Joy Selak has lived with chronic autoimmune, musculoskeletal and neurological conditions since the late 1980's. Prior to becoming ill, she earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum in Instruction from Arizona State University, where she taught writing and served regionally as a language arts curriculum specialist. Numerous journals published her articles on writing and literature. In 1981, she left education to become a financial consultant, rising to the position of Vice President, Investments with Smith Barney in 1987. She taught portfolio management at California Lutheran University and Skagit Valley College and was a regular speaker to professional colleagues and community groups about building client relationships and investment strategies. Joy frequently speaks to patient groups and medical professionals nationwide about building a meaningful life that contains illness, and she has been a guest on radio and television programs. She is also a speaker to schools and writers' conferences about the craft of writing. Joy is current board president of ZACH, Austin's regional professional theatre, and is involved in ZACH's education programs. She also serves on MindPOP, an organization dedicated to providing all Austin schoolchildren with an arts rich education and Any Given Child a Kennedy Center Initiative with a similar mission. She was a founder and director of A Legacy of Giving, an Austin non-profit whose mission is to teach children to be philanthropists through their school curriculum. While in Washington State, Joy served for three years as board chair of the San Juan Island Community Foundation, an organization dedicated to building endowment and serving community needs through philanthropy.||Dr. Steve Overman has practiced rheumatology for 30 years, and is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of Washington Medical School. Since acquiring a Master's in Public Health and completing a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar's Fellowship focused on health services research, he has developed programs on education and comprehensive care of patients with chronic, painful and disabling rheumatic conditions. He has published and spoken about arthritis care, chronic pain treatment and chronic illness management. Dr. Overman has repeatedly been selected as one of Seattle's Best Physicians. He held positions as medical director for a Medicare HMO, director of an Arthritis Resource Center, consultant to the USPHS concerning disability management and Director of Musculoskeletal Planning and Development at Northwest Hospital, a University of Washington affiliated hospital, where he is professor of clinical medicine. Dr. Overman helped start an Osteoporosis and Bone Health Center, a Center for Comprehensive Care and a Musculoskeletal Consultation System in Seattle. He has been active in the American College of Rheumatology's strategic planning and research foundation and has appeared on television and radio discussing arthritis care. As the founding member of The Seattle Arthritis Clinic, which includes seven rheumatologists, counselors and a registered dietician, he continues to practice and teach strategies that enhance patient confidence in self-care
