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Special Guest
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Dr. Dave A. Chokshi is the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Chokshi most recently served as Chief Population Health Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, where he built and grew an award-winning team dedicated to health system improvement, spanning innovative care models and analytics, primary care transformation, social determinants of health, community-based care management and chronic diseases and prevention. He has taken care of patients as a primary care physician at Bellevue Hospital since 2014.
Dr. Chokshi’s prior work experience spans the public, private and nonprofit sectors, including positions with the New York City and State Departments of Health and the Louisiana Department of Health, before and after Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Chokshi served on the FEMA delegation to New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. He also served as a White House Fellow and was the principal health advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Chokshi has written widely on public health and medicine including in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, The Lancet, Health Affairs, Science and Scientific American. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health.
He trained in internal medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, where he received the Dunne Award for Compassionate Care, and was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School. During his training, Dr. Chokshi did clinical work in Guatemala, Peru, Botswana, Ghana and India. He received his M.D. with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction from Penn, where he was elected by his peers to win the Joel Gordon Miller Prize. He also earned an MSc in global public health as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and graduated summa cum laude from Duke.
John Chuck, MD
Family Physician and Wellness Consultant for Healthcare Professionals, John Chuck Wellness
John Chuck, MD, is a family physician and wellness consultant for health care professionals. He is the former Regional Chairperson of the Physician Health & Wellness Leaders Group for The Permanente Medical Group based in Oakland, CA. In that role, he shaped the conversations, culture, and operations that drove the total performance of 10,000 physician colleagues in Northern California. He has also done wellness work with Permanente physicians in Southern California, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeast and numerous organizations including UC Davis Health, UC San Francisco, the University of Washington, Sutter Health, Dignity Health, John Muir Health, Providence St. Joseph Health, Asian Health Services, the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers, the American College of Surgeons, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Chapter IX, and the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society. His areas of interest include work life balance, values congruent living, resilience training, and servant leadership. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the UCLA School of Medicine and did his family medicine residency at the UC Davis Medical Center. John is the founder and CEO of Serotonin Surge Charities, 501c3 nonprofit organization that has raised over $4 million for safety net medical clinics; a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum; and a UC Davis Foundation Trustee Emeritus. His work has been recognized with the Sidney Garfield Exceptional Contribution Award from The Permanente Medical Group (2004), the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the UC Davis Alumni Association (2014), and the Charles J. Soderquist Award (with wife Lesli) from the UC Davis Foundation (2018).
Nakela Cook, MD, MPH
Executive Director, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Nakela Cook is a cardiologist and health services researcher with a distinguished career leading key scientific initiatives engaging patients, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders at one of the nation’s largest public health research funders. Cook leads PCORI’s research, dissemination and implementation, and engagement work as the organization enters its second decade of service to the nation. She also provides strategic and day-to-day oversight of ongoing programs as well as new initiatives designed to create a healthcare system that is more efficient, effective, and patient centered.
Prior to her current role, Cook served as Senior Scientific Officer and Chief of Staff at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Clinical Medical Officer in NHLBI’s Division of Cardiovascular Sciences and an attending cardiologist at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. She has a bachelor of science degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; earned her medical degree and master of public health in health care policy and management from Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, respectively; and completed her clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Cook is also an alumna of the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.
Throughout her career, Cook has worked to enhance diversity and equity in research and care delivery and been a leader in efforts to reduce disparities in health access and outcomes. She has received numerous awards for her excellence in clinical teaching and mentorship as well as her leadership of complex scientific initiatives and programs.
Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH
Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Sandro Galea, a physician, epidemiologist, and author, is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, and is a regular contributor to a range of public media, about the social causes of health, mental health, and the consequences of trauma. He has been listed as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences. He is chair of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Galea has received several lifetime achievement awards. Galea holds a medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.
Morgan Hutchinson, MD
Director of Education, Health Design Lab, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Dr. Morgan Hutchinson is the Director of Education at Thomas Jefferson University’s Health Design Lab. She is a practicing physician, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Assistant Medical Director of the Emergency Department. Morgan is on a mission to improve healthcare by training doctors to think like designers. Her work focuses on the application of human-centered design to medical education and healthcare delivery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morgan has led important initiatives to improve the health of vulnerable populations, increase access to testing and ensure the safety of frontline healthcare workers and patients. She expanded clinical spaces to boost surge capacity; 3D-printed >30,000 nasopharyngeal swabs for Covid testing; repaired powered air purifying respirators; and partnered with the City of Philadelphia to launch two pop-up Covid-19 testing sites in underserved communities.
