Voice of the Patient
Patients are the reason we do what we do.
Join us for a conversation on life science innovation from the patient perspective.
Produced in partnership with Arizona’s patient advocacy community, Voice of the Patient brings together people who are living with acute and chronic health challenges to share their life experiences with life science and healthcare leaders. All speakers at Voice of the Patient are patients and patient advocates sharing their experiences and what they need from us in the future.
9:00 AM Registration and Networking
9:30 AM Program Begins
- Welcome – Joan Koerber -Walker
- Mary Kay Turner and Lisa WintonLi, MD
- Emerald Bell and Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD
- Thomas S. Hunt
- Cooper Groppenbacher and Ayden Hall with Joan Koerber-Walker
- Lanette Kirk-Veres
- Zachary S. Brooks, PhD
- Pat Elliott with Joan Koerber-Walker
11:30 AM Networking
12:00 PM Program Concludes
SPEAKERS
More Patient Voices Coming Soon
Emerald Bell brings 20 years of experience in healthcare, including 15 years as a registered nurse. In 2024, she successfully defended her Ph.D. in Nursing at the University of Arizona, where her research explored the complex interplay between the microbiome, endometriosis, and co-occurring anxiety. Her professional and academic expertise became deeply personal in 2026, when she was diagnosed with stage IV endometriosis. This experience has further strengthened her commitment to advancing awareness, research, and understanding of endometriosis and its far-reaching impact on women’s health.Zach Brooks
Zachary S. Brooks, PhD is the Founder & CEO of UGenome, a University of Arizona startup, and a 2-time kidney transplant recipient. Discovering that he had a condition that caused his kidneys to fail wasn’t in the plan but then helping others get better treatment options became his mission.
Pat Elliott
Pat Elliott, a two-time cancer survivor, is an international patient advocate. A former multi-media journalist and communications executive for global technology firms and large hospital systems, she provides online support for 16,000 cancer patients, a world class oncologist, and a global team of patients and physicians collaborating to develop a cure for her rare leukemia.
Cooper Groppenbacher
My name is Cooper Groppenbacher, I recently graduated from Northern Arizona University and have lived in Arizona my whole life. As a person who was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s disease at the age of ten, I spent most of my later childhood and early adulthood learning to navigate the hoops and difficulties that come with having Crohn’s. After exhausting several oral medications, I was put on a biologic and that medicine changed my life. After several years that medication became less effective and I was then put on a different biologic. Both biologic medications have allowed me to live a life that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.
Ayden Hall
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD, is a tenured Professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix and Director of the Translational Women’s Health Research Program, where she leads multidisciplinary research focused on women’s health and disease. Her research investigates the microbiome and molecular mechanisms underlying cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, endometriosis and other gynecologic conditions, with an emphasis on developing noninvasive approaches to diagnosis and clinical translation. Her work bridges basic science, clinical research, and commercialization to advance innovative diagnostics and improve women’s health outcomes.
Tom Hunt
Thomas S. Hunt is a strategic operations leader, translating complex, multi-faceted business challenges into actionable solutions. His career spans CEO, VP-level strategist, and Director of Special Projects roles where he consistently bridged leadership teams, technical specialists, and capital partners to drive high-stakes decisions in ambiguous environments. In 2020, Tom faced a health challenge that sparked a time of transformation and rebirth. Tom contracted a virus that over just a few months destroyed his heart and gave him severe pulmonary embolims in both lungs. His patient journey began at the Banner hospital, in Tucson, AZ and then to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix to to be evaluated for a heart transplant. What came next did more that save his life, it transformed it.
Joan Koerber-Walker, President & CEO, AZBio
Joan Koerber-Walker, is a wife, mother, grandmother, and patient advocate. She also serves as president and CEO of AZBio and as chairman of the board of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation. These two organizations have come together to create AZAdvances. Its mission is to support the creation and of Arizona-based health innovations. The team is working to create a sustainable solution to address the need for early-stage life science funding for researchers and companies in Arizona and developing the programs they need to succeed. The goal is to help develop and deliver the treatments and cures that patients are waiting for.
Mary Kay Turner
Mary Kay Turner built her career in biopharma, first with a large pharmaceutical company supporting some of the industry’s most successful medicines and now with a biotechnology company advancing regenerative medicine for ALS. Her work has consistently connected science, advocacy and access, with a focus on making sure patients help shape the therapies intended for them. This year, that mission became personal when Mary Kay was diagnosed with breast cancer. After years of helping bring medicines to patients, she became the patient — facing surgery, treatment decisions, side effects and the uncertainty that accompanies a cancer diagnosis. That experience has sharpened her perspective on what patient-centered care really means: not simply treating disease, but listening to the person living through it.
Lanette Veres, Founder & Survivor, Gray Matters Foundation
Lanette Kirk-Veres is a 28-year brain tumor survivor and founder of Gray Matters Foundation. Her connection to brain cancer began six years before her own diagnosis, when her grandmother died from the disease, giving her both a caregiver and patient perspective. For more than two decades, Lanette has supported patients, survivors and caregivers while building relationships with healthcare professionals and researchers advancing brain tumor care. She is passionate about bringing the patient voice to those conversations and connecting those living with brain cancer with those working to understand and treat it. Lanette believes patients and caregivers should have a voice at the table.
Lisa WintonLi, M.D.
Dr. WintonLi‘s expertise includes the diagnosis of both breast cancer and benign breast disease along with management of patients at high risk of developing breast cancer. She is dedicated to applying a compassionate and personalized approach to each patient and ensuring excellence in oncologic and surgical outcomes. She is board certified in General Surgery and completed advanced fellowship training in Surgical Breast Oncology. Dr. WintonLi received her degree from The Ohio State University and she completed her residency training in General Surgery at Maricopa Integrated Health System and a fellowship in Surgical Breast Oncology at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas.