Meet our next IG Live guest: Monica Weldon

I am so happy Monica Weldon, CEO and Founder of Bridge the Gap: Syngap Education and Research Foundation, has time in her busy schedule to chat with the Living Well With Epilepsy community!

If you have not met Monica she is fantastic. This woman is a force to be reckoned with–she is a mom of a child with an ultra rare disease who has successfully started a foundation and raised enough funds (and momentum) to support research in a disease state that has barely a handful of cases. In addition, she is smart, fun and kind and generally a delight to be around!

These days Monica and her team have been busy. I asked her to send over a quick update of what their organization has been up to, but first let me give you some background on SYNGAP1.

What is SYNGAP1

The team at Bridge the Gap: Syngap Education and Research Foundation have put together this video featuring researchers, clinicians and parents.

The team at Bridge the Gap: Syngap Education and Research Foundation have shared the following projects with us. Check them out when you have a minute:

So, whether you are a family affected by SYNGAP1, (or other special needs parent), a researcher, clinician, a curious person with epilepsy or just a fellow advocate, I hope you will join my chat with Monica Weldon on 3/27 on Instagram Live at 12pm PT/ 3pm ET / 7pm GMT.

You can find the chat at @livingwellwithepilepsy. Don’t miss it!

Jessica K. Smith Founder and CEO; Executive Director

Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.

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