Everything you Wanted to Know About Advisory Boards

About the Webcast

Advisory boards—bodies that provide expert advice and guidance to an entity, particularly from consumers’ perspectives—are crucial to the success of projects funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The Center on KTDRR is hosting a webcast-based discussion: “Everything you Wanted to Know About Advisory Boards.”

The webcast will feature two NIDILRR projects—The Mayo Clinic Traumatic Brain Injury Model System and Improving Assessment of Opioid Use Disorder in People With Disabilities Related to Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain—both of which have successfully developed and maintained vibrant advisory boards. Join us to hear from directors and advisory board members of these projects about how they incorporate best practices for authentic and meaningful engagement to reach their intended outcomes.

View the Archive

  • This webcast originally aired on September 10, 2019. The archive is available on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/2ALaV8qVfW4

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About the Presenters

Photo of Allen Brown

Allen Brown, M.D., is a consultant at the Mayo Clinic's Division of Brain Rehabilitation, within the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Rochester, MN, and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Dr. Brown has led the development of an acquired brain disorders service line at Mayo Clinic which integrates acute care and team-based rehabilitation consultative services that provides efficient, patient-focused care across the continuum of need and recovery. He is the principal investigator and project director of Mayo Clinic’s Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Center, continuously funded by NIDILRR since 1998.

Dr. Brown's research team works within the communities of the upper midwest to study the process of providing medical rehabilitation care to individuals after their brain function has been altered by injury or disease. His research program focuses on population-based epidemiology of brain injury which supports the development of new technological interventions to provide brain rehabilitation services to individuals remotely, designing and implementing community-based randomized pragmatic clinical trials to test complex behavioral interventions intended to improve quality of life after brain injury. Dr. Brown has been chair of Mayo Clinic’s Traumatic Brain Injury Regional Advisory Council since 1997.

Photo of Geoffrey Lauer

Geoffrey Lauer has worked for more than 30 years in the non-profit human services sector, specializing in (and leading in the field) brain injury advocacy and services. This has ranged from serving as a brain injury support group facilitator in the 1980s; co-founding and directing programming in a southeast-Iowa non-profit, human services agency; and serving on the board of directors of the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa, including as its president. In 1997, Mr. Lauer was recruited to join the staff of the Brain Injury Association of America and served for a decade as a regional and national director of state affairs. Since 2006, he has guided the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa as its chief executive officer. In that time, he was also been a founding board member of the United States Brain Injury Alliance, where he currently serves on the National Board of Trustees.

Mr. Lauer holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and anthropology from Luther College in Decorah, IA, and a master’s degree in health communications from the University of Iowa. He is a certified brain injury specialist with the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists. He has been appointed to the Iowa Governor’s Advisory Council on Brain Injuries and the state’s Mental Health and Disability Services Commission—opportunities to significantly influence the crafting of critical legislation and public policy. He has been an invited expert for the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELPs) Committee; has served (and continues to serve) on a number of state and federal brain-injury-related boards and commissions, and is regularly invited to present to the Iowa Legislature around a range of policy issues.

Photo of Kathryn Paez

Kathryn Paez R.N., Ph.D., is a managing researcher at the American Institute for Research (AIR) with over 25 years of experience in quality improvement, program development, research and evaluation. Much of her work has focused on improving primary care and health care services for people with chronic conditions and reducing disparities in health care delivery. As a delivery system and health plan leader, Dr. Paez led the development of system-wide, population-based, multidisciplinary programs to improve health outcomes in a region of the country where a shift was occurring toward managed care payment models and vertical integration of health care organizations. As a health services researcher, Dr. Paez develops and studies innovative approaches to integrating evidence-based care into practice through the use of implementation science methods and patient-centered communication. Currently, Dr. Paez has published in leading peer reviewed journals including Health Affairs, Social Science & Medicine and the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

Dr. Paez is currently leading a three-year NIDILLR-funded study to increase provider understanding of opioid misuse versus appropriate use in people with disabilities due to arthritis. The project consists of a systematic literature review, interviews with providers and people who have a disability, the testing of an instrument to assess for OUD in people with disability, and the creation of evidence-informed materials to support providers and people with disabilities in accurately identifying opioid use disorder.

Photo of Lynnae Ruttledge

Lynnae Ruttledge has committed her career to disability-related public policy with a focus on independent living and employment. As a person with a disability since birth, her work has been in the fields of education, independent living, vocational rehabilitation, and international exchange.

Ms. Ruttledge currently serves as chair of the national advisory panel with AIR’s NIDILRR-funded Opioid Use Disorder Among People with Disabilities Project. Continuing her career commitment into retirement, she serves as a disability policy consultant with a broad range of global and US-based consultancies. Internationally, Ms. Ruttledge serves as a disability policy advisor for post-doctoral research programs with Irish-led Daughters of Charity Technology and Research into Disability (DOCTRID) and as a member of the scientific advisory board of the EU-funded and Irish-led ASSISTID. She has been affiliated with Mobility International USA since 1988 and has served as an international citizen diplomat.

Ms. Ruttledge received a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Northern Michigan University in 1971. She and her husband make their home in the Pacific Northwest and in Western Ireland.