Dr. Bhardwaja also precepts pharmacy students and second-year pharmacy residents, and mentors second-year pharmacy residents. She has been a Dean’s Alumni Ambassador Mentor for SUNY at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and currently volunteers as an e-reviewer for incoming Doctor of Pharmacy candidate applications.
Her very first volunteer appointment was with the ACR Committee on Quality of Care that started in November 2020, and her term ended this past November. She has continued to support the ARP as a volunteer, now serving as an ARP co-chair for a special project. Dr. Bhardwaja feels excited, honored and privileged about the volunteer opportunities she has experienced, and will continue to experience, with the ACR and the ARP.
Kaleb Michaud, PhD, is a professor in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.
Dr. Michaud’s experiences as a patient with a rheumatic disease have powered his passion and dedication to improving rheumatology and patient outcomes. He serves as director of FORWARD—the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases, a long-term, open-cohort observational study with more than 50,000 enrolled participants. He leads the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Rheumatoid Arthritis Investigational Network (RAIN) clinical database and collaborates with the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry, the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry and others.
A scholar in pharmacoepidemiology, health informatics and cost effectiveness, Dr. Michaud prioritizes mentoring and volunteering to grow the next generation of healers, scientists and difference makers. Some of his current projects include disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) adherence, mortality in rheumatic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis activity measures and smartphone-detected health outcomes.
Within the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Dr. Michaud is the director of the rheumatology fellowship research program, chair of the Clinical Research Center pilot grant review committee and leader of the Great Plains Institutional Development Award and Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) Mentor Training Facilitator Team. He is dedicated to conducting research that improves care for those living with rheumatic diseases.
Dr. Michaud is an active, 20-year volunteer with the ARP and the ACR; his service includes serving on the ARP Governance Task Force. This is the second time he has received the ARP President’s Award; the first was in 2022.
“The ARP Government Task Force worked to help improve the ARP during a difficult time,” says Dr. Michaud. “This recognition signals that its efforts were heard and there will be more to do. I am greatly appreciative to receive this award along with my task force members.”
