Los Angeles Chronic Pain

Support and advocacy information for individuals dealing with chronic pain.

Nominate — Better Together Recognitions

Better Together Recognitions honors the people who make real partnership possible — on every side of the table. This program comes out of the work people with pain do in research and advocacy: clinical trials, advisory boards, guideline panels, and the rooms where care gets decided. It also recognizes care given at home, because that is what the rest of it rests on.

Anyone may nominate. There is no membership and no fee. You do not have to be a person with lived experience, you do not have to belong to any organization, and you do not have to know the person well — if you saw the work, that is enough. You may nominate yourself, and a self-nomination is weighed exactly the same as any other. Recipients are selected by a panel of people with lived experience; the program co-chairs convene the process but do not choose, and are not eligible to receive a recognition this year.

We let a nominee know a nomination was received. Whether they learn who nominated them is up to you — the last question on the form asks. There are no wrong answers here. Prefer not to use this form? Email your answers to the same questions to editorpwlevoices@gmail.com, download the paper form below, or call (323) 300-4075 and leave a message.

Prefer paper? Download the nomination form, print it, and mail it to PWLE Voices — Better Together Recognitions, 1656 West 25th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007. Postmark by October 31, 2026. Download the paper form (PDF)

The nomination period runs August 10 through October 31, 2026. Recipients are announced November 30.

The Recognition

Better Together Recognitions carry no payment. A certificate is not a substitute for fair compensation for lived-experience work, and this program does not pretend otherwise. What it offers is a community putting on the record what it values.
All four recognitions are open. Nominations close October 31, 2026; recipients are announced November 30. Any category without a worthy nomination this year stays open, with its nominations kept for 2027.

Who You're Nominating

Email is best. If you don’t have it, leave this blank — we’ll find them.
E.g., “patient advisor on a PCORI study,” “my mother’s caregiver for nine years,” “pain researcher at [university].” Whatever you know is enough.
Two or three sentences about who they are. Don’t worry about being complete; if they’re selected, we’ll build the full bio with them directly.
Paste a link to any photo you’re able to share — or email it to editorpwlevoices@gmail.com with the nominee’s name in the subject line. If they’re selected, we’ll ask them directly for a photo they own and are happy with, so skip this freely.

The Story

Describe the specific contribution — a moment, a meeting, a pattern of work. What happened, and what would have been different without them? A few sentences to a few paragraphs; write the way you’d tell it to a friend.
Recognition is how a community records what it values. What should the rest of us learn or expect from what this person did?
A rough answer is fine — “since 2019,” “about three years,” “one meeting that mattered.” Leave blank if you don’t know.

About You

Your name
Only used if the panel has a question about your nomination. Never published, never shared.
Your relationship to the nominee
May we quote from your nomination if the nominee is selected?
May we tell the nominee who nominated them?