Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Christy Jagdfeld
Christy Jagdfeld is a CPA who resides in the Lake Country area of Wisconsin. She became a fierce patient advocate after her youngest child was diagnosed with several chronic illnesses in 2012.
Jagdfeld worked for six years as a volunteer and eventual Board Member and Treasurer of Dysautonomia International from 2014 to 2020. During that time, she organized a local 200 person annual awareness event, an in-person 5K Fundraising Event, and a successful 300 patient and clinician seminar on POTS & Dysautonomia held at St. Luke’s in Milwaukee.
She was co-chair of the Dysautonomia International Wisconsin Support group with 1000+ members and helped organize monthly in-person meetings, many with speakers. She attended local conferences and spoke at local events. On a national level, she helped with fundraising, networking, attending professional conferences and handled many of the business aspects of the organization.
Through a fellow board member of Dysautonomia International, Jagdfeld was introduced to the concept
another organization was utilizing that was driving research at a faster pace by providing funding and bio-samples directly to researchers in the Lyme world. That concept was one that Jagdfeld hoped to apply to other chronic illness that lacked funding and overall “coordinated” research.
In the fall of 2020, Jagdfeld joined the board of PANDAS Network as Treasurer. While there, she helped work with the executive director, Diana Pohlman, to implement policies and procedures, overhaul their current website, organize a virtual conference, attract new sponsors, start a Patient Advisory Committee, and start the process of getting a unique research roadmap created for PANDAS and PANS research.
In November of 2021, Jagdfeld was introduced to Dr. Denice Calaprice-Whitty who has an extensive and impressive background in neuroinflammatory illness research and data analysis. Calaprice-Whitty had recently joined the Scientific Advisory Board of PANDAS Network.
A discussion of overlapping interests in a patient registry, patient biobank, and coordinated researcher funding led to the creation of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative in December of 2021. Jagdfeld hopes that this concept can be shared across many illness models as advocacy groups push for platforms to help their patients, clinicians, and researchers.
In addition to her passion for patient advocacy, she shares a love for competitive swimming, music and the arts with her husband and three children. She continues to serve on the Board of Directors for Waukesha Express Swim Team since 2012. She credits swimming and caring coaches with helping her youngest through some of the hardest times of her life battling chronic illness. She looks forward to the
day when families no longer have to spend long and often devastating years searching for a diagnosis –
that they are able to find answers from the beginning.
