Ellen Albritton is a Senior Policy Analyst at Families USA. Her chief focus is on how the transition to a value-based health care system can be leveraged to achieve health equity. To this end, she contributes policy development and analysis to Families USA’s Center on Health Equity Action for System Transformation and its various initiatives. Additionally, Ellen provides policy analysis and support to Families USA’s national prescription drug pricing efforts and its State Prescription Drug Pricing Collaborative, which brings together consumer health advocates from across the country to enact policies that will protect consumers from high prescription drug prices.

Prior to joining Families USA, Ellen was a Research Associate at AcademyHealth. There, she worked on a number of research projects regarding payment and delivery reform, including improving care for children with special health care needs, increasing sustainability for community health workers, and improving care for people with mental and behavioral health conditions. She also worked previously as an Associate at NETWORK, where she coordinated Medicaid expansion campaigns in several states.

Ellen received a BS in public health from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice and is currently pursuing her JD at the The George Washington University Law School.

Dr. Zeeshan Ali is a Program Specialist at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., and has been with PCRM since 2012. He manages the medical student outreach program in the U.S. and India. He also reaches out to physicians, health care professionals and researchers at medical and scientific conferences to collaborate and spread awareness on chronic disease prevention through plant-based nutrition.

Dr. Ali heads the 21-Day kickstart India program and travels to India to provide educational lectures for health care professionals and public. He received his doctorate degree from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Germany. He held a Marie Curie fellowship from Gabriele D’Annunzio University in Italy in 2010 and a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of North Carolina in 2007 and University Piemonte Orientale in Italy in 2012.

Haya recently graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology from Arizona State University. She joined AMSA at her local chapter in 2015 and assumed two local leadership positions for the years 2016 and 2017 before joining the national leadership team as a premedical regional director and a vice chair for the IFMSA council for the year 2017-2018. Before she arrived in the United States in 2013, she was a first-year medical student at Baghdad School of Medicine in Iraq. Besides working with AMSA, Haya feels an obligation to use her resources to help the underprivileged and immigrant population. She has worked with organizations like the American Red Cross, the International Rescue Committee and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

As a Vice Chair for the IFMSA Council, Haya worked with several medical student associations from different countries to help exchange ideas between the premedical/medical student body in the United States and the medical student population in these countries. As a part of the initiative to establish new medical chapters of AMSA internationally, she worked with IFMSA leadership in her mother country, Iraq, to start the first AMSA chapter there which became the largest chapter in the Middle East with 1000 international member.

Rebekah Apple is the Director of the Master of Medical Management program at Carnegie Mellon University. Apple has worked as a physician educator and advisor for more than ten years, and serves as an educational consultant to hospital and health care systems throughout the country. Focusing on organizational ethics, leading effective change, and self-awareness, Apple has designed and delivered education to the American College of Cardiology and the American Medical Women’s Association, among others. She currently serves on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Ethics Committee, the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Ethics Committee, teaches ethics to third-year medical students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and is a voting member of the University of South Florida Conflict of Interest Committee for Research Integrity. Apple is a certified facilitator of the MBTI, CPI, Adept-15, Influence Style Indicator, and Change Style Indicator psychometric assessments, and was responsible for customizing two of these assessments to suit the physician leader community. She is a contributing editor to the Academy for Professionalism in Healthcare’s newsletter. Apple received a Masters in Bioethics from the University of South Florida and a Doctorate in Health Science from A.T. Still University.

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh was unanimously elected as Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners on November 17, 2016 succeeding former Commission Chair Josh Shapiro. First appointed to fill a vacancy on the Commission in January 2015, Arkoosh won election to a full four-year term in November 2015 and served as Commission Vice Chair until her election as Chair. Montgomery County, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, is the third most populous county in Pennsylvania with over 825,000 residents. A three member Board of Commissioners oversees a budget of $400 million and directs more than 2,400 employees. The Commission manages human services for more than 100,000 residents, the County Court and criminal justice system, Voter Services, over 130 county bridges, 75 miles of roads and other infrastructure, 7 county parks and nearly 100 miles of trails.

