Fareed Nabiel Fareed, MD, FACEP is an emergency physician and transformational healthcare leader with extensive experience in healthcare systems management, policy, operations, quality improvement, and finances. He is a senior executive and managing partner in Emergency Medical Associates, Chairman of the ED at HealthAlliance Hospital, and Regional Medical Director in the Hudson Valley, overseeing ED operations at multiple NY hospitals. Dr. Fareed graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemical Sciences. He obtained his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center. Dr. Fareed was a faculty member for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Emergency Medicine Residency Program, and was Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. He was director of Columbia University’s Research Associates Program. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. In September 2014, Dr. Fareed was honored as ‘Top Doctor of New York’ in Hospital Newspaper. He is also a National Institutes of Health Research Fellowship Recipient, and has published papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Cynthia H. Fareed is the Chief Legal Advisor. She specializes in commercial and international litigation, corporate finance, intellectual property and employment law. She has been lead counsel for, and successfully litigated on behalf of, a wide range of governmental and corporate clients. She is a Member of the New York Bar, and is admitted to the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Robert E. Fullilove, EdD is the Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences and the co-director of the Cities Research Group. Dr Fullilove has authored numerous articles in the area of minority health. From 1995 to 2001, he served on the Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the National Academy of Sciences. Since 1996, he has served on five IOM study committees that have produced reports on a variety of topics including substance abuse and addiction, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and damp indoor spaces and health. In 2003 he was designated a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. In 1998 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention (ACHSP) at the Centers for Disease Control, and in July, 2000, he became the committee’s co-chair. Finally, between 2004-2007, he served on the National Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health [NIH]. Since 2010, he has been teaching public health courses in six New York State prisons that are part of the Bard College Prison Initiative (BPI) and serves as the Senior Advisor to BPI’s public health program. Dr Fullilove serves on the editorial boards of the journals Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Journal of Public Health Policy. He has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award at the Mailman School of Public Health three times (in 1995, 2001, and 2013), and in May, 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bank Street College of Education.

Elena Gates is a general obstetrician/gynecologist and professor at UCSF. She has a longstanding interest and involvement in bioethical issues in reproduction. She is a past chair of the Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and chaired the Ethics Committee of the National Children’s Study Advisory Group for two years. She is currently a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and of the Bioethics Advisory Committee of the March of Dimes. In addition, Dr. Gates has led clinical ethics committees at Johns Hopkins Bayview and at UCSF Mount Zion and has been a member of the clinical ethics committee at UCSF.

For almost 20 years she has been involved in ethics oversight of the stem cell, embryo and gamete research at UCSF and serves on UCSF’s Gamete, Embryo and Stem Cell Research committee. She is a former member of UCSF’s Institutional Review Board. Dr. Gates has a strong interest in ethical issues related to genetic testing and has participated in committees, review panels and workshops through the ELSI program of the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Hastings Center. In addition, since the 1990s she has been part of a group of investigators here at UCSF that has studied the role of patient preferences in decision-making about prenatal genetic testing.

Mr. Gephardt served for 28 years in the United States House of Representatives (from 1977 to 2005), representing Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District. He was elected to serve as House Democratic Leader for more than 14 years, as House Majority Leader (1989 to 1995), and Minority Leader (1995 to 2003). In his role as Leader, Mr. Gephardt emerged as one of the leading strategists of the Democratic Party’s platform and chief architect to landmark reforms in healthcare, education, energy independence and trade policy. Mr. Gephardt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University (1962) and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School (1965). Mr. Gephardt is married to Jane Gephardt, and they are the parents of three grown children.

Rachel R. Hardeman, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health and Consultant with Partners in Equity and Inclusion.

Dr. Hardeman is a health inequities researcher whose work focuses on the provider contribution to equity and quality of health care delivery and the ways in which race (e.g. implicit bias, explicit bias, stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination institutional racism and the white racial frame) impact health care delivery and the clinician-patient encounter. She has a particular interest and focus on prenatal care delivery and persistent disparate birth outcomes for African American women. Dr. Hardeman is also a leading expert in medical education research focusing on the experiences of under-represented minority physician trainees.

