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Bios from our slate of nationally recognized presenters!
Paridhi Anand, M.D.
Paridhi Anand, M.D.
Dr. Paridhi Anand is a board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist and co-founder of DNAi Systems, a company building fiduciary AI for healthcare. She serves as Clinical Integration Lead at PWS Plus Telehealth, where she is the practice's central clinical anchor and continuity physician for individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome across the lifespan.
Dr. Anand's clinical work spans behavioral health, hyperphagia and obesity management, medical comorbidities, family dynamics, and school-based challenges. With advanced expertise in preventive medicine, she helps families anticipate and navigate complexity from childhood through adulthood — the physician who holds the full clinical picture so that care stays coherent across providers, transitions, and crises. Through DNAi Systems, she co-develops Asha (askasha.org), an AI medical intelligence that brings grounded, evidence-based health information to patients, families, and the clinicians who serve them.
Moris Angulo, M.D.
Moris Angulo, M.D.
For more than three decades, Dr. Moris Angulo, M.D., has been a tireless champion for people with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), in exam rooms, at conferences, across continents, and in the hearts of the families he serves.
Dr. Angulo has helped shape the global standard of care for PWS. He played a pivotal role in securing approval for the general use of Growth Hormone (GH) therapy in children with PWS, a breakthrough that dramatically improves height, muscle mass, bone development, and quality of life. In addition to his clinical care and advocacy, Dr. Angulo has co-authored 13 peer-reviewed articles, participated in multiple clinical trials, and published 90 works cited more than 2,300 times. He serves on the Clinical and Scientific Board of the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation (IPWSO) and the Clinical Advisory Board of PWSA | USA.
Patrice Carroll, DSW, LICSW
Patrice Carroll, DSW, LICSW
Dr. Patrice Carroll, DSW, LICSW, is the Director of PWS Services at Latham Centers in Massachusetts. Patrice is a member of the Board of Trustees and a member of the Professional Caregivers Board through IPSWO. She is also a member of the Caregiver's Advisory Board through PWSAUSA. Patrice has over 25 years of experience working with children and adults diagnosed with PWS. In addition to her experience with developing person-centered programming for people with PWS, she has specialized in the multi-modal management of skin and rectal picking using intensive, non-contingent, sensory stimulation.
Dorothea Lantz
Dorothea Lantz
Dorothea Lantz is the Director of Community Engagement for the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association | USA (PWSA | USA), where she leads national initiatives to empower families, advance rare disease policy, and strengthen grassroots advocacy across the country. A lifelong resident of South Miami, Florida, Dorothea’s greatest inspiration is her eight-year-old son, Hunter, who lives with Prader-Willi syndrome and autism spectrum disorder. His journey drives her unwavering commitment to building a better future for individuals and families affected by rare conditions.
Since joining PWSA | USA in 2021, Dorothea has expanded the organization’s national advocacy network by over 5,000%, launched strategic awareness initiatives, and built partnerships across biotech, industry, and public policy. She chairs PWSA’s Advocacy Committee, serves on the Rare Disease Legislative Advocates (RDLA) Advisory Committee and the Every Life Foundation Community Congress, and is both a member of Florida’s Sunshine Genetics Steering Committee and Chair of the Sunshine Genetics Community Advisory Board. She additionally has been appointed by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to serve on Florida's Medicaid Beneficiary Advisory Council. A dynamic national speaker and Patients Rising Senate Pro Tempore, Dorothea champions collaboration, innovation, and hope across the rare disease landscape.
Judith A. Lucas, MD, MJ, FAAP, DipABLM
Judith A. Lucas, MD, MJ, FAAP, DipABLM
Dr Lucas is a board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatrician at the Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. She has more than 30 years of experience in providing longitudinal developmental and behavioral health care for individuals with disabilities, from infancy through young adulthood. Dr. Lucas founded the region’s first interdisciplinary center for developmental and behavioral care, serving over 8,000 children annually and earning recognition as a statewide model for longitudinal disability care. Her creation of targeted programs, including a spina bifida coordinated care program, high-risk NICU follow-up, and developmental and behavioral rural outreach has improved healthcare accessibility for children with complex needs.
She has earned a Master of Jurisprudence in Children’s Law and Policy to better advocate for the needs of children with disabilities and reduce stigmatization. Dr. Lucas has recently become board-certified in Lifestyle Medicine to address the health disparities facing children and adults with disabilities. This aspect of her expertise underscores her deep commitment to promoting equitable and inclusive care for children with disabilities. Nationally, she is recognized as an active member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children With Disabilities as a member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee.
