In partnership with MedLive and NORD, Project Sleep is proud to present More than Sleepiness: How Recognizing and Treating Narcolepsy Will Impact the Entire Family featuring Dr. Emmanuel Mignot.
This important discussion highlights perspectives from Dr. Mignot and patient advocates regarding:
Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD is the Craig Reynolds Professor of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and the Director of the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy. He is recognized as having discovered the cause of narcolepsy. Dr. Mignot was born In Paris, France, and he is a former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure (Ulm, Paris, France). He received his M.D. and Ph.D. (molecular pharmacology) from Paris V and VI University respectively. He practiced medicine and Psychiatry in France for several years before serving as a visiting scholar at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center. He joined as faculty and Director of the Center for Narcolepsy in 1993. He was named Professor of Psychiatry in 2001. He has received numerous awards for his work and is a member of both the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine.
Julie Flygare, JD is a leading ambassador for narcolepsy and sleep, and a strong advocate for patient-centered research and the importance of social support. She is an accomplished speaker, Stanford Medicine X ePatient Scholar, and the author of Wide Awake and Dreaming: A Memoir of Narcolepsy. As President & CEO of Project Sleep, Julie leads the organization’s patient-driven advocacy, awareness, and education programs. For over a decade, she has fostered a variety of successful collaborations including bringing together 29 patient advocacy organizations to co-lead World Narcolepsy Day and creating the Sleep Advocacy Forum to elevate the sleep community’s profile within the national policy space. Julie has lectured at numerous professional meetings across the U.S. and keynoted conferences in Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom. She has co-authored papers in peer-reviewed publications and authored a chapter in a narcolepsy clinical textbook. Julie received her B.A. from Brown University and her J.D. from Boston College Law School focusing on health law and rare disease drug development.
Kenya Gradnigo was diagnosed with type 1 narcolepsy with cataplexy when she was eight years old. In 2015, she received Project Sleep’s Jack and Julie Narcolepsy Scholarship as she began her undergraduate degree at Northwestern State University. Currently, Kenya is pursuing a Master of Social Work degree at Louisiana College. She has contributed her invaluable insights on living with narcolepsy to Project Sleep’s “Navigating School with Narcolepsy” panel discussion and “Healthcare Providers with Narcolepsy” video series. In January 2022, Kenya Gradnigo joined Project Sleep’s Board of Directors.
Anne Taylor, RN, BSN was born and raised in Lyngby, Denmark and received her Bachelor of Nursing from Copenhagen nursing school. Anne resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and their two teen daughters, one of whom is diagnosed with narcolepsy. Anne’s over 20 years of nursing experience has catapulted her passion for mental health and the arts in healthcare into entrepreneurship, currently as a CEO of Scandic Health, she provides the evidence-based MusiCure – music as medicine to patients. She is a member of Project Sleep’s Board of Directors.
Ming Lai, RN lives in Nevada and is a nurse, permaculturist, and council member and co-office manager for an antinuclear weapons interfaith peace nonprofit. He has lived with narcolepsy for the past 30 years and hopes to spread awareness and share his story as a Rising Voices of Narcolepsy advocate.