Dr. Hardeman is passionate about moving the conversation around racism in public health forward and to that end, the overarching goal of her work is to contribute to a new body of knowledge that enriches how we understand the ways that institutional racism plays out in healthcare encounters.

Dr. Hardeman earned a PhD in Health Services Research, Policy and Administration and an MPH in Public Health Administration and Policy in the Division of Health Policy & Management and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Spanish from Xavier University of Louisiana.

Dr. Terrie E. Inder is the Chair of the Department of Pediatric and Newborn Medicine and the Mary Ellen Avery Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Inder is a dual boarded neonatologist and child neurologist with a major interest in improving the neurodevelopmental outcomes of high risk infants including pregnancies of infants that are not growing well, have congenital issues or are at risk for premature birth. Dr. Inder also carries out clinical studies in the neonatal intensive care unit to reduce brain injury and improve brain development in premature infants and sick term born infants.

Elizabeth LaRusso is a perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist focusing on mental health issues that arise in women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. She trained at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospitals, all in Boston. After residency, she joined the faculty of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where she was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and of OB/GYN. She joined Allina Health in Minneapolis in 2012, where she is developing the Mother Baby Mental Health Program, designed to improve maternal, child, and family health and well-being by providing timely access for all pregnant and postpartum Allina Health patients to high-quality, patient-centered, cost-effective mental health care.

Dr. Nicholas F. LaRusso is the Charles H. Weinman Endowed Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. The former Chair of the Department of Medicine and the Founding Medical Director of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation, he is also a Distinguished Investigator of the Mayo Foundation and the recipient of numerous awards, including a MERIT award from NIH and the Julius M. Friedenwald Medal, the American Gastroenterological Association’s highest honor.

Meredith Moezzi is the Global Education Leader at The Dow Chemical Company. Meredith Moezzi leads Dow’s global education commitments, driving strategy around the Global Citizenship priorities of empowering educators and creating pathways to successful STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers. Meredith also advises the company on sustainability strategy, focusing on how to maximize impact of the company’s 2025 Sustainability Goals.

Meredith started her career at Dow at the company’s headquarters in Michigan on the Executive Communications team for Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris. She spent two years in Hong Kong leading Executive Communications for the President of Dow Asia Pacific.

Prior to joining Dow, Meredith spent four years at the Clinton Global Initiative, cultivating partnerships with major corporations, foundations, and philanthropists. Before that, she worked for the French Embassy teaching English in Rennes, France.

Margo Oge is the author of the book Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars wherein she discusses the science, policies, future technologies and converging macro trends that are revolutionizing personal mobility.

She is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Delta Wing Technologies and a member of the Boards of the National Academies of Science on Energy and Environment, Union of Concerned Scientists, International Council on Clean Transportation, and Alliance Climate Education. She is also a member of the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Advisory Committee and the National Academies of Science Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program.

She served the U.S. EPA for 32 years and as the Director of the Office of Transportation Air Quality is widely recognized as the key architect of some of the most important achievements in the history of air pollution control in the US transportation sector. She also was the Director of the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air where she oversaw the release of EPA’s second hand smoke report and developed policies for radon and nuclear waste.

She has received the Presidential Award from Presidents Bush and Clinton, and EPA’s Distinguished Service Career Award. She has a MS in Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and attended George Washington University and Harvard University.

Cara Osborne is founder of the Baby + Company. She is a Certified Nurse Midwife and holds Masters and Doctoral degrees in Maternal and Child Health from the Harvard’s School of Public Health. Baby + Company’s aim is to expand women’s choices, creating a spectrum of options for childbirth by building maternity centers that bring together centuries-old traditions of midwifery and the best research. Prior to founding Baby + Company, Cara was an Assistant Professor in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at University of Arkansas and a co-investigator for the American Association of Birth Centers’ National Birth Center Study II. Cara is a reviewer for the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health and a technical adviser to the board of directors for Midwives for Haiti.