Dr. Arkoosh is bringing innovative reforms to county government. She is improving services for children, Veterans, and seniors while ensuring an effective, transparent, and fiscally responsible government. She has led the efforts to eliminate street homelessness of veterans, streamline delivery of human services, increase repairs for county roads and bridges, and open 10 new miles of trails across the county. As a physician, Arkoosh is at the center of the County’s efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic, overseeing a multi-pronged, integrated response. In 2015 she issued a “standing order” to enable participating pharmacies in Montgomery County to dispense the overdose antidote naloxone at the request of any member of the public.

Upon obtaining her Master of Public Health in 2007, Arkoosh became deeply engaged in the national effort to achieve comprehensive health care reform. She led the National Physicians Alliance, a national non-profit organization of physicians, who, putting their patients before profits, joined a broad-based nation-wide coalition for reform. During this time, she developed policy and legislative strategy, and promoted public engagement in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and throughout the country. Dr. Arkoosh maintains a comprehensive knowledge of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its impact on individuals and the health care system.

While much of her career has been in medicine and public health, Arkoosh has substantial experience in dealing with many of the same challenges governments face. She has significant leadership experience managing complex organizations during times of fiscal challenge. Arkoosh served for five years as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the Drexel University College of Medicine where she successfully drew upon her undergraduate training in economics to restore her department to fiscal solvency following the Allegheny University bankruptcy. During this challenging time, she also served as Interim Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and was actively involved in the financial oversight of the medical school clinical practice plan.

Prior to stepping into public service, Dr. Arkoosh was Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. Arkoosh is a graduate of the University Of Nebraska College Of Medicine and received a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She performed her residency at Jefferson Medical College in Anesthesiology with a special focus on Obstetrics. She has an undergraduate degree in economics from Northwestern University.
Arkoosh lives in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, with her husband, Jeff Harbison, and their three children.

Ashi Arora is a senior at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is studying Public Health, Biological Sciences, and Entrepreneurship & Innovation and is working to pursue a career in medicine and health policy in urban communities. She is the co-founder and co-president of the PERIOD. chapter at Wayne State, a co-principal investigator on a comprehensive research study of menstrual and reproductive challenges faced by homeless women in Detroit, the Chair of the American Medical Student Association’s Gender and Sexuality Action Committee, and a democracy fellow with the Campus Vote Project. Ashi is passionate about ameliorating underlying barriers and disparities that prevent marginalized, oppressed communities from accessing tools to live healthy and happy lives. Specifically, she is an activist as a part of the menstrual movement, she is passionate about reducing preterm birth and infant mortality in Detroit, raising awareness about trans health, and addressing sexual assault on college campuses. Detroit, the true American city in her eyes, has fueled her passion to target these challenges and serve her community.

Elisabeth Benjamin is the Vice President of Health Initiatives at the Community Service Society, where she supervises health policy, health advocacy, and consumer health assistance programs. These programs help over 100,000 New Yorkers each year enroll in or use their health insurance or access low-cost health care. She is a co-founder of Health Care for All New York Campaign (HCFANY), a statewide coalition of over 170 organizations devoted to securing affordable, quality health care for all New Yorkers. She has published extensively on the issues of health reform and policy, consumer protections, and health equity. Before joining CSS, she worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Legal Aid Society, and Bronx Legal Services. Ms. Benjamin received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Brown University, a Master of Science degree in Health Policy and Management from Harvard School of Public Health, and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1992. She clerked for the Honorable Robert Sweet in the Southern District of New York.

Ean is a Family Medicine physician in Columbus, Ohio, where he is an Assistant Program Director at Grant Family Medicine – OhioHealth. He has been engaged in multiple efforts to educate and advocate for Universal Health Care in the United States, particularly a Single Payer platform, since he was a third-year medical student. After completing his residency, he spent two months traveling from the United States to several other countries with a Single Payer system to see firsthand the socio-cultural benefits of a Single Payer Universal Health Care system. Since that time, he has been a contributor to the National Physicians Alliance “Making Health Care Fair” project, whose aim is to educate physicians, the general public, and national thought leaders on how we can create an effective and efficient health care system for all.

Shannon Brownlee is Senior Vice President of the Lown Institute, a non-partisan, public policy think tank and civic enterprise based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a Co-Founder of the Right Care Alliance, a network of activist patients, clinicians, and community leaders devoted to organizing a broad based movement for a radically better health care system.

Before joining the Lown Institute, Brownlee served as acting director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation. While at New America, she published the groundbreaking book Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, which was named the best economics book of 2007 by The New York Times. Before her time at New America, Brownlee was a senior editor at U.S. News and World Report and Discover Magazine, and was named one of “four writers who changed the world” by the World Congress of Science Journalists.

