Join us for the 2025 Kansas City Lupus & You Empowerment Conference 

The Lupus & You: Empowerment conference is an experience that celebrates, inspires, supports, and uplifts lupus warriors, care partners, family, and friends. During this empowering day, attendees will connect with a supportive community, explore the latest lupus advances, learn how to live better with a lupus diagnosis, and leave feeling empowered, knowing they are not alone and equipped with valuable resources and tools for their journey. 

Conference Agenda: 

11:00am- Empowering your Journey 

11:30am - 12:30pm - Conversations to Empower You Panel: Curtisha Anderson, Karen Holiday 

12:30pm-1:00pm - Networking lunch/exhibits 

1:00pm-1:30:pm- Empowering Movement: Chair Yoga, Montay Simmons

 1:30pm -2:30pm: Lupus & the Kidney’s: Understanding the Silent Struggle, Dr Kelly Liang & Dr. Kimberly Liang We will review: 1. Overview of SLE including manifestations and diagnostic work-up. 2. Diagnosis and treatment of lupus nephritis. 

2:30pm- Your Journey. Our Power. One Community

Dr. Kimberly Liang is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the director of the Lupus Center and Vasculitis Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine with a subcertification in rheumatology. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Rheumatology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She earned her medical degree from Jefferson (now Sidney Kimmel) Medical College in Philadelphia, PA. She also completed her Master's of Science degree in clinical research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2016. She was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA for 13 years. At the University of Pittsburgh, she saw patients at the Lupus Center of Excellence and participated in multiple clinical trials in lupus as a sub or principal investigator. At the University of Kansas Medical Center since 2022, she is actively involved in clinical research and clinical trials with a focus on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and vasculitis. She is the site principal investigator (PI) on a clinical trial on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in SLE, which is actively recruiting. 

Kelly Liang is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Nephrology and Hypertension Division at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She received her medical degree at Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA and completed Internal Medicine residency and Nephrology fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She subsequently held an academic position as Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA for 13 years, where she was active in caring for lupus nephritis (LN) patients at the Lupus Center of Excellence and did clinical research studies in lupus nephritis and glomerular diseases. She also did clinical research in cardiorenal syndrome and acute kidney injury. She completed her Master’s of Science degree in Clinical Research at the University of Pittsburgh in 2017. She joined the University of Kansas Medical Center as Associate Professor of Medicine in December 2021 and has been active as principal investigator (PI) or sub-investigator on several industry-funded studies. She collaborates closely with her sister, Dr. Kimberly Liang (Rheumatology), in the care of LN and vasculitis patients and the active recruitment of these patients into clinical trials of CAR-T cell therapy and other cell therapies for autoimmune diseases.  

Montay Simmons has been a certified personal trainer since 2014 with a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and a NASM personal training certification. Montay has been instructing the chair exercise class for the City of KCMO since 2016.Montay Simmons has been a certified personal trainer since 2014 with a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and a NASM personal training certification. Montay has been instructing the chair exercise class for the City of KCMO since 2016.