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Our Team
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Our Mission
Texas Lyme Alliance, founded in 2020, is a science based non profit whose mission is to advocate for congenital Lyme families for the right to better health and treatment for all.
Top priorities:
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Fund research for effective treatments that can treat our most vulnerable populations, kids and expectant mothers. We would then have a treatment for ALL!
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Network with the medical community to encourage more Lyme specialists be trained to treat complex illness and immune system dysregulation.
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Attract new researchers to the field of tick-borne diseases.
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Launch programs to educate families, doctors & medical schools, k-12 programs, and communities with up to date science.
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Provide resources to patients and the medical community
Texas Lyme Alliance's mission is to advocate, educate, and legislate for Congenital and Pediatric Lyme families the right to health through fundraising for a treatment for all.
Our goal is to connect resources to patients and the medical community to improve the quality of life for those we serve.
Founder/Executive Director
​Kristina Petterson Bauer
Kristina (Petterson) Bauer is the Director of Texas Lyme Alliance, a charity dedicated to bettering the lives of congenital and pediatric Lyme patients, and find a treatment for all.
Kristina graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in International Business from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville in 1999. She serves on the board for Mothers Against Lyme and is the Texas State Captain for the federal legislative organization Center For Lyme Action in DC that advocates for increasing funding for Lyme disease. She graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition Health Program in June 2023 focusing on the 7 pillars of transformation, and has earned several certifications in Yoga, Meditation, Pranayama (breath control), Usaui Teate Reiki therapy and is a Raindrop therapist. She owned a Yoga studio and wellness center for 14 years operating 3 treatment rooms, a playcare and up to 35 meditation and fitness classes a week. She has worked on several Lyme disease publications as an editor and has collaborated on the "Disulfiram Papers", initiated the disulfiram treatment survey, gathered the respondents, and edited the article.
Kristina has uploaded over 40 expert interviews and podcasts on Lyme and coinfections. Other publications are on LinkedIn, and all interviews, podcasts and videos are on YouTube (https://youtube.com/c/KristinaBauer) and her other website www.DisulfiramForLyme.org. Kristina is a Lyme patient veteran since her first tick bite in 1980, misdiagnosed over 32 years. She is a Lyme patient advocate since 2016 and Mom of 4 Congenital Lyme children successfully treating since 2013, and all are in REMISSION.
She was the first admin of the Disulfiram for Lyme Support Group and now founded her own forum and operates the public Facebook and Twitter pages "Disulfiram for Lyme" and the private group on FB "Disulfiram Experience for Lyme Support group" with over 6,400 members and quickly growing. She coaches patients and holds educational luncheons and workshops. Click the "Support" page to schedule her, and click the "Join Us" page to subscribe to our newsletters or book an engagement.
Medical & Scientific Board
Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD
Jayakumar Rajadas, Director Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Laboratory Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford, CA and Professor(Adjunct) Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences UCSF School of Pharmacy University of California, San Francisco, CA. Dr. Rajadas is currently working on the molecular mechanism of protein-initiated neurodegenerative disorders involved in Alzheimer’s and Lyme disease development using biophysical approaches such as AFM, fluorescence, and NMR. He is head of the BioADD Laboratory and Assistant Director of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Stanford School of Medicine. His recent research, funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation, identified 20 FDA-approved compounds that were more effective in inhibiting persistent Lyme bacteria than standard antibiotic treatment. Dr. Rajadas received his M.S. in Chemistry from University of Madras and Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology. He is the discovering researcher of Disulfiram kills persistant Lyme, along with the #5 finding that Azlocillon and Ceftin eradicate Persistant Lyme. He is the only researcher that has masterd the drug delivery to get a successful mouse study. He is very dedicated to curing Lyme disease.
