As chief diversity and inclusion officer, David A. Acosta, MD, provides strategic vision and leadership for the AAMC’s diversity and inclusion activities across the medical education community, and leads the association’s Diversity Policy and Programs unit.

A board-certified physician of family medicine, Dr. Acosta joined the AAMC from the University of California (UC), Davis School of Medicine where he served as senior associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion and associate vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for UC Davis Health System. He previously served as the inaugural chief diversity officer at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, where he established a rural health fellowship program for Tacoma Family Medicine, a residency program affiliated with the UW Department of Family Medicine.

Dr. Acosta received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Loyola University and earned his medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. He completed his residency training at Community Hospital of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, Calif., and a faculty development fellowship at the UW Department of Family Medicine.

As the Association of American Medical College’s (AAMC) Senior Director, Health Equity Research and Policy, Philip M. Alberti, Ph.D., supports the efforts of academic medical centers to build an evidence-base for effective programs, protocols, policies, and partnerships aimed at eliminating inequities in health. He joined the AAMC in 2012 to facilitate the conduct of community-partnered, health equity science and scholarship at AAMC-member medical schools and teaching hospitals, and to make the case for policies and practices that explicitly have health and health care equity as a goal.

Dr. Alberti is Co-Chair of the National Quality Forum’s Disparities Standing Committee and has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to develop a systems approach to community health and health equity for academic medical centers. He regularly speaks at national forums on issues related to community and patient engagement, consideration of social risk in quality measurement, hospital community benefit and needs assessment requirements, and the social determinants of health, and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and commentaries on these topics. He has served on committees, workgroups, and task forces convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Institutes of Health.

Previously, Dr. Alberti led research, evaluation, and planning efforts for a Bureau within the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that works to promote health equity between disadvantaged and advantaged neighborhoods. Dr. Alberti holds a B.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. degree in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University and was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training program.

Dr. Lynn Anthony is Professor of Radiology with secondary appointments in Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering. In her clinical role, she works with a team of physician scholars and technologists, providing medical imaging services for the 200-bed children’s hospital and level 1 pediatric trauma center. Her particular areas of interest include trauma imaging, neonatal imaging/fetal MRI, and pediatric cancer imaging. Her clinical interests inform her research focus. She collaborates with the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a Co-Investigator for its multi-year Crash Injury Research Engineering Network grant. She has also developed a Wake Forest global health residents’ rotation in Kijabe, Kenya, where she annually takes multi-disciplinary teams for service, education, and research. Dr. Anthony has served in a variety of leadership roles at WFMBC, including Pediatric Radiology section chief, Pediatric Imaging medical director, chair of the Faculty Representative Council, and Associate Director of the CTSI Evaluation Program. Currently she provides leadership in Wake Forest School of Medicine as Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs.

She serves as an advocate for faculty issues in all parts of the academic mission, a builder of networks across departments and centers, and a catalyst for program and process development to support the faculty life cycle. Dr. Anthony has used the data from two administrations of the AAMC Standpoint Engagement Survey to promote meaningful change in faculty recruitment, hiring, and onboarding; faculty career development and mentoring; leadership development and succession planning; faculty resilience and wellness; faculty as educator training; and research partnerships across the Wake Forest Enterprise. Dr. Anthony has been named to Best Doctors since 2011, was awarded Fellowship in the American College of Radiology in 2019, and is currently a fellow in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program.

Dr. Avdalovic is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. He graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1996 and completed his Internal Medicine residency and Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. Dr. Avdalovic's areas of clinical interest include COPD and pulmonary hypertension. He uses a unique animal model of COPD to study the mechanism of vascular remodeling in the lung as part of wound healing and repair. In addition to his clinical and basic science work, Dr. Avdalovic is also very active in the clinical and research applications of the electronic health record (EHR) and has recently begun work to develop a comprehensive registry of COPD patients from the UC Davis Health System. Dr. Avdalovic has authored and co-authored publications and spoken at major conferences on COPD.

Ivy Baer is Senior Director and Regulatory Counsel at the Association of American Medical Colleges. She heads the Association’s Regulatory and Policy Unit which is responsible for monitoring, educating, and advocating on a wide variety of issues that affect teaching hospitals, teaching physicians, and the communities they serve. The Unit focuses on regulatory actions and guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other HHS agencies. Among the content areas for which her unit is responsible are funding for graduate medical education, 340B, hospital inpatient and outpatient regulations, and physician payment. Most recently her unit has been a resource to members on many of the regulatory flexibilities that HHS has issued in response to the COVI public health emergency.

She works closely with the AAMC’s Group on Faculty Practice, composed of the physician and administrative leadership of the many of the nation’s major faculty practice plans, and the Compliance Officers Forum, the only organization devoted to the compliance issues faced by academic institutions. She also has been part of the AAMC leadership team that works closely with Vizient on the Clinical Practice Solutions Center (CPSC), a joint produce of the AAMC and Vizient that is a key data resource for AAMC members’ faculty practice plans. She is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and served as co-chair of the American Health Lawyers Association annual meeting on Legal Issues Affecting Academic Medical Centers and Other Teaching Institutions from 2004-2009. Prior to working at the AAMC, Ms. Baer worked for the Mid-Atlantic Region of Kaiser Permanente, a federal regulatory agency, and a public interest group.

Ms. Baer holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Johns Hopkins University; a law degree from Emory University; and Masters of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management.

Rebecca G. Baker, Ph.D., is the director of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, in the Office of the Director, NIH. Dr. Baker helped develop the initiative and leads coordination of NIH HEAL Initiative programmatic activities between the Office of the Director and relevant Institutes and Centers. She also provides expert advice to and represents the NIH Director on initiative-related activities, including interagency efforts in pain and opioid research and policy. Prior to this position, Dr. Baker served as special assistant to the NIH Director and the Principal Deputy Director working directly with NIH leadership to analyze complex biomedical research policy issues and assist in the development of new science and policy initiatives. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and her bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

Michael Barone is the Vice President for Licensure Programs at NBME. He and his team oversee policy, operations, strategy and the research agenda for the USMLE program, the three-step examination for medical licensure in the United States which is co-sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and NBME. He is a general pediatrician and medical educator, and a graduate of Northwestern University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene.

Michael completed his residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins. He was full-time faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1998-2017 and currently maintains a faculty affiliation at Johns Hopkins as Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Adjunct). In his role as a medical educator, Michael was Director of Medical Student Education for the Department of Pediatrics for 17 years. He also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Educational Development and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Johns Hopkins.

Michael is a past president of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) and has interests in competency assessment, clinical reasoning, and humanism in medicine. Along with his colleagues from AAMC, AMA, ECFMG and FSMB, he led the March 2019 Invitational Conference on USMLE Scoring (InCUS). Working with the NBME and FSMB leadership and boards, Michael helped to lead the subsequent proceedings culminating in the policy change on Step 1 score reporting. Michael is a participating member of the Coalition for Physician Accountability's UME-GME Review Committee.

Etty (Tika) Benveniste was the founding chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology (2012-2016). Benveniste served as Chair of the Department of Cell Biology (2000-2012). Benveniste also holds the Charlene A. Jones Endowed Chair in Neuroimmunology. In September 2015, Benveniste was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Research Administration at the UAB School of Medicine. Benveniste also holds professorships in the UAB Departments of Neurobiology and Neurology.

During her postdoctoral studies, in the Department of Neurology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Benveniste initiated research on elucidating the mechanisms by which cells of the immune system and the central nervous system communicate and influence functionality, cytokine/chemokine production by glial cells, the effects of cytokines/chemokines on glial cell function, and the ability of glial cells to function as immune effector cells in the brain. This research continues to date. These studies have implications for autoimmune/neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease, and cancers such as brain tumors.

Benveniste has been continuously NIH funded for the past 30 years, and is P.I. on a T32 NIH Training Grant in Brain Tumor Biology. She also holds a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and is a Project Leader on an NIH P50 Udall Center grant.

Benveniste has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals including The Journal of Immunology, Journal of Neuroscience, and Journal of Biological Chemistry and is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuro-Virology, Journal of Neuroinflammation, and ASN News. She was elected in 2009 as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). With over 30 years of peer-review panel experience, including having chaired three different NIH study sections, Benveniste continues as a reviewer for such panels as the Michael J. Fox Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the NIH.

Dr. Boatright is a graduate of Morehouse College, Rice University (MBA), and Baylor College of Medicine.  He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health/University of Colorado where he also served as Chief Resident and among many honors received the Denver Health Program Director’s Award in 2015.  After residency, Dr. Boatright began fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the Yale School of Medicine. Following fellowship training, Dr. Boatright joined faculty at Yale in the Department of Emergency Medicine.  Dr. Boatright's research interests include diversity in the healthcare workforce and bias and discrimination in medical education. His work has been funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Among his publications is a recent paper which examined medical student mistreatment by student sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Otis Brawley is a globally-recognized expert in cancer prevention and control. He has worked to reduce overscreening of medical conditions, which has revolutionized patient treatment by increasing quality of life and reducing health disparities. Brawley’s research focuses on developing cancer screening strategies and ensuring their effectiveness. He has championed efforts to decrease smoking and implement other lifestyle risk reduction programs, as well as to provide critical support to cancer patients and concentrate cancer control efforts in areas where they could be most effective. Brawley currently leads a broad interdisciplinary research effort on cancer health disparities at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, striving to close racial, economic, and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in the United States and worldwide. He also directs community outreach programs for underserved populations throughout Maryland. Brawley joined Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2019 from the American Cancer Society and Emory University.

Beth Brinkmann is a veteran appellate litigator with extensive experience in handling complex client matters. Her strong background in both government and private practice informs her understanding of how best to support her clients’ objectives, while resolving their most difficult legal challenges.

Ms. Brinkmann joined the firm as co-chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Group after serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, where she oversaw the Division’s nationwide appellate litigation. She also has practiced for more than two decades before the Supreme Court of the United States, including as Assistant to the Solicitor General and in private practice. She argued her 25th case before the Supreme Court in 2019, and regularly argues in appellate courts across the country.

As the Civil Division’s top appellate lawyer, Ms. Brinkmann represented federal agencies and Executive Branch officials in high-profile cases across a range of subject areas, including constitutional law, regulatory challenges, intellectual property matters, FOIA, federal preemption, and national security cases. She regularly coordinated with government trial teams on analysis of potential legal arguments at early phases of litigation, and collaborated across offices on development of appellate and Supreme Court strategy. Ms. Brinkmann also presented congressional testimony and advised senior leadership of cabinet-level departments and regulatory agencies regarding litigation risk, legislative proposals, and rulemaking matters.

Previously, Ms. Brinkmann also served as Assistant Federal Public Defender, representing indigent criminal defendants, including approximately a dozen felony jury trials, and worked in private practice on civil trial and appellate matters.

Erik grew up near Chippewa Falls, WI and spent summers with family in the rural areas around Bemidji, MN. Dr. Brodt earned his M.D. from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and completed residency in Family Medicine at the Seattle Indian Health Board - Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency in Seattle, WA. Dr. Brodt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. He practices in the OHSU Scappoose and Warm Springs Tribal Health clinics, while also serving as the founding Director of the OHSU Northwest Native American Center of Excellence. Erik is a fierce believer in occasional magic working to eliminate Native health disparities and improve Native American Health Professions programming nationally through creative partnerships and collaborations. An entrepreneur at heart, Erik and his wife Amanda have explored the fashion ecosystem through their global collection Ginew, featured in Vogue & GQ; culinary creativity and sustainable food systems; and the digital media non-profit WE ARE HEALERS. In his free time Dr. Brodt enjoys spending his time in Portland, OR with his wife Amanda, their dogs Stinky & Pippa, and a motley crew of friends comprised of change-makers, mavens, and creatives.

