Christine Kapetanakis

Public Relations Chair

Christine Kapetanakis is the Public Relations Chairwoman for ASPIRE. She was the first to initiate a PANDAS Awareness Day on October 9th after taking the recommendation from NY State Assemblywoman, Nicole Malliotakis. Since then, many states have followed suit. Christine runs a local awareness group on Staten Island to educate local medical and mental health professionals. She used her talents as an Emmy and Grammy-winning video editor and producer for over twenty years to assist in producing and editing the Emmy winning documentary, “My Kid is Not Crazy.” Christine successfully lobbied in Washington DC to direct funds from the 21st Century Cures Act towards PANS research. She organized educational conferences at Staten Island University Hospital and assisted with many other events, including the 2018 Columbia University Conference and 2018 Illinois PANS/PANDAS Advisory Council Summit Meetings. She will continue networking and organizing events for ASPIRE. Christine’s son was a highly functioning typical kid who was diagnosed with PANDAS at age 12. Due to his PANDAS, he was determined developmentally disabled at age 16 and now at 22 years old, presents with autoimmune encephalopathy.