Leadership in Advocacy Development
The Leadership in Advocacy Development (LEAD) Program provides training, tools, mentorship, and support for mid-career healthcare professionals and physician advocacy leaders in headache medicine.
Participants will explore opportunities for professional development through formal didactic sessions and small group workshops with leaders in the field on topics including practice management, advocacy, and project management, as well as the development of an advocacy project over a 2-year timeframe.
2023-2025 LEAD Program Participants
Melinda Thiam, MD
Dr. Melinda Thiam is a board-certified psychiatrist who devoted her early career and medical training to serving active duty Army personnel. She received her medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and completed her psychiatry residency at Walter Reed. After leaving active duty in 2017, she joined the VA, where she expanded her expertise in women’s mental health, neuropsychiatry, and headache medicine. As one of the few general psychiatrists board-certified by UCNS in headache medicine, Dr. Thiam champions recognition of headache-mental health comorbidity and advocates for integrated, multidisciplinary, and non-pharmacological approaches to care.
Kaitlin Greene, MD
Dr. Greene is a pediatric neurologist and pediatric headache specialist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. Dr. Greene completed medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College, followed by pediatric neurology residency and headache fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Greene now directs the Child and Adolescent Headache Center at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at OHSU. She is interested in understanding how headaches affect the daily lives of children and adolescents, particularly in the school setting, and she believes in a multi-faceted approach to headache treatment that addresses all of the ways that headaches impact her patients.
Upcoming Events
2025-2027 LEAD Program
In conjunction with the 2025 Scottsdale Headache Symposium®, 2026 Headache on the Hill, and Virtual Events.
How to Apply
Candidate Criteria
- Must be an AHS member in good standing for at least 3 years
- Must be 7+ years in clinical practice
- Must have a strong interest in practice management and/or advocacy
Must Commit To
- Attending (in-person) the 2025 Scottsdale Headache Symposium and 2026 Headache on the Hill events
- The development and completion of a proposed advocacy project over a 2-year longitudinal timeframe
- Attending virtual events as assigned through the program duration
Required Application Materials
Applicants must complete the online application form and provide the following supporting materials:
- CV
- Letter of support speaking to the leadership potential and interest in advocacy of the applicant
- Personal statement up to 500 words. Questions to consider:
- What has motivated you to apply?
- What would you like to accomplish as an advocate?
- As a busy professional, how will you make time to pursue your advocacy project? How many hours per month can you dedicate?
- Health professional/physician advocacy project proposal up to 500 words describing your major goal/vision for the 2-year program and your desired outcome. Questions to consider:
- What are you trying to do? What health problem are you trying to solve?
- How does this get done at present and what are the current challenges?
- What is novel about your approach? Why do you think you can be successful at this time?
Program Committee Chair
Amaal Starling, MD, MS, FAHS Chair
Mayo Clinic
Scottsdale, Arizona
Program Committee
Jessica Ailani, MD, FAHS
Maureen A. Moriarty, APRN, DNP, FAH
Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD, FAHS
Barbara Nye
Larry Charleston IV, MD, MS, FAHS
Matthew S. Robbins, MD, FAHS
Christopher H. Gottschalk, MD, FAHS
Robert E. Shapiro
Teshamae Monteith, MD, FAHS
Past Program Projects and Participants
2025-2027
Project: To improve recognition of migraine symptoms, reduce migraine-related stigma and optimize support for children and teens with migraine in school through a targeted educational intervention for school nurses and administrative staff
Participant: Kaitlin Greene, MD, Associate Professor, Oregon Health & Science University
Project: To bring headache expertise to the frontlines: a collaborative care model for veterans with co-occurring headache and mental health conditions with special emphasis on non-pharmacological treatments”
Participant: Melinda Thiam, MD, outpatient staff psychiatrist at New Mexico VA in Rio Rancho CBOC, UCNS certified in Headache medicine.
2023-2025
Project: To develop a women's neurology as a neurology subspeciality with an emphasis on headache and epilepsy.
Participant: Amy Hessler, DO, Private practice general neurologist in Jacksonville, Florida with special interest in Women's Neurology and Headache Medicine.
Project: To conduct a community school-based intervention to facilitate the early identification and evidence-based treatment of youth with migraine using school nurses as case-finders.
Participant: Scott Turner, DNP, Neurology Nurse Practitioner at Children’s of Alabama and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UAB Heersink School of Medicine.