Dr. Peter F. Buckley became Dean of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine in 2017. From January through September, 2020, he had an additional appointment as interim CEO, VCU Health System and interim Senior Vice President, VCU Health Sciences. A psychiatrist and expert in schizophrenia, Dr. Buckley also is Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs for the VCU Health System.

Prior to coming to VCU, Dr. Buckley served as Dean of the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University (AU) from 2010 to 2017 and as Interim Chief Executive Officer of AU Medical Center and AU Medical Associates and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs. Dr. Buckley joined MCG in 2000 as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior.

As an active researcher, Dr. Buckley predominantly focuses on the neurobiology and treatment of schizophrenia, including current studies on the genetics of schizophrenia and on the psychopharmacology of schizophrenia. He remains an active federal reviewer and is on the executive board of the Schizophrenia International Research Society.

Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. He assumed his position June 16, 2019. As Secretary, he oversees 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers.

Previously, Bunch was the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. When he started as director in July 2005, he had one staff member, no collections, no funding and no site for a museum. Driven by optimism, determination and a commitment to build “a place that would make America better,” Bunch transformed a vision into a bold reality. The museum has welcomed more than 6 million visitors since it opened in September 2016 and compiled a collection of 40,000 objects that are housed in the first “green building” on the National Mall.

Before his appointment as director of the museum, Bunch served as the president of the Chicago Historical Society (2001–2005). There, he led a successful capital campaign to transform the Historical Society in celebration of its 150th anniversary, managed an institutional reorganization, initiated an unprecedented outreach initiative to diverse communities and launched a much-lauded exhibition and program on teenage life titled “Teen Chicago.”

A widely published author, Bunch has written on topics ranging from the black military experience, the American presidency and all-black towns in the American West to diversity in museum management and the impact of funding and politics on American museums. His most recent book, A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump , which chronicles the making of the museum that would become one of the most popular destinations in Washington.

Among his many awards, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House in 2002 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2019, he was awarded the Freedom Medal, one of the Four Freedom Awards from the Roosevelt Institute, for his contribution to American culture as a historian and storyteller; the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from the Hutchins Center at Harvard University; and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.

Charles B. Cairns, MD is the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean of the College of Medicine and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Drexel University. Dr. Cairns led Drexel efforts after the bankruptcy of the Hahnemann Hospital. Previously, he served as Dean of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University and as Dean of the College of Medicine and Assistant Vice President for Clinical Research at the University of Arizona. Dr. Cairns led the University of Arizona College of Medicine through the $1.2 billion merger with Banner Health, which resulted in the fifth largest non-profit health system in the country. Dr. Cairns has also served as Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine at Duke University and Director of Emergency Medicine Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Dr. Cairns has served as Director of the NIH United States Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group and as Principal Investigator of the DHS National Collaborative for Biopreparedness. He has published over 200 scientific articles and reviews and secured more than $30 million in research funding. Some of his honors and awards include the ACEP Outstanding Contribution in Research Award, EMF Established Investigator Award, National Foundation of Emergency Medicine Mentor Scholar Award, SCCM Presidential Citation Award and the SAEM John Marx Leadership Award.

Francisco Castelan attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received Bachelor degrees in both Psychology and Spanish. Mr. Castelan earned an MS degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While working at UW-Madison, he discovered his passion for supporting and encouraging students explore and connect their strengths and interests toward their future careers. He brings more than 15 years of experience with health professions advising, including volunteering with the Tour for Diversity in Medicine, a non-profit organization. He has held leadership positions in the National Association of Advisors in the Health Profession (NAAHP) and the Southeast Association of Advisors for the Health Professions. and has represented NAAHP on the Committee on Student Diversity Affairs (COSDA) for the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Group on Student Affairs (GSA).

Laura Castillo-Page, Ph.D., is senior director of Diversity Policy and Programs and Organizational Capacity Building at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Castillo-Page is responsible for strategic planning, setting priorities, staff professional development, and for managing the day-to-day operations of the Diversity Policy and Programs unit. Dr. Castillo-Page also leads the organizational capacity building portfolio of work to promote the infusion of diversity and inclusion throughout academic medicine to support member institutions through services, tools, and resources that strengthen their policies and processes and address diversity issues at the institutional level.

Dr. Shruti Chandra is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Chandra has a Fellowship in Medical Education from Jefferson and a Master's in Education for Health Professions from Johns Hopkins University. She is Phase 3 director for the medical college - responsible for the latter third of the medical school curriculum. Dr Chandra became involved in Telehealth as a practitioner and developer of telehealth educational curriculum. She is the program director for Telehealth and Digital Health education.

Lisa Chew, M.D., M.P.H., is a board certified physician and medical director of the Adult Medicine Clinic and Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement at Harborview. She is also a UW associate professor of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Chew believes in creating active partnerships with her patients to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Dr. Chew earned her M.D. at UC San Francisco and her M.P.H. at the UW. She is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians and the Alpha Omega Alpha medical society. Her clinical and research interests include improving health care for vulnerable populations and the effect of drug sample availability on physicians' prescribing practices.

Julie Clements is the director of health and clinical affairs for the University of California Office of Federal Governmental Relations (FGR). She advises the University of California and UC Health on federal health policies originating in the US Congress and Administration.

Before joining UC FGR, Julie performed legislative and regulatory counsel work for several national health care provider groups representing the interests of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric physicians and mental health counselors.

Prior to completing law school, Julie held a legal clerkship with the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and interned with a federal judge. During graduate school, she had a fellowship in the Congressional Budget Office’s National Security Division, and as an undergraduate, she interned for The Carter Center’s Democracy and Development Program and in the Capitol Hill office of former U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Julie is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Maryland Bar. She earned her law degree from Southern Methodist University and a Master’s in Public Policy degree from American University. She is a graduate of Emory University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Julie currently is Chair of the AAMC Government Relations Representatives Steering Committee.

Marcia Cohen is the Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Operations for the Stanford University School of Medicine, a position she has held since 2006. Reporting to the Dean, Marcia is responsible for the oversight and direction of strategy and operations of the School's financial, administrative, and information technology functions. She has financial oversight for the School's $2.0 billion budget, and sets financial and administrative policy for the School, including its 27 academic departments and 8 interdisciplinary institutes and centers.

Prior to joining Stanford in 2003, Ms. Cohen served as the Director of Finance in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to UCSF, Marcia was a management consultant with Touche Ross (now Deloitte) including 5 years based in Hong Kong. Marcia graduated with a B.A. magna cum laude, majoring in Economics, from Carleton College and holds an MBA from the Yale University School of Management.

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. was appointed the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate. He was sworn in on August 17, 2009. On June 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his selection of Dr. Collins to continue to serve as the NIH Director. In this role, Dr. Collins oversees the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research.

Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008.

Before coming to NIH, Dr. Collins was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Michigan. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK) and was also named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize, which celebrates scientific and spiritual curiosity.

Hearcel F. Craig is the Representative of the 15th district of the Ohio House of Representatives. Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus) brings a strong background of public service to the Statehouse as he serves in his first term as state Senator following two two-year terms as state representative. Craig’s commitment to the residents of Columbus began decades ago when he worked as legislative liaison for the Ohio Department of Youth Services. During his tenure at ODYS, Craig drafted legislation and secured legislatives sponsorship for bills introduced in the Ohio General Assembly, including legislation which secured $83 million for much needed capital improvements to ODYS facilities. Craig continued his work with young people when he served as director of recruitment & admissions for City Year, a program that recruits young adults to work full-time for one year on various social service projects around Columbus.

Sandi Curd is the Promise Zone Coordinator, a position created when Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation was named the first rural Promise Zone in America. Her work as Coordinator provides a relationship with the Promise Zone’s eight counties’ local government, as well as leaders in education, healthcare, economic development, broadband, substance abuse, agriculture, housing, and downtown revitalization. Curd also serves as the Coordinator of the National Coalition of Promise Zones, which brings all 22 zones together for sharing best practices.

Curd maintains a relationship with Leadership Tri-County, the Whitley County Farmers’ Market, The Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky, and the Upper Cumberland Community Foundation. She has 25 years of experience in the health care field, holds a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from the University of Kentucky, a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Minnesota. She is currently a doctoral candidate for a Ph.D. in Leadership through the University of the Cumberlands.

Award-winning journalist and photojournalist Ann Curry is the current Executive Producer and reporter of "We'll Meet Again," a PBS series that features reunions of people whose lives crossed, and then separated, at pivotal moments and during world-changing events. A former NBC News Network anchor and international correspondent, Curry has covered the wars in Syria, Darfur, Congo, the Central African Republic, Serbia, Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq, reported on nuclear tensions from North Korea and Iran. She has also reported humanitarian disasters, including the tsunamis in Japan and Southeast Asia, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where her appeal via Twitter (@AnnCurry) is credited for helping to speed the arrival of humanitarian planes. She is also the force behind groundbreaking prime time hours on Climate Change, poverty in America and Iran.

Ann has conducted a long list of exclusive and news breaking interviews, which have included Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, President Ahmadinejad, President Khatami and Foreign Minister Zarif; Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and First Lady Asma al-Assad; Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, President Ali Zadari and President Musharraf; Turkey's President Erdogan; Sudan's President Omar Bashir and South Sudan's President Salva Kiir; Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Chad's President Idriss Deby; as well as U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Walker Bush and Barack Obama as well as Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush, the Dalai Lama, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Elie Wiesel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu among others.

Ann has won 7 national news Emmys and numerous Edward R. Murrow awards, Gracie Allen Awards, National Headliner Awards. The NAACP has honored her with an Excellence in Reporting award. Women in Communications has awarded her a Matrix. Ann has also been given numerous humanitarian awards, including from Refugees International, Americares, Save the Children, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which awarded her a Medal of Valor, for her dedication to reporting about genocide.

Denise L. Davis, resides in Oakland, CA. She is a general internist and Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco and she serves as Associate Director for Faculty Development for the San Francisco VA Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education (now EdPACT). Dr. Davis teaches faculty development workshops locally and nationally on communication skills for clinical and teamwork settings.
Dr. Davis consults and teaches healthcare professional in medical groups across the country on topics including improving doctor-patient communication, obtaining informed consent, negotiating cultural differences in clinical relationships, disclosing medical errors and giving effective feedback.

Dr. Davis is a past recipient of the prestigious Kaiser Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work with students at UCSF School of Medicine and was recognized by the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators as an outstanding teacher in 2013. Dr. Davis was elected to the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators in 2015 and was awarded the UCSF Chancellor's Martin Luther King Leadership Award in 2018.

Dr. Delafield is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine specializing in primary care and hospital internal medicine. In 2019, Dr. Delafield received the Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Teacher of the Year award. A District Medical Group physician, Dr. Delafield is available for consultations at Valleywise Health. He is passionate about patient advocacy, medical education and improving healthcare delivery to medically-disadvantaged communities.

As Associate Dean for Women’s Leadership, Dr. Ellinas advances the MCW community as it becomes a destination of choice for women in academic medicine, and assists the recruitment, retention, advancement, and leadership achievements of women faculty. As Center Director, she leads AWSM in its efforts to create an environment that allows all genders to grow and thrive in the health sciences. Galvanized by the events of 2020, AWSM is working to lead through crisis, focusing on caregiving through COVID and racial injustice.

Dr. Ellinas completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin Madison, medical school at the University of Chicago, and her Anesthesiology residency at Duke University, joining the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2000. She is currently a graduate student in Educational Statistics and Measurement at UW Milwaukee, and a member of the 2016 ELAM class.

Dr. Ellinas’ research interests include determining faculty motivations and choice-making as regards promotion, retention, and leadership seeking in academic faculty, and the interplay between gender and journals and professional societies.

