmet needs of patients.

Dr El-Jawahri serves as the Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Survivorship Program, the Associate Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program (CORE), and the Director of Digital Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. She subsequently completed her hematology-oncology fellowship at the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center Fellowship Program. Dr El-Jawahri is an oncologist specializing in the care of patients with hematologic malignancies and those undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and adoptive cellular therapy. Her goal is to improve the lived experience of patients with hematologic malignancies and their families. Her research interests include investigating patient-reported outcomes, developing interventions to enhance patient-centered decision-making, and designing supportive, palliative, and digital health interventions to improve the care of patients with hematologic malignancies and their families. Dr El-Jawahri and her organization were also the recipients of the inaugural 2020 Incyte Ingenuity Award. Learn more about her award-winning project.

Dr Miguel-Angel Perales is the Chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, as well as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy and serves as Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Transplantation and Cell Based Therapies Committee, as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Be The Match (National Marrow Donor Program - NMDP), and Vice-President of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT, former ASBMT). He also holds leadership positions and has been extensively involved in activities of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and Blood and Marrow Transplantation Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). Dr Perales received his MD from the Free University of Brussels and completed his postdoctoral training at the Tufts Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr Perales has over 250 publications including peer-reviewed articles, position papers, guidelines, book chapters, editorials, and invited reviews. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings over the past 20 years.

Dr Connie Sizemore is a published Clinical Pharmacy Specialist Leader with 20 years of hematologic, immunotherapy, and stem cell transplantation experience at the Northside Hospital Cancer Institute’s Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant, Leukemia and Immunotherapy Program in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Science (1993) and Doctor of Pharmacy (1997) degrees from the University of Tennessee and Mercer University in Atlanta, respectively. She completed a general clinical pharmacy residency at Piedmont Hospital/Mercer University in Atlanta, and remained at this institution for several years as a clinical pharmacy specialist prior to moving to Northside Hospital. Dr Sizemore has been very involved in professional organizations and activities throughout her career. She has presented at international and national pharmacy meetings and has been a contributing author on numerous publications in the field of stem cell transplantation and oncology pharmacy. As a member of the National Marrow Donor Program’s System Capacity Initiative Pharmacy Working Group, she worked along with others to develop pharmacy specific FACT standards and currently represents pharmacy on the FACT standard committee. Dr Sizemore is an advocate for involvement in multiple spectrums of clinical pharmacy.