Voice of The Patient

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 9 Oct 2026
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location
Virginia G. Piper Auditorium, Biomedical Campus


Patients are the reason we do what we do. 

Join us for a conversation on life science innovation from the patient perspective.  

Friday, October 9, 2026

9 AM –  12 PM

Virginia G Piper Auditorium

550 E. Van Buren Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004

REGISTER

There is no cost for Attendee Registration.

Parking is recommended in the PBC Garage located at 5th St. and Filmore Street next to TGen.

Learn more about parking options and fees.

For more information on supporting partner opportunities, please see below.

Agenda 

Produced in partnership with Arizona’s patient advocacy community, Voice of the Patient brings together people who are living with acute and chronic health challenges to share their life experiences with life science and healthcare leaders.  All speakers at Voice of the Patient are patients and patient advocates sharing their experiences and what they need from us in the future.

9:00 AM   Registration and Networking

9:30 AM    Program Begins 

  • Welcome – Joan Koerber -Walker
  • Mary Kay Turner and Lisa WintonLi, MD
  • Emerald Bell and Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD
  • Thomas S. Hunt
  • Cooper Groppenbacher and Ayden Hall with Joan Koerber-Walker
  • Corrin Cook
  • Scott Harris
  • Lanette Kirk-Veres
  • Amy Haley &  Caleb
  • Zachary S. Brooks, PhD
  • Pat Elliott with Joan Koerber-Walker

11:30 AM  Networking

12:00  PM  Program Concludes

SPEAKERS

More Patient Voices Coming Soon

Emerald Bell
 
Emerald Bell brings 20 years of experience in healthcare, including 15 years as a registered nurse. In 2024, she successfully defended her Ph.D. in Nursing at the University of Arizona, where her research explored the complex interplay between the microbiome, endometriosis, and co-occurring anxiety. Her professional and academic expertise became deeply personal in 2026, when she was diagnosed with stage IV endometriosis. This experience has further strengthened her commitment to advancing awareness, research, and understanding of endometriosis and its far-reaching impact on women’s health.
 

Zach Brooks

Zachary S. Brooks, PhD is the Founder & CEO of UGenome, a University of Arizona startup, and a 2-time kidney transplant recipient. Discovering that he had a condition that caused his kidneys to fail wasn’t in the plan but then helping others get better treatment options became his mission. 

 

 

 

Corinn Cook

Corinn Cook is the Program Manager at NAMI Valley of the Sun, where she oversees mental health education, support programs, community outreach, and partnerships throughout Maricopa County. Beginning her journey with NAMI as a volunteer, Corinn has developed a deep commitment to advocacy, reducing stigma, and ensuring individuals and families feel seen, heard, and supported. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Walden University, with a passion for improving organizational systems and supporting the well-being of those working in the mental health field. Beyond her professional and academic accomplishments, Corinn proudly lives in recovery from Agoraphobia, Major Depressive Disorder, and Substance Use Disorder. She brings both lived experience and professional expertise to her work, believing wholeheartedly in the power of hope, human connection, and recovery.  

 

Pat Elliott

 

Pat Elliott, a two-time cancer survivor, is an international patient advocate. A former multi-media journalist and communications executive for global technology firms and large hospital systems, she provides online support for 16,000 cancer patients, a world class oncologist, and a global team of patients and physicians collaborating to develop a cure for her rare leukemia.

 

 

Cooper Groppenbacher

My name is Cooper Groppenbacher, I recently graduated from Northern Arizona University and have lived in Arizona my whole life. As a person who was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s disease at the age of ten, I spent most of my later childhood and early adulthood learning to navigate the hoops and difficulties that come with having Crohn’s. After exhausting several oral medications, I was put on a biologic and that medicine changed my life. After several years that medication became less effective and I was then put on a different biologic. Both biologic medications have allowed me to live a life that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

 

Amy Haley and Caleb

Amy Haley is Director of Communications and Public Affairs for Raising Voices Coalition (RVC), a leading voice for Arizona’s intellectual and developmental disability community. Amy works to turn the experiences of individuals and families into meaningful systems change, building relationships with state leaders and bringing the voices of families and self-advocates directly into consequential policy decisions.

For Amy, the work is deeply personal. She is the mother of 14-year-old twins, including her son Caleb, who has profound intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities with complex medical and behavioral needs. He is non-speaking and depends on others for nearly every aspect of his care. Raising Caleb has given Amy a perspective on healthcare and disability that cannot be learned from the outside. Amy earned multiple degrees from Stanford University and spent nearly a decade in finance before Caleb’s needs changed the course of her career. Since then, she has balanced caregiving with entrepreneurship, eventually bringing her personal and professional experience together in broader disability advocacy.Today, Amy’s work focuses on bringing lived experience into the conversations where decisions are made, guided by her belief that the most meaningful innovation starts with asking the right questions of the right people. To truly understand the people we hope to serve is to see possibilities we might never have imagined.