Malika Fair, MD, MPH is the Senior Director for Health Equity Partnerships and Programs at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). In this role, Dr. Fair develops programs and initiatives to enhance institutional, faculty, and student learning in diversity & inclusion, equity, and population health. Dr. Fair serves as the Principal Investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement with the AAMC which seeks to strengthen collaboration between the disciplines of academic medicine and public health. Dr. Fair oversees the Office of Community Engagement that seeks to develop strategic partnerships with community agencies to improve the health of local residents as well as to assist medical schools and teaching hospitals with their community engagement efforts.

Dr. Fair is an Associate Clinical Professor and practicing physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine of The George Washington University. Prior to her current position, Dr. Fair served as the Clerkship Director of Emergency Medicine and the Co-Director of the Health Policy Track for The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She also served as the Co-Principal Investigator of the Beyond Flexner Study and an investigator for the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Dr. Fair serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Not-For-Profit Hospital Corporation (United Medical Center) and on the Advisory Board of the Griffith Leadership Center within the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Department of Health Management and Policy In 2019, Dr. Fair was selected to serve on the Mayor’s Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformation for the District of Columbia and to be included in the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum.

Dr. Fair completed her residency training and chief residency at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. She received her medical and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Michigan and Bachelor of Science from Stanford University.

Dr. Fauci was appointed Director of NIAID in 1984. He oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and malaria as well as emerging diseases such as Ebola and Zika. NIAID also supports research on transplantation and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.

Dr. Fauci has advised six Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues. He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world.

Karen leads the AAMC’s public policy and advocacy on medical education, health care delivery and medical research. Fisher provides oversight to advance the association’s legislative and regulatory priorities and developing policy proposals that support the work of academic medicine.

One of the nation’s leading experts on Medicare, Karen has more than 25 years of experience in legislative and regulatory health care policy. Most recently, she served as senior health counsel for the Senate Finance Committee where she played a key role in drafting the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 and the new Medicare physician payment system. She also served as lead adviser on other Medicare concerns and health care policies.

Before moving to the Senate, Karen spent almost a decade as senior director in health care affairs at the AAMC after serving as senior health policy analyst and general counsel for the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission—the precursor to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Karen earned both her pharmacy and law degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

Laura Forese, M.D., M.P.H., is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian, one of the nation’s most comprehensive, integrated academic healthcare systems. The only hospital in the country affiliated with two top-ranked medical schools, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is recognized as the #4 hospital in the nation and the #1 hospital in New York by U.S. News and World Report, as well as a best place to work by Forbes, Fortune, and Glassdoor.

Dr. Forese has ultimate operational responsibility for the NewYork-Presbyterian enterprise, including 10 hospital campuses, 200 primary and specialty care clinics and medical groups, more than 47,000 employees and affiliated physicians, and more than $8 billion in revenue.

Under her leadership, NewYork-Presbyterian launched an innovative suite of digital health services called NYP OnDemand, implemented groundbreaking employee programs for paid parental leave and respite care, and achieved significant gains in patient satisfaction scores as well as employee engagement and front-line empowerment by focusing on building a culture of respect. As President of the NewYork-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network, Dr. Forese expanded the organization’s presence in Westchester County, Queens and Brooklyn, bringing high-quality community hospitals into the network, and she established the NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Groups to expand NewYork-Presbyterian’s primary and specialty care throughout the region. Among Dr. Forese’s top priorities and accomplishments is the regionalization and standardization of financial, operational, and clinical practices across the enterprise so that every patient receives the same exceptional standard of care no matter where they go in the NewYork-Presbyterian system.

Active in multiple healthcare and civic organizations, Dr. Forese chairs the hospital board of the NIH Clinical Center; she is also a Trustee of Princeton University, a board member of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and LiveOnNY, and serves as a director of Cantel Medical. She has been named among the 50 most powerful women in New York by Crain’s Business, the top 25 COOs in Healthcare and 50 most influential physician executives by Modern Healthcare magazine and has been honored as Mother of the Year by the American Cancer Society.

Ross A. Frommer is Vice President for Government and Community Affairs and Associate Dean at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He represents the Medical Center on legislative and executive branch matters at the federal, state, and local levels, and assists with the development and implementation of programs with the surrounding communities of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is also a Lecturer at the Columbia University School of Nursing.

Prior to coming to Columbia University, Ross spent five years working for former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) as State Director in the New York City office and as the Regional Director of the upstate office in Oneonta, New York. In that position, he was in charge of all constituent outreach and managed the state staff.

Priya Garg, MD is the Associate Dean of Medical Education and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Garg provides oversight and leadership of the undergraduate medical education program. Dr. Garg has had multiple roles across the continuum of medical education. After completing her pediatric residency and chief residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center she joined the faculty at Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine. At Tufts, Dr. Garg served as Pediatric Clerkship Director for Tufts University School of Medicine, Pediatric Residency Director (2010-2017) and as the Associate Director for Graduate Medical Education Quality and Safety. She has also led multiple faculty development programs related to educational leadership and teaching and is Associate Chair of the Curriculum Committee for the Academic Pediatric Association’s Educational Scholars Program. Her areas of interest include curriculum design, assessment and health equity. She has 2 daughters and is married to a pediatrician.

Dr. Gay is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Medical Director of Critical Care Support Services and the Assistant Dean for Medical School Admissions at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Michigan. His clinical and research interests include medical education, outcomes and treatments for end stage lung disease, lung transplantation, interventional bronchoscopy, and the evaluation of unexplained dyspnea.

Dr. Gay is board certified in pulmonary medicine, and critical care medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and received his medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Michael Reese Medical Center in Chicago. After completing a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, Dr. Gay earned a master’s degree in clinical study design and biostatistics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor. Dr. Gay is a member of the American Thoracic Society, the American Association of Medical Colleges and has served as a consultant to the FDA Advisory Committee on Pulmonary and Allergy Medications.

Abbe R. Gluck is a Professor of Law and the founding Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. She is also Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine) at Yale School of Medicine. She is a member of the Affiliated Faculty of the Yale Program on Addiction Medicine and directs the Yale Law School Medical-Legal Partnership Program. She is an expert on Congress and health law and clerked earlier in her career for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her most recent book, with Zeke Emanuel, The Trillion Dollar Revolution: How the Affordable Care Act Transformed Politics, Law, and Health Care in America was published in March.

Kaye-Alese Green, MA, aspires to create space for people to live the lives they were always meant for - lives that are healthy, connected, full of opportunity and purpose. As an MD Candidate and as the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Fellow at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Kaye-Alese is building upon her diverse background of medical sociology research, extensive international travel, intercollegiate athletics, and finance-based project management to develop and implement transformative initiatives at BUSM. These initiatives include co-authoring “Is race a risk factor” Creating Leadership and Education to Address Racism: An Analytical Review of Best Practices for BUSM Implementation” and supporting the development of a longitudinal equity curriculum. Kaye-Alese consistently endeavors to combine each experience to broaden her worldview and refine her skill set to help create a world where all members of the next generation can thrive.

Wendell D. Hall, Ph.D., is the senior director, Higher Ed Outreach and Partnerships, in the College Board’s Higher Education division. Since joining the College Board in 2013, Hall has focused on developing and advocating for policy positions that promote access and equity for all students. Currently leading the organization’s Access & Diversity Collaborative (ADC), Hall works directly with institutional leaders and higher education membership organizations to craft and implement their mission-focused diversity-related policies within an evolving legal landscape. Hall serves as an organizational spokesperson and frequently speaks at conferences and invited speaking engagements.

Prior to the College Board, Hall held leadership positions at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent federal committee chartered by Congress and tasked with advocating for low and moderate-income students. Hall earned his Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.

He received his master's degree in secondary science education from The George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Hampton University. Hall has authored or co-authored several articles and book chapters for higher education publications. Hall, also a former high school science teacher, is well versed on issues around college access and success, educational equity and institutional diversity initiatives.

He currently serves as an EMERGE Mentor, was previously the Board Vice Chair of DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) and served as a founding Board Member for College and Career Pathways (CCP). Hall, who called Washington, DC, home for most of his life, now resides in greater Houston with his wife and two children.

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP is founder and director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, an innovative and model public health program in Flint, Michigan. A pediatrician, scientist, activist and author, Dr. Hanna-Attisha has testified twice before the United States Congress, awarded the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America, and named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for her role in uncovering the Flint Water Crisis and leading recovery efforts. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and countless other media outlets championing the cause of children in Flint and beyond. She is founding donor of the Flint Child Health and Development Fund (flintkids.org). Dr. Hanna-Attisha received her bachelor’s and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (MSU CHM). She completed her residency at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, where she was chief resident. She is currently an associate professor of pediatrics and human development at MSU CHM. A 2018 New York Times 100 Notable Book, NPR Science Friday Best Science Book of 2018, and 2019 Michigan Notable Book, Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s bestselling and widely acclaimed book What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City is a riveting, beautifully rendered account of a shameful disaster that became a tale of activism and hope. It’s the story of a city on the ropes that came together to fight for justice, self-determination, and the right to build a better world for their—and all of our—children.

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a MacArthur Genius for “reshaping national conversations around education reform.” This is but one honor in a growing list: She is the creator of the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project,” about the history and lasting legacy of American slavery, for which her powerful introductory essay was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She's also won a Peabody, two George Polk awards, and the National Magazine Awards three times.

Nikole Hannah-Jones covers racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine, and has spent years chronicling the way official policy has created—and maintains—racial segregation in housing and schools. Her deeply personal reports on the Black experience in America offer a compelling case for greater equity. Hannah-Jones is the creator and lead writer of the New York Times' major multimedia initiative, “The 1619 Project.” The project features an ongoing series of essays and art on the relationship between slavery and everything from social infrastructure and segregation, to music and sugar—all by Black American authors, activists, journalists, and more. Hannah-Jones wrote the project’s introductory essay, which ran under the powerful headline “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True.” Random House has also announced it will be adapting the project into a graphic novel and four publications for young readers, while also releasing an extended version of the original publication, including more essays, fiction, and poetry.

She is currently writing a book on school segregation called The Problem We All Live With, to be published on the One World imprint of Penguin/Random House. Her piece “Worlds Apart” in The New York Times Magazine won the National Magazine Award for “journalism that illuminates issues of national importance” as well as the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism. In 2016, she was awarded a Peabody Award and George Polk Award for radio reporting for her This American Life story, “The Problem We All Live With.” She was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, and was also named to 2019’s The Root 100 as well as Essence’s Woke 100.

Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting with the goal of increasing the number of reporters and editors of color.

Dr. Leila Harrison is the Senior Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs at the Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine with a faculty appointment in the Department of Medical and Clinical Sciences. She oversees efforts in these areas as well as pathways and diversity and inclusion. She has held leadership roles at the regional and national levels for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in both the Southern and Western regions through the Committee on Admissions and Enrollment Management Workgroup within the Group on Student Affairs. She also served as an AAMC Holistic Review facilitator training other medical schools’ admissions committee on how to include holistic review in their admissions process for four years as well as a new workshop for GME selection. She leads the participation for the WSU College of Medicine within the national AAMC Situational Judgement Test (SJT) study.

Overall, Dr. Harrison has been involved in medical education since 2002, mostly within admissions across three public medical schools (WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Texas A&M College of Medicine, and University of North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine), two of which are land-grant institutions, with experiences in diversity and inclusion and student affairs.

