Join Us Live Bi-Weekly

We are excited to be back!!!! Our new season of Better Together: Sharing Our Lupus Stories starts on October 8^th 2024. This series of one-hour, live webinars is designed to explore important topics that are relevant to you, the lupus patient. Throughout the series, our expert panel — consisting of a physician and a Lupus warrior — and other lupus patients will share and discuss their stories regarding crucial issues such as:

• Understanding lupus, types of lupus, causes, and triggers, etc.
• Living with lupus
• Therapeutic alternatives
• Latest research, and more

Join us with your questions and comments via chat and we'll dedicate time at the end of each webinar to have our panelists and lupus patient advocates answer them. Our goal is to produce webinars that resonate with you and allows your voices to be heard.

Upcoming Schedule

Review our updated schedule below for upcoming topics.

Meet the Hosts

Singer / HBO Def Poet / Lyricist / Advocate for Lupus Awareness

Shanelle Gabriel

Shanelle Gabriel is a poet, singer, and lupus warrior from Brooklyn, NY who has performed globally. Widely known for featuring on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, she featured in national campaigns with Pandora Music, LifeWtr, and more, and also curated poems for Fast Company Magazine’s International Innovation Festivals. Shanelle is also a health activist who has spoken alongside the President of the National Institute of Health, lobbied for patient rights on Capitol Hill, featured in USA Today on the importance of clinical trials, consulted for several major pharmaceutical companies, and hosted a column on www.lupusnewstoday.com. She featured in a mini documentary on the Lifetime Network, appeared in Women’s Health magazine, and in a documentary for the American College of Rheumatology on her continued battle with this chronic illness. Presently, she is working on her third album, co-hosting The HydroxychloroQueenz Podcast on living with lupus while serving as the Executive Director at Urban Word, a youth organization that uses poetry & hip-hop to promote literacy and youth voice.

Medical Doctor / Rheumatologist / Internist

Dr. Micaela Bayard

Micaela F. Bayard, MD is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine, NY, NY, and board-certified in internal medicine and rheumatology. Dr. Bayard practices across multiple sites in Queens including Mount Sinai Queens. Dr. Bayard graduated from University of Massachusetts Medical School after completing the NIH postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award program, and receiving her BA from Brown University. She completed Internal Medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Queens, NY, and Rheumatology fellowship at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, NY.

Dr. Bayard is course director of musculoskeletal pathophysiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where her work focuses on building antiracism curriculum into undergraduate medical education. She is the founder of the Queens Lupus Support Group, and is a member of the American College of Rheumatology’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee. She also serves on national pharmacy and policy committees for Blue Cross Blue Shield, as well as the advisory board for POPSUGAR’s condition center.

Dr. Bayard is known as “The Lupus Doc” for sharing expert medical knowledge on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Her social media account “The Lupus Doc” has gained a following as an inclusive space for meaningful partnerships, learning, and access to emerging topics on lupus wellness.

Other guest speakers will join us from week to week so stay tuned!

When we tell our stories…

We’ll share our journeys, recipes, tips, and more plus conversations with medical professionals from around the country, including rheumatologists and mental health experts. No matter what we decide, the day’s topic will be all about you and how best to manage your life with lupus.

We may meet on our sofas with tea, in our kitchens sharing recipes, or on our mats, twisting and stretching, but we’ll be here for you every week.

Tuesdays Bi-Weekly at 6:30pm ET