Amy McDougall, M.S.
Amy McDougall, M.S.
Amy McDougall, M.S. has been a practicing School Psychologist in New York for over 20 years. Her professional experience ranges from preschool to high school, with responsibilities encompassing consultation, behavior intervention, crisis support, and psychoeducational assessment.
Amy has served in a variety of leadership roles for the Prader-Willi Alliance of New York and is currently President of that organization. In that role, she has worked alongside her fellow Board members to advocate for those with PWS in NY and expand their access to needed services and treatments. Melding her personal and professional experience, Amy has presented at both the state and national levels on topics related to education and parenting. Her daughter Noelle, a young adult living with PWS, is developing advocacy skills in her own right (including being an active participant in clinical trials). Amy additionally coordinates a series of hiking events for PWS Moms, with an emphasis on providing support through both respite and community-building.
Destiny Pacha, Ed.D.
Destiny Pacha, Ed.D.
Destiny Pacha, Ed.D., is the president of EmpowerED Solutions, where she provides educational consulting, resources for educators, and training for families and professionals supporting children with Prader-Willi syndrome. She partners closely with families to secure appropriate educational, behavioral, and health services and collaborates with school teams to improve awareness and best practices for educating students with PWS.
Dr. Pacha is a faculty member at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where she contributes to the Behavioral Innovations for Rare Diagnoses Lab in the Applied Behavior Analysis Department, with a primary focus on PWS. Her research centers on increasing awareness, fostering inclusion, and advancing evidence-based strategies for supporting students with PWS in school settings. She is the co-author of Prader-Willi Syndrome: A Primer for School Psychologists, published in Children and Youth Services Review. She is also the author of It Starts With Hello: Katie’s Story About Prader-Willi Syndrome, the first children’s book published about PWS, which has received multiple accolades.
A frequent national and international speaker, Dr. Pacha presents on the educational and behavioral implications of PWS, including recent sessions at the International PWS Conference. She also delivers webinars for parents and developed a parent training series in partnership with PWSA|USA to equip families with practical tools to advocate effectively for their child’s unique needs.
Maria Picone
Maria Picone
Maria Picone is a biotech and digital health leader, entrepreneur, and dedicated advocate. She is the co-founder of TREND Community, a health analytics company that transforms real-world patient conversations into actionable insights to advance drug development. As the mother of a 13-year-old living with Prader-Willi syndrome, Maria brings a deeply personal perspective to her work, fueling her commitment to amplifying the patient voice and translating lived experience into meaningful innovation that drives better outcomes for rare disease communities.
Her presentation is focused on "Turning Community Voices into Breakthroughs: A New Understanding of Sleep Disorders in Prader-Willi Syndrome", as she will share how a novel, community-powered research approach is transforming understanding of Prader-Willi syndrome and accelerating the development of new therapies. By analyzing real-world patient and caregiver conversations, critical, underrecognized insights have emerged, including the significant burden of sleep disorders in PWS. These findings have deepened clinical understanding of an often-overlooked aspect of the condition and helped catalyze a clinical trial evaluating a potential new treatment. Her talk will highlight how translating community voices into actionable evidence can accelerate rare disease research and improve outcomes for patients and families.
Elizabeth Roof, M.A.
Elizabeth Roof, M.A.
Elizabeth Roof, M.A. is a Senior Research Associate at Vanderbilt University Department of Psychology and has been licensed as a Health Service Provider in TN since 1994. Since 1995, she has directed several research programs with children and adults with Prader-Willi syndrome. She has published many peer reviewed journal articles about many aspects of PWS across lifespan. For over 30 years, Elizabeth has recruited and followed over 475 children, teens and adults with PWS in research studies. Elizabeth has recruited many families across the country and Canada by providing individualized feedback information to families on issues such as behavioral and classroom intervention, effective parenting, IEP’s and educational strategies, psychiatric medication in PWS, and residential placement and professional consultation for professionals and groups. She is a board member of the mental health team of IPWSO, and FPWR and has served on PSWA Clinical Advisory Board since 2021. She provides 4-5 PWS consults a week for PWSA, FPWR, IPWSO and other residential providers. She has helped manage 14 clinical trials in PWS and consults with Sponsors to select appropriate outcomes, train staff sites and logistics for Clinical trials in PWS. She has presented at many state and national and International PWS conferences and for FPWR in US, Australia, Ireland, Cuba and Canada.