Dr. Harrison is a solid advocate for holistic review in admissions as well as helping any aspiring doctor along their journey. She is originally from Las Cruces, New Mexico with family roots in the state going back four generations. She is a first-generation college graduate and the first in her extended family to earn a PhD. Her own background makes her passionate about encouraging any aspiring doctor to believe that future is possible. She has completed the LEAD Fellowship and feels strongly about continuing to grow as a leader as well as helping others explore their own leadership growth. Courage through vulnerability, transparency, and creating a culture of inclusion among her team through trust building, conflict resolution, and collaboration are key aspects of her leadership style.

Sharonne N. Hayes MD is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and founded and maintains an active clinical practice in the Women’s Heart Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She was appointed as Mayo Clinic’s first Director of Diversity and Inclusion in 2010. Under her leadership, Mayo Clinic has been nationally recognized for its D&I accomplishments. Dr. Hayes leads efforts aimed at optimizing women’s health and applies her considerable expertise to advance health and workforce equity. Dr. Hayes has led efforts to optimize women’s health clinical practice and research activities at Mayo Clinic, and developed programs to enhance the professional and personal development and mentorship of women and minority physicians and to mitigate unconscious bias in order to promote a more diverse workforce at Mayo and in the field of medicine. She serves as a founder of Time’s Up Healthcare and is a tireless advocate for safe, equitable, and dignified healthcare workplaces that promote high-quality patient care. Dr. Hayes’s research interests include sex and gender-based cardiology, spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), health equity, participation of women and minorities in medical research, healthcare workforce equity, and the utility and optimal role of social media in clinical practice, medical research, and health education.

Her commitment to women’s heart health has been recognized by the 2002 Wenger Award, an invitation from First Lady Laura Bush to speak at the White House for the 1st National Wear Red Day in 2004, and a Woman’s Day Magazine “Red Dress Award” and the American Heart Association’s Women’s Mentorship award. She is a nationally recognized speaker and educator, has been a guest speaker at the White House and featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, Talk of the Nation, and the Dr. Oz Show, among others. Dr. Hayes is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association and a member of the Association of Black Cardiologists. She received her medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago and pursued fellowships in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Research, and Cardiovascular Diseases at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

Antwione Haywood, PhD, is the assistant dean of student affairs and assistant professor of clinical radiation oncology. In his role he oversees various aspects of the student experience including wellness, diversity programming and student success initiatives. He completed his doctoral training at Indiana University-Bloomington, his master’s degree from the University of Kansas, and his bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University. He is affiliated with the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

A healthcare change agent and clinician with over 25 years of experience designing, implementing and optimizing the health care delivery system using digital health tools and technology. She is the SVP of Telehealth & Innovation for Optum Health, where she is focused on modernizing the care delivery organization using digital health tools and telehealth. She most recently led clinical operations for Amazon Care, a healthcare initiative for Amazon employees and their families. Before joining Amazon, she designed and launched a national solutions center for patient access, virtual care, and care coordination for Ascension Health. She has a proven track record of delivering successful programs at scale that improve health and save money.

She continues to integrate new technology into the care delivery model in order to deliver the most effective and efficient operating model. She is an adjunct faculty member in Population Health at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas-Austin and at the University of Washington School of Nursing. A few of her other leadership roles include service as an executive board member for the American Telemedicine Association; AAMC Telehealth Committee member, ANA co-chair for Committee on Connected Health and NQF Telehealth Committee. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the Emergency Nurses Association.

Keith A. Horvath is Sr. Director, Clinical Transformation at the Association of American Medical Colleges. Prior to that position, he was Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Program for the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health and Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery at the NIH Heart Center. Trained in general and cardiothoracic surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Horvath is a graduate of the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine.

As Sr. Director, Clinical Transformation he works with a team dedicated to improving outcomes at academic medical centers and their affiliates across the US. This includes assisting institutions shifting to value-based care and implementing innovations in EHRs, telehealth and care coordination. He has a longstanding interest in clinical care improvement with over 22 years of service on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database; Coding & Nomenclature; and Health Policy Committees. Additionally, he has represented the STS and the American Association of Thoracic Surgery to CMS, FDA, RUC, PEAC and Congress. Additionally, he has served on over 20 national committees, 10 editorial boards, and garnered over 25 million dollars in research funding.

Finally, Dr. Horvath has performed over 3,000 cardiac operations, has authored and coauthored over 240 publications and logged over 84,000 miles watching, playing and coaching soccer games.

Lisa Howley is an Educational Psychologist who has spent over 25 years in the field of medical education supporting learners and faculty, conducting research, and developing curricula. She joined the AAMC in 2016 to advance the continuum of medical education, support experiential learning, and curricular transformation across its member institutions and their clinical partners. Prior to joining the AAMC, she spent eight years as the Associate DIO and AVP of Medical Education and Physician Development for Carolinas HealthCare System in North Carolina, one of the largest independent academic medical centers in the U.S. In that role, she led a number of medical education initiatives across the professional development continuum, including graduate medical education accreditation, as well as physician leadership development for the large integrated healthcare system. She concurrently served as Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she led curriculum and faculty development. She also held a faculty appointment in educational research at UNC-Charlotte where she taught social science research methods, led and collaborated on numerous studies of effective education.

J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., became Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine on July 1, 2011. Together, the two entities make up Penn Medicine, an $8 billion enterprise dedicated to excellence in the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and patient care.

Before coming to Penn Medicine, Dr. Jameson was Dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Northwestern University, positions he held since 2007. He joined Northwestern University Medical School in 1993 as chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine, a position he held for seven years. In 2000, he was named Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine.

A prolific physician-scientist and writer, Dr. Jameson has been a pioneer in molecular medicine in the field of endocrinology. His research has focused on the genetic basis of hormonal disorders and he is the author of more than 350 scientific articles and chapters. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, Science, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He is Editor-in-Chief of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, the most widely used medical text worldwide, and previously served as co-editor of Jameson and DeGroot’s Endocrinology.

Among his many professional distinctions and honors, Dr. Jameson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in academia, and the National Academy of Medicine, established to recognize professional achievement in the health sciences. He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and as a Master of the American College of Physicians. He has served as president of the Endocrine Society and the Association of American Physicians. He has served as a member of the medical advisory board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and as a Director of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He currently serves as a member of the Association of American Medical College’s Board of Directors and as Chair of the Council of Deans Administrative Board.

Edward Jimenez has served as Chief Executive Officer for University of Florida Health Shands since 2014. He was Chief Operating Officer from 2010 to 2014. Jimenez guides the financial performance and strategic direction for the Gainesville-based teaching hospital, specialty hospitals and clinical programs, collaborating with UF College of Medicine faculty and UF Health administrators to ensure the delivery of outstanding patient care and quality outcomes and to support education and research.

Under his leadership, UF Health built and opened a 216-bed, heart/vascular and neuromedicine hospital, established new clinical services in nearby counties and expanded affiliate and partner relationships with health systems and providers throughout Florida. UF Health Shands consistently earns top-50 rankings in multiple adult and pediatric medical specialties in the annual U.S. News & World Report best hospitals listings and has four consecutive Magnet designations, the most prestigious honor for nursing excellence.

Jimenez has a Master's in Business Administration from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and a bachelor's degree in politics from Brandeis University. He is an Affiliate Clinical Associate Professor in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and an Associate Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Lee Jones received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. After completing a psychiatry residency and chief residency at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Neuropsychiatric Institute, he entered a consultation-liaison fellowship at Cornell Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center followed by a research fellowship at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Jones has worked in medical school curricular affairs, graduate medical education, admissions, and student affairs at Tulane, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Arizona at Tucson, and University of California at Davis (UCD) prior to returning to UCSF as the Associate Dean for Students. Dr. Jones has been a Liaison Committee for on Medical Education (LCME) Site Team member and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Holistic Review Site Team member. He serves on the Board of Directors at AAMC and the Chair of the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) Task Force. His clinical work is in Emergency Department Psychiatry and Medical-Surgical Consultation Psychiatry.

Mark R. Laret is president and chief executive officer of UCSF Health, which is comprised of Benioff Children's Hospitals San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics and the Faculty Practice. Laret, who joined UCSF in 2000, is a 30-year veteran of health care management and a national leader in health care reform. His career began at UCLA Medical Center, where he served from 1980 to 1995 in several leadership positions, before being named CEO of UC Irvine Medical Center, which he led from 1995 to 2000.

As CEO of UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Laret heads one of the most distinguished medical institutions in the world, one that is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the United States and as the best in Northern California. At UCSF, he has led initiatives to improve quality of care and patient safety and to modernize facilities and equipment. He led an effort to build a $1.5 billion UCSF hospital complex at the Mission Bay campus — including hospitals for children, women's services and cancer — and raised $600 million in private contributions for the new facility. He is immediate past chair of the California Hospital Association and past chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Laret's volunteer service includes membership on the board of the international charity Mercy Ships, which delivers medical care on hospital ships to indigent communities in Africa. He chaired corporate fundraising drives in San Francisco for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and American Heart Association. He is a member of the board of directors of Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto and Nuance Communications in Boston, Mass.

Laret earned a bachelor's degree at UCLA and a master's degree at the University of Southern California, both in political science.

Wright L. Lassiter III is the President and CEO of Henry Ford Health System, overseeing the $7.5 billion health system comprised of six hospitals, a health plan and a wide range of ambulatory and retail and related health services consisting of more than 250 locations and 32,000 employees. Lassiter joined Henry Ford in December 2014, and assumed the role of President & CEO in 2016. Since his arrival, he led the Board and senior management through a comprehensive strategic planning effort to position Henry Ford for the future.

Under his leadership, Henry Ford has completed two successful mergers, expanding its geographic footprint and generating an additional $1 billion in revenue. The system has significantly increased its quality and financial performance, earning top honors in several publicly reported quality programs and receiving both outlook and ratings upgrades from Moody’s and S&P services. With a major focus on collaboration, the system has inked major partnerships with a host of organizations, including the Detroit Pistons, General Motors, Syapse, Presbyterian Villages of Michigan and Beckman Coulter.

A seasoned health care executive, Lassiter has nearly 30 years of experience working in large, complex health systems, including Dallas Methodist Health System and JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to joining Henry Ford, Lassiter was CEO of Alameda Health System in Oakland, California, where he was credited with leading the expansion and turnaround of the $865 million public health system, achieving eight years of positive financial performance, The Joint Commission Top Performer status, significant increases in patient engagement and reductions in patient harm. Lassiter’s work has received many national accolades, most notably “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” (2018/2017/2016) by Modern Healthcare; “Top 25 Minority Healthcare Executives in U.S. Healthcare” (2018/2016/2012) by Modern Healthcare; “Crain’s Detroit Top 10 Newsmakers” (2017), “Top Blacks in U.S. Healthcare” (2014) by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions; and “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better” in the U.S” (2011) by HealthLeaders. In 2011, Fast Company prominently featured Lassiter’s work to rebuild Alameda.

Ibram X. Kendi is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He is also the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and The Black Campus Movement, which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize. He is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, How to Be an Antiracist, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a young adult remix of Stamped from the Beginning, co-authored with Jason Reynolds. He most recently authored the #1 Indie bestseller, Antiracist Baby, available as a board book and picture book for caretakers and little ones.

Dr. Joseph Kerschner became the Dean of the School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in November 2011 following 10 months as Interim Dean. Dr. Kerschner assumed the additional role of Provost of the MCW Health Science University in 2017. He also is Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences and Microbiology and Immunology. He has held numerous leadership roles in organized medicine, including currently serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). He previously served as Chair of the AAMC Council of Deans. Dr. Kerschner maintains an active membership on numerous professional and honorary societies, is Past President of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology and Immediate Past President of the International Society for Otitis Media.

