The Society for the Study of Celiac Disease announced its newly elected 2026–2028 Councilors at the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Annual Meeting. Please join us in congratulating this outstanding group of leaders whose expertise spans clinical care, research, pathology, and nutrition in celiac disease. We look forward to their leadership and impact over the coming years.
Marie Robert, MD
Yale University School of Medicine
Marie Robert is a gastrointestinal pathologist at Yale University School of Medicine, with secondary appointments in Yale Digestive Diseases, and Human and Translational Immunology. Dr. Robert has been a leading diagnostician, frequent speaker, and clinical/translational researcher in celiac disease (CeD) for many years. She is a member of the ISSCD Definition and Diagnosis Committee, and has joined the Research Committee of the SSCD. She has led and participated in multiple original research studies, practice guidelines and multi-institutional research projects in CeD aimed at improving the quality of the pathology examination of duodenal biopsy samples. She established and co-leads the Yale Celiac Disease Translational Research Immunobiology Group, actively researching the pathophysiology of disease using spatial transcriptomics/proteomics and a new animal model of celiac disease. Currently, Dr. Robert is the lead pathologist training US based CROs as they establish platforms for clinical trial biopsy evaluation. She leads a Takeda sponsored 11 center pathology study aimed to improve general pathology practice with respect to grading biopsy activity in CeD, in anticipation of the need for more accurate and reliable disease activity scores in the emerging era of CeD therapeutics
Janelle Smith, MS, RDN, CSDH, CEDS
UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases
Janelle Smith is a registered dietitian nutritionist with expertise in both gastrointestinal disorders and eating disorders. She works outpatient with UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases specializing in gluten-related disorders and avoidant and restrictive eating patterns in patients with digestive disorders. She is passionate about training other dietitians to better care for these patients and is co-founder of the EDGI Training Project.
Andrew Ford, MD
MetroHealth Medical Center / Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Andrew Ford is a third-year gastroenterology fellow at MetroHealth Medical Center and will be joining the Celiac Disease Center at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation this summer as a staff gastroenterologist. His clinical research experience has been focused on celiac disease, specifically in providing quality care to CeD patients. He also has formal training as a clinical educator via his residency’s clinician educator track, which has helped him teach the next generation of clinicians about celiac disease.
Christopher Cao, MD
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Christopher Cao is a gastroenterologist at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and serves as the director of its celiac disease program. His interest in celiac disease began during residency and fellowship training at the Jefferson Celiac Center, where he had the opportunity to participate in the Mentee-in-Mentorship program through the ISSCD. During this time, he was mentored by Dr. Stephanie Moleski and Dr. Joseph Murray, whose guidance helped shape his clinical and academic focus.
Building on these experiences, he developed a comprehensive celiac disease program at Mount Sinai. He proudly leads an integrated celiac clinic in collaboration with dietitians and health psychologists, contributes to patient outreach through our webinar series, and supports patient enrollment in clinical trials and research studies. In addition to his clinical work, he co-champions quality improvement initiatives within his division and was awarded the Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2025 by Mount Sinai fellows. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming and takes improv classes.
Nan Du, MD, MPH
Boston Children’s Hospital
Dr. Du is an attending physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. She earned her MD from the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University in 2016, completed her pediatric residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 2019 and finished her pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2023. She has also received a master’s in public health on clinical effectiveness. Her research addresses environmental toxins, food insecurity, body composition, diet quality of gluten-free diet and celiac disease.