Dr. Ronald Wilson
Dr. Ronald Wilson Graduated from Harvard university in 1968. In 1970 he received his Masters Degree in Immunology and Bacteriology. Research on HLA antigens. In 1974, Graduated from U. of Utah med school and in 1975-1976: Chief of clinics at Toole army Depot , Utah, responsible for 4000 workers. Awarded a Certificate of Outstanding Achievement by James Weir MD Major General for formulating protocols for medical support of Chemical Agent Munitions disposal system (SALT 2 ). In 1976-1979 he served as a resident in OBGYN. Published Research on the affects of pregnancy on the TB skin test. In 1979-1981 he was the Chief of Department of OB GYN at Darnall Army Hospital: Voted outstanding Instructor of the Department. Received The Army Commendation Medal by the Secretary of the Army for establishing teaching program for residents from other teaching hospitals. From 1981-2011: Practiced OBGYN in Denton Texas, delivering 6000 babies and performing countless surgeries in general Obstetrics, Gynecology, Reconstructive Gyn, Urology. He retired from OBGYN practice and came back from 2004-2019 to diagnosis and treat Tick-borne illness, especially Lyme, both early and late. He has treated over 5000 Lyme afflicted patients. Attended ILADS conferences since 2004, Preceptorships with Drs. Horowitz and Jemsek. During 2017 to 2019 he served as President of the ILADS Educational Foundation responsible for organizing meetings, physician education, and funding research. Dr. Wilson is a blessing to the Lyme community and now serves our community as an advocate volunteering to triage patients and refer them to practicing Lyme literate physicians if necessary.​
MICHAEL WITTSTADT – NATUROPATH
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The founder of Villa mediGrün is among the pioneers who made use of stem cells in the treatment of Lyme disease. He is partly responsible for the positive outcomes and favourable reputation that stem cells have gained in the Lyme community. Many have followed since then, but we are the original! He received his education as Naturopath from the Erich-Ausmeier-School for Natural Medicine (Hochheim, Germany) and has worked in the Natural Medicine field for over 10 years. He has two daughters and is married to our yoga teacher Hanna. Michael serves on our board to provide his knowledge of integrative medicine to help steer us to meet the needs of our complex community.
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Joy Sablatura, Vice President
Joy serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors. She has been a mentor for Kristina and many other patients and advocates for over a decade. She is a wealth of information, and serves on our Leadership advisory board. Her roll she serves is physician outreach, Texas historian for Lyme, and has been helpful advising others at advocacy events. She is the original co-founder of the Texas Lyme Disease Association and advocates for patients for decades. She has traveled to Germany for a CDC sponsored conference and met Dr. Willy Burgdorfer (Lyme is Borrelia burgdorferi named after this researcher who identified the organism). Joy attended Lyme conferences in the states, and stay in touch with Lyme practitioners, she is a great resource for patients and those in the medical community alike. Thank you Joy for your support and encouragement, we are honored you give us all you do!
Advisory and outreach
Emily Warren, VP of Marketing
Emily has 2 young children and has a marketing and outreach background working 13 years on the Board for the Special Olympics. Digging into her cheerleading days, she used that go-getter mode to grow the organizations events into a community committee. As the Events Coordinator, she handles the planning of annual parties and occasions. In partnering with other board members, the local branch was able to raise enough funding to help athletes and their families pay for a range of assistance. These funds contribute to a range of needs, uniforms and equipment, competition travel expenses, an annual Fall Festival, Holiday Party, Spring Picnic and community activities. She will help TXLA serve our community well in applying these skills to help fundraise for the Lyme community!
Emily is self-employed over the last 10 years working as an interior design consultant. The ever-energetic mom went from living her dreams to living inside the nightmare of what is Chronic Lyme disease. Although it took years to diagnose and begin to treat, Emily embraced the trial as it led her to study different approaches to healing and how it connects us to our past. Emily enjoys public speaking to share her story of hope and healing with others. She is a great addition to our team and we are grateful to have her!
Major (Ret) Anders Karlsen, Director of Veteran & Military Impact
Major Anders Karlsen is a decorated combat veteran who has commanded missions in the C17 all across the globe. His home of record is Texas, he went to high school in the Woodland, TX, so he enjoys meeting with both TX and OK legislators. He is a United States Air Force Academy graduate with a degree in Civil Engineering. After pilot training at his first assignment, he flew both the MQ1 Predator and MQ9 Reaper in counter terrorism operations before switching back to maned aircraft. Anders had his promising career cut short due to a serious battle with tick-borne illness that almost cost him his life while stationed in Altus, Oklahoma as a schoolhouse Instructor Pilot.
He is now an advocate on a national level helping to support solutions for tick-borne diseases. He is very active with the United States Air Force Wounded Warrior (AFW2) Program. As an ambassador he speaks on behalf of wounded warriors for the Air Force. As an AFW2 mentor, he directly helps and guides servicemembers dealing with tick borne illness in all branches of service.
Anders also serves as a consumer reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) with HHS's Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. He also advocates on a congressional level with the Center for Lyme Action.
Most importantly Anders is a Husband and father of two little girls. His amazing wife Brittany has been his rock in the biggest fight of his life. His beautiful daughters are beacons of light that give him strength every day.
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