Dr. Kerschner has been deeply involved in medical education and mentorship throughout his career and has been a visiting professor and invited lecturer at more than 200 national and international meetings on a variety of topics including leadership development, medical economics and his areas of research expertise. As Dean of MCW’s School of Medicine, Dr. Kerschner has led the development of a completely revamped medical student curriculum (the Discovery Curriculum) which emphasizes early clinical exposure and individualized learning through topical education options called “Pathways”. His leadership of graduate medical education programs at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals helped it to receive recognition as one of the most outstanding Graduate Medical Education Programs in the US by the Association for Graduate Medical Education and Gold Foundation, via the 2016 DeWitt C. Baldwin, Jr. Award.

Dr. Kerschner is committed to the communities that MCW serves and, among other service commitments, has been a volunteer member of the Board of Directors for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Foundation, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Foundation, Children's Hospital and Health System, and Divine Savior Holy Angels High School. Dr. Kerschner’s dedication to service was recognized in 2020 in his receipt of the Jerome C. Goldstein, MD Public Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Jim has 54 years of experience in public education, higher education, corporate training and development, association management and strategic partnerships between government (federal, state and local) and corporations (for profit and non-profit). Following completion of a Ph.D. program at The Ohio State University, Jim held business and education faculty positions in six universities in Colorado, Texas and his home state of Oklahoma.

Jim and his wife, Karen, were the co-founders of Corporate Education Resources, Inc. (CERI), a management consulting group that has provided management services to HOSA-Future Health Professionals since 1984. CERI (formerly known as Leadership Development Institute) was founded in 1976 and conducted scores of summer camps, weekend retreats, workshops and regional conferences for high school and college students to develop their personal, leadership and teaming skills. Jim and Karen have narrowed their activities to delivering management services to two non-profit organizations—HOSA-Future Health Professionals (serving 245,000 members) and JAG-Jobs for America's Graduates (serving 70,000 students). Since 1984, Jim has served as Executive Director of HOSA-Future Health Professionals.

Jim served as the lead designer and facilitator of the Walton Institute and the Advanced Leadership Development Program, funded by Sam and Helen Walton over an 18-year period for Walmart Stores, Inc. In addition, Jim was the designer of the Arkansas Leadership Academy for superintendents and principals through the University of Arkansas. Jim authored numerous articles, monographs, training programs, videos, media productions and training manuals. With the McGraw-Hill Book Company, he was the lead co-author of a unique classroom simulation package called Jeffrey’s Retail Simulation.

He enjoys traveling, photography, playing golf and table tennis, and spending time with their four grandchildren--Quentin, Jake, Violet, and Cole.

David S. Kountz, M.D., MBA, co-chief academic officer, founding associate dean for Diversity and Equity at HMH School of Medicine at Seton Hall University and vice president for Academic Diversity at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, recently received the Verice M. Mason Community Service Leader Award from MD Advantage Insurance Company, a leading provider of medical professional liability insurance.

Dr. Kountz was honored for his commitment to community outreach, his dedication to the promotion of diversity in the health care environment and his passion for educating and inspiring students to pursue careers in the health professions.

Dr. Ku is the Assistant Dean for Health and Design and leads the Medicine+Design initiatives at SKMC. As the Director of the Health Design Lab, he manages a medical device incubator program (JeffSolves), directs the early decision program for Princeton University undergraduates (IDeA) and oversees the Scholarly Inquiry Design track.

Katharine (Kathy) Ku is the chief licensing advisor in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She is also a member of the technology transactions and the patents and innovations practice groups. Kathy is an internationally recognized leader in the field of technology transfer. She served as the Executive Director of Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) for 27 years. During that period, OTL licensed hundreds of new technologies, bringing in $1.8 billion, most of which went back to support research and education at Stanford. Kathy also spearheaded the development and implementation of nine principles related to university technology licensing. The principles are set forth in document entitled "In the Public Interest: Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology." More than 120 institutions have adopted the principles since they were published in 2007.

Jennifer LaFemina, MD, FACS is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Surgical Oncologist who is the Program Director for the General Surgery Residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is the ERAS representative for the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Her educational passions are transitions of phases of learning and innovative incorporation of millennial learning preferences in graduate medical education. Her most recent work, under the APDS, provides guidance on optimal experiences for senior medical students pursing general surgery internship and proposes opportunities to equitably level the playing field and facilitate the UME to GME transition.

Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, has distinguished himself throughout his 40-year career as a phenomenal physician-scientist and a courageous leader in social justice, equity, and fairness.

Through his scholarship and national, regional, and community efforts, Dr. Laurencin has worked to make a difference in the lives of people affected by racial and ethnic health disparities. He co-founded the W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute, which focuses on addressing health disparities. Dr. Laurencin was among the first to publish a peer-reviewed article on COVID-19 and Black Americans and is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, now in its seventh year.

Dr. Laurencin has mentored more than 200 scientists- and physicians-in-training, many from minority groups underrepresented in medicine, and has founded several programs and initiatives to improve diversity in medicine and science. At UConn, those include the Young Innovative Investigator Program for Black and Latino students and the UConn M-1 Mentoring Program, where senior faculty mentor minority students and junior faculty.

“Mentoring has been a way of life for me,” he says. He has received many accolades, including the inaugural Beckman Award for Mentoring, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mentor Award, the Alvin Crawford Mentoring Award, and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring by President Barack Obama in ceremonies at the White House.

Dr. Laurencin is also an outstanding administrator, and previously served as dean of the UConn School of Medicine and vice president of health affairs at UConn. An award-winning practicing orthopaedic surgeon, he has been named to America’s Top Doctors for more than 15 years. Dr. Laurencin is an extraordinary scientist, whose research has yielded more than 500 publications and patents. A University Professor at the University of Connecticut, he is the first person in history to win both the oldest and highest award of the National Academy of Medicine, the Walsh McDermott Medal, and the oldest and highest award of the National Academy of Engineering, the Simon Ramo Founders Award. President Obama presented the 2016 National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dr. Laurencin — America’s highest award for technological achievement.

Gayle Lee, is the Director of Physician Payment Policy and Quality at the Association of American Medical Colleges. Ms. Lee has an expansive background in health care law, regulation, advocacy, and policy. She is responsible for educating and advocating on federal regulations and policies that impact teaching hospitals and physicians. Prior to joining AAMC, Ms. Lee served as Senior Director of Health Finance and Quality at the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) where her key areas of responsibility involved Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA and health care reform regulations impacting rehabilitation. Before APTA, Ms. Lee was the Assistant Counsel and Policy Coordinator at the American Rehabilitation Association where she worked on issues that affected rehabilitation hospitals and units.

Ms. Lee received her law degree at the Washington College of Law at the American University DC and completed her undergraduate work at Pennsylvania State University located in University Park, Pennsylvania.

Across his career of more than forty years, Richard I. Levin, MD has studied the heart as both the instrument of blood flow and the metaphorical source of our humanity. For the past five, he has served as President and CEO of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and has been dedicated to supporting health professionals in training and in practice while advocating for compassionate, collaborative, scientifically excellent care. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Principal for Health Affairs at McGill from 2006 to 2011, Dr. Levin is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at both McGill University in Montreal and at New York University where he was also Vice Dean for Education, Faculty and Academic Affairs. Prior to joining the Gold Foundation, he served a year as Senior Scholar in Residence at the Association for Academic Health Centers in Washington, D.C. Dr. Levin earned a B.S. in Biology with Honors from Yale University and graduated from the NYU School of Medicine where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Levin is a physician, investigator, educational innovator, scientist, inventor and essayist. The author of numerous papers, he has lectured widely in the United States and abroad. His honors include the Valentine Mott Medal, the Ester Hoffman Beller Research Award, election to Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and being the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Wake Forest University. Dr. Levin’s professional interests include endothelial cell biology, the prevention of athero-thrombotic events, the nature of empathy, the reformation of medicine for the support of compassionate, collaborative care and the role of the new information technologies in medical education and practice. He resides in New York with his wife, Jane. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.

Dr. Lovell graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and completed her emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati. She is the Program Director at the Advocate Christ Medical Center (ACMC) emergency medicine residency and a Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Dr. Lovell currently serves as Chair of the Organization of Program Director Societies (OPDA). From 2011 through 2015, she served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD). She has received teaching awards from the Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine residency programs at ACMC, the CORD Impact Award for contributions to the national CORD Academic Assembly, the Associate Program Director of the Year award from the national Emergency Medicine Residents? Association, and the Ally Award from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine. Her professional interests include Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, and Resident Wellbeing.

Beth Macy is the author of the critically acclaimed and New York Times-bestselling books, Factory Man and Truevine. Her third nonfiction narrative is Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America (2018).

Growing out of three decades of reporting from the same Virginia communities, as her prior books did, Dopesick unpacks the most intractable social problems of our time: the opioid crisis, set against a landscape of job loss, corporate greed and stigma, along with the families and first responders who are heroically fighting back. Overdose deaths are now the equivalent of a jetliner crashing in our country every day, and yet the government response to the epidemic remains, in a word, impotent.

Dopesick is, in many ways, the sequel to Macy's first book, FACTORY MAN . It lays out exactly how the jobless “other America” ended up couch-surfing with the likes of surgeon’s daughters and civic leaders’ kids who fall prey to prostitution, jail, and even death. Tom Hanks describes Dopesick as “a deep — and deeply needed — look into the troubled soul of America.” Stanford addiction medicine specialist and author Dr. Anna Lembke calls it the first book to capture the entirety of the epidemic, “with a fast-paced narrative, colorful and inspiring characters, vivid historical detail, and a profound sense of place.”

A longtime reporter who specializes in outsiders and underdogs, Macy has won more than a dozen national journalism awards, including a Lukas Prize for Factory Man, multiple shortlist and best-book-of-the-year honors for Truevine, and a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard for her newspaper writing.

A frequent speaker, teacher and essayist, Macy has been published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Oprah magazine , and Parade . Her approach to storytelling: Report from the ground up, establish trust, be patient, find stories that tap into universal truths. Get out of your ZIP code. To do good journalism, be a human first.

Dr. Rosha McCoy is the AAMC Senior Director, Advancing Clinical Leadership and Quality/Health Care Affairs and works with her team to advance quality improvement and patient safety and professional development for clinical leaders at academic health centers.

Before joining the AAMC, Dr. McCoy was the Chief Medical Officer for 13 years at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Florida. Her primary role was to oversee quality and safety for the children’s hospital and she developed programs in Hospitalist medicine, mental health, palliative care, chronic complex care, medical ethics, and quality improvement. Dr. McCoy was also the Pediatric Associate Clerkship Director and Associate Professor of Clinical Biomedical Science at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.

Prior to her CMO role, she was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, the Vice-Chair for Education, the Residency Program Director, and the Interim Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical University of Ohio (University of Toledo College of Medicine).

She is a graduate of the University Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. McCoy has been married for over 35 years, has three adult children and a granddaughter.

Lilly Marks serves as Vice President for Health Affairs for the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which includes the university’s Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health, College of Nursing and Graduate School and the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado. Prior to her health campus leadership role, Ms. Marks spent two decades as both Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration at the School of Medicine and as Executive Director of University of Colorado Medicine, the 501(c)(3) faculty practice plan.

She serves on the Board of Directors of The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the Association of Academic Health Centers (past chair), the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, and the Rose Community Foundation. Ms. Marks has served as Chair, Board of Directors of the University of Colorado Hospital and as a member of the UCHealth System and Children’s Hospital Colorado Board of Directors, as well as, served on the Advisory Board for Clinical Research of the National Institutes of Health. In 2012, Ms. Marks received the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business Award. She has been recognized by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado. The April, 2014 5280 Magazine recognized Ms. Marks as one of 50 Most Powerful People in Denver. Ms. Marks is a frequent national speaker regarding medical school economics, health care and clinical practice management and leadership issues in academic medicine.