Deepan Singh, MD, FAPA
Deepan Singh, MD, FAPA
Dr. Deepan Singh is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. He is the past Vice-Chair of Ambulatory Services and Chief of Research & Grants and remains an affiliate of the Department of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is the co-founder and CEO of DNAi Systems, a company building fiduciary AI for healthcare, and co-founder of PWS Plus Telehealth, a virtual center of excellence for Prader-Willi Syndrome and other rare and complex disorders.
Dr. Singh received his medical education at Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences in India, completed psychiatry residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital. He holds additional training in psychodynamic psychotherapy from the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education at NYU. Prior to Maimonides, he served as the Founding Associate Dean of Students & Diversity for the NYU Long Island School of Medicine.
Dr. Singh is an internationally recognized expert in the behavioral management of Prader-Willi Syndrome. He serves on the clinical and scientific advisory board for PWSA (USA), the scientific advisory board for the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research, and the International PWS Organisation's Mental Health Network. His book Neurobehavioral Manifestations of Prader-Willi Syndrome: A Guide for Clinicians and Caregivers (Cambridge University Press) has become a standard reference for clinicians and families worldwide. Through DNAi Systems, he leads the development of Asha (askasha.org), an AI medical intelligence grounded in peer-reviewed evidence, designed to make expert-level health information accessible to patients, families, and clinicians.
Harold J.P. van Bosse, M.D.
Harold J.P. van Bosse, M.D.
Harold J.P. van Bosse, M.D. is a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon with a long-standing relationship with the Prader-Willi syndrome community. His first patient with PWS was a 2 year old child from the Long Island area with a severe scoliosis. Through that patient some 25 years ago, Dr. van Bosse was introduced to, and joined, the community of specialists and families caring for the challenging and rewarding children with PWS. He has published on the non-surgical treatment of scoliosis in infants with PWS, and on hip dysplasia in PWS, as well as written or contributed to treatment guidelines for PWS patient support group websites. Dr. van Bosse is a member of the Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards of both the international (IPWSO) and US (PWSA-USA) Prader-Willi syndrome organizations, and a board member of the PWS Clinical Investigation Collaborative (CLIC). He has enjoyed giving talks on the orthopaedics of PWS at PWANY, dating back to 2006, as well as PWSA-USA, IPWSO, the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research, and the California state Prader-Willi syndrome group.
Stacy Ward, MS, BCBA
Stacy Ward, MS, BCBA
Stacy Ward is the Chief Executive Officer of PWSA USA, where she leads national efforts to support individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and their families through advocacy, education, and comprehensive support services. She also serves on the Board of Directors for PWANY, contributing to regional leadership and strategic oversight in support of the PWS community.
Stacy is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and a Certified Positive Leader, bringing a strong foundation in evidence based practice, systems leadership, and positive organizational culture to her work. Her career spans direct family support, nonprofit leadership, and cross sector collaboration, with a focus on translating behavioral science into practical, compassionate solutions.
At the core of Stacy’s work is a deeply held belief that all people with PWS are awesome and possess tremendous, often untapped potential. She is passionate about ensuring that this potential is recognized, accessed, and nurtured through the right supports, high expectations, and meaningful empowerment. As a presenter, Stacy blends clinical expertise with values driven leadership, emphasizing family centered care, strengths based approaches, and the transformative impact of believing in what people can do.
Jamal B Williams, PhD
Jamal B Williams, PhD
Jamal B. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. With degrees in Mathematics and Biology, and a PhD in Neuroscience, Jamal is deeply committed to understanding the neurobiological and neurogenetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders. As a self-described Child-Health Activist, his work addresses the global development of children and the barriers they encounter during critical developmental stages. Jamal leverages his research expertise to highlight knowledge gaps in the brains of children and adolescents, advocating for equitable diagnostic tools. His research uniquely employs multi-ethnic ancestry analysis to understand genetic risks for neurodevelopmental disorders across diverse populations.
Jamal is also the founder and a working-group member of the Community Health Speaks Initiative at UB, which connects faculty, staff, and students with the broader Western New York community to bridge disparities in health and biomedical research. In his work, both inside and outside of the institution, Jamal aims to no only understand the mechanism that underlie complex disorders of the brain, but also leverage this information to ensure that children everywhere have the opportunity to grow, learn, and thrive.
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