 

Ayden Hall

Since being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age 15, Ayden Hall has come to understand both how much effective treatment can help and the challenges that persist. Although his biomarkers indicate his disease is well controlled, he continues to experience fatigue, neuropathy, muscle weakness, and joint pain. He has also facd insurance barriers that have forced him to switch between biosimilars and wait months for treatment authorization. These experiences have deepened his commitment to improving the lives of others with inflammatory bowel disease through patient-focused insurance reform, advocacy, and research. Ayden serves on the Board of Directors for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Arizona Chapter, where he supports fundraising, research partnerships, and patient resources. One of his most meaningful experiences is volunteering with Camp Oasis California, a summer camp that provides support for children and teens with IBD. Ayden loves science and enjoys sharing that enthusiasm with children and the public. He aims to continue raising funds and awareness for Crohn’s disease while pursuing a career in medicine focused on improving therapies and diagnostics for people with chronic and difficult-to-diagnose conditions.

Scott Harris

Scott Harris, lives with a hereditary condition called Alport syndrome — a disease that affects his kidneys, eyesight, and hearing. Growing up, he wore hearing aids and glasses and often wondering why he visited the doctor more frequently than his brother. At 19, while working as a counselor at a camp in Prescott, his kidneys failed for the first time. At 57, he has undergone three kidney transplants, each one marking a chapter in a journey that has shaped him in unexpected ways. Living with this disease has given him a deeper appreciation for life and the strength that comes from facing challenges directly. He wouldn’t change any part of his story. Life, he believes, is a gift, and each person chooses how to respond to the difficult moments that arise. We can stay frustrated and feel defeated, or we can rise above our circumstances and use our experiences to support and inspire others who are struggling. Caring for ourselves — and for the people around us — matters. Every challenge is an opportunity to grow, to connect, and to make life a little brighter for someone else.

Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD

Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, PhD, is a tenured Professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix and Director of the Translational Women’s Health Research Program, where she leads multidisciplinary research focused on women’s health and disease. Her research investigates the microbiome and molecular mechanisms underlying cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, endometriosis and other gynecologic conditions, with an emphasis on developing noninvasive approaches to diagnosis and clinical translation. Her work bridges basic science, clinical research, and commercialization to advance innovative diagnostics and improve women’s health outcomes.

Tom Hunt

Thomas S. Hunt is a strategic operations leader, translating complex, multi-faceted business challenges into actionable solutions. His career spans CEO, VP-level strategist, and Director of Special Projects roles where he consistently bridged leadership teams, technical specialists, and capital partners to drive high-stakes decisions in ambiguous environments.  In 2020, Tom faced a health challenge that sparked a time of transformation and rebirth.  Tom contracted a virus that over just a few months destroyed his heart and gave him severe pulmonary embolims in both lungs. His patient journey began at the Banner hospital, in Tucson, AZ and then to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix to to be evaluated for a heart transplant.  What came next did more that save his life, it transformed it.

Joan Koerber-Walker, President & CEO, AZBio

Joan Koerber-Walker, is a wife, mother, grandmother, and patient advocate. She also serves as president and CEO of AZBio and as chairman of the board of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation. These two organizations have come together to create AZAdvances. Its mission is to support the creation and of Arizona-based health innovations. The team is working to create a sustainable solution to address the need for early-stage life science funding for researchers and companies in Arizona and developing the programs they need to succeed. The goal is to help develop and deliver the treatments and cures that patients are waiting for.

 

Mary Kay Turner 

Mary Kay Turner built her career in biopharma, first with a large pharmaceutical company supporting some of the industry’s most successful medicines and now with a biotechnology company advancing regenerative medicine for ALS. Her work has consistently connected science, advocacy and access, with a focus on making sure patients help shape the therapies intended for them. This year, that mission became personal when Mary Kay was diagnosed with breast cancer. After years of helping bring medicines to patients, she became the patient — facing surgery, treatment decisions, side effects and the uncertainty that accompanies a cancer diagnosis. That experience has sharpened her perspective on what patient-centered care really means: not simply treating disease, but listening to the person living through it.

Lanette Veres, Founder & Survivor, Gray Matters Foundation

Lanette Kirk-Veres is a 28-year brain tumor  survivor and founder of Gray Matters Foundation. Her connection to brain cancer began six years before her own diagnosis, when her grandmother died from the disease, giving her both a caregiver and patient perspective. For more than two decades, Lanette has supported patients, survivors and caregivers while building relationships with healthcare professionals and researchers advancing brain tumor care. She is passionate about bringing the patient voice to those conversations and connecting those living with brain cancer with those working to understand and treat it. Lanette believes patients and caregivers should have a voice at the table.

 

Lisa WintonLi, M.D.

Dr. WintonLi‘s expertise includes the diagnosis of both breast cancer and benign breast disease along with management of patients at high risk of developing breast cancer. She is dedicated to applying a compassionate and personalized approach to each patient and ensuring excellence in oncologic and surgical outcomes. She is board certified in General Surgery and completed advanced fellowship training in Surgical Breast Oncology. Dr. WintonLi received her degree from The Ohio State University and she completed her residency training in General Surgery at Maricopa Integrated Health System and a fellowship in Surgical Breast Oncology at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas.

Voice of the Patient stories from past years are featured here.

Thank you to our supporting partner organizations

Please contact AZBio For more information on sponsor opportunities.