CEO and Co-Founder, Lark Health
Julia Hu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lark Health, a chronic disease prevention and management platform that uses a cognitive behavioral therapy framework, conversational AI, and connected devices to help people stay healthy and in control of their conditions. Having managed her own chronic disease her whole life, Julia felt the incredible benefits of 24/7 compassionate care, and works to bring that same experience to others using technology. Under Julia’s leadership, Lark’s Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), which is Fully Recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Health Program, Diabetes Care Program, and Hypertension Program have served nearly 2 million members, and have demonstrated clinically validated outcomes. Lark now works with the top five payers, and all-together with 17 health plans and more than 50,000 employer groups through its health plan partnerships. A serial entrepreneur, Julia was named to Business Insider’s 30 Under 40 Changing Healthcare list and number one in “Top 10 Women in Tech to Watch” and “30 Under 30” by Inc. Magazine, as well as “17 Female Healthcare CEOs to Know”, Becker’s Hospital Review. Prior to founding Lark Health, Julia ran global startup incubator Clean Tech Open, her own green buildings startup, and was an EIR at Stanford’s StartX. She received her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Stanford, and half an MBA from MIT before leaving to start Lark. Julia is a faculty member at Singularity University, on the board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and speaks regularly on digital health, IoT, and innovation on CNN, NBC, Bloomberg, MIT, and more.
Adam Landman, MD
Vice President; Chief Information & Digital Innovation Officer, Brigham Health
Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS is Chief Information Officer at Brigham Health, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an attending emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is an expert in health information technology and digital health design, development, and implementation. In his current role, he is responsible for developing strategic IT initiatives, with the goal of evolving the next generation of information systems and digital health solutions across the Brigham Health enterprise, while maintaining a focus on safety, security, and excellence. Landman received his medical degree from Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and trained in Emergency Medicine at UCLA Medical Center. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale University, where he also received his Masters of Health Sciences. He completed graduate degrees in Information Systems and Health Care Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Lindsey Leininger, PhD
Clinical Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Dr. Lindsey Leininger is a public health educator who teaches and writes about data-driven health policy. Over her career she has taught and trained policymakers, physicians, patient advocates, and executives about the intelligent use of public health and medical evidence. She is currently on faculty at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College where she teaches courses at the intersection of health analytics, public health, and the health care industry. Prior to joining Dartmouth, she spent a decade designing and leading research projects for Medicaid agencies, both in academic and think-tank settings. Along with an all-female team of scientist “Nerdy Girls,” she leads a public education campaign providing timely and trustworthy information about the pandemic (@DearPandemic).
Dr. Ozuah is the President and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, the umbrella organization for Montefiore Health System’s 13 member hospitals, 200 ambulatory sites, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A nationally recognized physician, leader, executive, researcher, teacher and author, Dr. Ozuah previously served as President of Montefiore Health System. A National Institutes of Health (NIH)–funded researcher and award-winning educator, he also served as Professor and University Chairman of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM). In these roles, Dr. Ozuah expanded access for underserved communities, recruited and cultivated outstanding talent, advanced programs of excellence, fostered innovations in medical education, and improved financial and operational performance by integrating care across a rapidly growing and evolving Montefiore system that sees over six million patient interactions a year. Under his leadership, Montefiore Health System’s specialties ranked in the top 1 percent of the nation’s hospitals, and CHAM was recognized as one of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” according to U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Ozuah earned his medical degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Southern California and a PhD in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He completed his Pediatric Internship and Residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore, and his Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Medical Education at the University of Southern California School of Medicine.
Sara Vaezy, MHA, MPH
Chief Digital Strategy & Business Development Officer, Providence St. Joseph Health
Sara Vaezy is the Chief Digital Strategy & Business Development Officer for Providence leading digital strategy and roadmap, digital partnerships and business development, commercialization, technology evaluation and pilots, and digital thought leadership as a part of the Providence Digital Innovation Group. Prior to Providence, Sara was at The Chartis Group, a health care management consulting firm, where she advised clients on enterprise strategic planning, payer-provider partnership, and the development of population health companies. She holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy from the University of California Berkeley, and an MHA and MPH in Healthcare Policy from The University of Washington’s School of Public Health.
Marcee Wilder, MD, MS, MPH
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University
Marcee Wilder is an Assistant Professor at George Washington University in the Department of Emergency Medicine. She received a B.S. in Biology from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia in 2003. After college, she completed a Master’s Degree in Public Health at Brooklyn College. She then worked for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for 4 years as a research associate and served as an adjunct professor at the Brooklyn College School of Public Health. Although she found her work fulfilling, she left these positions to complete an M.D. at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington D.C. She fell in love with emergency medicine and returned to New York to attend residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While at Mount Sinai, Marcee participated in and developed several clinical studies examining racial disparities in emergency department care. She then completed a 2-year clinical research fellowship at George Washington University, focusing on disparities and health outcomes. She was recently awarded funding from National Institute of Health (NIH) to examine social determinants of health and their effect on outcomes including medication adherence and emergency department visits. Her current research focus is examining effective interventions that may reduce health disparities through improving social determinants. She is passionate about health equity and disparities, and hopes to contribute to the field through research. She lives with her husband Chaz, and her two daughters Cynthia and Miah in Washington, DC.
