Executive Committee

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.

Matt Linnik, Ph.D. is Vice President, Immunology at the Lilly Biotechnology Center in San Diego, where his responsibilities span discovery and clinical research. Matt received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Current responsibilities include a biologic immune checkpoint agonist in phase 2, a small molecule enzyme inhibitor entering phase 2, and a large academic collaboration with a major EU University. His research lab focuses on multifunctional molecules, including antibody-drug conjugates for autoimmune diseases and oncology. Matt started his Lilly career in the late phase, contributing to multiple autoimmune compounds, including baricitinib, ixekizumab, and tabalumab. Matt joined Lilly in 2011 from Biogen Idec where he was Distinguished Medical Research Scientist and Head of Translational Medicine for Immunology. At Biogen, Matt was responsible for rituximab and ocrelizumab in autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, SLE and lupus nephritis. Before Biogen Idec, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co (NASDAQ: LJPC). His responsibilities included leading registration trials for a phase 3 asset in lupus nephritis (abetimus sodium) and driving a discovery research platform for B cell toleragens. Matt is an internationally recognized expert in Lupus and Co-Chair of Lupus Industry Council for Lupus Research Alliance.

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.

Veronica Vargas Lupo is a Managing Director at Consello. She is renowned for spearheading business transformations, partnering with C-level executives, and digitally transforming business capabilities and operational processes based on smarter, data-driven decision making.

Veronica has lived with lupus for 18 years. She has been an active member of the Lupus Research Alliance Young Leadership Board since its inception in 2010 and was honored in 2018 at our annual Handbag Luncheon as our “Woman of Achievement’. Veronica is originally from Venezuela, where she grew up until moving to the U.S. as a teenager. Lupus is dear to her not only because she has lived with it but also because her mother has lupus.

Why Veronica says she is serving on the Lupus Voices Council: “Lupus ABC will, for the first time, truly give people who live with lupus and their caregivers a platform where they can be heard and involved in the treatment development process directly with all stakeholders. As someone who has lived with the disease for many years and knowing the wide range of symptoms that those of us with lupus experience, having a voice in this process is immensely important. It is so critical for our perspectives to be considered when designing clinical trials and measuring outcomes to develop tailored therapies in lupus.”