Íris Erlingsdóttir is an Icelandic journalist, writer, and chronic pain patient. Her professional background includes work in radio and television news as a reporter and news anchor for Channel 2 in Iceland and news director for Ingstad Broadcasting in Minnesota. She was editor-in-chief of Icelandic gourmet food magazine Gestgjafinn (The Host) and author of the magazine’s cookbook.  Ms. Erlingsdóttir has written numerous features and columns about Icelandic and American politics and law, as well as food, cooking, and health for Icelandic, Scandinavian, and American media. 

She became an advocate for pain patients’ rights to health and to protection against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment after her doctors denied continuing her opioid pain medication treatment for a rare condition that causes severe pain and progressive destruction of the joints.