Ms. Porchia-Albert founded Ancient Song Doula Services in the Fall of 2008 after experiencing the birth of her first child at home. She is the mother of 4 beautiful children and an Activist, Speaker,Certified Labor & Postpartum Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor, Midwifery Assistant and Student, Vegan Chef, and Certified Holistic Health Counselor specializing in High Risk Mothers, Multiples, Survivors of Sexual Trauma, VBAC’s and DV. She is also the co – trainer for ASDS trainings. She has spoken at numerous colleges, conferences and rallied for women’s issues throughout college.

Ms. Porchia-Albert is currently in pursuit of becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife and attending class at Medgar Evers College studying Biology. Chanel has attended over fifty births.

Dr. Ravikiran (Ravi) Raju is a physician scientist and pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital Boston in the Urban Health and Advocacy Track. He obtained his MD degree from the Baylor College of Medicine and a PhD in Biological Sciences in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has worked on a variety of research and advocacy projects ranging from childhood nutrition/education, drug discovery for neglected diseases and maternal/child health. Most recently, his research focuses on the physiological mechanisms of how poverty and social stress contribute to poor health outcomes in infants and young children.

Dr. David Rowitch is a Neonatologist and Neuroscientist, Professor, and Head of Department of Pediatrics at Cambridge University. In addition to caring for patients, he leads a laboratory that investigates genetic and cellular factors that regulate human brain development. He is recipient of numerous awards, including the Basil O’Connor Award, Kimmel Foundation Scholar Award, James S. McDonnell Foundation Research Award and Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-Innovator award.

Dr. Lisa Saul has served as President of the Mother Baby Clinical Service Line since September 2014. She leads quality improvement, facilitated care model improvements for those patients at highest risk, and has been instrumental in crafting a compelling and forward thinking strategy, and program/service development that will further improve the health of our community and address care disparities.

In addition to her role as president, Lisa works part-time as a perinatologist with Minnesota Perinatal Physicians. Her area of clinical focus is fetal cardiology.

Lisa is a California native who received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology. She complete her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, San Diego, and her OB/GYN Residency at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. A fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of California, Irvine completed Lisa’s medical training. Lisa recently matriculated in the Business of Medicine MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Lisa is married with two young children. In her free time she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.

Dr. Sen is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Neonatologist and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research focuses on understanding how the metabolic environment of pregnancies complicated by obesity affects maternal and fetal health. She is also actively involved in devising and trialing interventions to improve the metabolic health of obese pregnant women, thereby improving health outcomes for mothers and babies. In addition to her research, Dr. Sen is actively involved in caring for newborn infants and their families during their most vulnerable period in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and teaching future pediatricians and neonatologists.

Dr. Neel Shah, MD, MPP is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and associate faculty at the Ariadne Labs for Health Systems Innovation. He is an expert in designing, testing, and spreading system interventions that improve the safety, affordability, and experience of patient care. As a general obstetrician-gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Shah cares for patients during critical life moments that range from surgery to primary care to childbirth.

Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Shah founded Costs of Care, a global NGO that curates insights from clinicians to help delivery systems provide better care at lower cost. He is listed among the “40 smartest people in health care” by the Becker’s Hospital Review, and has been profiled in the New York Times, the New England Journal of Medicine, and other outlets for his efforts to expose how low value care can harm patients.

In 2015, Dr. Shah co-authored the book Understanding Value-Based Healthcare (McGraw-Hill), which Don Berwick has called “an instant classic” and Atul Gawande called “a masterful primer for all clinicians.” He is currently Chair of the Innovative Payment and Delivery Systems Workgroup for the National Partnership for Women and Families.

