Emily Lemiska lives with pain due to a rare congenital defect known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. She first became involved with U.S. Pain Foundation as an INvisible Project magazine featured participant in 2015 and officially joined the staff in 2016 as Associate Director of State Advocacy. In 2017, she moved into a new role as Director of Communications. In this position, she coordinates the organization's newsletter, social media, and web content, as well as its educational materials and PEP Talk webinar series. She also has spoken out about patient issues at key forums, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food & Drug Administration, the Connecticut State House, and others
Prior to U.S. Pain, Emily worked as a freelance writer and editor and earlier on, in Public Affairs and Communications at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she focused on quality and safety, community health, and health care disparities. Outside of her current efforts with U.S. Pain, Emily serves as associate director of a small patient support organization, Klippel-Feil Syndrome Freedom. She sometimes writes essays about managing her health, and has been published in Pain Pathways, Folks magazine, Blast magazine, and Bustle.