Meet Our Moderators!

You may have noticed our Asthma.net team members sometimes answer you after you leave a comment on our Facebook page or under the articles published here. You may also have had discussions with them through comments, stories, forums, or status updates. These team members are called moderators, and they help monitor conversations, facilitate discussions, and answer questions community members may have.

Our moderators are such an important part of our community! We thought it would be nice to give you a little glimpse into who some of them are, their personal connection to Asthma.net, and the importance of this community to them! So, without further delay...

Meet Asthma.net’s moderators

Leon, respiratory therapist

What is your personal relationship to Asthma.net?

My daughter was a former senior community director at Health Union (HU). In 2015, when the COPD.net community was brand new, she asked me if it was something I would be interested in doing. Later, when the Asthma.net community launched in 2016, she provided me with yet another opportunity. Naturally, I jumped at each of the opportunities when offered, not only to use my professional skills but also to work with my daughter – the (fulfilled) dream of a lifetime!

My life's history with asthma began as a teenager when I was first diagnosed following an exacerbation after being exposed to Siamese cats! My asthma episodes fluctuated over the years but generally responded to various treatments of the era (epinephrine injections, aerosolized bronchodilators, and/or the various medicines and metered dose inhalers).

My first hospitalization for the disease was in my last year of college. I was so intrigued by the in-hospital therapy that, following college graduation, I enrolled in a local respiratory therapy program in New York City. The rest, as they say, is history! This began a long and extremely rewarding professional career as a nationally credentialed, state-licensed, respiratory care practitioner (RCP).

I still remember the day I learned physiologically what was actually occurring in the lungs during an exacerbation. Subsequently, I learned how to treat it and how to prevent it from recurring. My profession has not only helped me to manage and successfully control this condition for myself (with the help of physician colleagues, of course!), but to share my knowledge and therapy with others who have been diagnosed with this disease.

Looking back through all these years, despite my other interests and avocations, I am grateful and proud to have chosen this field and to be able to help so many other patients throughout my tenure.

Melissa

What is your personal relationship to Asthma.net?

My husband has exercise-induced asthma. While I have never been diagnosed with asthma, I have experienced episodes of wheezing, including that infamous itchy chin. The majority of those experiences were in childhood and were triggered by cold air, allergens (pollen, dust, mold), and some heavy fragrances. I took Singulair until my 20s and have been prescribed albuterol (inhaler and/or nebulizer) on occasion when I am sick.

I also have cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects my balance and muscles. In that way, I feel I can empathize with certain aspects of living with chronic illness, even if our symptoms are different.

What is your favorite part about moderating in this community?

I love getting to learn from all of you! Since I am not a person with asthma or an expert, every day in our community teaches me something new. I also enjoy the sense of community on this site.

Theresa, respiratory therapist

What is your favorite part about moderating in this community?

This is a difficult question because it is not easy to pinpoint just 1 thing that is my favorite part about moderating. I love being able to connect with members of the asthma community. Hearing the experiences of other people with asthma has helped me on my own asthma journey more than I ever thought it would.

Being a respiratory therapist and severe asthmatic myself, I have a pretty good knowledge when it comes to the lungs and the diseases processes that can occur, as well as the treatments that are available, both current and upcoming. What helps me both professionally and personally on my own asthma journey is reading the things that others have gone through. Since asthma is not a one-size-fits-all disease, each person will have different experiences. These experiences include medicines that work or don’t, different triggers and how to avoid them, and the day-to-day happenings of a person with asthma.

While we as moderators are there to moderate and facilitate discussions, I really enjoy watching connections being made between readers since we are all on this journey together even if our paths are a bit different. Finding a community of people who just "get it" is so important, and watching those connections grow is amazing. I have a small group of my "asthma besties" who I met long ago through asthma advocacy and having people I can vent to or call when I need it makes a world of difference.

John, respiratory therapist

What does being a moderator for the Asthma.net community mean to you?

Being a moderator is my way of paying it forward. As a kid, I had severe asthma, and it so often seemed as though I was the only one in my hometown who had it as badly as I did. Along my journey, so many people answered my questions and offered me support. And I will never forget that. So, being a moderator gives me the opportunity to answer questions and offer support to others who are living with this disease.

What is your favorite part about moderating in this community?

I think I have 3 favorite parts of moderating for this site. One, I love answering questions. And I have lots of asthma experience to help me in this task. Plus, I am an asthma nerd who is passionate about learning as much as I can about my disease. So, this helps too.

Also, I love meeting all the different people with asthma who join this community. I think it’s neat how asthma is so different from one asthmatic to another. Yet, at the same time, we have so many similar experiences.

Third, I think it’s neat this community even exists. When I was a kid, I was the lone asthmatic in a small town. There were no asthma communities. There were no places to meet other asthmatics. Now I’m an adult, and the Internet comes around. And then the blogging world is born. And I start blogging. And then here comes Asthma.net. This is like a dream in a way. As a kid, I never imagined a place like Asthma.net. Now Asthma.net exists, and here I am moderating for it. I think that’s pretty neat.

Recognize these names?

Did you recognize any of these names from conversations you have had or seen on Asthma.net? We hope you did! These are not all of our moderators, so if you did not see a familiar name of a team member, please feel free to comment below. We hope you feel supported, validated, and understood by our moderator team and now have a better understanding of how meaningful being a moderator for Asthma.net is to them, too!