Richard P. Sloan is Nathaniel Wharton Professor of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center. He also is Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a Psychologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Sloan’s principal work focuses on identifying the mechanisms linking psychological risk factors such as depression, hostility, and anxiety to heart disease. Current and past research studies address various aspects of this problem: 1) using the quasi-naturalistic model of cardiac transplantation to examine how loss of autonomic control of the heart influences blood pressure responses to challenge; 2) examining how enhancing cardiac autonomic control by aerobic conditioning contributes to blood pressure regulation; 3) determining whether reducing hostility and anger, by cognitive-behavioral treatment, enhances cardiac autonomic control; 4) examining the serotonin transporter in cytokine-induced depression; and 5) identifying the moment to moment impact of negative interpersonal interactions on autonomic nervous system regulation of the cardiovascular system.

Current research has extended to examination of the effects of exercise and neutraceuticals on physiological and cognitive outcomes.

His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Heart Association, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Greenwall Foundation.

Dr. Sun is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCSF Division of Neonatology, and Medical Director of the Intensive Care Nursery at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. He attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, received his medical degree from UCLA, completed his doctorate in computer science from MIT, and completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatology at Children’s Hospital Boston. He uses his expertise in medical informatics, a field at the juncture of medicine and computer science, to explore methods of using technology to improve direct clinical care of patients.

Mr. Thompson has over 25 years of experience in various positions as an executive leader in academic healthcare systems. As the Chief Business Development Officer at Brigham and Women’s Health Care, he is responsible for the organization’s national and international external relationships including strategy and marketing activities. He has extensive experience in global healthcare and global healthcare business development. Additionally, he has worked in a wide range of roles in academic medicine and academic health centers. Mr. Thompson was the founder and Executive Officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine International. This organization was established as the arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine providing a focus and leadership at the institutional level for all international activities. Mr. Thompson has a particular interest in identifying innovative ways for academic health systems to collaborate with a wide range of partners to work towards the common objective of improving health and healthcare delivery locally, regionally and around the world. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics related to academic health system leadership, the globalization of healthcare including health system design and healthcare workforce development.

The Women and Health Initiative is led by Dr. Ana Langer, a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology, and a reproductive health expert. She joined the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in July 2010 as a Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Global Health and Population. Dr. Langer is respected worldwide as a leader in reproductive and maternal health, the translation of evidence into policies and programs, the improvement of quality of health care for women and families. For more than 30 years, she has been a leading researcher, programmer and advocate for the improvement of women’s health.

Dr. Langer has published extensively on maternal mortality; technical and interpersonal quality of maternal health care; unsafe abortion; contraception; the introduction of evidence-based practices in maternal health services; and strategies to strengthen women’s reproductive rights. In 2015, in collaboration with experts from all over the world, Dr. Langer published the comprehensive report Women and Health: A key to sustainable development in The Lancet. The paper lays out the foundations of the women and health framework which analyzes women’s health along the life cycle and its connections with social determinants of health and global transitions, and provides the evidence to fully demonstrate the critical roles women play as health care givers, and the development of communities and nations

Under Dr. Langer’s leadership, the W&HI works on measurement of maternal health, sexual and reproductive health and rights in settings affected by conflict, maternal health and social support in the Greater Boston Area, and quality of maternal health care globally. In collaboration with the Harvard Global Health Institute, the W&HI coordinates the LEAD fellowship (Learn, Engage, Advance, Disrupt Fellowship), a novel program designed to promote leadership skills in individuals from low- and middle-income countries who will, in turn, mentor future female leaders in global health.

Recently, Dr. Langer and the W&HI became deeply involved in research and advocacy for maternal and reproductive health and women’s rights in the COVID-19 era. The W&HI partners with the University of Oxford and multiple other organizations around the world on the INTERCOVID project, a prospective cohort study in pregnancy and the neonatal period that aims to provide women, families, health care providers and policymakers with high-quality evidence regarding the effects of COVID-19 infection on maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes by carrying out a large, multi-national, prospective cohort study.

