Patricia V. Smith, BA

BIO

Patricia V. Smith, Monmouth University graduate, is in her 26th year as President of the all-volunteer run national non-profit Lyme Disease Association (LDA).  She’s a  member of: Columbia University Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center Advisory Committee, Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) PESP Partnership to prevent tick exposure, and IPM TBD Working Group. She is a founding member/former officer of ILADS, International Lyme & Associated Diseases Society, a professional medical & research organization. 

Ms. Smith served two terms as a public member of the HHS Tick-Borne Disease Working  Group in DC, where she co-authored the TBDWG Group Report to Congress 2018 and the TBDWG Report to Congress 2020 and wrote minority reports in those documents. In 2^nd term, she co-chaired the “Training & Education, Patient Access to Care” Subcommittee and co-authored its report, and was member of the Inventory Subcommittee.  In her 1^st term, she co-chaired the Subcommittee and co-authored its Report of the Disease Vectors, Surveillance, and Prevention Subcommittee 2018. 

She was appointed in 2016 as a member,4 years, of US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Tick-Borne Disease Research Program (TBDRP) Programmatic Panel. She has twice testified before Congress in DC, on Lyme. Ms. Smith is also former Chair (NJ) Governor’s Lyme Disease Advisory Council and produced the report to the Governor. She was EPA’s PESP 2011 Lyme prevention conference session co-chair with CDC. In 2011 she presented a Lyme session to the NJ Education Association’s Annual Meeting. She was a member of the on-line journal, Contagion Infectious Disease Today, Chronic Lyme Expert Panel on video. She has also served on several panels for LymeX, the public-private partnership between the Cohen Foundation and HHS.

During her LDA presidency, Ms. Smith has led the effort to raise funds for researchers nationally, with  123 research grants awarded ─ research acknowledged in 60 scientific journals. She is organizer of LDA’s 22^nd CME Lyme scientific conference for doctors and researchers jointly sponsored by Columbia University. She has spoken at many Lyme conferences including University of New Haven (CT), CALDA (now LymeDisease.org), Midcoast Maine Lyme Education & Support, Colorado Tick-Borne Awareness Association, Lyme Connections, Lyme Society, Inc., and International Lyme & Associated Diseases Society. Other presentations: Project Lyme’s  Zoom Meeting on IDSA Guidelines in 2020; and in 2022, PA Lyme Resources, Nebraska Department of Public Health, and LymeMind conference. She’s spoken at hundreds of public, school, business, & government events.

Ms. Smith led the LDA in its effort to endow the Columbia Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center which opened in 2007. She developed the ABCs of Lyme Disease pamphlet for parents and educators (LDA translated into Spanish in 2020) and co-authored an article in it,  and developed the LymeR Primer brochure now featuring 20 tick-borne diseases, and helped design and write LDA Tick Awareness cards. More than 2.5 million education items have been distributed.

Ms. Smith has testified for/secured passage of state and federal bills for Lyme research and physician’s right to treat. She’s been invited to state capitals including  CT, MA, MD, MN, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, to present oral testimony and education on Lyme & has provided written testimony in many others. She has twice been invited to present to CDC Vector-Borne Diseases Division, Ft. Collins (2007, 2013); met with then CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding/5 Congressmen in DC; organized & led a team that met with HHS Asst. Sec. of Health with CDC/NIH officials teleconferenced in; met with military leaders in DC; and briefed the Senate HELP Committee Members and House Subcommittee on Health. She met several times with US Army CHPPM/Public Health Command, Aberdeen Proving Grounds and in DC with NIH Program Director and research coordinator. She presented Lyme talk to employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (2008, 2014), Dept. of Energy, and Homeland Security in 2014. In 2014, she helped develop language for a federal bill on Lyme and led the nationwide effort which successfully passed the bill through the House. In 2021, another Lyme bill she provided input into was introduced into the House. Language she has provided to Congressmen has been adopted into Appropriations Report language for many years. She helped write and negotiated passage of the bill that created the HHS TBD Working Group.