Executive Committee

Nikolay Delev, M.D. has served as Executive Medical Director, Clinical Development Team Lead, Immunology and Fibrosis, at Bristol Myers Squibb since 2019. Dr. Delev received his M.D. from Sofia Medical School in Bulgaria and completed Internal Medicine training at Advocate Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. He completed Rheumatology Fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University with a special interest in inflammatory arthritides and clinical research. He oversees the clinical development strategy, design, and execution of programs across the BMS mid to late-stage portfolio. He is leading a clinical team targeting a broad spectrum of immunologic conditions such as lupus, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren’s. Prior to joining BMS, he held several roles of increasing responsibility at Parexel, Novartis, and Celgene, where he served as a Medical and Scientific Expert and Senior Director for a variety of early and late-stage programs. He was loosely involved in the development and approval of Otezla and Cosentyx. He continues to see patients as a volunteer clinician-rheumatologist in an outpatient setting.

Gary Koretzky, M.D., Ph.D. obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. (Immunology) degrees at the University of Pennsylvania (’84). He then pursued clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the University of California at San Francisco. He went on to re-enter the laboratory at UCSF as a post-doctoral fellow, examining the molecular events associated with immune cell activation. Dr. Koretzky later moved to the University of Iowa in 1991, continuing his research examining the biochemistry and molecular biology of signal transduction in hematopoietic cells. In 1999, Koretzky joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and as Director of the Signal Transduction Program of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. At Penn, he was an Associate Director of the M.D./Ph.D. program, served as Chief of the Division of Rheumatology from 2006-2008, and as the Francis C. Wood Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair for Research and Chief Scientific Officer in the Penn Department 2008-2013. In 2013, Dr. Koretzky moved to Weill Cornell Medical College as the Vice Dean for Research and the Dean of Weill Cornell Graduate School. In 2017, Dr. Koretzky moved to Ithaca as Vice Provost for Academic Integration to build research programs between the Ithaca and New York City campuses and as the inaugural Director of the Cornell Center for Immunology.

S. Louis Bridges, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. is Physician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at HSS and at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is Past President of the Rheumatology Research Foundation and a former Chair of the Committee on Research of the American College of Rheumatology.  He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a medical degree from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans.  After serving as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch, he completed a fellowship in Rheumatology at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he also obtained his doctorate in Microbiology/Immunology. For 12 years, he was UAB Director of the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology.  Dr. Bridges has been named to Best Doctors in America, and the 2023 New York Super Doctors list. He is former Co-Editor of Arthritis & Rheumatology and Past Chair of the NIAMS Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Study Section.  His research focus is rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility, autoantibodies, and biomarkers of treatment response. Dr. Bridges has authored more than 185 manuscripts, many book chapters, and served as editor of three books.  

Denesh Chitkara, M.D. is the Vice President, Head of Global Clinical Development Immunology at EMD Serono. Denesh completed his medical training at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at the combined program of Harvard Medical School Children’s Hospital Boston/Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in clinical research at Mayo Clinic Rochester. Denesh has been involved in immunology clinical development for the last 14 years with leadership roles within Merck/MSD, Celgene, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Denesh has been leading teams involved in the clinical development of treatments for a broad range of immunologic diseases, such as cutaneous and systemic lupus erythematosus, axial spondyloarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and hepatic fibrosis.

Elena Hsieh, M.D. earned her M.D. degree from the University of California San Francisco in 2008. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of California Los Angeles in 2011 and a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Stanford University in 2014. After one year stay at Stanford University as an Instructor, in 2015 Dr. Hsieh joined the faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, jointly affiliated with the Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Dr. Hsieh’s lab addresses mechanistic and translational questions in human immunology, focusing on classical pediatric autoimmune disorders such as lupus and type 1 diabetes, and genetic immune dysregulation disorders. She is currently leading consortium studies that aim to identify novel inborn errors of immunity (IEI) that present with autoimmunity/inflammation, atopy, and/or malignancy (Sanford Children’s Genomic Medicine Consortium). She is the Director of the Jeffrey Modell Center for Primary Immunodeficiency and co-directs the Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Newborn Screen Program. Dr. Hsieh also directs the high-dimensional single-cell tissue interrogation section of the Human Immune Shared Resource under the Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative, which seeks to promote basic science and translational immunology research.

Judith Mills, M.B.S. is a biomedical scientist, a TEDx speaker, and adjunct professor at Kean University specializing in alopecia, disability, health, and lupus advocacy. She was diagnosed with lupus after three years with symptoms like fatigue, loss of appetite, body aches, and hair loss.

Seeking support, Judith first contacted the local New Jersey chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) while pursuing a B.S. in Biology. She organized a student support group for individuals with disabilities and fundraising clubs for lupus.

In 2003, Judith formed Team MSU at Montclair State University for a local LFA walk. She also joined the now Lupus Research Alliance (LRA), supporting the NJ Walk with Us to Cure Lupus and participated in its Multicultural Task Force.

In 2011, she founded the nonprofit Butterfly Walkers Inc. while working towards a graduate degree in Biomedical Science. She has generated lupus awareness on television shows, serves with the Montclair Township Council, and has secured mayoral proclamations for lupus awareness in several NJ cities. Judith’s dedication has earned several awards from the LFA and the LRA.

Judith serves on the Lupus ABC to collaborate with fellow researchers and add her perspective as a person with lupus. She hopes Lupus ABC prioritizes precision medicine and encourages development of medications with minimal side effects.

Despite shattered dreams as a track star, Judith remains a runner, “not for track and field, but for the race of life.”

Dr. Zahi Touma, M.D, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinician-Scientist with the University of Toronto and Scientist with the Schroeder Arthritis Institute and Krembil Research Institute. Dr. Touma  is Director of the Lupus Program and Staff Rheumatologist with the University Health Network (UHN)/Mount Sinai Hospital, and Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Work and Health. Appointed the inaugural Dr. Murray B. Urowitz Chair in Lupus Research at UHN, his research is focused on patients with SLE and measurement science with a particular interest in the assessment of disease activity, patient reported outcomes and cognitive function. One of his most significant contributions has been the development of the SLE disease activity indices – the SLEDAI Responder Index-50 (S2K RI-50) and SLEDAI-2K Glucocorticoids Index (SGI). 

Dr. Touma is a Co-Chair of the Criteria Subcommittee of the Quality-of-Care Committee of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) for the development of classification and response criteria for rheumatic diseases. He established the NeuroLupus Program with the goal of developing improved methods of identifying cognitive impairment in SLE and understanding its course over time and impact on health-related quality of life and productivity. Dr. Touma also is a co-chair of the SLE OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) Working Group and  sits on the Advisory Boards of Lupus Ontario and the Lupus Foundation of America. He has been appointed as the inaugural Dr. Murray B. Urowitz Chair in Lupus Research at UHN.