Roger Kornu, MD
Medical Honoree

Dr. Roger Kornu grew up in Northeast Texas & after graduating from Stanford University with honor, he did his medical school, residency in internal medicine and rheumatology fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He moved to Orange County, California in 2008 and was most recently associate professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology at the University of California, Irvine.

In 2017, he opened a solo rheumatology private practice in Orange County. He is involved in clinical trials and has been an investigator in various trials in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and osteoporosis. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and is the current editor of the rheumatology chapter of the last 2 editions of the handbook, Medical Secrets.

He has given lectures at a number of hospitals and state meetings and has a passion for clinical education of patients and fellow clinicians. He has been named a Physician of Excellence from the Orange County Medical Association in the last 2 years and has been involved the his local chapter of the Arthritis Foundation since his fellowship.

Dave Shukla, MD
Medical Honoree

Dr. Shukla specializes in the full spectrum of conditions of the shoulder & elbow. In addition to his primary interest of managing arthritic conditions of the shoulder and elbow, he also performs minimally invasive/arthroscopic surgery for rotator cuff disorders and other sports conditions. He has a strong interest in degenerative, sports-related and traumatic disorders of the elbow as well.

Having been born at Hoag Hospital, Dr. Shukla attended Harbor Day School & went on to attend U.C. Berkeley for an undergraduate degree. His goal was always to return to serve the community in which he was raised, and in which he now has busy practice locations in Irvine & Newport Beach with Newport Orthopedic Institute & Hoag Orthopedic Institute.

Kari Solis
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Adult Honoree

Kari Solis (now 42) grew up being extremely active and healthy, very dedicated to both skating (ice and in-line) and martial arts
through her late 20’s. She was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Antiphospholipid Syndrome in early 2008 having the prior two years of diagnostic research going nowhere.

After diagnosed with RA and AS (at age 32), complications slowly started to develop over time. Allergies to medications, chronic migraines, left eye vision loss, seizures, tremors, speech and memory issues, Somnolence, skin lesions; believed to be an autoimmune called Pemphigus which continues to be a diagnosis struggle, and a very rare severe disorientation called Alice In Wonderland Syndrome (requiring the use of a wheelchair or walker for stability).

For a little over a year, Rheumatology has made a call to stop all
RA treatments as it was likely the cause that helped trigger sepsis/
organ dysfunction in 2016 and septic shock/organ dysfunction
2017, leaving her in debilitating and at times immobile pain. As a
result of this curveball in life, her new team name has changed
to Kari On. Regardless how difficult things get she focuses to “Kari
On” with her life trying many holistic and alternative healing
methods to cope and hopes to inspire others not to give up no
matter the challenges life tosses.

Aubrey Mills
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Youth Honoree

Aubrey was a healthy, active 8 year old child when suddenly an unexplained limp & complaints of her leg hurting stopped her parents in their tracks. For the first few months, it was thought to just be growing pains, but finally one orthopedic surgeon immediately pointed out Aubrey’s red, extremely swollen knee. He referred her to a pediatric rheumatologist where she was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, formerly called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Aubrey was fortunate in the beginning because her arthritis was well controlled for much of her life. However in 2017, things took a turn for the worse. Her diagnosis was changed to extended oligoarticular JIA, meaning that it began with a few joints but spread to more areas later. Today, Aubrey has constant pain in nearly every joint from head to toe and requires more aggressive treatments, like biweekly painful injections. She is still struggling to find the right combination of medications to treat her arthritis.