Team Bio

NoAAC is a funded, multi-institutional consortium with 40 participating centers in the United States and Europe that works to exchange information concerning the treatment of adult airway disease. It is composed of outstanding collaborators who pursue a unique combination of genetic, molecular, and epidemiologic based approaches to investigate the critical factors underlying the causes and outcomes of adult airway stenosis.

You can find out more information at www.noaac.net

Alexander Gelbard

Dr. Gelbard is a board certified Otolaryngologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee specializing in adult laryngeal and tracheal disease. He completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, medical school at Tulane School of Medicine, and internship and residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. Dr. Gelbard completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in Immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center as well as a clinical fellowship in Laryngeal Surgery at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and lectures internationally on adult airway disease. He currently is Co-director of the Vanderbilt Center for Complex Airway Reconstruction (AeroVU). Additionally, he is principle investigator of an externally funded prospective multi-institutional study of idiopathic subglottic stenosis (iSGS), and managing director of the North American Airway Collaborative (NoAAC).

Catherine Anderson

Patient partner Catherine Anderson is a practicing market researcher with more than 20 years' experience in the research field as well as an iSGS patient. As a researcher hungry to fully understand her diagnosed condition, she was disappointed with how little she initially found. In 2009, as social media was beginning to take off, She founded a support group on the social networking site, Facebook; 'Living with idiopathic Subglottic Stenosis'. Gradually membership of the group grew –today there are in excess of 2800 members worldwide. Catherine's role as co-investigator includes refining the study’s research questions and outcomes, as well as aiding in dissemination efforts through her leadership position in the iSGS disease support group. With her involvement in the planing aspects of the study, her patient perspective is deeply integrated into trial design. Catherine has performed groundbreaking work to engage the iSGS community where questions about the "best" treatment are pervasive. She has used the Facebook group as a platform to help understand patient needs, and the patient perspective on therapy and subsequent side effects. In her surveys conducted between 2011 and 2018 she identified large gaps in what patients and providers understand about the disease.