Meet our Staff
What was eventually to become the Stanford Patient Education Research Center started in 1979 with one graduate student. Now we are 8 regular employees, including that first graduate student, Kate Lorig. At any one time, we usually have anywhere from 1 to 4 graduate or undergraduate students from universities around the world doing field work with us, as well as an occasional post doctoral fellow. A very special corps of volunteers faciltates our workshops, and usually numbers around 100.
Our Leader -
Kate Lorig, R.N., Dr.P.H.
Dr. Lorig's faculty profile
Dr. Lorig's curriculum vitae
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Kate Lorig is the Director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center and Professor of Medicine in the Stanford School of Medicine. She earned her bachelors degree in nursing at Boston University, and her masters and doctorate of public health (Dr.P.H.) in health education at the University of California, Berkeley. She came to Stanford in 1979 while a graduate student at Cal to develop and research an educational program that emphasized self-help skills for people with arthritis. This program became the Arthritis Self-Help Course, which is now offered to thousands of people with arthritis in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, South Africa, Scandanavia and elsewhere, and was the prototype for the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, the Positive Self-Management Program for HIV/AIDS, the Back Pain Self-Management Program, and others. She has authored several books and many articles about arthritis, chronic disease in general, health education and behavioral science. She travels extensively at the invitation of organizations concerned with patient care and academic research.
Our Professional Staff
Sonia Alvarez, M.A, M.P.H.
Sonia, our Training Director, is responsible for the coordination and technical assistance for our off-site and on-site trainings. She is experienced in the CDSMP and Diabetes programs both in English and Spanish. Originally from Cuba, Sonia lived many years in Puerto Rico and has been working with the Mexican population in San Jose since 1987. She has a masters degree in Social-Community Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico and a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in community health education from San Jose State University. Prior to becoming part of the staff in 2008, Sonia had collaborated with the Patient Education Research Center for several years as the director of a community-based diabetes program for Latinos in San Jose.
Audra Gardner, Ph.D
Audra is the internship recordholder at the Stanford Patient Education Research Center, returning three times. Audra first joined our staff back in 1994 as an undergraduate intern for her B.S. in Health Science with a Concentration in Community and Occupational Education from San Jose State University. She returned a second time as an intern for her Masters in Health Care Administration from San Jose State University. Her third and most recent internship was as a doctoral student working on her PhD in Organization and Management with a Specialization in Leadership. After several internships and teaching numerous self-management classes both in the community and online, Audra is now a permanent member of the staff and working as a researcher on several projects.
Virgina (Ginger) González, M.P.H.
Ginger joined our staff in 1986, immediately after receiving her M.P.H. in health education from Cal. She never left, except for a few years while raising her 4 children. She is back with us now part-time, working on special projects and training. Ginger's career has been focused on improving the health of the underserved, particularly the Latino community. She is the original driving force behind our Spanish programs.
Maurice (Maury) Green, Ph.D.
After earning his Ph.D. in biochemistry, Maury spent 30 years as a clinical chemist and medical laboratory director at NIH, Soroka Medical Center (Israel) and Stanford Hospital. In October 2000 Maury joined our department as our Information Systems Manager, providing TLC for our computers and tending to our patient database. Now "almost retired", he continues to serve as our guru in laboratory testing while spending much of his time in digital photography, website design and travel.
Diana Laurent, M.P.H.
Diana also joined our staff in 1986 as a research assistant while she finished her M.P.H. in community health education at San Jose State University. Her "first life," as she calls it, was in rhetoric and communication at the University of California, Davis, many years before. Besides her work in health education, training and research, Diana is also our resident "computer nerd," which doesn't mean that she's a wiz at it, but simply that she likes it. Diana is the webmaster for this web site, and manages her favorite projects, the Diabetes Self-Management Online project and Building Better Caregivers Online project.
Katy Plant, M.P.H.
Katy is a health educator and "co-computer nerd". She has been a research assistant at Stanford since 1997, and joined our center in 2001. She has M.P.H. in community health education from San Jose State University. Prior to her work as a health educator, she earned her bachelors degree from the University of California, Davis, in Exercise Physiology. Katy is webmaster and moderator coordinator on several of our online projects.
Philip Ritter, Ph.D.
Phil joined us in 1993 as our first programmer/analyst. He has a bachelors degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his masters degree and Ph.D. from Stanford in anthopology. Dr. Ritter is the resident "number cruncher" and data analyst for all of our research projects.
Our "Back Bone" Staff
Angela Devlin
Angela came to Stanford in March of 2000, and joined the Patient Education team on a part-time basis in February of 2007, working as a Research Assistant, to help keep things running smoothly behind the scenes. She has worked on several studies including the Expert Patients Programme Online UK Study, the Online Diabetes Studies, and the Arthritis DOSE Response Study, doing whatever is needed to ensure optimum participation including mailings, data entry, and a lot of participant contact regarding questionnaires and blood test kits.
Gloria Samuel
Gloria is the office administrator for our Center. Her job is to organize the rest of us, and is the first person callers talk to when they call our main telephone number. She coordinates all trainings for our programs, as well as program licensing. Kate says Gloria also keeps her "sane."
Mirna Sanchez
Mirna was a leader for our Programa de Manejo Personal de la Artritis (Spanish-language Arthritis Self-Management Program) before she became a member of our staff. She came to the United States from Nicaragua in 1984. Mirna coordinates our Spanish-language classes, and also serves as our community outreach coordinator.
Also working with us...
Bonnie Bruce, Dr.P.H., R.D.
Bonnie began at Stanford in 1981 as a research dietitian and about 2 years ago started working with our Center to help develop the nutrition section for the online diabetes self-management project and other projects the involve diet and nutrition. She has an undergraduate degree in nutrition, a masters in community health education from San Jose State University, and a doctorate in behavioral sciences from the University of California at Berkeley. For many years, Bonnie taught nutrition courses at the local community colleges and was a faculty member in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at San Jose State. She has done extensive research in the areas of nutrition, arthritis and aging at Stanford.
Rose Sage Barone
Rose started working with us programming our first Healthier Living online program, and also developed the computer code for our Healthier Living with Diabetes online program. She technically works for Stanford's Information Resources and Technology group, but we consider her one of us!
Valarie Jernigan, Dr.P.H.
Valarie obtained her DrPH at UC Berkeley with a focus on community-based participatory research within the American Indian and Alaska Native population. Valarie is working on the diabetes self-management online study. Valarie has worked within AI/AN communities across the country, previously with the Association of American Indian Physicians and the Strong Heart Study at the Center for American Indian Health Research, University of Oklahoma. Valarie founded the American Indian Diabetes Community Action Committee, a community-based action group focused on diabetes prevention and management in Santa Clara Valley, CA. Valarie is originally from Oklahoma and is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Tanya Podchiyska
Tanya works with us programming our Building Better Caregivers online program, and also supports all of our other online programs. She works for Stanford's Information Resources and Technology group, but she is one of us, just like Rose!
Our Mentor
Halsted Holman, M.D.
The Stanford Patient Education Research Center would not exist if Hal Holman hadn't brought that first graduate student, Kate Lorig, to Stanford to help him develop and test a patient education program for people with arthritis. He has been our mentor and friend ever since. Dr. Holman is a professor of medicine in rheumatology at Stanford, and a champion for patient-centered medicine and self-management.
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