Eva Sevick-Muraca

Dr. Vanessa Flora, PT, DPT, CLT-LANA, CWS, CLM, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the founder of The Swelling Doctor, LLC, a private practice specializing in lymphedema, lipedema, oncology rehabilitation, and complex swelling disorders. With more than 15 years of clinical experience, she is recognized for her expertise in lymphedema management, wound care, compression therapy, and cancer rehabilitation. Prior to launching her private practice, Dr. Flora served at Eskenazi Health, where she helped implement the health system’s lymphedema program and provided specialized care in oncology, wound, burn, and post-mastectomy rehabilitation. She is also an experienced educator who has taught physical therapy students, healthcare teams, and community audiences on the evaluation and management of swelling disorders, long-term self-care, and evidence-based rehabilitation strategies. Dr. Flora’s professional approach is shaped by both deep clinical knowledge and a strong commitment to compassionate, patient-centered care. In addition to her healthcare work, she brings a distinctive background in dance and movement education, which informs her whole-person perspective on healing, mobility, and wellness.

Dr. Sevick is Professor of Molecular Medicine, Director of the Center for Molecular and Translational Imaging, and William S. Kilroy, Sr. Distinguished University Chair of Pulmonary Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston where she and her team developed from the bench and translated to the clinic, near-infrared lymphatic imaging in >1000 infants, children, adults lymphedema, and animal models of human lymphatic diseases. Specifically, her team develops and uses optical lymphatic imaging of patients and animal models of human disease to understand how the lymphatic vasculature mediates immune responses and can be manipulated mechanically, surgically, and pharmacologically. Her current work focuses on imaging cerebrospinal fluid outflow in neurodegenerative conditions and on improving checkpoint blockade immunotherapy through lymphatic delivery for antigen-directed T-cell priming. Her work has been presented in over 200 peer-reviewed publications spanning engineering to the biological sciences. Eva is trained as a chemical/biomedical engineer, with a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon and postdoctoral training in Biophysics and Optics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has held faculty positions at Vanderbilt, Purdue, Texas A&M, and Baylor College of Medicine. She has served as Chair and as an appointed member of study panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the State of California Research Programs.

Dr. Fife completed a Family Medicine residency at the University of Texas, Southwestern in Dallas followed by a two-year Fellowship in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine at Duke University. Until 2013 she was a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston where she initiated the Memorial Hermann Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine and the Lymphedema Center. She is now a Professor of Geriatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Intellicure, LLC, a health information technology company, and the Executive Director of the U.S. Wound Registry, a non-profit organization recognized by CMS as a qualified clinical data registry (QCDR). The USWR develops wound relevant quality measures and helps wound care practitioners meet the requirements of Medicare’s Quality Payment Program. She currently serves on the boards of the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders (past co-chair), and CLI Global Society, and she is on the American Diabetes Association's Amputation Prevention Coalition. She is co-chair of the Real World Evidence Work Group for the Wound Care Collaborative Community. Past board activities include the American Academy of Wound Management, the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, and the American Professional Wound Care Association. She has authored more than 100 peer reviewed articles and book chapters as well as editing 3 textbooks.Her current focus is the use of real world data to find what works in the treatment of chronic wounds.