NCICP Speaker
Allie’s passion for vaccine advocacy stems from various interests and experiences, and she combines them all in her role as director of South Dakota Families for Vaccines. She received her MD from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and completed a psychiatry residency through the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. Soon after, she pivoted from practicing medicine to purely patient education and advocacy, starting the South Dakota chapter of the Arthritis Foundation in 2011 after her son was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when he was very young. In her decade with the organization she worked to advocate and educate about this debilitating and incurable disease, supported families across the state, and promoted vaccines to help protect these immune-compromised children. Over the years she has been involved in many other organizations and efforts as leader, founder, and contributor, focusing on her four children, STEM access and education, mental health awareness, social justice, animal rights, public health, and patient advocacy, landing at South Dakota Families for Vaccines in January of 2023.