Hillary Savoie, PhD, is Director of Community Engagement and Communication at Neurvati Neurosciences and GRIN Therapeutics. She is an internationally recognized leader in patient advocacy in the rare disease community, with extensive experience as a rare disease advocate, patient engagement consultant, and writer on patient advocacy issues. She has a deep personal understanding of the role of patient advocacy as the mother of daughter Esmé, who is medically and developmentally complex. She is the founder of The Cute Syndrome Foundation, an advocacy organization focused on support for individuals and families affected by a rare genetic and developmental encephalopathy. She served as Executive Director at TCSF for nine years and now serves as the organization’s Chair of the board of directors. Her essays and reported features focused on life with medically complex children have been published in news outlets including Romper.com, New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the podcast Story Collider, among others. She holds a doctorate in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).