Ms. Marks is the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Dr. McDade comes to the ACGME from Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, where he was executive vice president and chief academic officer. Prior to his appointment at Ochsner, Dr. McDade was a professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago, where he completed terms as deputy provost for research and minority issues and as associate dean for multicultural affairs at the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Dr. McDade has served on the ACGME Board, as a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and as a member of the US Department of Education’s National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation. He is a member of the AMA Board of Directors, and the AMA Board representative to the Coalition for Physician Accountability.

He is past president and past chair of the boards of trustees of both the Illinois State Medical Society and the Chicago Medical Society. A recipient of the 2012 Chicago Medical Society Physician of the Year Award, Dr. McDade was named a senior scholar at the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2013, and, in 2016, was recognized by the University of Chicago Alumni Association for Distinguished Service.
Dr. McDade received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from DePaul University, his PhD in biophysics and theoretical biology from the University of Chicago, and his medical degree from Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and residency training in anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School. A member of Alpha Omega Alpha and recipient of the National Medical Association’s James Whittico Award, Dr. McDade has made clinical anesthesiology and the treatment of sickle cell disease the focus of his clinical care and research.

Leon McDougle is professor of Family Medicine with tenure and the first chief diversity officer for the Wexner Medical Center. He directs several workforce diversity programs including the MEDPATH Postbaccalaureate Program. A graduate of the University of Toledo and the Ohio State College of Medicine, he completed a family medicine residency at the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, California, and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Health Management and Policy. Dr. McDougle has been a family physician on the Near Eastside of Columbus since 2001, and believes that lifestyle must be a focus of both the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. His research is focused diversity and inclusion and eliminating health disparities.

Dr. McDougle is serving as president of the National Medical Association (NMA) for a one-year term (2020–2021), which makes him an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee.

Dr. McDougle is a past chair for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Diversity and Inclusion, and provides service for the AAMC as faculty for the Healthcare Executive Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program and Minority Faculty Leadership Seminar. The NMA appointed him to serve on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Coronavirus Advisory Panel in July 2020. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

Ross McKinney Jr., MD leads an array of AAMC programs that support all aspects of medical research and training. He also represents the AAMC nationally on issues related to research and science policy, administration, workforce development, and education and training.

Dr. McKinney joined the AAMC in 2016 after serving more than 30 years as a member of the Duke University faculty. During his time at Duke, he was director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, vice dean for research at Duke University School of Medicine, and director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine. Among his career highlights, Dr. McKinney was first author of the key Phase I and II studies on Zidovudine (AZT) use in children, and he conducted research on the natural history, prevention, and treatment of pediatric HIV disease.

Dr. McKinney received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 1975. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed his internship and residency in Pediatrics, and fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Hilit Mechaber is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Sr. Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM). She graduated from the UM BS/MD Honors Program in Medicine, and completed her residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at the George Washington University. Her professional niche is in the area of medical student career development and work-life integration. In her current decanal role, she creates and oversees programs and resources available for all areas of medical student support and career guidance. She is a national leader in student affairs with a passion and commitment to medical student well-being. Dr. Mechaber's involvement nationally is diverse related to medical student development and support, as she currently Chairs the GSA Committee on Student Affairs (COSA) and previously served as the Southern Region's Chairperson. She is a member of ERAS National Advisory Board, and a member of the MSPE Working Group. She has also worked to support women in medicine locally and collaboratively with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as her medical school?s advisor of AMWA, and also served as the UMMSM faculty institutional representative to the AAMC GWIMS for 8 years.

Dr. Mechaber values her roles as the proud mother of two daughters, wife of a fellow physician educator, physician, educator, and administrator. For fun, she loves karaoke and salsa, watching UM Hurricane football and all things Broadway!

Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, is an associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Much of Dr. Mehrotra’s research is focused on delivery innovations such as retail clinics, e-visits, and telemedicine, including their impact on quality, costs, and access to health care. He is also interested in the role of consumerism and whether price transparency and public reporting of quality can impact patient decision making. Related work has focused on the impact of new payment models and quality measurement, including how natural language processing can be used to analyze the data in electronic health records.

Since 2012, Dr. Mejicano has served as the Senior Associate Dean for Education at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He and his teams are responsible for the entire educational portfolio in the School of Medicine, including the PA program, the MD program, 85 ACGME-accredited GME programs, CME/CPD/MOC, 32 graduate programs, anatomical procurement, simulation and faculty development. He has directed multiple courses and served as an Associate Residency Program Director and Associate Dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Mejicano has a master’s degree in adult education and his educational interests include competency-based, time-variable education and outcomes assessment. He led the OHSU team that worked on the AAMC’s Core EPAs for Entering Residency Pilot and is the PI of the joint proposal from OHSU and UC Davis that was awarded $1.8 million as part of the AMA’s Reimagining Residency strategic initiative. He also was the PI for OHSU’s $1 million grant from the AMA for the original Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative. He is a voting member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and has served on the Board of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

Dr. Alicia Monroe, an academic leader, educator, and physician, has served as provost and senior vice president for academic and faculty affairs and professor of family medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, since 2014. She provides oversight and support to the College’s four schools - the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Health Professions, and the National School of Tropical Medicine. She also oversees faculty development, faculty affairs, the Center for Professionalism, Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, and the Center for Educational Outreach (K-12 Programs). Dr. Monroe previously served as the chief academic officer and vice dean of educational affairs at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and a professor of family medicine. She is certified by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University in 1973 and an MD from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1977. Dr. Monroe currently serves on the board of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and she chairs the AAMC Advisory Committee on Advancing Holistic Review in recruitment, admissions, and student affairs. Her honors include the Diversity Leadership Award from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2013 and the Elise M. Coletta Leadership Award from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2011.

Dr. Montgomery Rice is the sixth president of Morehouse School of Medicine and the first woman to lead the free-standing medical institution. In addition to president, she also retains the deanship. A renowned infertility specialist and researcher, she is the founder and former director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color. Her dedication to leading the creation and advancement of health equity is manifested in every aspect of her work, which has led to membership in numerous organizations and boards and countless awards, such as membership in the National Academies of Science and the Horatio Alger Association. Dr. Montgomery Rice holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University School of Medicine and her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, Mich. She holds an honorary degree from both the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Rush University.

As Senior Vice President & Chief Community Health Officer, Mikelle leads Intermountain Healthcare's community and population health efforts. In this role, she engages Intermountain and community assets to address complex community health issues and to improve underlying social determinants of health.

Mikelle joined Intermountain as the Administrative Fellow in 1998, later moving on to serve as Assistant Administrator and Operations Officer. In 2004 she became the first female Administrator of LDS Hospital, the original flagship hospital in the healthcare system.

Mikelle is active both nationally and locally in transforming healthcare and improving the health and well-being of communities. She serves on the Steering Committee of National Alliance to impact Social Determinants of Health and the Population and Community Health Advisory Board for the American Hospital Association. She is also active in many local community initiatives, serving as chair of the United Way of Salt Lake as well as a member of several other not-for-profit boards.

Mikelle earned her master's degrees in business administration and health services administration from Arizona State University, along with a bachelor's degree in physiology from the University of Arizona. She and her husband Kevin have four children.

Charles P. Mouton, MD, MS, MBA is Executive Vice President, Provost, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Professor of Family Medicine at University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine in Galveston, TX. He formerly served as Senior Vice President for Health Affairs, Dean of the School of Medicine and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. Dr. Mouton received his M.D. degree from Howard University College of Medicine, his Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and his Master of Business Administration degree from Tennessee Technological University. He completed his Family Medicine residency at Prince George’s Hospital Center, Cheverly, MD and his fellowship in Geriatrics at The George Washington Medical Center. Dr. Mouton is board certified in Family Medicine and Geriatrics.

Dr. Mouton was a co-investigator for the All-of-Us Initiative, the Prostate Cancer Literacy Project, and the Women’s Health Initiative. He developed a practice-based research in primary care practices serving urban minorities. He served on the LCME, National Vaccine Advisory Council, the National Institute of Aging Advisory Council, and currently serves on the National Institutes of Health Council of Council. He has led studies on late life domestic violence, elder abuse, exercise to promote health in minority elders, and end-of-life care for older minorities.

Mary is a former critical care Registered Nurse with more than 15 years’ experience working on an array of health care policy issues and is expert at analyzing complex health care proposals to develop strategic policy positions. She has experience working at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Mary holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland, a B.S. in nursing from the Johns Hopkins University, and an M.P.H. in health policy from the George Washington University.

Dr. Noel is the Telehealth Director and Deputy Chief Medical Information Officer of Stony Brook Medicine and provides leadership on telehealth strategy, policy, implementation and digital transformation efforts. Dr. Noel is also the Chief Quality Officer of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) for the Family Medicine Department, working on quality improvement and population health management, for NCQA designation. She is an advisor to regional, state and national initiatives. She was a telehealth advisor to the New York State Department of Health Regulatory Modernization Initiative. She has won many service and innovation awards for healthcare. As faculty in the Department of Biomedical Informatics her research areas include machine learning, predictive analytics and remote patient monitoring. Dr. Noel has developed several telehealth educational curriculums for the School of Medicine and co-founded the Interprofessional Telehealth Board for education and research initiatives. She has co-founded the Telehealth Preventive Medicine service, a residency training program for telehealth. Her long term professional goal is to incorporate data analytics and population health management using telehealth for underserved populations.

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from December 15, 2014 to April 21, 2017.

As America’s Doctor, Dr. Murthy created initiatives to tackle our country’s most urgent public health issues. He chose areas of focus that were raised by people across America during his inaugural listening tour.

In 2017, Dr. Murthy focused his attention on chronic stress and isolation as prevalent problems that have profound implications for health, productivity, and happiness. Partnering with the Veterans Health Administration, he led a convening that brought together leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners to identify scientifically proven ways we can cultivate emotional well-being and fitness to help us thrive among the most challenging circumstances.

In addition to his role as America’s Doctor, as the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy commanded a uniformed service of 6,600 public health officers, serving the most underserved and vulnerable populations in over 800 locations domestically and abroad. He worked with thousands of Commissioned Corps officers to strengthen the Corps and protect the nation from Ebola and Zika and to respond to the Flint water crisis, major hurricanes, and frequent health care shortages in rural communities.

LaShyra "Lash" Nolen is a Los Angeles native deeply passionate about the concerns of underserved and marginalized communities. She graduated with honors from Loyola Marymount University in 2017 with a B.S. in Health and Human Sciences. Following her graduation Lash traveled to Spain as a Fulbright Scholar where she educated Spanish youth about social justice and health equity in addition to her research on the perception of obesity and diabetes in La Coruna, Spain. After her year in Spain, she completed a year of service as an AmeriCorps health coach at Heartland Health Center in Chicago.

Currently, she is a second-year student at Harvard Medical School where she is serving as the university's student council president for the Class of 2023, the first documented black woman to hold this leadership position. As a leader Lash has led numerous advocacy initiatives at HMS and beyond, including a nationwide campaign to secure funding for the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) in 2019. She is a published author and fervent advocate for social justice whose commentary has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Boston Globe, HuffPost, AAMC, NPR Boston, and Teen Vogue. Her worked earned her the honor of becoming the 2020 National Minority Quality Forum's Youngest "40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health" and named a "2020 Young Futurist" by The Root Magazine.

Theresa O'Brien, PhD, was appointed Associate Chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in September 2014, having served as Interim Assistant Chancellor for the University and Associate Dean for Research Strategy in the School of Medicine. She serves as an advisor to and designate of the Chancellor, leading key initiatives in support of UCSF’s operational and strategic priorities. O’Brien is accountable for a wide range of Chancellor Office activities related to UCSF governance structure, strategic planning, the Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet (CEC), and emergent priority issues on a day-to-day basis. In all aspects of her work, she partners closely with fellow CEC members and internal and external stakeholders to further UCSF’s mission.

