Shonna Snyder, PhD

Senior Research Scientist

Shonna earned her Ph.D. in Health and Kinesiology from Purdue University. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees are also in the health education field. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).  She is a co-author of the text Core Teaching Practices for Health Education. Her research has revolved around the areas of professional preparation and development of teachers, the effectiveness of school health education, school safety, adolescent health issues such as obesity, and appropriate instructional methodologies in health education, but she is excited to dive into mast cell research for TMS.  Shonna was diagnosed with a bladder paraganglioma in 2019 after many years of extreme symptoms in which doctors dismissed as such things as stress, fatigue, panic attacks or POTS.  Given her research and health education background, she knew that these diagnoses were not accurate and so she continued to push for further testing.  She visited multiple doctors who did not believe her when she suggested that she had a pheo/para in her bladder and so she struggled to get the CT that she requested.  She finally had a doctor truly listen and order the CT scan she needed in July of 2019 after five trips to the ER in one week.  Her surgery took place in November of 2019 at the NIH.  Because of her rare disease experience, she is looking forward to giving back to the rare disease community.  

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