About ALDF

The American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) is dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Lyme disease which, in the U.S., has been defined historically as a tick-borne bacterial infection caused by the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto.

The Foundation plays a key role in providing reliable and scientifically accurate information to the public, medical community, and government agencies about Lyme disease and its effects on human health and quality of life. This is accomplished by means of its regularly updated website (www.aldf.com).

The Foundation is not a patient support organization. Consequently, it does not give medical advice, recommend specific physicians, or provide information on various medical or financial services related to the treatment/management of Lyme disease.

Although the Foundation gratefully accepts unsolicited donations, it does not participate in fund-raising activities.

All Officers, members of the Board of Directors, and Scientific Advisors serve on a voluntary basis, without financial compensation. All unsolicited donations received are used to support the Foundation’s website and educational activities. Please refer to the section on Donations for additional information.

Andrea C. Love, Ph.D.

Executive Director

American Lyme Disease Foundation, Inc.
157 Church Street
19th Floor
New Haven, CT 06510

ExecutiveDirector@aldf.com

Durland Fish, Ph.D.

Dept. of Epidemiology & Public Health
Yale University School of Medicine

CEO@aldf.com

Maria Aguero-Rosenfeld. M.D.

Assoc. Director of Clinical Laboratories and
Director of Microbiology

NYU Langone Medical Center
Director of NYU Cancer Center Laboratories
New York, NY 10016

Paul G. Auwaerter, M.D., M.B.A.

Clinical Director, Division of Infectious Diseases

Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Professor of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD 21205

Peter J. Krause, M.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Yale School of Public Health & Yale School of Medicine

Red Pfohl

PM

Scully Construction
White Plains NY

Robert A. Proctor III

Managing Director

Oak Hill Consultants, LLC
200 Nottingham Road
Richmond, VA 23221

Eugene D. Shapiro, M.D.

Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology

Yale University School of Medicine

Gary P. Wormser, M.D.

Chief of Infectious Disease

New York Medical College

Emeritus

Susan O’Connell, M.D.

Alan G. Barbour, M.D.

Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics

University of California Irvine School of Medicine

Maria Diuk-Wasser, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology
Columbia University

Durland Fish, Ph.D.

Professor

Dept. of Epidemiology & Public Health
Yale University School of Medicine

Linden Hu, M.D.

Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology

Tufts University School of Medicine

Adriana Marques, M.D.

Head, Clinical Studies Unit

Laboratory of Clinical Investigations & Diseases
National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health

Scott Samuels, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology

Division of Biological Sciences
University of Montana

Robert T. Schoen, M.D.

Clinical Professor of Medicine

Yale University School of Medicine

Daniel E. Sonenshine,Ph.D.

Professor of Biology

Department of Biological Sciences
College of Sciences
Old Dominion University

Leonard Sigal, M.D.

Chief of Rheumatology and Connective

Tissue Research
Director of the Lyme Disease Center
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Allen Steere, M.D.

Director of Rheumatology

Massachusetts General Hospital

Jean Tsao, Ph.D.

Department of Fisheries & Wildlife

Michigan State University

The information on Lyme disease presented on this web site has been reviewed and approved by one or more members of our Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board.

The ALDF website was awarded the Green — its highest– rating by NewsGuard’s team of trained journalists and experienced editors. They review and rate news and informational websites based on nine journalistic criteria that relate to credibility and transparency. For specific details, see: https://www.newsguardtech.com/ratings/rating-process-criteria.

The American Lyme Disease Foundation was incorporated on May 11, 1990 in New York State under the founding directorship of Dr. John J. Connolly, then President of New York Medical College in Valhalla, Westchester County. The need for the foundation was visualized by Dr. Connolly, Dr. Durland Fish, Medical Entomologist at New York Medical College at the time, and James Handelman, Executive Director of the Mathers Charitable Foundation in neighboring Mt Kisco, NY, who were concerned over the inadequate federal response to the Lyme disease epidemic which was rapidly spreading throughout suburban Westchester County.

David Weld, formerly of the Nature Conservancy and brother to former Governor William Weld of Massachusetts, was hired as Executive Director. The mission was to raise funds for research and education on Lyme disease. The foundation’s fund-raising events in New York City provided over $100,000 annually for peer-reviewed research projects and educational material nationally.

Fundraising became more difficult in New York City after 9/11/2001 and the mission began to emphasize education in response to the growing sources of misinformation about Lyme disease. Competing foundations formed by patient support groups with little or no medical or scientific credentials began to proliferate in communities and on the Internet. They promoted unscientific claims concerning diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease that could harm patients. With grants from the CDC, ALDF provided unbiased, objective information, based upon the best medical evidence provided by its Board of Scientific Advisors, many of whom were pioneers in academic research on Lyme disease. ALDF was cited in medical journals as being the only privately funded foundation providing reliable medical information on Lyme disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

The untimely death of David Weld in 2005 resulted in a change of leadership with the appointment of Dr Philip Baker, former grants manager for the National Institutes of Health research program on Lyme disease. A nationally known microbiologist with many years of research experience, Dr. Baker ushered in a new phase of promoting scientifically accurate information about Lyme disease and confronting proponents of misinformation and unproven theories about diagnosis and treatment. As Executive Director, he published more than 25 peer-reviewed scientific articles in leading medical journals critical of unproven diagnostic tests and long-term antibiotic treatments for Lyme disease. Dr. Baker resigned in 2022, shortly before his passing in 2023.

Dr. Andrea Love became Executive Director in 2022. With a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and research experience on Lyme disease, she has continued the mission of ALDF. Dr. Love has expert experience in science communication as Founder of The Unbiased Science Podcast, dedicated to objective, critical appraisal of available evidence on science and health-related topics. She was a 2023 recipient of American Medical Writer’s Association McGovern Award.      

Dr. Baker served as Executive Director for over 17 years during which time he enhanced the resources and reach that ALDF provided to its readership. He has devoted his career to research and education about Lyme Disease; prior to his role at ALDF, Dr. Baker worked as a renowned scientist in the field of infectious diseases and is one of the most respected experts on Lyme Disease.

Board members and Scientific Advisors of the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) are unpaid volunteers, as well as nationally and internationally known leaders in basic and clinical research. They hold tenured positions at various academic and medical institutions, where they do outstanding work on Lyme disease. Consequently, they are not likely to be present at the official ALDF mailing address, which is used mainly to accept unsolicited donations, as well as other forms of correspondence. E-mail is the preferred means of communication, for inquiries that require a timely response. Pertinent e-mail addesses pertaining to specific issues are shown below.

Our Mission Statement notes that we are not a patient support group and that we do not give medical advice. Rather, we are dedicated solely to the dissemination of accurate and reliable information about the transmission, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of Lyme disease to the public, free of charge. This is accomplished mainly by means of our website (www.aldf.com) and by e-mail, the preferred means of communication. We rely only on unsolicited donations to support the work we do, and neithersponsor nor participate in fund-raising activities of any kind.

E-mail addresses pertinent to specific issues or concerns are as follows:

Be assured that we will respond in a timely manner.