We received numerous nominations for the 2024 Giants of Multiple Sclerosis® recognition program! We honored 7 inductees across a wide array of disciplines, including neurologists, psychologists, nurses, pharmacists, and advocates. In addition, we honored a trailblazer in MS care with the June Halper Visionary Award. The contributions of the inductees to the care of patients with Multiple Sclerosis are exemplary. Their hard work and dedication continue to shape the future of MS care and improve the lives of patients with MS and their families.

Colleen Harris, MN, NP, MSCN

University of Calgary MS Clinic

Colleen Harris, MN, NP, MSCN, is the manager/nurse practitioner at the University of Calgary (UC) Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Clinic in Calgary, Alberta, where she has been involved in the multidisciplinary care of patients with MS for much of her illustrious career. She completed a diploma-nursing program at Foothills Medical Centre, also in Calgary, Alberta, and later obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. She also completed a nurse practitioner certificate through UC. She has held a spot on the Alberta MS Special Therapies Review Panel for more than a decade and was a founding member of the International Organization of MS Nurses, serving as a past president of it and the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.

Her interests specific to MS include intrathecal baclofen therapy, pain management, health outcomes research, and nursing education. She has published numerous articles on MS and chronic illness and has also authored chapters in Comprehensive Nursing Care in Multiple Sclerosis, Advanced Concepts in Multiple Sclerosis Nursing Care, and Nursing Practice in Multiple Sclerosis.

Rosalind Kalb, PhD, CHC

Can Do Multiple Sclerosis

Rosalind Kalb, PhD, CHC, is a clinical psychologist with more than 40 years of experience specializing in multiple sclerosis (MS) care and education. She is a senior author of the book, Multiple Sclerosis for Dummies, and has published a variety of other books for lay audiences and articles for professionals on numerous MS topics, including suicidality, exercise recommendations, and the importance of cognitive screening.    She began her career in MS at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, at the US’s first university-based comprehensive MS care center, after she earned her doctorate from Fordham University, which is also in the Bronx. Her work at Einstein involved individual, group, and family psychotherapy as well as cognitive assessments and remediation. She also conducted research on children with a parent with MS. Additionally, she has done work with organizations such as the National MS Society and Can Do MS, where she currently serves as senior programs consultant.

Jeffrey Cohen, MD

Cleveland Clinic

Jeffrey Cohen, MD, is a neurologist with more than 30 years of clinical experience. He currently is a professor of neurology and the Hazel Prior Hostetler Endowed Chair at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his medical degree at The University of Chicago School of Medicine in Illinois in 1980, and then completed a neurology residency and postdoctoral research fellowship in neuroimmunology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Since 1994, he has worked at the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), where he also served as director from 2014 to 2017.    Cohen has an extensive career as an investigator of clinical, immunologic, imaging, and therapeutic areas in MS, and has held a leadership role in numerous clinical trials. He also serves as the director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and the Clinical Neuroimmunology Fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. He was the chair of the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS from 2012 to 2018, and the cochair of the International Panel on MS Diagnosis, which revised McDonald Criteria for MS in 2017. He is also a past president of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS.

Aprile Royal, RN, BA, MEd

St. Michael's Hospital Toronto 

Aprile Royal, RN, BA, MEd, is a nurse and educator with more than 20 years of experience working in roles of frontline health care services management, assessment, and treatment; education, communications, public and community relations; and leadership and coordination of health care programs. She earned her registered nurse (RN) diploma in 1976 from the George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, after which she completed an intensive post-RN program in acute coronary care. She became a multiple sclerosis (MS) certified nurse in 2011 after serving on various MS-related advisory boards and task forces.    She has spent her career as a life-long learner in the development of educational resources for health care professionals, patients, and the public. She did this particularly in her previous role at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, where she served as the MS clinic manager from 1987 to 1997. She rejoined in 2023 in her current role as manager of the education program at the BARLO MS Centre of St Michael’s Hospital. She also had an extensive career in industry working as a nurse educator and held the assistant vice presidency of medical information and education at the MS Society of Canada from 2007 to 2010.

