About Rae Marie Gleason
Rae Marie Gleason is the Executive Director for the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA) located in Anaheim, California. The NFA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to develop and execute programs dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with fibromyalgia. Rae oversees the medical education and scientific research departments and is involved with the advocacy programs for the NFA as well as supervising the day to day operations of the organization. In 2010 she launched the NFA Leaders Coalition helping to gain better access to care for people with fibromyalgia.
She began her career in fibromyalgia research, medical education and advocacy 19 years ago with the National Fibromyalgia Research Association (NFRA) located in Salem, Oregon. As the Executive Director for the NFRA she organized and presented five international fibromyalgia researchers’ symposiums which helped promote diverse scientific thought in the development of new approaches to FM treatment and diagnosis. She also developed physician educational handout materials and distributed them at annual national medical meetings including: the American College of Rheumatology, American Neurological Association, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Neurological Surgeons, the American Pain Society, the American Academy of Pain Management, the International Myopain Society and many other organizational gatherings.
Her other accomplishments include participation in six National Institutes of Health workshops in Bethesda, Maryland and Virginia and working with Presbyterian Health Care to organize and present a fibromyalgia researchers symposium in Charlotte, NC. She also worked in conjunction with the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch to present a fibromyalgia educational meeting for healthcare professionals in Chicago. In June 2003, she was appointed as a fibromyalgia Federal Drug and Alcohol (FDA) patient representative.
She is currently serves on the editorial board and is head of the Fibromyalgia Department for the Practical Pain Management journal and is on the advisory panel for Health Points a quarterly printed resource for fibromyalgia, CFIDS, arthritis and chronic pain, published by To Your Health. Rae has served on the board of the Fibromyalgia Information Foundation located in Portland, Oregon as the head of Public Relations. In June 2009, she was part of a panel made up of researchers, doctors and patient advocacy representatives that worked on Contemporary Management Strategies for Fibromyalgia, which resulted in a white paper report that was published in The American Journal of Managed Care.
Since 2008, she has partnered with more than a dozen medical education companies to develop and promote fibromyalgia and chronic pain continuing medical education (CME) programs. Several university medical schools have been the accreditation partners on these programs including: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin and Einstein University. Her responsibilities on these programs include writing some of the program needs assessments, helping with program development and review and inviting and securing the medical faculties for these different venues. The audiences for these CME programs include: primary care physicians, neurologists, rheumatologists, gynecologists, psychiatrists, nurses and nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, and physical therapists. In 2009 Rae launched the Fibromyalgia Healthcare Professional website where all of the online CME programs are housed. She has also helped develop several CME programs with Pain Educators for PAINWeek, an annual meeting held in September in Las Vegas.
Rae is currently involved in final negotiations in becoming a partner in Cause Marketing, LLC with Lynne Matallana, President of the corporation.
