Public Health
a systems-level view of how healthcare works and what shapes access.
About
Rebecca Share-Howard
You deserve to be heard
Independent, board-certified patient advocate, and someone who has sat on your side of the exam table for most of her life.
My story is why I do this work
I've lived with chronic pain since childhood. As a teenager, I had major spinal surgery, and significant pain continued afterward. Over the years, I've navigated overlapping health conditions, fragmented specialty care, difficult recoveries, and long stretches without a diagnosis that explained the whole picture. I've been the patient labeled "too complex." I've told my story again and again just to be believed.
I originally planned to become a physician. I wanted to be a different kind of doctor, a medical detective for people whose cases didn't fit anywhere else. I studied Public Health and Disability Studies at UC Berkeley and spent two years in hands-on patient care as a Patient Care Coordinator for the Chief of Clinical Gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai. My body told me that work wasn't right for me, but the purpose behind that dream hadn't disappeared. It had changed shape.
Over time, I realized that everything my journey had taught me, including how to ask questions, push back, recognize when something is being missed, and speak the language of medicine, was the toolkit of an independent patient advocate. Becoming a Board Certified Patient Advocate was putting a name to something that had already become who I was. I wouldn't have chosen this path, but I can't look back without seeing what it's given me: empathy, purpose, and a community I never would have found.
“The purpose behind that dream hadn't disappeared. It had changed shape.”Rebecca Share-Howard, BCPA
What I bring
Five parts of the work
Disability Studies
a framework grounded in access, autonomy, and disability rights.
Clinical Experience
two years of daily, hands-on patient care at Cedars-Sinai.
Advocacy Training + BCPA
formal preparation and a commitment to the profession's standards and ethics.
Lived Experience
I know what it feels like to live inside a complicated health story.
Credentials & Commitments
What stands behind the work
- Board Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA), with ongoing education and a code of ethics
- University of Miami Patient Advocacy Certificate Program
- University of California, Berkeley, B.A. in Public Health, minor in Disability Studies
- Two years of daily, hands-on experience with patient care as a Patient Care Coordinator for the Chief of Clinical Gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai
- Member, Alliance of Professional Health Advocates
- Lived experience with chronic pain and complex illness
Independence, in plain terms
Independent means I work only for you. I'm not employed by a hospital, insurer, or medical practice, and I don't accept referral fees. You hire me directly, so my only allegiance is to you, your needs, your care, and your goals.
Where my role ends
I provide non-clinical advocacy, navigation, research support, and care coordination. I don't practice medicine, diagnose, treat, prescribe, give legal or financial advice, or make decisions for you. You remain the decision-maker, and clinical questions belong with your licensed treating professionals.
The Whole Picture
Relentless about the details, compassionate about the cost
I read every chart, track every medication, and learn everything I can about every diagnosis. I listen closely to what's said, and what isn't, during provider visits, and I'll ask the obvious question that different specialists never asked each other.
I also know what this costs you: the exhaustion, grief, and energy it takes just to keep going. I pace the work to your life, not the other way around. I can also help connect you with support groups and community resources, so you don't have to carry it alone.
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A seat at a second kind of table
I'll always fight for one person at a time. Alongside that work, I'm stepping into a wider kind of advocacy by bringing lived experience to the places where research is designed and healthcare policy is written. People living with chronic pain deserve to be heard not only in the exam room, but at the tables where decisions about them are made. If you're a researcher, organization, or event organizer looking for a patient partner, advisor, or speaker with lived experience of chronic pain and complex illness, I'd love to hear from you.
Topics I speak on
- Being believed when pain has no name
- Why complex cases fall through specialty cracks
- Nociplastic pain and the evolving science
- Designing research with patients, not just about them