Charlie Strange, MD 

Charlie Strange, MD is Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and Medical Director for AlphaNet. Dr. Strange received his undergraduate degree at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, and his medical degree at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He has been at the Medical University of South Carolina for more than 35 years.

Dr. Strange has an interest in rare pulmonary diseases and co-directs a LAM clinic for patients throughout the southeast at MUSC. He is an expert in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and bronchoscopic lung volume reduction for COPD. Dr. Strange is the author or co-author of more than 200 publications, presentations, and book and computer chapters.

Robert Kotloff, MD 

Dr. Robert M. Kotloff specializes in pulmonary medicine with expertise in diagnosing and treating patients with lymphangioleiomyomatosis and other cystic lung diseases. He also maintains an active interest in general pulmonary medicine and, in particular, evaluating patients with complex pulmonary disorders. 

Dr. Kotloff received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the founding members of the Penn Lung Transplant Program. After 23 years on faculty at Penn, he left to become chairman of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at Cleveland Clinic and recently rejoined the Penn faculty as Director of the Harron Lung Center.  

Dr. Kotloff has authored over 120 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and book chapters and has edited or co-edited six books. He currently serves as senior deputy editor of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Kotloff is the recipient of the American College of Chest Physicians College Medalist Award recognizing meritorious service in furthering work in chest medicine. He is also the recipient of the American Thoracic Society Outstanding Educator Award, which recognizes lifetime contributions in education and mentoring in the fields of pulmonary, critical care or sleep medicine. 

Stephen Hammes, MD, PhD 

Dr. Hammes received a B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell University, followed by an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbiology from Duke University.  Dr. Hammes then moved to the University of California in San Francisco, where he completed an internship and residency in General Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Endocrinology.  In 1999, Dr. Hammes joined the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he was a W.W. Caruth Scholar in Biomedical Research. Dr. Hammes moved to the University of Rochester in 2009 to become the Louis S. Wolk Distinguished Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. He currently also holds the position of Vice-Chair for Research and Academic Affairs.   Dr. Hammes is interested in steroid production and steroid signaling in female and male reproductive tracts as well as in steroid-sensitive tumors. He is interested in both the positive and negative effects of androgens in the ovary, with a focus on the pathophysiology and treatment of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). In addition, Dr. Hammes studies how androgens and other signals promote prostate cancer proliferation. Finally, Dr. Hammes is interested in the origins and pathophysiology of lymphangioleiomyomatosis.  Dr. Hammes has been the Editor-in-Chief of the journals “Molecular Endocrinology” and “Endocrinology” and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Kathryn Wikenheiser-Brokamp, MD, PhD 

Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics/Natural Science with a Minor in Education from the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND, followed by her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Medicine and Development Biology at the University of Cincinnati.  She then moved to Washington University in St. Louis, MO where she completed residency training in Pathology including a fellowship in laboratory research.  In 2003, Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp returned to Cincinnati where she developed her independent research program and clinical expertise in pulmonary pathology at the University of Cincinnati and Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving lung disease. She is also an avid teacher with multiple leadership roles in training physician scientists. Her commitment to excellence in education is recognized by 10 teaching awards. Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp became involved in LAM research shortly after returning to Cincinnati working closely with pulmonologists Drs. Frank McCormack and then Nishant Gupta to establish safe and effective approaches to LAM diagnosis, conduct research to further our understanding of LAM development and progression,  and establish clinical guidelines for LAM diagnosis and management.

She has served on the LAM Foundation Scientific Advisory Board since 2015 and evaluates grant proposals aimed to promote further advancements in our understanding of LAM and care of LAM patients. Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp is passionate about fully understanding lung disease in patients in the clinic and then using patient derived tissues and animal models to discover underlying mechanisms of disease to identify novel approaches to diagnose, predict outcomes and treat patients. Dr. Wikenheiser-Brokamp has extensive experience and enjoys working with multidisciplinary teams with different expertise and skill sets to advance clinical medicine. She is motivated by the patients she treats and strives to team with patients to advance discoveries with potential to improve the lives of patients and their families living with lung disease.

Mary Beth Brown, PT, PhD 

Dr. Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Division of Physical Therapy, at the University of Washington. Her research is focused on exercise responses in patients and rodent models of pulmonary disease. Her past research helped to establish exercise recommendations for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and cystic fibrosis.  

After attending The LAM Foundation Patient Benefit Conference in 2017, it became clear there was an urgent need for research on exercise and fatigue in LAM. Dr. Brown is currently leading a study to examine the impact of a home-based mobile health exercise program for patients with LAM, and to characterize skeletal muscle and skeletal muscle response to exercise in LAM.