Posted by Elizabeth McDermott McDermott on August 06, 2025
Hi everyone. My name is Elizabeth and I've been a member of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC) for about a year now. I'm excited that I will soon be serving the ICN community as PAC Co-Chair! Here's a bit about me and what I hope to work on during my time co-leading the PAC, and what I see as my main challenge.Â
I am twenty years old and have Crohn's disease and autoimmune hepatitis. Originally, I am from Virginia although, I currently live in South Carolina where I am studying Mathematics. My goal is to become a gastroenterologist in the future and use my own experiences as an IBD patient to advocate for and provide empathetic care to patients. I am also a Pilates instructor and am passionate about the benefits of movement and a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.
I joined the PAC about a year ago; I was shadowing my gastroenterologist and expressed interest in advocacy and volunteer work, so she told me about the PAC. I applied and have loved getting to know other members of the PAC community and engaging in our advocacy work.
My favorite part about ImproveCareNow and the PAC is working with people who are passionate enough to donate their time and energy to make the quality of care, and thus lives, for patients and caregivers better.
When I joined the PAC a year ago, I never saw myself taking on a leadership role. However, I have become passionate and more confident as I have worked on projects advising research studies and engaging with the community. In January because of the support of Anya and Leela, I became a Recruitment and Engagement co-lead and started to get more involved in PAC operations. In May, when the position of co-chair became available, I was hesitant to apply at first, but if my time in the PAC has taught me anything, it is that if you are passionate about something you should pursue it even if you feel inadequate. Thanks to Shira and especially Kera, I have been supported every step of the way and am excited to serve the ICN community as PAC co-chair.
Some goals I have for my time as co-chair are to create a transition resource to connect PAC members to adult advocacy programs, so that we can support them as they transition out of the PAC. The PAC should be a springboard for people's advocacy journey and not an endpoint, so this resource will encourage them to take the skills they learned in the PAC into their next adventures. Additionally, I hope to increase outreach between the PAC and ICN care centers by bringing back PAC panels and networking with centers to expand the connection the PAC has with them. Another of my main goals is to work on making conferences easier for PAC members to participate in. This past year people expressed difficulty when conference proposals and scholarship applications were due around the same time as exams. Members also shared that it was challenging to know what their schedules would look like so far in advance, making it hard to commit to attending a conference. For these reasons, we had less PAC members submit proposals and apply for scholarships which is something I hope to change.
One key challenge I expect to face is around increasing engagement in the PAC. Lately, we have had lower recruitment and engagement numbers. That being said, I would appreciate the ICN community helping to spread the word about the PAC and get involved in supporting our future projects.