O’Brien is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. Her research and teaching interests primarily focus on career and professional development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at UCSF. She directs the Graduate Student Internships for Career Exploration (GSICE) program, which provides career path education, career planning, and internship opportunities for UCSF’s basic and biomedical PhD students in fields outside of academic research. O’Brien is co-PI on a grant from the NIH to provide better resources for PhD students and postdocs to explore career options and better support faculty mentors through the Motivating INformed Decisions (MIND) program. Her other interests are around advancing precision medicine and related science policy issues.

Theresa is a graduate of UCSF's Tetrad Graduate Program and completed her doctoral work in biochemistry under the guidance of Jim McKerrow, MD, PhD. After graduation, she worked as an Industry Contracts Officer at UCSF, negotiating industry-sponsored research agreements.

A Northern California native, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Biology from Williams College in Williamstown, MA.

As chief health care officer, Janis M. Orlowski, MD, MACP, focuses on the interface between the health care delivery system and academic medicine, especially how academic medical centers can leverage their expertise in research and innovation to support emerging reforms. She leads several AAMC groups, including the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH), which represents the interests of approximately 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 64 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

Dr. Orlowski joined the AAMC after serving as the chief operating officer and chief medical officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, in Washington, D.C. From 2004-2013, Dr. Orlowski oversaw the medical staff, clinical care, quality, patient safety, medical risk, perioperative services, ambulatory care, and medical education programs.

Prior to MedStar Washington, she served as associate vice president and executive dean of the Rush University Medical School in Chicago. Dr. Orlowski earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Marquette University and her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Ann-Gel S. Palermo is the Chief Program Officer of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) of the Mount Sinai Health System and the Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in Biomedical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Palermo has developed a career portfolio that reflects the intersection among diversity affairs, medical education, and community-based public health practice and research. Dr. Palermo’s work aims to foster a holistic and equitable medical education experience and developing and delivering an innovative portfolio of programming and initiatives to promote a diverse and inclusive learning and work environment in the School of Medicine and in the health system. Dr. Palermo holds a faculty appointment as Associate Professor in Medical Education and Pediatrics. Dr. Palermo earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Doctorate of Public Health at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

Dereck Paul is a writer, health disparities researcher, and fourth-year medical student at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He studies the relationships between housing and health under his mentors at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and was a 2018 Student National Medical Association David E. Satcher MD, PhD Health Disparities Research Fellow for his work mapping the role of structural racism in susceptibility to homelessness. He writes and speaks about health equity, healthcare policy, medical education, and the underrepresented medical trainee experience.

Brenda Pereda, MD, MS is a board-certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist, an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion for the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine. Dr. Pereda completed medical school at Michigan State University, OBGYN residency training at Wayne State University and a fellowship in Family Planning at UNM in 2013. Dr. Pereda uses cognitive diversity and cultural humility as the basis of her work. Her clinical and academic interests include systems transformation by developing upstream medicine proficiencies using Racial Literacy- pathways to health equity

Heather Pierce is Senior Director for Science Policy and Regulatory Counsel at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). She serves as AAMC's leader for scientific regulatory issues including human subject protections, clinical research, conflicts of interest, research data sharing, evidence-based regulation, diagnostic test development, and collaborations between industry, government, and academia in biomedical research. She is the subject matter expert for the AAMC's Forum on Conflict of Interest in Academe and for Convey, the AAMC's global financial interest disclosure system.

Ms. Pierce currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) and is the past Chair of the Board of Directors of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), where she has been a regular contributor to in-person programs and webinars for over a decade. She regularly speaks at national forums on issues related to the protection of human subjects, regulatory burden, research security, research ethics, biospecimens, scientific misconduct, and legislation and policymaking related to research, and has published articles and commentaries on these topics in Nature, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The American Journal of Bioethics. She has served on committees, working groups and task forces of organizations including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Dialogue on Healthcare Innovation.

Prior to joining AAMC, Ms. Pierce was an attorney in the Health Care Group of the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP in New York. Her regulatory practice focused on medical research and clinical care. She received her law degree from NYU School of Law and her MPH in Health Law from Boston University.

Dr. Susan M. Pollart, Ruth E. Murdaugh Professor of Family Medicine, serves as Senior Associate Dean (SAD) of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development at the University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA SOM). She is involved in all aspects of faculty life from recruitment to retirement with a primary focus on the professional development and active engagement of faculty, particularly those faculty traditionally underrepresented in medicine. She has initiated programs for new faculty orientation and enculturation, worked on the expansion and implementation of campus-wide award-winning leadership development program, and, from 2008-2010, focused on the development and execution of a comprehensive program for teacher development at a time of curricular and pedagogical change in the School of Medicine. From 2017-2018, Dr. Pollart served as interim chair of family medicine while leading a nation-wide search for a new chair.

Dr. Pollart is active in the AAMC GFA, serving on the Steering Committee from 2013-2016; the AAMC GDI, participating as faculty for the Health Care Executive Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program; has taught for over a decade in the AAMC GWIMS Early Career Women Leadership Seminar, and serves as faculty for the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.

Dr. Pollart’s current scholarly focus is on faculty engagement and satisfaction.

Norma Iris Poll-Hunter, Ph.D. serves as Senior Director of Human Capital Initiatives in Diversity Policy and Programs at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). She leads a portfolio of career development initiatives focused on advancing equity, diversity and inclusion across the medical education continuum. She also serves as the Principal Investigator for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Summer Health Professions Education Program, leads numerous partnerships and collaborations with national organizations; an awards program recognizing national leadership in diversity and health equity; and research projects focused in the areas of diversity, workforce development, and culturally responsive education and training. She was the lead author of Altering the Course: Black Males in Medicine, and project lead and major contributor to Reshaping the Journey: American Indians and Alaska Natives in Medicine.

Prior to the AAMC, Dr. Poll-Hunter practiced as a bilingual psychologist in Schenectady, New York. She attended the University of Albany, SUNY, where she earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology, and she earned her BA in Psychology at Lehman College, CUNY. Dr. Poll-Hunter is a proud Bronx native of Puerto Rican heritage.

Carrie spent the last 18 years implementing transformative strategies for leading healthcare, technology and not-for-profit organizations. In her current role she is accountable for the transformation & management of patient access across UW Medicine. She graduated from the University of Washington.

Timothy E. Quill, M.D. is the Georgia and Thomas Gosnell Distinguished Professor of Palliative Care, and Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, Medical Humanities and Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Medicine (URMC). He was the Founding Director of the URMC Palliative Care Program and is the Acting Director of the URMC Paul M. Schyve Center for Bioethics. He is also a board-certified palliative care consultant in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Quill has published and lectured widely about various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship, with special focus on end-of-life decision making, including delivering bad news, nonabandonment, discussing palliative care earlier, and exploring last-resort options. He is the author of several books on end-of life, including Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), Caring for Patients at the End of Life: Facing an Uncertain Future Together (Oxford University Press, 2001), and A Midwife Through the Dying Process: Stories of Healing and Hard Choices at the End of Life (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), and numerous articles published in major medical journals including "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making" published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Quill was the lead physician plaintiff in the New York State legal case challenging the law prohibiting physician-assisted death that was heard in 1997 by the U.S. Supreme Court (Quill v. Vacco ).

Dr. Quill received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College (1971), and his M.D. from the University of Rochester (1976). He completed his Internal Medicine residency in 1979 and a Fellowship in Medicine/Psychiatry Liaison in 1981, both from the URMC. Dr. Quill is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, an ABMS certified Palliative Care consultant, a past board member and past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and a founding board member of American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.

Diane Rehm is a native Washingtonian who began her radio career in 1973 as a volunteer for WAMU 88.5, the NPR member station in Washington, D.C. In 1979, she began hosting WAMU’s local morning talk show, Kaleidoscope, which was renamed The Diane Rehm Show in 1984. The Diane Rehm Show grew from a local program to one with international reach and a weekly on-air audience of more than 2.8 million.

Diane now brings her unique mix of curiosity, honesty, intimacy and nearly 40 years as host of WAMU and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to the podcast world.

In 2014, President Barack Obama presented Rehm with the National Humanities Medal. “In probing interviews with everyone from pundits to poets to Presidents, Ms. Rehm’s keen insights and boundless curiosity have deepened our understanding of our culture and ourselves,” the White House said.

In 2010, Diane Rehm won a Personal Peabody Award, considered among the most prestigious and selective prizes in electronic media, for her more than 30 years in public broadcasting. Rehm has been also named “Washingtonian of the Year,” and one of the “150 Most Influential People in Washington” by Washingtonian magazine. She’s been included several times on the magazine’s list of the “100 Most Powerful Women,” most recently in 2013. The daughter of Arab immigrants who settled in Washington in the early 20th century, Rehm was selected as Arab American of the Year by ACCESS in 2013 in celebration of her rich heritage.

Rehm is the author of four best-selling autobiographical books: Finding My Voice (Knopf, 1999), in which she describes her childhood, marriage, career and voice disorder; Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage (Knopf, 2002), a deeply personal book co-authored with her husband, John; Life with Maxie (Gibbs Smith, 2010), a lighthearted story about her dog; and her most recent book, On My Own (Knopf, 2016), a moving story about the death of her husband of over 54 years and her struggle to reconstruct her life without him.

Travis N. Rieder, Ph.D., wants to help find a solution to America’s opioid crisis—and if that sounds a bit too lofty, he’d settle for making clear, incremental progress in a responsible, evidence-based way. A philosopher by training, bioethicist by profession, and communicator by passion, Travis writes and speaks on a variety of ethical and policy issues raised by both prescription and illicit opioid use.

This wasn’t always his beat, though. Both in his doctoral training at Georgetown University, and as faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, Travis published widely on a variety of topics in philosophy and ethics. His interest in opioids came about suddenly, after a motorcycle accident, when he took too many pills for too long and suddenly found himself with a profound dependency. In the wake of that experience, he became driven to discover why medicine is so bad at dealing with prescription opioids, and how that problem is related to the broader drug overdose epidemic.

Travis’s first article on the topic, in the journal Health Affairs, was one of the most-read essays in 2017 and was excerpted by the Washington Post. Since then, Travis has co-authored a Special Publication of the National Academy of Medicine on physician responsibility for the opioid epidemic, written several essays for the popular media, and spoken widely on the topic to physicians, medical students, and the general public.

Rafael Rivera, MD, MBA, is the Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at NYU School of Medicine and an Assistant Professor of Radiology. Dr. Rivera received his BS from Cornell University, MD from Cornell University Medical College, and his MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. He completed both his residency training in Diagnostic Radiology and subsequent fellowship training in Pediatric Radiology at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Rivera has been an active member of the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR), having founded the national Junior Society for Pediatric Radiology when he was a junior attending, chaired several committees, and most recently served on the Board of the Directors for the SPR and board examiner for the national radiology oral board exam. His clinical interests focus on pediatric body MRI, in particular the MR imaging of peripheral vascular anomalies. He now focuses most of his efforts on the operations, marketing and strategy of the admissions and financial aid office.

Janice Sabin holds a MSW Health/Mental Health (UW) and in PhD Social Welfare (UW). Dr. Sabin is one of the earliest investigators in the nation to apply the science of implicit bias to health care disparities research. Dr. Sabin research interest are the science of implicit bias; pediatricians’ racial bias/discrimination in treatment decisions, provider race and weight bias; stereotypes toward people with mental illnesses; lesbian women and gay men; design/evaluate health disparities education for faculty, graduate medical and nursing trainees.

