2025 APDA Illinois Parkinson’s Conference

8:00 AM –
9:00 AM –
9:15 – 10:00 AM –




10:00 – 10:45 AM –

10:45 – 11:15 AM –
11:00 – 12:00 PM –










12:00 – 12:30 PM –

Check In & Resource Fair
APDA Welcome
APDA Researchers
Saar Anis, MD – Exploring the Impact of Deep Brain Stimulation on Sleep in Patients with PD
Helen Hwang, MD, PhD – Small Molecules as Potential Therapeutic for PD
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jori Fleisher, MD, MSCE, FAAN – Overcoming Myths & Barriers to Live Well with PD at Any Stage
Vendor Fair
Expanding Your Support Team:
Panel Discussion – Hosted by: Jennifer Vince
1. Living with Parkinson’s Disease
2. Speech/Voice
3. Neurology
4. Mental Health & Journaling
5. Proactive Planning
6. Non-Traditional Therapy
7. Legal & Financial
8. Nutritionist

Resource Fair and Final Q & A

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jori Fleisher MD, MSCE – RUSH University Medical Center
Jori Fleisher, MD MSCE is a neurologist and movement disorder specialist at Rush University Medical Center with a special interest in understanding the needs of individuals and families who are living with advanced movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and related conditions. She received her MD from Northwestern University and her Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed her residency and fellowship. Dr. Fleisher has additional training in palliative care, health services and implementation research, and advocacy leadership. Supported by the NIH, foundations, and philanthropy, Dr. Fleisher’s own research focuses on designing and implementing novel models of care and support for people living with neurodegenerative disorders. She is thrilled to be the Principal Investigator of the PERSEVERE Trial, a first-of-its-kind entirely virtual, national, randomized controlled trial to educate and empower family care partners whose loved ones have Parkinson’s or Lewy Body Dementia. She is a co-investigator on several national NIH-funded studies in PD dementia, DLB, and improving emergency department care and transitions for people living with dementia. She is an internationally recognized speaker partnering with multiple patient advocacy organizations, has mentored over 25 trainees, and is a proud PD family care partner and believer in the power of movement as medicine.

Expert Researcher: Dr. Saar Anis
Dr. Anis is a Neurologist and Movement Disorders Specialist. He completed his Neurology Residency and Movement Disorders Fellowship at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. Following his fellowship, Dr. Anis served as staff at Sheba Medical Center and began a tenure-track position at Tel Aviv University. During his tenure, he investigated the impact of Deep brain stimulation (DBS) on non-motor features in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with monogenic mutations prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) population.  Dr. Anis has a strong research focus on non-motor symptoms of PD and other movement disorders. His previous research includes studying the effects of medical cannabis on non-motor symptoms of PD, employing both prospective and retrospective designs. He has also led and participated in many multi-center clinical trials. Currently, Dr. Anis is conducting a Clinical Research Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), focusing on the innovative use of the DBS technology BrainSense^TM in clinical and research settings.

Expert Researcher: Dr. Helen Hwang
Dr. Hwang is a Movement Disorder Neurologist and an Instructor at Washington University School of Medicine. She obtained her BA and BS degrees in Psychology and Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. Following this, she matriculated at the MD/PhD program at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL where she studied telomere biology with single molecule fluorescence under the mentorship of Dr. Sua Myong. Dr. Hwang then completed her Neurology and Movement Disorder training at Washington University in St Louis. During her fellowship, she became interested in potential biomarkers and therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease (PD). She has developed an in-vitro fluorescence platform of alpha-synuclein (a-syn) fibril growth for screening small molecules for potential therapeutics for PD and is interested in expanding this work into a cellular model. 

Supernus

Medtronic

Movement Revolution