Shannon is the author of several peer-reviewed papers in medical journals, and has published numerous articles and essays in such outlets as The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Times of London, TIME, New Republic, BMJ, The Lancet, and Health Affairs. From 2015-2017, she was a visiting scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. From 2014-2016, she was an editor of the “Less is More” section of JAMA Internal Medicine. From 2011-2014, she was a lecturer at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

Shannon is currently a member of the boards of the Robert Graham Center of the American Academy of Family Practice and Families USA. Brownlee holds a master’s degree in marine science from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Richard Bruno is a former co-chair of AMSA’s Health Care for All campaign, and helped organize AMSA’s Advocacy Day in 2011. He has served on the boards of the American Academy of Family Physicians, National Physicians Alliance, Physicians for a National Health Program, American Association of Public Health Physicians, MedChi—the Maryland state medical society, Sugar Free Kids Maryland, and Friends of Hampden School #55.

Dr. Bruno has led workshops, conferences, rallies, and actions for health justice. His main clinical focuses are on the pair of pandemics: obesity and opioids, with involvement in community public health interventions and policies, including sugary drink interventions at local corner stores and naloxone trainings on needle-exchange vans. He and his wife of twelve years have two children and love hiking, biking, and cooking together.

Dr. Bruno attained a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, doctorate of medicine from Oregon Health and Science University, and a master of public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He graduated from the combined Family and Preventive Medicine residency program at MedStar Franklin Square and Johns Hopkins. He currently practices family medicine at a federally qualified health center in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is serving his National Health Service Corps commitment.

Elodia Caballero is a first-year medical student at UC San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and a graduate of Columbia University, earning a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior. She is a MD candidate in the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US). Elodia is the one of the organizers of Medicine for Migration: National Week of Advocacy. The National Week of Advocacy was a coordinated movement where thousands of students and physicians at 29 institutions across the country took part in over 50 advocacy events to oppose the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s proposed public charge determination rule.

Since starting medical school, Elodia has been involved with the Latino Medical Student Association, Students for the Prevention of Violence, and Medicine for Migration at UCSF. She serves as a clinical coordinator for Clínica Martín-Baró, a student-run free clinic that offers primary care to Latinx immigrants in the Mission District of San Francisco. Elodia also serves as a medical student representative for the Internal Advisory Board for UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence. Her interests include medical student advocacy through a narrative medicine lens, community engagement and organizing, trauma-informed care, social justice and health equity.

Yokaira is an International Medical Graduate from UNIBE School of Medicine located in Dominican Republic. Her journey as an AMSA leader began in 2015 as the president of her local chapter. Being more exposed to all the amazing opportunities AMSA has to offer, she aspired to be a part of the AMSA National Leadership. This led her to become International Regional Director followed by International Trustee, making this her second term as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Yokaira was awarded the 2017 James Slayton Leadership of Excellence Award. Her passion for AMSA has grown tremendously throughout the years and she has always stayed true to the association’s values. Yokaira is in the works of pursuing a neurology residency. She was born in Dominican Republic and raised in Orlando, Florida. Her favorite pastime is spending time with her friends and family and doing outdoor activities.

Edward W. (Tad) Campion, MD, is the Executive Editor at the New England Journal of Medicine, where he has worked for 30 years. He also serves as the Online Editor and oversees NEJM.org. He directed the launch of the NEJM onto the Web in 1996, and then helped move it into audio, video, and interactive data presentations, as well as onto the iPad and smartphone and into the world of social media.

Dr. Campion was formerly the Chief of the Geriatrics Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital; he maintains appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He graduated with honors from both Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. Before attending medical school, he studied philosophy as a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford, attended Union Theological Seminary as a Rockefeller Fellow, and taught math for two years at a public school in Harlem, New York City. He did his medical internship at Cambridge Hospital and completed both medical residency and rheumatology training at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Bob Carr, MD, MPH, FACPM, is a physician leader, educator, consultant and board member with extensive experience in Healthcare, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Products businesses.

Dr. Carr is the current President of the American College of Preventive Medicine, the professional society for physicians dedicated to preventive medicine and population health. He is also
Associate Professor in Health Systems Administration, with special focus on leadership, innovation and health care delivery at Georgetown University, Chief Medical Officer for JOOLhealth, a
precision well-being technology company and an Executive Performance Coach and member of the J & J Human Performance Institute Thought Leadership Council.