Anne Schuchat, MD, is the Principal Deputy Director of CDC. She has been CDC’s principal deputy director since September 2015. She served as acting CDC director from January-July 2017 and February-March 2018.

Dr. Schuchat also served as director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases from 2006-2015 and Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch from 1998-2005. She joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in 1988.

Dr. Schuchat played key roles in CDC emergency responses including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza response, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Beijing, and the 2001 bioterrorist anthrax response. Globally, she has worked on meningitis, pneumonia and Ebola vaccine trials in West Africa, and conducted surveillance and prevention projects in South Africa.

Dr. Schuchat graduated from Swarthmore College and Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and completed her residency and chief residency in internal medicine at NYU’s Manhattan VA Hospital. Upon completing 30 years of service in 2018, Dr. Schuchat retired from the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service at the rank of Rear Admiral.

Brigid Schulte is the author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time, which named one of the notable books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, and won the Virginia Library Association’s literary nonfiction award.

She has spoken all over the world about time, productivity, the causes and consequences of our unsustainable, always-on culture, and how to make time for Work, Love and Play – The Good Life – by rethinking how we work so that it’s effective, sustainable and fair, by re-imagining gender roles for a fairer division of labor and opportunity at work and home, by rewiring social policy, and instead of seeking status in busyness, by recapturing the value of leisure. She was an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine and part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She now serves as the founding director of The Good Life Initiative at the nonpartisan think tank, New America, and director of The Better Life Lab, both of which seek to elevate the conversation, explore transformative solutions and highlight how work-life and gender equity issues are key to excellence, productivity and innovation, as well as a full, authentic and meaningful life for everyone. She has been quoted in numerous media outlets and has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, BBC World News, and NPR’s Fresh Air, Morning Edition and On Point. In addition to the Post, her work has appeared in, among other places, the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, The Guardian, Slate, Time, CNN, The Toronto Globe & Mail and Quartz. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Tom Bowman, a reporter for National Public Radio, and their two children. She grew up in Portland, Oregon and spent her summers with family in Wyoming, where she did not feel overwhelmed.

Anand Shah, MD, MS is the Vice President of Social Health at Kaiser Permanente. He is responsible for developing and implementing Kaiser Permanente’s national social health strategy. Anand was most recently the Chief Product and Clinical Officer at Pieces Technologies where he helped develop a new platform to predict clinical and social risk and connect health systems and community organizations together to address social determinants of health. He is trained as an emergency physician with prior academic appointments at the University of Texas Southwestern, University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University.

Dr. Meharvan Singh is the Vice Dean of Research for the Stritch School of Medicine and a professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology. His research focuses on the effects of hormones on the brain, particularly in the contexts of aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

Prior to joining Loyola University Chicago, Dr. Singh held many roles at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, including: Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and most recently as Director for the Institute for Healthy Aging, a multidisciplinary, research- and education-focused institute where faculty conduct basic biomedical and translational research, and clinical studies into the early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of age-related conditions.

Dr. Singh has devoted his career to the study of how hormones, like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone affect the brain, particularly within the context of “normal” brain aging and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His research addresses the potential role of these hormones and their associated signaling pathways in the observed sex differences in the prevalence and risk for age-associated diseases.

His research, published in multiple journals, has helped shape today’s understanding of how hormones affect the brain. Dr. Singh’s research and teaching have been recognized with several awards, including four from the University of North Texas: Outstanding Faculty Member Award (2006 and 2018); the President’s Research Educator Award (2012), and the Edward E. Elko Award for Distinguished Service to the Graduate Student Association in 2017. Additionally, he received the Fort Worth Business Press Health Care Hero Award (2013).

Dr. Singh served as Principal Director/PI of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded program project grant (P01) and institutional training grant (T32) in the Neurobiology of Aging. An active participant in the manuscript and grant review process, Dr. Singh is chair of an NIH study section (Aging Systems and Geriatrics), and an ad hoc reviewer (or member) of the editorial boards for several prominent journals in his field.

David J. Skorton, MD, is president and CEO of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), a not-for-profit institution that represents the nation’s medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies.Dr. Skorton began his leadership of the AAMC in July 2019 after a distinguished career in government, higher education, and medicine.

Most recently, Dr. Skorton served as the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, where he oversaw 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and education programs. Prior to that, he served as president of two universities: Cornell University (2006 to 2015) and the University of Iowa (2003 to 2006), where he also served on the faculty for 26 years and specialized in the treatment of adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease. A pioneer of cardiac imaging and computer processing techniques, he was co-director and co-founder of the University of Iowa Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic.

A distinguished professor at Georgetown University, Dr. Skorton is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also served on the AAMC Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013, and was the charter president of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc., the first group organized specifically to accredit human research protection programs.

Throughout his career, Dr. Skorton has focused on issues of diversity and inclusion. A nationally recognized supporter of the arts and humanities, as well as an accomplished jazz musician and composer, Dr. Skorton believes that many of society’s thorniest problems can only be solved by combining the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities.

Dr. Skorton earned his BA from Northwestern University and MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed his medical residency and fellowship in cardiology and was chief medical resident at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Tia Taylor Williams is a champion for health, equity and justice with 18 years of experience in public health. She currently serves as the Director for the Center for School, Health and Education and the Center for Public Health Policy at the American Public Health Association. In this role, Tia provides strategic oversight to a diverse portfolio of projects addressing social factors that influence health, including environment, education, and access to health care.

Since joining APHA in 2008, Tia has provided leadership in building the organization’s capacity to focus more upstream on the root causes of health inequities and advance health and racial equity.

Tia’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and Master’s degrees in Public Health and Nutrition and Integrative Health.

Tia is a DC Native, nature lover and mother of a highly-energetic four-year old son.

Chief Legal Officer Frank R. Trinity, JD, provides guidance and counsel to the AAMC Leadership Team, Board of Directors, and staff in support of association activities and long-term strategy. He manages the association’s legal function, oversees its intellectual property portfolio, and coordinates its litigation and enterprise risk-management activities. Mr. Trinity also serves as the association’s Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Ethics Officer.

Before joining the association in 2010, Mr. Trinity was general counsel for the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he received the Harris Wofford Award for Outstanding Public Service. Prior to that position, he was a senior staff attorney for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, as well as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Mr. Trinity received his law degree from Yale Law School and is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University.

Reed V. Tuckson, MD, FACP, is Managing Director of Tuckson Health Connections, LLC, a vehicle to advance initiatives that support optimal health and wellbeing through the intersection of individual and community health promotion and disease prevention; applied data and analytics; enhanced quality and efficiency in care delivery; and the application of telehealth and biotech innovations.

Previously, he enjoyed a long tenure as Executive Vice President and Chief of Medical Affairs for UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune 20 Health and wellbeing company.

A recognized leader in his field, Dr. Tuckson is honored to have served as the Commissioner of Public Health for the District of Columbia and President of the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. Additionally, he has been appointed to leadership roles at the National Institutes of Health; National Academy of Medicine; numerous Federal Advisory Committees; and corporate, non-profit and academic boards. He has been recognized several times by Modern Healthcare Magazine's listing of the “50 Most Powerful Physician Executives” in healthcare, by Ebony magazine as one of the 100 most powerful executives in corporate America, and as a “Washingtonian of the Year” by the Washingtonian magazine.

He is a graduate of Howard University, Georgetown University School of Medicine, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's General Internal Medicine Residency and Fellowship Programs, where he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar studying at the Wharton School of Business.

Dr. Jan T. Vilcek, research professor at New York University School of Medicine, was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), where he also received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. In 1964 he and his wife, Marica Vilcek, an art historian, defected from what was then communist Czechoslovakia. Upon immigrating to the United States in 1965, Dr. Vilcek joined the faculty of NYU School of Medicine.

Dr. Vilcek has devoted his scientific career to the study of cytokines—hormone-like proteins produced in the body that control the immune system and host defenses. He was among the first scientists to investigate interferon, an important immune system protein. Dr. Vilcek has published more than 350 papers in scholarly journals, and he holds 46 U.S. patents. His honors include the Albert Gallatin Medal from NYU, and honorary degrees from Comenius University in Bratislava, the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and NYU. He received the J. E. Purkyně Honorary Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Outstanding American by Choice Award from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In 2013, President Barack Obama named Dr. Vilcek a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
In 2000 Dr. Vilcek and his wife established the Vilcek Foundation, whose mission is to raise awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and foster appreciation of the arts and sciences.

Robert M. Wachter, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Wachter is author of 250 articles and 6 books. He coined the term "hospitalist" in 1996 and is often considered the "father" of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. He is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 2004, he received the John M. Eisenberg Award, the nation's top honor in patient safety. Thirteen times, Modern Healthcare magazine has ranked him as one of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S.; he was #1 on the list in 2015. His 2015 book, The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age, was a New York Times science bestseller. In 2020, his frequent tweets on Covid-19 were viewed more than 60 million times by over 110,000 followers and served as a trusted source of information on the clinical, public health, and policy issues surrounding the pandemic.

Kate Walsh is president and CEO of the Boston Medical Center (BMC) health system, with an annual operating revenue of $4.9 billion. BMC is a private, not-for-profit, 514 bed, academic medical center with a community-based focus. The primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center has nearly 6000 employees and 755 physicians who are affiliated with Boston University Medical Group. BMC health system also includes the BMC HealthNet Plan, a Medicaid Managed Care Organization with nearly 400,000 members in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and Boston HealthNet, a network affiliation of 14 community health centers throughout Boston.

Ms. Walsh received her bachelor of arts degree and a master’s degree in public health from Yale University. She is a member of the Boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Pine Street Inn, and Yale University.

As Chief Medical Education Officer, Alison J. Whelan, MD, leads AAMC initiatives to transform the current models of education and workforce preparation across the full continuum of medical education. She also directs AAMC efforts that support medical education officers, regional campuses, education researchers, students, and residents. Prior to joining the association in 2016, Dr. Whelan had been a member of the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine since 1994. In 1997, she was appointed associate dean for medical student education and in 2009 was appointed senior associate dean for education. During her tenure, Dr. Whelan coordinated the creation of the Practice of Medicine curriculum and led the planning for the school’s new education building and the creation of the Center for Interprofessional Education. Dr. Whelan received her bachelor’s degree from Carleton College in 1981. She earned her medical degree from Washington University in 1986 and completed her postgraduate work and residency at the former Barnes Hospital, now Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Dr. Whelan is board certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics.

As a leader in medical education, David S. Wilkes, M.D., has served as researcher, teacher, administrator, mentor and executive. He joined the University of Virginia School of Medicine as dean in 2015 and also holds appointments as professor of medical science and professor of internal medicine. He has secondary appointments in the University’s microbiology, immunology and cancer biology department, as well as the Beirne Carter Center for Immunology.

A specialist in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, Dr. Wilkes obtained an undergraduate degree from Villanova University before receiving a medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in 1982. He completed an internship and residency at Temple University Hospital and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Before arriving at University of Virginia, Dr. Wilkes was executive associate dean for research affairs at Indiana University School of Medicine and assistant vice president for research at Indiana University. He was also director of the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Physician Scientist Initiative. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the Villanova University Board of Trustees.

Dr. Wilkes has co-authored more than 100 research papers and holds six U.S. patents. He is founder and chief scientific officer of ImmuneWorks, Inc., a biotech company which develops novel treatments for immune-mediated lung disease. Dr. Wilkes was the recipient of Indiana University’s President Medal, the highest distinction given to a faculty member for recognition of accomplishments and service to the university. He is national director of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has served on several advisory boards and committees of the National Institute of Health. A military veteran, Dr. Wilkes served three years as a major in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps where he earned a commendation medal for service.