Feb 23 2024
Join Us for March’s Brown Bag Webinar – Narcolepsy & Maternal Health
h in News
Join us on March 14th at 2pm ET for “Narcolepsy & Maternal Health!”
Navigating Narcolepsy & maternal health can be overwhelming. Join this important WUN discussion to learn from experienced experts, Emily Clegg Barker & Ashley Starr Frechette. They will be joined by Katie Sharkey who helps women manage all things Narcolepsy & maternal health.
If you have ever wondered about pregnancy and Narcolepsy you won’t want to miss this session. Bring your questions for moderator Kelsey Biddle to “ask the experts.”
Katie Sharkey, MD, PhD, FAASM, FACP is a sleep medicine physician and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine with a secondary appointment in Psychiatry & Human Behavior. She earned her MD-PhD at Rush University in Chicago, IL where she also completed a combined internal medicine and psychiatry residency in 2007. Dr. Sharkey joined the Brown faculty in 2007. Sharkey is a recognized expert on sleep and circadian rhythms, particularly as they relate to mood regulation and women’s health.
Emily Clegg Barker, PhD, has lived with narcolepsy with cataplexy for 18 years. She is the mom of 3 sons (ages 13, 11, and 6). Emily deeply enjoys connecting with other women as a co-facilitator for the Wake up Narcolepsy Pregnancy and Parenting with Narcolepsy peer support group. Emily is also a scientist and a medical writer and has performed research in medication use during lactation with narcolepsy. Emily enjoys being active and especially playing various sports with her family
Ashley Starr Frechette, MPH, has her Bachelor’s degree in Health Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health, both from Northeastern University. She is the Director of Health Professional Outreach at the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ashley oversees the health professional outreach advocacy program and various health collaborations in CT. Ashley is a member of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls, the CT Fatality Review Board, the CT Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and she is a certified CHOICES counselor. Ashley has been living with Narcolepsy Type I for 18 years. Symptoms started at age 16 but she wasn’t diagnosed until she was 18 years old.
Kelsey Biddle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. After college, she began working as a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham & Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals. Here, Kelsey performs cognitive assessments for the Harvard Aging Brain Study, and investigates the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease with Dr. Nancy Donovan, a geriatric psychiatrist. Kelsey was diagnosed with Narcolepsy Type 1 (Narcolepsy with Cataplexy) in January of 2018 at the age of 22 after six weeks of symptoms. As a neuroscience major and daughter of an immunotherapy-focused physician-scientist, she was in the “right place at the right time” to be the first human subject in a novel immunotherapy intervention trial for new onset Narcolepsy.
Thank you to our 2024 Brown Bag Webinar Sponsors!