He was most recently the Senior Vice President & Corporate Medical Director at the global health care firm GlaxoSmithKline with a career spanning 25 years and prior to that a Flight and Preventive Medicine Specialist with the US Air Force for 12 years.

He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Miami School of Medicine; and his Masters of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Hygiene & Public Health.

Rico is currently majoring in Bio-Chemistry at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Florida. He served as President of the Hillsborough Community College local AMSA chapter last year. He recently started meeting with local leaders to do community service in the Tampa area and he spends time volunteering in the ED at Florida Hospital. Rico also enjoys sports both, playing them and watching them, and he like to release stress by playing video games.

Dr. Cimino has earned a reputation internationally as an award-winning medical educator. He was the founding Assistant Dean for Educational Informatics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and former Associate Dean for Student Affairs at New York Medical College. He has Chaired the Education Working Group and Education Committees of the American Medical Informatics Associations. In 2004, he was elected to the American College of Medical Informatics for his research work both in education innovation and the application of semantic networks to managing medical knowledge. He is board certified in Neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and in Clinical Informatics by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Currently he is the Chief Medical Officer for Kaplan Medical with responsibility for faculty and content for all physician licensure exam test prep. Dr. Cimino has expertise across clinical medicine, education and technology and a passion for helping students succeed.

Tyler Cymet, DO, graduated from the Nova Southeastern college of Osteopathic Medicine in 1988 and completed a research fellowship at the Midwestern University. Dr. Cymet trained in Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, and was a Chief Resident and Associate Chief of Service at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

While at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Cymet published an Ad dictionary, listing the terms used in the world of addictive drugs which for many years was the most cited paper to appear in the JAOA.

His work at Johns Hopkins included research on the articular crack which showed that joint cracking and popping preserved motion. He described a previously unidentified syndrome that now bears his name: Erondu-Cymet Syndrome.

Another new condition that Dr. Cymet will be identified with came about because of the Postal Anthrax Attack of 2001. 15 years ago, Dr. Cymet provided care for several victims of a previously unseen condition-Postal Anthrax. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Cymet has continued to follow and study the condition and ultimately was able to explain the episode scientifically. His last anthrax publication in PLOS in April of 2016 explained how the mail system spread anthrax and conclusively offered an understanding of the bioterrorism episode.

Since joining AACOM and working in clinical education, Dr. Cymet has helped osteopathic medical schools standardize how colleges of osteopathic medicine do their work. Every osteopathic medical college now has objective end of rotation assessments, and through working with the Chairs of Osteopathic Manual Medicine has brought agreement between all the colleges on what all of them do alike, that is not done in allopathic medical schools. One of the 5 books that Dr. Cymet has put together addresses the knowledge and skills of osteopathic medicine entitled “A Teaching Guide for Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.”

In addition to 16 years on the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine teaching staff, Dr. Cymet has supervised and mentored many students on projects looking at resilience in disasters like hurricanes and terrorism, to educational issues like patient safety, student assessment, and curriculum development.

As SOMA Advisor from 1992-2001 he helped establish the SOMA Foundation and Pre-SOMA.

Organized medicine has been part of Dr. Cymet’s life for his entire career. Dr. Cymet joined the Docare board when Docare’s membership was under 20 members. He chaired the 50th Docare Anniversary Committee that pushed forward the creation of continuity clinics. As Docare President he put out an RFP and moved forward with creating and supporting the Docare clinic in Chakraseca Nicaragua.

As President of the Maryland State Medical Society, he created a health professionals council bringing together all licensed health professionals, and re-envisioned the role of physicians in health care and redefined the health interactions that people are seeking.

Trained in Primary Care Internal Medicine Dr. Cymet practiced the full range of Family Medicine delivering babies, assisting in surgery and maintaining an outpatient practice. Stories from his practice have been published in humanities journals and been the fodder for television shows, some of which he has acted in himself with his 5th episode acting in Untold Stories of the ER coming out in September of 2016.

His daughter Ilana loves Harry Potter and ice skating, and Holly Cymet, PhD is a Biophysicist who works in science consulting for Booze Allen Hamilton.

Coming soon.

