Gina Bartes is a mission-driven health advocacy executive and global leader in liver health, dedicated to improving outcomes for individuals and families affected by liver disease through innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and systems-level change.
Her leadership is informed by professional expertise and firsthand experience navigating the healthcare system, bringing a deep, personal understanding of what patients and caregivers face as they move through complex diagnostic pathways, delayed referrals, and fragmented models of care.
Throughout her long career, Gina has worked to translate patient experience into action—building programs, policies, and partnerships that reduce diagnostic delays, improve care coordination, and ensure individuals are supported from initial concern through diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management.
She is especially focused on closing gaps between primary care and specialty care, elevating patient voices in clinical and policy decision-making, and designing solutions that meet people where they are.
A trusted advocate for patients, care partners, and multiple stakeholders, Gina is recognized for uniting diverse coalitions—academic institutions, clinicians, researchers, public health leaders, policymakers, industry partners, and community organizations—to confront stigma, implicit bias, expand access to quality care, and normalize liver health as a public health priority.
Her approach emphasizes measurable impact, accountability, and sustainability, grounded in the belief that systems work best when they are built around the people and the causes they are meant to serve.
Gina received a peer nominated appointment in 2026 to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Patient Advocacy Group, and previously served full terms on the AASLD Practice Guidelines Committee and AASLD Fundamentals of Liver Disease (FOLD) Committee.
Gina is the co-founder of Hep Free AZ, an Arizona statewide collaborative advancing viral hepatitis elimination through coordinated implementation strategies and started United Liver in 2023, initially created to focus on health equity and low-barrier access to liver disease screening, diagnosis, and treatment in rural and underserved areas. Gina is a mentor to the inaugural Dr. Stephen A. Harrison Patient Advocacy Fellowship cohort.
Gina also serves as a member of the Donate Life Arizona Medical Executive Committee, the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable Diagnostics Working Group, the EASL Global Liver Action Network, and multiple national and international advisory boards supporting advocacy, research, and public health innovation.
Kristin Hatcher is a dedicated advocate for drug development and education, known for her impactful work in both fields. With a background in pharmaceutical sciences and education, Kristin has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between research and practical application, ensuring that advancements in drug development translate into real-world benefits.
Through her advocacy in drug development, Kristin actively collaborates with patients, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and health organizations to promote innovative treatments and therapies.
She is passionate about addressing unmet medical needs and works tirelessly to advocate for policies that support research funding and accessibility to new therapeutics.
Her efforts focus on ensuring that patients receive timely and equitable access to life-saving treatments.
Prior to joining United Liver, Kristin was the Deputy Director of Operations at COMBINEDBrain, a consortium of over 100 rare, genetic, neurological pediatric patient-related advocacy groups with the mission of effectively and efficiently capturing biomarkers and defining outcome measures to expedite and enhance research efforts in rare diseases.
During her time at COMBINEDBrain, she developed a passion for the patient role in drug development, a love of the use of data to gain insight into patient perspectives, and learned the power of combining efforts in the rare diseases community to speed the pathway to treatment and cures.
As the oldest living diagnosed Alpha-1 MZ patient in her family, her goal is to also be the first Alpha-1 MZ patient in her family to make it to 65 year old.
When she isn’t advocating for rare diseases, she enjoys traveling with her husband, visiting her grown daughter, playing with her beloved Golden Doodle, talking to her millions of girlfriends, catching up with her former students and mentees, practicing yoga, and volunteering for Tennessee Voices for Victims.