Episode 53: A Look Behind the 2019 World Parkinson Congress

More than ten million people around the world live with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The World Parkinson Coalition (WPC) is a nonprofit organization that provides an international forum on the disease and every three years holds the World Parkinson Congress. The 2019 congress will be in Kyoto, Japan in early June, bringing together people with PD, care givers, physicians, scientists, nurses, and rehabilitation therapists for a worldwide dialogue to improve and expedite advances in treatment practices. Through large forums and smaller sessions, attendees will share knowledge and ideas. Eli Pollard, VP of Education at the Parkinson’s Foundation and Executive Director of the WPC, says its goal is to bring these diverse constituencies together to engage in high level discussions of a wide range of aspects of Parkinson’s, including treatment, scientific advances, and care options.

Released: April 23, 2019

Eli Pollard designs and oversees the foundation’s Professional Education and online programs. She recognized early on that the best way to ensure people with Parkinson’s receive quality care is to ensure that health professionals better understand Parkinson’s. She leads the foundation’s push to make training and educating healthcare providers a top priority from early on in their professional training.

She started working in the Parkinson’s field in 2004, when she began overseeing the creation of the World Parkinson Congress. She splits her time between the foundation and the World Parkinson Coalition. She is passionate about social justice issues, including access to information and education, which she feels can eliminate inequities and help people with Parkinson’s live better lives. This includes ensuring people with Parkinson’s understand the disease, have access to treatment options and qualified healthcare professionals.

Eli holds an M.A. from the School for International Training in Vermont, a B.A. in Education from Michigan State University and a certificate of African Studies from the University of Zimbabwe. After earning her degree, she spent almost 10 years living in Zimbabwe, Switzerland and Japan.

About Eli Pollard, MA

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