Aalayah Eastmond is a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On February 14, 2018, she was in one of the classrooms attacked by a gunman who would go on to murder 17 students and staff. In the aftermath, Aalayah has stepped up to speak out about gun violence in America. She has been particularly vocal around the chronic gun violence that affects young African Americans every day in this country, which is particularly important to her because her uncle was shot and killed in Brooklyn 15 years ago. She regularly refers to herself as “a regular BLACK girl,” and has vowed to make a difference with the platform that she’s been given. She has spoken at March for Our Lives, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Kavanaugh hearings, has appeared on a number of news programs including Oprah and BuzzFeed, written for Bustle, and appeared in numerous articles including Elle online.

Margaret Flowers, MD, is a mother of three adults and pediatrician living in Baltimore, Maryland. Flowers left medical practice in 2007 to advocate full-time for National Improved Medicare for All. Since then, she has extended her scope of work to include economic, racial and environmental justice and peace. She is adviser to the board of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), co-chair of the Maryland chapter of PNHP and co-founder of the Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign. She is co-director of Popular Resistance where she coordinates the Health Over Profit for Everyone campaign. She ran for US Senate in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and currently serves as co-chair of the Green Party United States.

Sam Foldy is a fourth-year osteopathic medical student from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine and is AMSA’s Chair of the D.O. Advisory Board for the 2018-2019 leadership year. He is a former Pre-Doctoral Anatomy and Osteopathic Principles and Practice Teaching Fellow at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. During his fellowship year, he also received a Master of Science in Adult Education with a concentration in Curriculum and Instructional Design from Troy University. Sam has been involved in multiple AMSA National leadership positions in the past, including serving on AMSA’s National Board of Trustees as the Vice President for Leadership Development, as well on the Board of Regional Directors as a Medical Regional Director for Region III.

Alan Friedman is the Founder and CEO of J3Personica, a research-based organization redefining personality for health care. He is an advisor to leaders at every level of clinical, education and health care systems. Alan is known as a outcomes oriented advisor with the unique ability to work across cultural, geographic and technical boundaries.

Alan holds a master’s degree in Organizational Psychology with a distinction in Change Leadership from Columbia University in New York, a certificate in Management Practices from New York University, a certificate in Finance from McGill University and a degree in Consumer Affairs from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Most recently he completed the “Launching New Ventures” program at Harvard Business School.

His professional credentials include completing the Columbia Business School Coaching Intensive Certification Program (CCCP), certifications to administer the Hogan Assessment Suite, Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Learning Versatility Index (LVI), the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) Benchmarks 360 Instrument, AON Adept 15 and the Change Leadership Behavior Inventory (CLBI).

Alan’s contributions have been published in numerous peer reviewed journals including, Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Surgical Education, Academic Journal of Emergency Medicine, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) and the American Journal of Medical Quality. He is an associate member of the American Psychological Association, a member of the American Society for Human Resources in Healthcare, a member of The Academy of Management, a member of The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, an associate member of
the Metro NY Association of Applied Psychologists, a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a member of the Association for Test Publishers.

Dr. Ken Frisof graduated from Harvard College and New York University School of Medicine. After two years of residency training, he worked/volunteered for the United Farmworkers Union as a clinic physician in Calexico, California. He then returned to Detroit in the original class of family medicine residents at Wayne State University. Upon completion, he became its Residency Director.

In 1984, he moved to Cleveland as the Family Medicine Residency Director at the struggling program at MetroHealth, Cleveland’s public hospital. After five additional years in academic leadership, he decided to devote his energies to universal health care and health care justice advocacy, but remained working in MetroHealth’s community clinics part time.

His advocacy accomplishments include co-writing the first state single payer universal health care bill, introduced in 1989 a few months after the original NEJM article making the case for applying the Canadian model to the United States. He has created several state and national advocacy organizations. In the mid-2000s, he worked across ideological divides with Henry Aaron at Brookings and Stuart Butler, then at Heritage, to introduce bipartisan bicameral legislation to provide funding to states to move towards universal health care. Lead sponsors were Senators Bingaman (NM) and Voinovich (OH), Representatives (now Senator) Baldwin (WI) and (now disgraced) Price (GA). Joining the National Physicians Alliance Board in 2014, his first project was “Values and Value in Health Care.” For the past two years, he has also been working with Prof. Danielle Allen at Harvard on projects related to Shared American Values.

