Patient & Caregiver Led

Meet Our Founders

The Chiari Voices Foundation was created by Derek and Eric Crosby—a Chiari patient and his caregiver—who turned the hardest chapter of their lives into a mission to ensure that people with Chiari, and those who love them, are truly heard.

Together, Derek and Eric walked through almost two years of debilitating symptoms, misdiagnoses, and dismissal before finally finding a surgeon who believed Derek and acted. That experience showed them how isolating Chiari can be—not just for patients, but also for the people who hold everything together behind the scenes. Chiari Voices is their response: a place where being “heard, believed, and supported” is not the exception, but the expectation.

Eric Crosby, MPA

Founder & Chairman of the Board

Eric Crosby, MPA, serves as Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Chiari Voices Foundation. Drawing on his BSBA in International Business and MPA in Non-Profit Administration, as well as his lived experience as Derek’s caregiver through Chiari malformation, Eric is committed to ensuring that both patients and caregivers feel seen, heard, and supported.

Eric’s founder story is rooted in the quiet, often unseen work of caregiving. He never planned to become a co‑founder of a nonprofit; he planned to be a good partner, build a stable career, and live a fairly ordinary life. That changed the day his husband, Derek, began a long, confusing journey toward a diagnosis of Chiari malformation, and their world quietly tilted on its axis.

Read Eric’s story on the blog →

Derek Crosby

Founder & Executive Director

Derek Crosby is the Founder and Executive Director of the Chiari Voices Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring people affected by Chiari are heard, believed, and supported. With a background in technology and business and more than 10 years of experience at the National MS Society, Derek brings deep insight into the realities of living with complex, often invisible neurological diseases.

As a Chiari patient himself, Derek understands what it means to be dismissed, misdiagnosed, and told that symptoms “shouldn’t” be happening—while living through them every day. He now uses that experience to build community, create resources, and amplify patient and caregiver voices so others don’t have to fight as hard to be believed.

Read Derek’s story on the blog →

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