Jacquelyn (Jacci) Bainbridge, BSPharm, PharmD, FCCP, FAES, MSCS

University of Colorado

Jacquelyn (Jacci) Bainbridge, BSPharm, PharmD, FCCP, FAES, MSCS, is a clinical pharmacy specialist at the Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion in the Neurology Clinic and a joint professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Aurora, Colorado. She earned her doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Colorado in Denver, where she completed a specialty residency in neurology. She is a multiple sclerosis (MS) certified specialist and participates in a variety of clinical research efforts. She has published articles in many professional journals and has reviewed and written several book chapters on MS, women’s issues, and the practice of pharmacy, among other topics. Bainbridge is a frequent lecturer on topics of neurologic and pharmacologic interest, including MS, neuroprotection, and the administration of cannabis for therapeutic intent. She is an active member of the American Academy of Neurology, among other organizations, and has been elected as a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. She has also won several student preceptor and teaching awards in celebration of her efforts as an educator.

John DeLuca, PhD

Kessler Foundation

John DeLuca, PhD, has more than 30 years of experience in neuropsychology and rehabilitation research. He has published more than 400 articles, books, and book chapters and has edited 7 books in neuropsychology, neuroimaging, and rehabilitation. This has also included a role as cochief editor for the Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. He currently serves as the senior vice president for research and training at Kessler Foundation in East Hanover, New Jersey, and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and neurology, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey.

He is a previous recipient of the Fred Foley Award from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), in addition to numerous other national and international awards in recognition of his contributions. He has been an attendee of the annual meeting for 30 years and has served on the CMSC’s research committee for more than a decade. He is a past president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and has served on several other national and international boards in various leadership roles and on the editorial boards of various journals.

Howard L. Weiner, MD

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Harvard Medical School

Howard Weiner, MD, is a neurologist who serves as the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as the director and founder of the Brigham MS Center and codirector of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1969, and he completed his neurology residency at the Harvard Longwood Program in Neurology.  Weiner has investigated immune mechanisms in nervous system diseases and pioneered the study of the mucosal immune system. Several of his discoveries in neuroimmunology have been translated to human disease. His efforts have been recognized with various awards, including the John Dystel Prize for MS Research and the Director’s Transformative Research Award from the National Institutes of Health. To add to the honors he has received, the Howard Weiner Professorship of Neurologic Diseases was established at Harvard in 2004. In addition to his research efforts, he is also the author of the books Curing MS and The Brain Under Siege.

Nancy L. Sicotte, FAAN

Cedars-Sinai

Nancy L. Sicotte, MD, is a neurologist with many years of experience treating patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). She holds various positions, including the Women’s Guild Distinguished Chair in Neurology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California. She is also the founding director of the MS and Neuroimmunology Program there and the founding director of the neurology residency training program and the neurology clerkship rotation for medical students at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.    Sicotte earned her medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, where she was ranked first in her class. She completed an internship in medicine, a residency in neurology, and a fellowship in neuroimaging from the Geffen School of Medicine. She is a prolific speaker at medical conferences and awardee of various national recognitions, including continuously being named to the Best Doctors in America list since 2005. She is also a founding member of the North American Imaging in MS Cooperative, with research focusing on the use of advanced structural and functional imaging to study MS disease progression including cognitive impairment and depression.

Barry G. Arnason, MD

University of Chicago (UChicago)

Barry G. Arnason, MD, was the founding chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Chicago (UChicago) in Illinois. He graduated from the University of Manitoba Medical School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and completed his neurologic training and a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, in the laboratory of Byron Waksman, MD. Arnason led the department at UChicago until 1996, and during that time became a founder of the field of neuro-immunology and authored upward of 400 scientific papers on the underlying causes of autoimmunity, neurological diseases, and the development of therapeutic interventions.     He was an investigator on more than 70 clinical trials, including those that led to the approval of the first therapy for relapsing-remitting MS, interferon-β1b. He was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 1974. His work also played a role in discovering how dysfunctional T cells affect the development of MS, for which he received the John Dystel Prize in MS Research from the American Academic of Neurology and the National MS Society in 2014.    Following his time as the department chair, he remained on the UChicago faculty until he retired in 2020, and then actively continued his MS immunology research until his death on July 17, 2023, at the age of 89.