Shaina Goodman is the director of policy for reproductive health and rights at the National Partnership for Women & Families. She manages policy and legal work on reproductive health, rights and justice issues, including federal and state policy on abortion coverage and access, contraception, and other sexual and reproductive health issues. She also provides strategic, policy and technical assistance to policymakers, researchers and advocates, and collaborates across National Partnership programs to holistically address the barriers that women face and advance proactive policy solutions.

Shaina’s prior experience has focused on issues of gender-based violence, including the intersection of domestic violence and family policy, economic justice, housing and public benefits. She has also deeply engaged in work related to social justice and movement building, and is a trained dialogue facilitator.

Shaina received her JD, Master’s in Social Work, and Bachelor’s degree in Women & Gender Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She is licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland.

Laura K. Guyer, PhD, MEd, RDN, returned to University of Florida (UF) in 2011 to establish the only undergraduate academic program nationwide dedicated to the elimination of health disparities. Health Disparities in Society is housed in the Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies Research in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Dr. Guyer teaches courses in health disparities, women’s health and health literacy; her research investigates health disparities in vulnerable populations and barriers to building health literacy capacity in individual patients and the public.

Before returning to UF, Dr. Guyer was the Associate Director at Suwannee River Area Health Education Center (AHEC) where she directed internships for medical, physician assistant and MPH students. She co-authored Quit Smoking Now!, the first statewide curriculum used by the Florida AHEC Network to provide tobacco cessation education to Floridians. She co-founded Engineering THE LAW (ETL), Inc., a non-profit organization that teaches grassroots advocacy principles to state and national professional associations.

Dr. Guyer was a tenured Associate Professor and Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and Combined Master of Science Degree-Dietetic Internship program at the University of Florida. She has been a clinician in acute care, wellness nutritionist, rural nutrition consultant and first editor of The Handbook of Medical Nutrition Therapy: The Florida Diet Manual. She is published in numerous peer reviewed and consumer publications and has held leadership positions in the Florida Public Health Association and Florida Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Dr. Guyer maintains professional registration with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Heba is the president and Founder of AMSA at Cuyamaca chapter in San Diego, Calif. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and expected to graduate next summer. She finds a special passion in surgery and has devoted three years working as a medical assistant in the OR.

She strives to increase awareness about the importance of blood donation. For her work with organizations like the American Red Cross, she received a recognition from the Governor of San Diego in 2018.

Heba looks at AMSA as a platform to recruit leaders who have a vision in providing health care that extends beyond the office visit.

Joshua Horwitz, JD, is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. He has spent almost three decades working on gun violence prevention issues.

Josh sees his role as looking around the next corner to develop new ideas and strategies for the gun violence prevention movement. For instance, through his 2009 book Guns, Democracy and the Insurrectionist Idea, published by the University of Michigan Press, Josh was the first to identify how the gun lobby’s “Second Amendment remedies” approach to government was an anti-democratic attack on the rule of law and other democratic institutions that keep the rest of us free.

In 2013, Josh was one of the founders of the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy, a group of mental health and public health experts who have examined the intersection of guns and mental health. The Consortium released a set of policy recommendations designed to promote policy that will more effectively prevent those at a heightened risk of violent behavior from possessing firearms. One of those recommendations was the basis for California’s first in the nation Gun Violence Restraining Order law (AB1014) that passed in September 2014. Since then, eleven additional states and the District of Columbia have passed Extreme Risk-Style Laws.

Josh is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received his law degree from the George Washington University. He is a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he teaches public health advocacy and is a regular blogger at The Hill newspaper.

Dr. Huebner is a practicing family physician and Medical Director for Population Health at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin. He takes care of a large panel of patients ranging from birth to geriatrics, and leads work within UW Health on care model development, clinical-community linkages, and other Triple Aim initiatives. Dr. Huebner attended the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his family medicine residency at the University of Washington. Next, he worked at a community health center in the Seattle area as a National Health Service Corps member before moving back to his home state of Wisconsin in 2009. Prior to UW Health, he worked as Medical Director for Quality on both the clinical delivery and insurance sides of a not-for-profit health care cooperative in Madison. Throughout his medical training and years in practice, he has  spent three stints in Washington, D.C., to learn about and work on health policy. He is the current Co-Chair of the National Physicians Alliance.

