- 2008 Educational
Grant Application - 2008 Mentoring
Grant Application - CALDA Survey Results
Board Of Directors
Barbara Barsocchini, MBA, Senior Vice President
Ms. Barsocchini was instrumental in bringing CALDA to the Los Angeles area and for arranging the 1997 CALDA conference Tick-borne Disease in the Western United States in Los Angeles. She also co-organized the 1998 Chico and 2002 San Francisco CALDA conferences. In addition, she organized the 2004 California Senate Hearing on Lyme Disease at the State Capitol. She is CALDA’s representative on the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee that advises the California Dept. of Public Health. She serves as a trustee of the Los Angeles County West Vector Control District and is the official Lyme disease spokesperson for the city of Malibu. Her focus is on establishing and implementing CALDA's Physician Education Program. She continually gives support and information to people who contact her and is a tireless patient advocate.
Nick Harris, PhD, ABMLI
Dr. Nick Harris, a board certified immunologist, is currently the President and CEO of IGeneX Laboratory, which he founded in 1991. His undergraduate training was at the Univ. of Wisconsin and graduate training at the Medical Center, Univ. of Illinois, in Chicago. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in transplantation immunology at the Univ. of Minnesota, he became an Associate Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry at the Univ. of Texas. He left academia to head the immunology department at Bioscience Laboratories in Los Angeles, then joined 3M Diagnostic Systems as Technical Director. Dr. Harris has three patents, over 100 formal publications in immunology and Lyme disease, and three book chapters. He helped found ILADS in 1999 and is an active member of numerous societies. He is on the Board of Directors of CALDA and of the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society.
Steven Harris, MD
Steven Harris, MD, is a board-certified family practitioner in private practice with offices in Malibu and Redwood City, California. He is a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) and has extensive experience in Lyme Disease, Urgent Care and International Medicine. He is currently the clinical consultant for Igenex, Inc.
Mitchell L. Hoggard, Pharm.
Mitch Hoggard pioneered the field of home infusion therapy and was the founder and president of an international home infusion company. As the President of a Hyperbaric treatment center, Mr. Hoggard has recently published research on treatment of stroke, Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. His interest in Lyme was borne out of his search for proper treatment for his Lyme-infected children. Mr. Hoggard is a frequent lecturer to physicians and patients on the subject of antibiotic therapy in Lyme. Devoting much of his time to research, education, and treatment of Lyme disease, Mr. Hoggard has been an active CALDA member for over 8 years, and is also a member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, International Hyperbaric Medicine Association, California Pharmacy Association, and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society.
Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA, Executive Director
Lorraine Johnson earned her JD at Loyola Law School and her MBA at USC. She has served as general counsel for public mid-sized entertainment companies, including Telepictures, Lorimar, and Imagine Films. She also served as Chief Operating Officer at Solomon International Entertainment, a small film production and distribution programming company. She currently serves as the executive director of the California Lyme Disease Assn., as a member of the Board of Directors of International and Lyme Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and as a member of the advisory board of the national Lyme Disease Association. She has published widely on the topic of health care medico-legal-ethics, addressed state legislators, participated in the Canadian government consensus panel, and met with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Phyllis Mervine, EdM, President
The founder of CALDA, Phyllis Mervine has served as president since 1990. She also started the Lyme Times in 1989 and serves as editor-in-chief. She collaborates with researchers doing studies of ticks, animal reservoirs, and human infection in northern California. She is a volunteer Lyme disease consultant for Mendocino County, California, and a former member of the NIH Advisory Panel for Studies on Chronic Lyme Disease and the Ad Hoc Lyme Disease Committee in California. Her letters responding to published articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Her posters have been displayed at international Lyme conferences. She set up the CALDA network of state information and support groups across the United States. She is the owner/moderator of a website for national Lyme community leaders and advocates on the internet. Her special interests, besides ensuring the longterm success of CALDA, are networking and community-building, making accurate information accessible to patients, and educating, mentoring, encouraging and supporting the next generation of Lyme disease advocates.
Stephanie Propp, Secretary
Ms. Propp has served as treasurer of CALDA for the past 5 years. She has been instrumental in identifying and meeting the needs of Hispanic patients by providing educational materials in Spanish. In 2004 she organized a holiday home tour fundraiser for CALDA. She is the co-founder of Sierra Foothill Lyme Support Group in Grass Valley and the Sacramento Lyme Support Leader.
Raphael Stricker, M.D.
Dr. Stricker received his medical degree and training in Internal Medicine at Columbia University in New York. He did subspecialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of California San Francisco, and supplemental training in Immunology and Immunotherapy at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He is currently the Medical Director of Union Square Medical Associates, a multispecialty medical practice in San Francisco (Website: www.usmamed.com).
Dr. Stricker is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR), the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI), the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM). He was president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). He serves on the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee that advises the California Dept. of Public Health. He is a recipient of the American Medical Association Award for Physician Excellence, and he has authored over 100 medical journal articles and abstracts. Areas of special interest include immunologic infertility, immunodeficiency, coagulation disorders and tick-borne diseases.
Officers
Marisa Battilana, JD, Director of Development
Marisa graduated from University of California Law School, Hastings, and practiced law until 2004. She is firmly committed to the Lyme community and is active in providing patient support, distributing the Lyme Times, public and physician education, and fundraising.
Advisory
Marylynn Barkley, Ph.D., M.D.
Dr. Barkley is both a practicing physician and a researcher interested in the relationship between Lyme disease symptoms and female hormonal cycles. She is on the CALDA Scientific Review Committee and is a frequent speaker at Lyme disease conferences. Several of her research papers have appeared in poster sessions at international Lyme conferences. She provides a valuable link between the patient and research communities.
Robert S. Lane, Ph.D.
An internationally recognized entomologist, Dr. Lane has published numerous articles on ticks and Lyme disease in peer-reviewed medical journals. He is a top-rated NIH grantee. He conducts field studies in northern California and teaches at UC Berkeley. He serves on the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee that advises the California Dept. of Public Health. He serves on the CALDA Scientific Review Committee and was cochairman of the 1997 CALDA conference, Tick-borne Diseases in the Western United States and chairman of the 1998 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis.
