What prior experience do you bring that you believe will help to accomplish or address the Society’s current goals and issues?
ASBMR has been my clinical and scientific home for the past two decades. For the past ten years, I have actively worked with both scientific and clinical ASBMR members from around the world. As the premier bone-centric community, the ASBMR must continue to serve as a flagship for the advancement of basic, translational, and clinical bone biology. ASBMR must also be increasingly nimble in responding to issues that impact the ability of ASBMR members to advance bone biology, while always placing efforts to improve the human skeletal condition at the center of the ASBMR's mission. My experiences on the Professional Practice Committee, JBMR editorial board and now as JBMR Plus Deputy Editor, and as a reviewer of ASBMR grant applications have provided me with broad experiences within ASBMR and have positioned me well to work with colleagues with diverse basic, translational, and clinical interests across our society.
What would you like to accomplish during your tenure as a volunteer leader?
As a physician engaged in research, I have benefited from ASBMR’s commitment to developing younger investigators. This has included receipt of travel awards and the ability to work alongside senior society members during volunteer opportunities. My most significant concern for the ASBMR is what appears to be a growing chasm between members who primarily identify as basic scientists, and those who primarily identify as clinicians or translational scientists. In order for our society to fully prosper, we must work to eliminate perceived barriers between members such that we have a robust and multifaceted group of investigators collectively moving bone biology forward. We must also work diligently to robustly support our trainees, junior faculty and mid-career members in all facets of their journeys. Finally, I also believe we must make concerted efforts to extend beyond our ASBMR confines to highlight more broadly to society the fundamental importance of musculoskeletal health.
What are one or two ideas that you would like to implement to address issues facing our membership and the Society?
It is critical for the ongoing and future success of ASBMR that early-stage trainees both become actively engaged in society activities and feel that their contributions and input are valued. This will ultimately allow newer members to recognize ASBMR as their scientific and/or clinical home. To this end, a recent initiative (the peer-mentoring program for manuscript review for both JBMR and JBMR Plus, in which more senior reviewers are paired with junior reviewers) serves as a good working model that can likely be expanded to other volunteer and career-enhancing opportunities.
With funding for bone and mineral metabolism an increasing challenge for many ASBMR members within the US and internationally, it is increasingly important to consider reaching out for philanthropic and/or non-classical corporate support for issues related to musculoskeletal health. This will allow ASBMR to expand both its research mission and societal impact.
Biographical Information:
I was raised in Minnesota and received my AB degree from Harvard College. I obtained both my MD and PhD degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, where I trained in basic cellular biology in a laboratory focused on protein trafficking. My clinical training in Internal Medicine and part of my endocrine fellowship training was performed at Duke University Medical Center, prior to my transfer to the Mayo Clinic for a final fellowship year before joining the Mayo Clinic endocrinology faculty. At Mayo Clinic, I am currently a consultant in the Divisions of Endocrinology and Hematology, and Associate Professor of Medicine.
At Mayo, I have served as chair of our endocrine bone practice for the past decade. I spend approximately half of my time in clinical practice, where I see patients referred for a wide array of metabolic and rare skeletal disorders. I also hold a joint appointment in hematology, where my work is focused on skeletal health optimization for patients with hematologic malignancies, in particular the monoclonal gammopathies monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smoldering myeloma, and multiple myeloma.
My current research interests are primarily focused in age-associated bone loss as well as in cancer-associated bone disease, for which I am currently co-PI on an NIH U01 grant focused on the bone marrow microenvironment in monoclonal gammopathies. I also serve as the primary safety officer in Mayo’s NIH-funded Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCaTS), and as PI or co-investigator on several industry-sponsored studies focused on rare/ultra-rare bone diseases.
Over the course of the past 18 years as an ASBMR member, I have served in numerous volunteer capacities. I recently completed a four-year term as Chair of the ASBMR Professional Practice Committee, have previously served on the JBMR editorial board, currently serve as Deputy Editor for JBMR Plus, and have recently accepted the role of co-chair for the ASBMR Task Force on Discontinuation of Denosumab Therapy for Osteoporosis. Previous editorial roles extrinsic to the ASBMR include those for the journals Bone and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and as Endocrine section editor for Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Apart from my work with societies and editorial responsibilities, I have previously served on the FDA’s Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee (BRUDAC), and currently serve on the FDA’s Endocrine and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee (EMDAC). I have also served on numerous NIH study sections as an ad-hoc member, as well as on study sections for numerous foundation-funded grant applications (both within the US and internationally). I also serve on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Endocrine Examination Committee as the only metabolic bone/calcium/phosphorus-focused member, and am currently serving as the only bone-focused member for organization and oversight of the Endocrine Society’s Clinical Endocrine Update annual meeting. I have also served on several international guideline panels, most recently as co-Chair of the Endocrine Society’s Hypercalcemia of Malignancy Clinical Practice Guideline.
At Mayo Clinic, I have worked hard over the past decade to establish effective and efficient working relationships with multiple other specialties (including Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Oncology, Rheumatology, Geriatrics, Transplant, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, etc.) in order to optimize skeletal health for our patients and to push the needed science forward. I have seen firsthand that success in caring for our patients and for advancing bone science must always be collaborative. It also requires clear vision, consistent effort, and a willingness to work with others to achieve goals larger than our own. If elected to the ASBMR Council, I will work to bridge perceived gaps that too often separate members of our society who consider themselves to have primarily basic, translational, or clinical interests. It is by working together and joining forces along our common bone-focused trajectory that we will achieve our greatest strength for overcoming both common and rare disorders of bone and mineral metabolism.