Task force DEI

Sleep Consortium understands and embraces the critical need for addressing sleep deficiencies in under-represented communities and individuals experiencing symptoms of disordered sleep.

Addressing persistent under-recognized social determinants of sleep health impacted by access to health care, educational background, socio-economic, ethnic, racial, gender, and social status are underlying mechanisms that significantly impact disadvantaged populations of our community. Tackling such disparities is the lens through which we address the discrimination of under-served and vulnerable individuals and families.

Our Disparity Task Force aims to identify key areas of exclusion that exist in vulnerable sleep health/disorder communities and thus is anchored on principles of inclusion and equity (access, rights, opportunity, and the elimination of discrimination). Sleep Consortium has established a group of key pre-selected stakeholders who live with a diagnosed sleep disorder–such as Narcolepsy, Idiopathic Hypersomnia, Kleine Levin Syndrome, or Parasomnia Disorders and whose personal experience and passion for progress helps drive the research and diagnostic agenda forward.

The purpose of the DEI forum is to heighten focus on identifying obstacles in collecting data via a one-stop patient-owned platform, consenting to data-sharing practices, and improving access to clinical trials across all communities.

We strongly believe that it is through the sharing of the patient experience and voice that educational barriers are broken down, and ideas for global collaboration are surfaced regardless of geography, environmental factors, cultural influences, and social or ethnic contexts.

DEI Taskforce Members

Lauryn Craine

Lauryn Craine

Lauryn Craine is a recent graduate from Missouri Valley college. She graduated with her Bachelors in English. She writes for fun and as a career. Her writing focuses on pop culture, disability and academic content.

Andre Royal

Andre Royal

Andre Royal “Sr.” is an active writer, photojournalist, blogger & community advocate with an emphasis on family focused event planning & visual arts applications.

Currently located in the United States and presently residing in Eugene, Oregon.

Felicia Elisabeth

Felicia Elisabeth

Felicia Elisabeth is a student and advocate from Indonesia. Currently, she is living in Thailand to pursue a master’s in Food Science for Nutrition at Mahidol University. She was diagnosed with Narcolepsy Type 1 in 2021 after almost ten years developed the symptoms.

Tatiana Maria Corbitt

Tatiana Maria Corbitt

Tatiana Maria Corbitt is a first-generation university graduate. She earned her M.S. in Applied Biological Sciences from Arizona State University, where she also published her undergraduate Barrett, the Honors College thesis investigating the FAA’s research and regulation of insulin-treated diabetic pilots.
Taylor Dillon

Taylor Dillon

Taylor Dillon is a Filipina-American science writer who loves dancing and off-roading. She was diagnosed with narcolepsy at age 18, after her freshman year at the University of Miami. As a student she conducted research on marine microbiology and global biogeochemical cycling.

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