We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website, to measure site performance, and to present relevant opportunities and advertisements. By choosing "Accept" or by using this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.
Join Inflammatory Bowel Disease experts & advocates as they talk about how we can challenge invisible illness stigma and build resilience while living with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
About this event
Join clinical neuropsychologist Jena Kravitz, Psy.D as she talks with gastroenterologist Jordan Axelrad, MD, Academic Health Psychologist & Director for Psychobehavioral Research Laurie Keefer, PhD and Own Your Crohn's creator Tina Aswani Omprakash for a conversation on World IBD Day on how we can challenge the stigma of invisible illnesses to strengthen resilience while living with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis
I chose to become a gastroenterologist because of my personal experiences living with Crohn’s disease. I was diagnosed as a teenager and struggled to come to terms with it, but I ultimately realized I would have to confront a lifelong chronic condition. As I learned to manage Crohn’s disease, I gained new insight into a complicated world of medical practice and research. I pursued a medical career to better understand gastrointestinal issues for myself and to provide high-quality care to others.At NYU Langone’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, I specialize in treating people who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. I also treat patients who have gastrointestinal infections, such as Clostridium difficile. At our center, we’re experienced in caring for patients whose conditions are complex and require exceptionally specialized care. We have the resources and expertise to meet individual needs, and our patients work with a team that may include nutritionists, radiologists, colorectal surgeons, and rheumatologists. With such a wide range of experts, we can provide the most comprehensive and advanced treatment available.My personal experience allows me to offer patients unique insight into managing their care. As a person living with Crohn’s, I understand the emotional complexity of IBD and can relate to my patients. When I work with them, my aim is to provide the most effective care and connect with them on a personal and empathetic level.In my research, I study malignant and infectious complications of IBD. Specifically, I want to understand how gastrointestinal infections may complicate IBD or trigger it to develop, with the ultimate goal of finding a prevention or cure. I am a member of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and speak at numerous patient symposiums and international conferences.
Laurie Keefer, PhD
Mount Sinai
Dr. Laurie Keefer is an academic health psychologist and the Director for Psychobehavioral Research within the Division of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai. She specializes in the psychosocial care of patients with chronic digestive diseases, specifically inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's or ulcerative colitis.
Tina Aswani Omprakash
Own Your Crohn's & IBDesis
At our center, we’re experienced in caring for patients whose conditions are complex and require exceptionally specialized care. We have the resources and expertise to meet individual needs, and our patients work with a team that may include nutritionists, radiologists, colorectal surgeons, and rheumatologists. With such a wide range of experts, we can provide the most comprehensive and advanced treatment available.My personal experience allows me to offer patients unique insight into managing their care. As a person living with Crohn’s, I understand the emotional complexity of IBD and can relate to my patients. When I work with them, my aim is to provide the most effective care and connect with them on a personal and empathetic level.In my research, I study malignant and infectious complications of IBD. Specifically, I want to understand how gastrointestinal infections may complicate IBD or trigger it to develop, with the ultimate goal of finding a prevention or cure. I am a member of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and speak at numerous patient symposiums and international conferences.My struggle with Crohn’s derailed my career, my prospects for further education, many of my friendships, my sense of self, and my personality in my early 20s when my life was supposed to just be beginning. I had over 20 surgeries in seven years along with hundreds of procedures and imaging studies since my diagnosis. I’ve dealt with Crohn’s colitis, proctitis, several fistulae, abscesses, and cysts over the years in addition to multiple extraintestinal manifestations and diagnoses.My life is now a perpetual case of living between doctor appointments and volunteering in between health crises. In addition to perianal, fistulizing Crohn’s Disease and my permanent ileostomy, I manage a long laundry list of other chronic health issues, including gastroparesis, post-surgical irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), pelvic floor dysfunction, vestibular migraines, vertigo, inflammatory arthritis, sacroiliitis, allergies, sinusitis, asthma, pyoderma gangrenosum, hidradenitis suppurativa, erythema nodosum, Sweet’s syndrome, sciatica, peritoneal inclusion cysts, and episcleritis. And let’s not forget anxiety, depression and medical PTSD, which are huge components of living with chronic illness.Nevertheless, after four near-death experiences, I am thankful to be alive, and for every single surgery and every single breath. I am ever grateful for my ostomy, which has given me a new lease on life. With the help of my faith, my family, and the friends who stuck around, I have managed to pick myself up higher than ever before despite all the setbacks. One of the things I’ve worked incessantly to improve in this process has been my self-image, self-worth, and self-respect coming out of surgeries that ravaged my being, yet gave me life again.
Dr. Jena Kravitz is a clinical neuropsychologist and media expert in Los Angeles, CA. She has a vast understanding of the impact of chronic illness on mental health, and specifically, on navigating the ups and downs of IBD. Jena was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at the age of 20, has tried nearly every medication available and has undergone numerous surgeries, including subtotal colectomy. She believes that living with IBD has given her a unique opportunity to redefine what it means to live fully with chronic illness.
