Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board

Dan Driscoll

Chair

Dan Driscoll, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and the John T. & Winifred M. Hayward Professor of Genetics Research at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Dan received his MD from Albany Medical College, his PhD (Medical Genetics) from Indiana University School of Medicine, and did his Pediatric residency and Medical Genetics fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Medical Genetics & Genomics.  He has been conducting research on the Prader-Willi syndrome and early childhood obesity for the last 35 years. Due to his research contributions, he was elected to the Society of Scholars from the Johns Hopkins University in 2006.

Charlotte Höybye

Vice-Chair

Senior Consultant and Associate Professor, at the Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Moris A. Angulo

Director of Medical Genetics. Assistant Director of Pediatric Endocrinolgy, Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, NY  USA.

Susanne Blichfeldt

Consultant (Neuropediatrics). Susanne has an adult son with PWS. She is also a member of the IPWSO Famcare Board.

Suzanne Cassidy

Medical genetics doctor in Sausalito, California and is affiliated with UCSF Medical Center. A founding member of IPWSO and Past President, Susie is also a serving board member of PWSA | USA.

Leopold Curfs

Dept. of Clinical Genetics, University Maastricht/Academic Hospital, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Maximillian Deest

Maximillian Deest studied medicine at the Hannover Medical School. Since 2017 he has worked as a resident at the Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Hannover Medical School where he is a member of the Outpatient Department for Mental Health in Rare Genetic Disorders. He is author of the guide “Mental Health in Prader-Willi syndrome” which was published in cooperation with the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association Germany. He has been a member of the DFG-funded clinical scientist programme PRSCTIS at Hannover Medical School since 2019. His research focuses on mental health in neurodevelopmental disorders with a special interest in psychosis. He has a strong interest in the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying mental disorders.

Marilyn Dumont-Driscoll

Marilyn has a faculty practice with patients who have childhood obesity, PWS, sleep disorders or learning disabilities. A founding member of the Academic Pediatric Association’s Continuity Clinic Research Network, the HRSA-funded Genetics Initiative in Primary Care Education Advisory Committee, the APA representative to the March of Dimes Genetics in Practice Initiative, the NIH Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing Panel and the Pediatric Academic Societies Executive Committee. Marilyn was an IPWSO Trustee from 2016-2022.

Urs Eiholzer

Associated Professor and Head of the PEZZ Center for Pediatric Endocrinology, Möhrlistrasse 69, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland.

Janice L. Forster

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Pittsburgh Partnership, Pittsburgh, PA USA.

Anthony Holland

Tony Holland trained in Medicine at University College and University College Hospital, London, qualifying in 1973. After some years in General Medicine, he trained in Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London. From 1992 to 2002 he held a University Lecturer’s post in the Section of Developmental Psychiatry in the University of Cambridge, and in 2002 was awarded the Health Foundation Chair in Learning (Intellectual) Disability establishing the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group (www.CIDDRG.org.uk). His specific research interests include the eating, behavioural and mental health problems associated with having Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). With colleagues he has published research extensively on these topics in academic and practice-based journals. He is Patron of the UK PWS Association and since 2016 he has been President of IPWSO.  Since October 2015 he has held an Emeritus position at the University of Cambridge.

Ann Scheimann

Jorgelina Stegmann

Jorgelina Stegmann, MD, MBA, is President of the Fundacion SPINE, a centre for specialist treatment and research into Rare Diseases, specifically in PWS, in Argentina and she is Co-Founder of RDCom (Rare Diseases Community).

Maithé Tauber

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Toulouse. She directs the Reference Centre for Prader-Willi syndrome in France and is the Chair of the Scientific Council of Prader-Willi France. Her research includes oxytocin in PWS.

Li-Ping Tsai

Head, Department of Pediatrics, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Taiwan.

Harold van Bosse

Orthopaedic Surgeon. Harold is also on the board of directors for Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita Support, Inc. and A Leg to Stand On, he is a member of the PWSA (USA) Clinical Advisory board. He is also an associate professor of orthopaedics at Temple University.

Honorary President

Board of Trustees

Staff

Advisers

Professional Providers and Caregivers Board

Famcare Board