Activity Director
Leonard Calabrese, DO
Professor of Medicine
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Vice Chairman
Department of Rheumatic & Immunologic Diseases
R.J. Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio

Sandeep K. Agarwal, MD, PhD is Assistant Professor, Division of Rheumatology, at The University of Texas Health Science Center Houston– Medical School.  Dr. Agarwal is a graduate of the MD/PhD Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center Houston.  He completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he also completed his rheumatology fellowship and post–doctoral research training. Dr. Agarwal’s laboratory focuses on immune regulation and fibroblast–immune interactions in autoimmune diseases including scleroderma, ankylosing spondylitis, and rheumatoid arthritis.  His research program is funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the Scleroderma Foundation.  In addition to translational research, Dr. Agarwal is an active clinician with an interest in autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, scleroderma, lupus, inflammatory myopathies, and vasculitis.

Marc D. Cohen, MD, is Professor of Medicine, and Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology at National Jewish Medical & Research Center. He attended medical school at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC, and went on to complete an internship in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a fellowship in Rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Dr. Cohen is a fellow of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Association, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. Among his many awards and honors, Dr. Cohen was awarded Teacher of the Year 11 years consecutively, the Distinguished Educator Award, and was the first member of the Teacher of the Year Hall of Fame at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. At the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, he was the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency, Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology and Hospital Medicine, and Associate Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine.

He has presented at meetings and symposia around the world, and has authored over 60 articles in journals such as Arthritis & Rheumatism. He is currently an advisory editor for Arthritis & Rheumatism. He is an ad hoc reviewer for many other medical journals. He has also authored numerous book chapters on rheumatology and on medical education. 

As Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology, Dr. Cohen hopes to institute new programs to promote clinical research in rheumatology at National Jewish Medical and Research Center. His particular interests are rheumatoid arthritis and systemic vasculitis. Dr. Cohen is committed to supporting investigations which achieve the highest quality of research and education.

John J. Cush, MD, received his medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. His internal medicine residency was performed at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, where he was named Intern of the Year and Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. In 1984 Dr. Cush began his rheumatology fellowship and was later appointed to the Rheumatology faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School where he remains a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine. Dr. Cush is currently the Director of Clinical Rheumatology for the Baylor Research Institute and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, TX.

Dr. Cush has published more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books on rheumatoid arthritis, drug-induced lupus, spondyloarthropathies, immunotherapy, Still’s disease, drug safety, biologic therapies and nutraceuticals. He has served or chaired several leadership committees for The National Arthritis Foundation and The American College of Rheumatology and is past editor of the ACR Hotlines series. He has recently co-authored 2 textbooks entitled, “Rheumatology Diagnosis and Treatment” and “Rheumatoid Arthritis: Early Diagnosis and Treatment”. He has served on the Arthritis Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

M. Elaine Husni, MD, MPH, is Vice Chair of Rheumatology and Director, Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Center. She is a Staff Physician in the Orthopedic and Rheumatologic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Husni is also an Assistant Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
 
Dr. Husni joined the Clinic in 2005 following a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital. She completed her internship and residency at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital at Harvard Medical School, and she trained in Rheumatology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Husni received her MD and MPH degrees at Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Husni's research interests include examining health outcomes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, specifically in the area of cardiovascular disease. She is the current recipient of the Clinical Investigator Award by the American College of Rheumatology for this work. She is involved in a number of rheumatology clinical trials at Cleveland Clinic and serves on the Executive Committee of the PRECISION trial.

She also has a research focus on orthopedic outcomes with a specific research interest in the use of clinical pathways in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. She is a past recipient of the Physician Scientist Development Award by the American College of Rheumatology for this research. She is currently Director of Musculoskeletal Outcomes research and the fellow's research committee for the Rheumatology Department.  She is currently on the medical and scientific committee for the Arthritis Foundation of the Northeastern Ohio Chapter. Dr. Husni has had the opportunity to mentor both rheumatology and orthopedic research trainees and this has been one of her most rewarding experiences.

Arthur Kavanaugh, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at UCSD, and Director of the Center for Innovative Therapy in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology. Dr. Kavanaugh earned his BS at MIT and his MD at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He completed Internal Medicine residency and Clinical Immunology/Allergy fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. Dr. Kavanaugh has authored more than 225 scientific publications and book chapters. He is on the editorial boards and has served as peer reviewer for many scientific journals.

