Our Team
Patricia Weltin
Executive Director/Medical Innovation Lead
Patricia Weltin is the CEO/Founder of Beyond the Diagnosis, a traveling art exhibit that unites art and science to raise awareness, educate, and inspire research and innovation of treatments for people living with rare diseases. Artists paint portraits of children living with a rare disease; the portraits then become part of a traveling exhibit for medical schools, research institutes, hospitals, museums, and art galleries around the world.
Patricia is the mother of two children living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a rarely diagnosed, multi-systemic connective tissue disorder. Her work as CEO of Beyond the Diagnosis led Patricia to make connections among many rare diseases, notably the prevalence of Tethered Spinal Cord (TSC) in the rare population. Patricia, a citizen scientist, was recently published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
Petra Klinge, MD
Neurosurgeon/Lead Researcher
Petra Klinge, MD is an internationally renowned neurosurgeon for the diagnosis and neurosurgical treatment of patients with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) disorders, working on the unifying concept of cognitive problems-related pathology in hydrocephalus of aging and pediatric patients. Her practice also includes patients with associated developmental cerebrospinal fluid disorders, such as spina bifida, Chiari malformation, tethered cord, patients with connective tissue disorders and associated spinal fluid disorders including syringomyelia and occult tethered cord syndrome.
Pankaj Agrawal, MBBS, MMSc
Neonatologist/Researcher
Dr. Pankaj Agrawal joins us as chief of the Division of Neonatology at Jackson Health System and Project New Born distinguished chair at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics.
Dr. Agrawal earned his medical degree from the University and Government Medical College in Baroda, India. He completed a pediatric residency at Sir Sayajirao General Hospital and a senior residency in neonatology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, also in India. Dr. Agrawal was a resident and senior resident in newborn medicine at Monash Medical Centre in Australia, and a clinical fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s and Harvard Medical School. He also completed a master’s degree in medical science from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Agrawal joined the faculty at Boston Children’s after his fellowship, where he worked for more than 20 years.