Tina Aswani-Omprakash is a multi award-winning Crohn’s disease and ostomy advocate based out of New York City. Tina maintains a blog and advocacy platform called Own Your Crohn’s (https://ownyourcrohns.com) and co-founded South Asian IBD Alliance (SAIA) (https://www.southasianibd.org/) to form a patient-clinician led non-profit organization in order to minimize stigma and disparities while improving education and awareness in the growing South Asian IBD population.

Tina graduated summa cumma laude with her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in June 2023 from Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine. Her aim is to help design more patient-friendly clinical research and to ensure recognition of disparities and unmet needs in communities of color.

Additionally, she has spoken at many premier GI conferences worldwide and has co-authored several research papers in prominent journals (JAMA, The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases). She has also written a guidebook on IBD care for parents of pediatric patients for National Alliance for Caregiving and a series of websites on Crohn’s-related ostomy surgery for United Ostomy Associations of America, all of which were funded through grants via the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Tina has been featured in The New York Times, on the cover of American College of Gastroenterology Magazine and in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News as well as Health Magazine for her trailblazing advocacy work. Social Health Network awarded her the Revolutionary Researcher award in the patient advocacy space in 2023. The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) awarded Tina the Best Patient Advocacy Award in 2022 and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation recognized Tina in 2021 for her phenomenal leadership and powerful impact on the IBD community with the Above & Beyond Volunteer Award. Tina’s blog was also recognized as one of the Best Health Blogs in 2020 by Healthline and she was awarded the 2019 Healio Gastroenterology Disruptive Innovator Award for moving the needle on GI care for patients.