Jonathan Kay, MD, is Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Associate Physician in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Clinical Trials in the Rheumatology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.  Previously, he was Chairman of the Department of Rheumatology at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Dr. Kay graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree from the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco.  Following an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, he completed a clinical and research fellowship in rheumatology and immunology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Kay is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine with subspecialty certification in rheumatology.  He has served on numerous committees of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), most recently as Chair of the Committee on Education.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the ACR and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR).  He is a past president of the New England Rheumatism Society, a Fellow of the ACR, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Kay’s clinical interests span the spectrum of rheumatic diseases, with special interest in rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory forms of arthritis.  He has been a principal investigator of more than 35 clinical trials of new therapies for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.  Over the past 20 years, his clinical research has focused on β2-microglobulin amyloidosis, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, and other rheumatologic problems of patients with chronic kidney disease.  He is the author of more than 70 publications, book chapters, and abstracts.

Stephen A. Paget, MD, is Joseph P. Routh Professor of Medicine and Rheumatic Disease at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York.  As Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and other institutions associated with Weill Medical College, he heads a world-class rheumatology division of more than 44 rheumatologists, scientists, and educators who focus on clinical, perioperative, and consultative care; basic, translational, clinical, and drug trial research; and musculoskeletal education to medical students, residents and fellows.

Under Dr. Paget's leadership, the Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research at HSS developed into a center that delivers multidisciplinary care to thousands of patients with lupus. As an Associate Director of the Cornell Multipurpose Arthritis Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Paget focused his clinical and translational research on steroid-induced osteoporosis, systemic vasculitides, rheumatoid arthritis, joint replacements, and hip fractures; his basic immunologic research has focused on defining the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Paget has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Research and Education Foundation of the American College of Rheumatology and the Chair of its Development Advisory Council. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Arthritis Foundation.  Dr. Paget received his MD degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York; was a resident in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Unviersity, Baltimore, Maryland; and was a Clinical Associate at the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskleletal and Skin Diseases in Washington, DC.

Kenneth G. Saag, MD, MSc, Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, and Professor of Epidemiology, at the UAB School of Public Health.  He is Director of the Deep South Musculoskeletal (DSM) CERTs since its inception in 2000 and is Associate Director of the Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center (NIAMS P60).   Dr. Saag is a rheumatologist and outcomes researcher with expertise in Musculoskeletal Disorder pharmacoepidemiology and clinical focus in bone health. He is the only rheumatologist on Board of Directors of National Osteoporosis Foundation.  He is experienced in population-based investigations, working with large databases, and quality indicator development.  Dr. Saag is on the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee and recently co-chaired the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement on Osteoporosis.  He is on the editorial board of Archives of Internal Medicine, Arthritis Care and Research, and Arthritis Research and Therapy.  Dr. Saag has previously chaired the Arthritis Foundation Clinical, Therapeutics and Outcomes Study Section, has served on several NIH study sections, IOM Committees, National Committees to develop both arthritis and osteoporosis guidelines, the Musculoskeletal Workgroup of the Cochrane Collaboration, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance workgroup on Arthritis Quality Indicators. 

Nora G. Singer, MD, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Rheumatology and Division of Rheumatic Diseases, and Co-Director  of the Rheumatology Clinical Research Unit at University Hospitals/Case Medical Center and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Singer focuses her basic research on immune development and tissue-specific immune responses and is actively involved in investigator-initiated and sponsored clinical research. She has been a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and an ad hoc reviewer for Arthritis and Rheumatism, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Rheumatology, and Arthritis Research and Care. Dr. Singer received the Senior Scholar Award and is a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology. She serves on the Board of Directors and on the Medical and Scientific Committee of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Pediatric Research.

Dimitrios Vassilopoulos, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Rheumatology at Athens University School of Medicine, Athens, Greece (Hippokration General Hospital). Dr. Vassilopoulos received his medical training at Athens University School of Medicine and continued as a research fellow at the Department of Clinical Investigation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC, USA. He then completed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia and was trained in Rheumatology at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Vassilopoulos' research has focused on the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (including signal transduction abnormalities), the pathogenesis, diagnosis and clinical manifestations of vasculitides (especially HCV-associated cryoglobulinemia) and the study of infections in the setting of rheumatic diseases (chronic viral infections such as HBV, HCV, HIV and tuberculosis).

Yusuf Yazici, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Yazici is also the Director of the Seligman Center for Advanced Therapeutics at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and Director of the Behcet’s Syndrome Evaluation, Treatment and Research Center at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Dr. Yazici earned his medical degree from Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty of Istanbul University in Istanbul, Turkey. He completed his internship and residency at Creighton University in Nebraska and his fellowship in rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery of Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

His areas of interest are rheumatoid arthritis, early arthritis, patient reported outcomes, database and registry management and monitoring of arthritis patients in regard to clinical response and adverse events related to treatment and Behcet’s syndrome.