“It is believed that autoimmune illnesses affect 20 to 50 million Americans, 75 percent of them female,” says MPA candidate Andrea Sorkin. “Yet this phenomenon has not yet reached the public’s radar. I hope to change that.”
Sorkin, whose motivation is both altruistic and personal (she has been diagnosed with mixed connective tissue disease), has helmed a variety of consciousness-raising projects related to autoimmune illnesses, her latest the documentary Priority Seating, which she both wrote and directed.
At the core of the film are interviews with four women of various ages and backgrounds who suffer from different autoimmune disorders. The women describe their experiences: how difficult it was to get a proper diagnosis, the financial implications of having a chronic illness, and how they cope. “It is the first film to investigate the impact of autoimmunity as a whole,” Sorkin explains. “By investigating autoimmune illness as an umbrella category rather than each separate condition, I hope to create a collective voice for people who are suffering from chronic autoimmune and inflammatory disorders and to raise awareness of ‘invisible disabilities’ in general.”
An advocate and solution seeker, Sorkin realized the film “had to do more than simply report on the issues. It needed to suggest ways that we can better respond.” Improved accommodations and access to health care insurance and disability assistance are two such recommendations.
Because Sorkin was in graduate school for media studies and enrolled in a video autobiography class when she developed her autoimmune disorders, she began to document her health issues on video. That record grew into the documentary Priority Seating, which took 10 years to complete.
As ambitious and time consuming as producing the documentary was—especially while working full time for a pharmaceutical company—it was not the only front on which she was working to advocate for this population.
Several years after beginning production of the film, Sorkin returned to graduate school to train for advocacy work in the Master of Public Administration Program in health care policy at Baruch’s School of Public Affairs.
A first-term graduate student, she entered the Baruch College Entrepreneurship Competition and won first place in the social-entrepreneurship track, for businesses with social-benefit-focused missions. The prize was $10,000 cash plus $20,000 seed money. Her win allowed her to launch Pi Gluten Free.
Pi Gluten Free produces gluten-free baked goods that serve the market by emphasizing whole food ingredients rather than processed carbohydrates manufactured to mimic gluten. “Anecdotal evidence suggests that, in addition to those with celiac disease, some people suffering from other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases may benefit from a gluten-free diet,” says Sorkin, who follows this diet herself. “In the larger scheme of things, for me, Pi was developed to engage people in a broader discourse about policy solutions that meet the needs of those with chronic illness.”
Pi and Priority Seating are parallel ventures.
So what is Sorkin hoping to gain from her Baruch MPA program that she hasn’t already from creating a business and producing a film? “From my MPA coursework, I hope to learn how to advocate for public policies that ensure a better quality of life for people with chronic diseases—specifically autoimmune illness.”
—Diane Harrigan
Check out clips from the documentary Priority Seating