Our Leadership

Cure JM is led by a passionate team of volunteers, staff, and medical experts in juvenile myositis research and care.

Head, Environmental Autoimmunity Group, National Institutes of Health

Lisa G. Rider, M.D.

Dr. Lisa Rider is a Pediatric Rheumatologist and Head of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group, National Institute of Environmental Health Science, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Dr. Rider received her BA and MD degrees from Duke University. After completing her pediatrics residency and a clinical fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital, she became a Research Associate in NIAMS, National Institutes of Health. She then joined Dr. Frederick Miller’s laboratory at the Center for Biologics, Food and Drug Administration, and later became Deputy Chief of the group, which moved to NIEHS in 2002.

Since 2008, Dr. Rider has also been Clinical Professor of Medicine at George Washington University, where she sees patients and leads research on juvenile myositis in the Cure JM Center for Excellence.

Dr. Rider’s research has focused on juvenile myositis, in which she has led the international development of validated outcome measures and trial response criteria, defined the major autoantibody phenotypes and associated outcomes, studied genetic and environmental disease risk factors, and led clinical trials of new therapies.

She has co-authored more than 145 peer-reviewed publications, 45 book chapters and review articles, and was the lead editor of a book published by Cure JM, Myositis and You.

She has received several awards in recognition of her contributions, including Physician Researcher of the Year by the US Public Health Service (2011), the 2017 Cure JM Lifetime Achievement in Research award, and The Myositis Association’s 25th Anniversary Research Award: For Outstanding Contributions to Myositis Research.