At Delos, Jie leads the research and development team – Delos Labs. His responsibility is leading a group of scientists, engineers, architects, and designers to research and develop innovative products and services to improve human wellness in indoor spaces. He also manages external academic relationships, supports primary research in the Well Living Lab, and provides strategic and technical advice to Delos Asia. Prior to Delos, Jie worked at Lutron Electronics, one of the biggest lighting control companies in the world, as a senior building science engineer.

As a researcher, Jie’s work focuses on human-building interactions, including smart building controls, occupant behavior in buildings, building information and performance modeling, indoor environmental quality, and its impact on human health and well-being. He published 20+ scientific articles and serves as reviewers for more than 10 top tier academic journals and conferences. As a public speaker, he spoke at dozens of academic and industry conferences and panels.

Jie received his PhD in Building Performance and Diagnostics from Carnegie Mellon University, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. He cares about animal welfare, environmental protection, and public health in developing countries. Currently, he is a Guide to the Resolution Project, an NGO focuses on developing socially responsible young leaders and empowering them to make a positive impact today.

William Heisel is the Director of Global Services for IHME Client Services, leading a social enterprise to engage with the private sector to support innovation at IHME. Previously, as the Director of Global Engagement at IHME, he oversaw the Institute’s outreach and relationship building, including media relations, digital communications, data library services, events and marketing, publications, scientific communications, and external relations, including government engagements and policy translation. He also managed the organization’s fundraising efforts and helps lead internal community-building initiatives. He oversaw communications and coordination with the growing Global Burden of Disease collaborative network, growing the membership to more than 2,800 researchers in more than 130 countries. In addition, his team administered the Roux Prize, one of global health’s highest honors. Heisel, who joined IHME in 2009, has a BA in Journalism and Spanish from the University of Montana. Prior to joining the Institute, he was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

IHME was established at the University of Washington in Seattle in 2007. Its mission is to improve health through better health evidence.

Jennie Joseph is a well respected health advocate for women and newborn babies. A British-trained midwife, Jennie has become one of the world’s most respected midwives and authorities on women’s health: healthy pregnancies, healthy deliveries and healthy babies.

She’s become a true advocate for systematic reform that puts women and babies first in healthcare; before profit, convenience and the numerous reasons America trails other developed nations in healthy births. Jennie’s common sense approach has won her the attention of global news media and brought her invitations to speak all over the world.

Jennie is the founder and executive director of Commonsense Childbirth Inc. and the creator of The JJ Way®, a common sense approach designed for women and children. She moved to the United States in 1989 and began a journey that has culminated in the formation of an innovative maternal child healthcare system, markedly improving birth outcomes for thousands of women and children.

Alison Tracy is an Associate for IHME Client Services, a social enterprise to engage with the private sector to support innovation at IHME. In that role, Alison facilitates the utilization of IHME’s robust population health findings within the private sector and to advance IHME’s mission of improving health outcomes through better health evidence.

Alison joined IHME Client Services in 2018, bringing both nonprofit and private sector experience, most recently at Oracle, where she worked in sales and marketing strategy. Prior to Oracle, Alison worked in the nonprofit sector for organizations including the National Pharmaceutical Council, where she studied the intersection of evidence-based medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Alison holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Dance from Middlebury College and earned her MBA in Health Sector Management from Duke University.

Regina Vaicekonyte brings nutrition, scientific research, and natural sciences experience to further the research on human health and the built environment at Delos Labs and the Well Living Lab. She also provides scientific expertise and validation of products and programs to all divisions of the company.

Previously a Research Analyst at the International Well Building Institute, Regina holds a Masters Degree in Nutrition from Columbia University, where she conducted research on prenatal nutrition and the impact of obesity on maternal and fetal health. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked on a nationwide study on the genetics of alcoholism at the Research Foundation for SUNY, assessing the differences in information processing between individuals with and without a history of alcoholism.

A Lithuanian native, Regina earned her Bachelors Degree in Biology at Bard College as a Distinguished Scientist Scholar, focusing extensively on the ecology of infectious disease. For three of her undergraduate years, she led a research project on the potential of using an invasive plant species as a biofuel. The results of several of her research studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals.