The TMJ Association
The TMJA is staffed by a volunteer CEO, two staff members, and dedicated office volunteers.
Staff
Allen W. Cowley, Jr., Ph.D., is a renowned research scientist and Professor of Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is also the newly elected President of The TMJ Association, succeeding his late wife, Terrie Cowley, the organization’s Co-founder. The TMJ Association advocates for improved research, education, and treatments for temporomandibular disorders (TMJ).
Dr. Cowley has an illustrious research career, with over 400 scientific publications, particularly in hypertension and kidney disease. He has served as President of both the American Physiological Society (APS) and the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS). A long-time research grantee of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Dr. Cowley has received top honors from the American Heart Association and the American Physiological Society.
Throughout his career, Dr. Cowley has significantly contributed to The TMJ Association’s mission. He often accompanied his wife to Washington, D.C., to meet with health agency leaders and legislators. He has been an active member of the TMJA Board of Directors, Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board, and Program Chair for eight international TMJ research meetings co-funded with the NIH since 2001.
Following Terrie Cowley’s passing in July 2024, Dr. Cowley took on the role of President of TMJA. He has been deeply involved in initiatives like the FDA’s TMJ Patient-Led RoundTable and the TMJ Medical Device Epidemiology Network (MDEpiNET) project, aiming to improve TMD treatments and establish a national TMJ patient registry. Additionally, he is a member of the Forum on Temporomandibular Disorders at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where he advocates for increased research funding and better treatment options.
Dr. Cowley is committed to bridging the gap between medical and dental education, promoting collaboration and continuing education among healthcare professionals to improve understanding and treatment of TMJ disorders.
Deanne Clare, TMJA Administrator, has been vital in helping the organization fulfill its mission and objectives for over 25 years. Among many critical operational responsibilities, she executes the daily operations of the office, maintains TMJA’s website and social media, oversees production and dissemination of publications, and has coordinated the Association’s past eight international scientific meetings. Deanne is passionate about advocating for and advancing the needs of patients, as well as the development of safe and effective treatments and public awareness of chronic overlapping pain conditions. Deanne holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Marquette University.
Christin Veasley, Co-founder and Director of the Chronic Pain Research Alliance, an initiative of The TMJ Association, has lived with chronic pain since surviving a near-fatal accident in her teens. Her health experiences led her to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree, time conducting neuroscience research at Johns Hopkins Medical School and to the research advocacy community. Her life’s work has been to advocate for the acceleration of rigorous multidisciplinary pain research and the translation of research findings into meaningful change for people with chronic pain – with a special emphasis on pain conditions that are common in women and frequently co-occur. She has been a passionate advocate at the Congressional and federal agency levels for bringing about public awareness of the profound impact of chronic pain, the urgent need for an increased federal research investment to address this public health crisis and the long-overlooked value of including patient perspectives in all aspects of the research continuum. For over twenty years, she has served in several nonprofit management and leadership positions. She holds advisory positions for numerous critical pain initiatives within federal agencies, such as the NIH, CDC and FDA; academic pain research studies; and various collaborative alliances and public-private partnerships working to promote pain research, treatment and education. Chris has authored journal articles, op-eds, book chapters, continuing medical education programs for health care providers, patient tutorials and self-help guides. To promote awareness, she speaks openly about her experience with chronic pain and its profound impact on her life. Chris has been a presenter at over 30 medical, research and policy conferences, as well as federal agency meetings, and has been interviewed for print, television and radio media.
Office Volunteers
We would not be able to do what we do without our team of dedicated office volunteers. They assist us with our day-to-day office operations which include; proofreading, scientific literature searches, mailings, filing, and maintaining our website and computer systems. Our sincere thanks to Laurie Friedrich, Greg and Karen McQuestion, and Carol Jo Shonka.
Greg McQuestion, Chief Information Officer for The TMJ Association. Greg received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He Joined the Medical College of Wisconsin, Division of Cardiology in 1989 as a systems manager. The focus was clinical data management, automated clinical reporting and electronic billing in support of patient care. Greg moved to the Department of Physiology at MCW in 1997. This research department has an extensive commitment to informatics and information technology to facilitate the work in hypertension, respiration, neurology, genetics, proteomics and metabolomics. There is an emphasis on high performance computing and management of large data sets for this Department and the associated research centers in support of NIH funded programs.
Greg attended his first TMJ scientific meeting in Bethesda in 2009. “Given my exposure to clinical medicine and research experience, I was shocked and dismayed at the lack of any scientific basis for many of the reported treatments. The terrible suffering of these patients and the inability to provide or even define proper care is heart breaking.” He assists The TMJ Association with computer systems and advises as to patient registry and research data issues.
Karen McQuestion is the author of more than 10 novels, and has sold over two million books worldwide. Her publishing story has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR, and she has appeared on ABC’s World News Now and America This Morning. Karen lives in Hartland, WI with her husband Greg , and Boo their cat. She has been a volunteer with TMJA for over 15 years. We are grateful to have her editing/proofreading expertise which keeps us professional. Karen states, “I am proud to volunteer my time and services to The TMJ Association.