THE MAUREEN SAUVÉ INSPIRATION AWARD
About the Award
SPIN’s work would not be possible without the unwavering dedication of many individuals in the scleroderma community, who are working to support scleroderma research and care, improve quality of life in scleroderma, and raise awareness about the disease.
In 2018, SPIN founded the Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to recognize the remarkable accomplishments of these individuals. The award is named in honour of Maureen Sauvé, who has had a tremendous impact as an advocate for people living with scleroderma in Ontario, across Canada, and internationally. As past-President of both Scleroderma Canada and the Scleroderma Society of Ontario, she helped increase membership, expand their programs, and raise the profile of both organizations. Along with Dr. Brett Thombs, Maureen spearheaded the formation of SPIN by securing its initial seed funding in 2010. Today, Maureen continues her efforts as the Vice President of Advocacy and Public Relations for Scleroderma Canada and Co-Chair of the SPIN Patient Advisory Board. The SPIN team is tremendously grateful for all that Maureen has done and looks forward to seeing her future achievements.
2024 Recipient
Amy Gietzen
SPIN was proud to give the 2024 Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to Amy Gietzen. Amy is a long-time patient advocate, passionate about improving scleroderma awareness and supporting her fellow patients. She has played a leading role in several online communities, including serving as a support group leader, being a Board Member for Scleroderma TriState, and even starting her own blog about scleroderma. During her time with SPIN, Amy has contributed to countless studies as a member of the Steering Committee as well as numerous Patient Advisory Boards. To name a few, Amy was involved in the development, testing, and dissemination of the SPIN-SSLED Program (training for support group leaders) and the SPIN-CHAT Project (breaking isolation during COVID). She was also a peer-facilitator for the SPIN-SELF (self-management), where she led groups of participants taking part in the self-management program. More recently, she has joined the SPIN Patient Engagement Advisory Team and is involved in the comparison, selection, and design of research dissemination tools to help us ensure that we are using the best tools to share our work with the scleroderma community.
2023 Recipient
Violet Konrad
The 2023 Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award was presented to the well-deserving Violet Konrad. Hailing from Québec, Violet has contributed massively to SPIN in recent years, specifically to the SPIN-SSLED (training for support group leaders) and SPIN-SELF Programs (self-management). Drawing from her own experiences in leading a scleroderma support group for over 5 years in Sherbrooke, Québec, Violet served as an instructor for the French-language SPIN-SSLED groups and helped train many scleroderma support group leaders. She has also taken on the role of moderator for the French-language SPIN-SELF group sessions. Violet often volunteered to make calls to encourage group participants who missed sessions to attend and has done a lot to promote SPIN in different ways in Quebec. In these roles, she has gone above and beyond.
2022 Recipient
Geneviève Guillot
In 2022, SPIN was honoured to present the Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to Geneviève Guillot. Geneviève has been an active member of and patient advocate for the scleroderma community since joining Sclérodermie Québec after her diagnosis. She has taken on the role of spokesperson at charity events, produced video testimonials for scleroderma patients, and participated in fundraising events. Geneviève joined SPIN as a patient advocate almost 10 years ago and has since been a member of Patient Advisory Teams for numerous projects: SPIN-SSLED (training for support group leaders), SPIN-PACE (physical activity), SPIN-DINE (nutrition), and SPIN-COVID-19. She is also a member of the SPIN Steering Committee, providing valuable insight and advice for many more SPIN studies.
2021 Recipients
SPIN was delighted to present the 2021 Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to two important members of the scleroderma research community: Dr. Luc Mouthon and Dr. Susan Bartlett.
Dr. Luc Mouthon
Dr. Mouthon is a physician and Professor of Internal Medicine at Hôpital Cochin and Université Paris Cité in France. His work is focused on systemic autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, especially scleroderma, and he served as past president of the French Scleroderma Research Group. As a long-time member of the SPIN Steering Committee, Dr. Mouthon has contributed to numerous SPIN studies and interventions, including the SPIN-HAND Program (hand exercises) and the SPIN-COVID-19 Cohort. As a physician, Dr. Mouthon not only helps recruit participants to the SPIN Cohort but also provides valuable clinical insight that helps SPIN direct its research to better address the everyday challenges of people with scleroderma.
Dr. Susan Bartlett
Dr. Bartlett is a clinical psychologist, Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. As a researcher, her work focuses on improving treatment and health outcomes for patients with arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases. Dr. Bartlett has been a member of the SPIN Steering Committee since its inception and, in this role, has contributed immensely to the planning, oversight, and scientific direction of many SPIN projects. This notably includes the SPIN-COVID-19 Cohort, which aimed to assess mental health concerns among SPIN participants during the pandemic, and the SPIN-CHAT Program, which was an intervention designed to help curb pandemic-related isolation by providing mental health coping strategies and social support.
2020 Recipient
Laura Dyas
SPIN was proud to present the 2020 Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to Laura Dyas. Laura has served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation for over ten years. As Training Director of the SPIN-SSLED Program, Laura helped develop SPIN's videoconference-based training program for scleroderma support group leaders. Since 2018, Laura has trained over 100 support group leaders, via the SPIN-SSLED Program. She also provides monthly post-SSLED teleconferences and played an important role in the SPIN-CHAT Program.
2019 Recipient
Catherine Fortuné
SPIN's 2019 Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award went to the well-deserving Catherine Fortuné. Catherine served as a board member for Scleroderma Canada from 2007-2017, and as Treasurer from 2009-2017. She has co-facilitated many chronic illness peer support workshops, has been the facilitator of the Ottawa Scleroderma Support Group since September 2014, and has also advocated for the Canadian Organization for Rare Diseases. Catherine is a member of SPIN’s Patient Advisory Board and has been involved in many different SPIN Projects, including the SPIN-CHAT (SPIN COVID-19 Home-isolation Activities Together) and SPIN-SSLED (Scleroderma Support group Leader EDucation) Programs, among others.
2018 Recipient
Joep Welling
In 2018, SPIN was honoured to present the inaugural Maureen Sauvé Inspiration Award to Joep Welling in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the scleroderma community. A long-time patient advocate, Joep is extremely passionate about patient advocacy, particularly the inclusion of patients in research and developing treatment guidelines. He has previously served as President of the Dutch organization for systemic autoimmune diseases (NVLE), as a consultant for the Scleroderma Framed Foundation, and as a patient research partner for the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). He is also an active member of SPIN’s Patient Advisory Board, which oversees SPIN’s overall research direction, and co-led the development of the SPIN-HAND Program, an online program with rehabilitation exercises to improve hand function in scleroderma.