About Me
Sarah Kucharski, or AfternoonNapper, blogs as a health advocate fostering the patient voice in medicine. Special interests include the patient experience in healthcare settings, the doctor-patient relationship, the patient-caregiver relationship, chronic illness, health literacy, advance planning and end-of-life issues. She is CEO/Chairman and Founder of FMD Chat, a nonprofit organization supporting those around the world affected by a rare vascular disease. As FMD Chat’s leader, she oversees the organization's consistent achievement of its mission and financial objectives; fundraising; publicity and media relations; domestic and international partnerships; volunteer recruitment and development. She also serves on the ePatient Advisory Board (2012, 2013) for Stanford University's Medicine X conference.
Speaking engagements have focused on the role ePatients are playing in healthcare at the Doctors 2.0 & You healthcare and social media conference in Paris, France; and to med school students at both Stanford and UC Irvine regarding the ePatient experience. Additional conference participation includes HealthCamp DC; Partnership With Patients; HealthCamp Kansas City; ScienceOnline 2013, and Rare Disease Day at the National Institutes of Health. Her work has been recognized with Health Advocate Award nominations from Wego Health, state newspaper and international blog write ups, a Rare Disease Legislative Advocates scholarship to participate in Congressional lobbying on behalf of the rare disease community, and a scholarship to Medicine 2.0 at Stanford University.
Individually she is a member of the Society for Participatory Medicine, National Organization for Rare Disorders, Rare Disease UK, Cleveland Clinic Patient Advisory Panel, and Regina Holliday's Walking Gallery of Healthcare. FMD Chat is a partner organization of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits, Global Genes, EURORDIS, and Rare Disease UK.
AfternoonNapper's day-job is as an award-winning writer and editor of a nationally-published, regional lifestyle magazine covering Western North Carolina, East Tennessee, North Georgia, and Southwest Virginia. She is responsible for the magazine's overall editorial concept and content in addition to business operations including freelancer relations, marketing, sponsorships, and social media.
As her moniker would imply, AfternoonNapper enjoys ruminating from a prone position and napping—mostly in the afternoon, but any time will do.
