Your Story Our Fight by Lupus LA LupusLA

Season TWO Episode TWENTY-THREE of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Samantha Boothe. Samantha was diagnosed with lupus at the age of 14, and she has been sharing her journey with lupus online since 2010. Her main goal is to create relatable and informative content to empower anyone navigating life with chronic illness. When Samantha was diagnosed with lupus, she searched the internet for someone to relate to but had trouble finding any resources. This realization pushed Samantha to start sharing her story on YouTube. As time passed, Samantha's YouTube channel grew, and she was surrounded by others who had similar experiences. Today, Samantha runs a blog and Instagram page called Heal With Samantha, where she shares the ups and downs of living with chronic illness. She hopes that through her content, she can help others feel less alone and provide them with the support and resources they need to thrive in their own life.

Season TWO Episode TWENTY-TWO of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Olga Lucia Torres. A few years after law school, Olga was diagnosed with lupus and eventually the doctors found she had 4 other autoimmune diseases. Olga's health has never stopped her from following her dreams and attending Cornell University and Georgetown University Law School on scholarships. In August of 2000, Olga went to the hospital for routine medical care. She was supposed to be discharged in 2 to 3 days. Instead Olga ended up in a coma and with an iatrogenic brain injury. It took six years of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, but Olga managed to volunteer again doing health care law. 
Olga was inspired to return to school in 2012 where she found the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University and in 2014,  received a Master’s in Science. She now teaches narrative medicine at the CUNY School of Medicine.

Season TWO Episode TWENTY-ONE of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Melissa Walker. Melissa is a Medical Writer, with a biomedical research background focusing on traumatic spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Neuroscience from Indiana University School of Medicine before returning to UCLA department of Neurosurgery, for postdoctoral research. She was diagnosed with Graves’ thyroid disease in 2002, and has had Hashimoto’s since 2003, after radioiodine ablation therapy. She was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2005, and Sjogren’s in 2016.

Season TWO Episode TWENTY of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Stacey Uberstine. Stacey graduated from California State University Northridge in 1990 with a bachelor of science degree in Health Administration with a computer science minor.  One of her most notable jobs was helping to establish the Industrial Care Center which is operational at San Pedro Hospital.  In 1993 Stacey transitioned into the insurance industry where she owned and operated her own State farm Agency for over a decade. Stacey was diagnosed with lupus in 1994.  She stays abreast of the disease and all related medical breakthroughs and advances in research. Stacey has been an active donor and Board member of Lupus LA. She has a passion for patient advocacy within the lupus and breast cancer communities. Stacey is an avid sports fan, and actually met her husband through her work at State Farm.  Sports seems to be a family affair, as her husband is a prominent sports attorney who has represented some of the most iconic figures in professional sports.  Her passion for sports was passed on to her twin boys, Grant and Tyler.  Grant was an avid athlete in high school, participating in lacrosse, baseball and swimming.  Tyler’s passion for baseball took him to Northwestern University, where he earned a spot in the team’s starting rotation.  He was later drafted by the Boston Red Sox. Stacey resides in Manhattan Beach, where she can be seen taking strolls along the beach.  She is an avid reader and spends a considerable amount of time supporting philanthropic causes close to her heart related to lupus and breast cancer.

Season TWO Episode NINETEEN of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Kellie Martin. Kellie began acting at the age of seven. She is most fondly remembered for playing Becca Thacher on the groundbreaking ABC family drama Life Goes On, for which she received an Emmy nomination. And, her portrayal of Lucy Knight, a precocious med student who met an untimely demise after two seasons on NBC’s ER, haunts viewers to this day. Kellie has been a been a regular on numerous series including, The Guest Book, Army Wives, Mystery Woman, and on Hallmark’s Hailey Dean, where she served as Executive Producer. Her television and feature film highlights include Troop Beverly Hills, A Goofy Movie, Malibu’s Most Wanted, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Mad Men. She also served as leading lady for Hallmark’s beloved holiday movies, The Christmas Ornament and Christmas in Montana as well as rom-com favorites, Smooch, I Married Who?, and Hello It’s Me.

In 1999, Kellie lost her nineteen year old sister, Heather, to lupus. So, Kellie took on a new role, one that she continues passionately to this day: national spokesperson for the Autoimmune Association. She works to raise awareness, lobbies Congress, speaks, and meets personally with patients and their families. Kellie is a Yale graduate with a degree in Art History. She co-authored a novel, Madam, which was published by Penguin in 2014. She’s currently writing on a new novel. 

Most recently, Kellie has been working with her Life Goes On co-star, Chad Lowe and All American show runner, Nkechi Okoro Carroll to reboot Life Goes On with Warner Brothers. She just directed Mistletoe in Montana for Lifetime and has been recording a new podcast with Chad Lowe entitled The Big Break. She lives on a suburban farm in California with her husband, Keith, daughters, Maggie (15), Olivia (5) and a bunch of goats, pigs, and horses. 

Season TWO Episode EIGHTEEN of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes J. Christopher Reed. Christopher Reed was diagnosed with lupus in 1990 at the age of 16. Despite several serious attacks to his organ system, he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from the Georgia State University and a law degree from Tulane University. He managed his first job out of law school juggling lupus nephritis and horrible chemotherapy treatments.  After an 18 year career in litigation, Christopher has devoted his life to public health and health policy. He is the Policy, Advocacy, and Mobilization Manager for SisterLove, Inc. an organization that is devoted to eradicating challenges to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. He is a contractor for the American College of Rheumatology, the University of Alabama, and the Lupus Research Alliance on three separate projects devoted to increasing minority participation in clinical trials. He is also an advocate, moderator, and writer for Lupus.net. He now serves as a Support Group Facilitator, Advocacy Chair, and Project Manager for the Lupus Foundation of America-Georgia Chapter. His support group, designed specifically for men, is the first of its kind in the United States. He was appointment by the state and then chaired the Georgia Council on Lupus Education and Awareness (Council) an advisory council created and funded by the state of Georgia. As Chair he established the Georgia Lupus Collaborative, a 60 person multidisciplinary advisory group and think tank charged with improving the lives of people with lupus in Georgia. He was one of twelve panelists chosen to speak at the historical Lupus Patient Focused Drug Development meeting in 2017.