Avanthi Jayaweera is a fourth-year medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. During her undergraduate education at Virginia Tech, she volunteered regularly at a rural free clinic where she witnessed systemic injustice in the health care system and developed her passion for securing patient rights and health care reform.

In medical school, Avanthi served as the local AMSA Chapter Co-President and hosted multiple events including lobby days and advocacy skills training to engage others in activism. Her chapter was recognized nationally for their strong commitment towards building future physician leaders in the community. Avanthi has also worked extensively with AMSA’s AIDS Advocacy Network to mobilize other medical students to advocate for relevant legislation regarding global AIDS, access to affordable medicines, syringe exchange programs, among others.

Currently, Avanthi serves as AMSA’s Education and Advocacy Fellow where she develops educational programming and advocacy initiatives to engage medical trainees in broader efforts to eliminate health disparities and inequities. She is eager to continue to fight for social justice.

Dr. Jonas is a practicing family physician, an expert in integrative health and health care delivery, and a widely published scientific investigator. Additionally, Dr. Jonas is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. From 2001-2016, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Samueli Institute, a non-profit medical research organization supporting the scientific investigation of healing processes in the areas of stress, pain and resilience.

Dr. Jonas was the Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health from 1995-1999, and prior to that served as the Director of the Medical Research Fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Medicine, the Journal of Family Practice, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and The Lancet. Dr. Jonas received the 2015 Pioneer Award from the Integrative Healthcare Symposium, the 2007 America’s Top Family Doctors Award, the 2003 Pioneer Award from the American Holistic Medical Association, the 2002 Physician Recognition Award of the American Medical Association, and the 2002 Meritorious Activity Prize from the International Society of Life Information Science in Chiba, Japan.

Dr. Jonas is currently the Executive Director of Samueli Integrative Health Programs, an effort supported by Henry and Susan Samueli to empower patients and doctors by providing solutions that enhance health, prevent disease, and relieve chronic pain.

Dr. Jonas has led and participated in hundreds of research studies beginning with his time as Director of the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine. While serving as CEO and President of the non-profit research organization Samueli Institute, his work set the bar for evidence-based research in the areas of pain, stress and human performance.

Margarida Jorge is a veteran of electoral, union, civic engagement and issue campaigns and a recognized expert in strategic campaigns, grassroots organizing, issue advocacy and organizational development. Margarida currently serves as Executive Director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a coalition campaign she helped found in 2008 to pass, implement and defend the landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Following the November 2016 elections, HCAN reconvened to defend the ACA, Medicaid and the social safety net from Republican attacks and to advance policies that expand and improve health care for all.

Margarida has served in many national leadership roles including as National Director of SEIU’s American’s for Health Care campaign, co-chair of Americans for Tax Fairness, and Executive Director of the Women’s Equality Center. She has worked as a strategic consultant and advisor for many progressive organizations including Demos, Main Street Alliance, Vision First, Faith in Action, Family [email protected], Working America, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) and the Ms. Foundation for Women. Before coming to DC, Margarida spent nearly 15 years organizing labor unions, passing legislation, building community organizations and electing candidates in states like Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and Florida.  Margarida holds two BA degrees from Columbia University.

Stephanie Kang is currently a second-year Doctor of Public Health student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, she moved to Boston in 2007 for her BS in Behavioral Neuroscience at Northeastern University. Since then, she has worked with a medical organization across East Africa, performed drug discovery research for neurodegenerative diseases, and coordinated clinical research and quality improvement programs in hospital settings. Prior to starting her doctoral program, she was the Program Director for two non-profits: one an innovative education program at Harvard Medical School for underserved Boston youth and the other, a global health organization implementing community-based health projects in rural Haiti. She also received her MS in Global Health at Northwestern University. Additionally, Stephanie has worked in various global health projects and positions in India, Mexico, and Kenya, as well as in Geneva, Switzerland for the Human Rights Team at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, & Malaria. Currently, she is the Medicare For All Fellow in Congresswoman Jayapal’s office and the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center.

Steve Knievel is an advocate for Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, focusing on expanding affordable access to medicines. Knievel is an expert in policy matters affecting drug pricing and access to medicines in the United States. He brings his knowledge and experience in domestic and international campaign work to Public Citizen, including thorough policy analysis, lobbying, communications and coalition building.

Knievel has been published in The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report and other major outlets. He has been quoted in The Washington Post, STAT News, Bloomberg BNA, and Inside Health Policy, among other publications.

Mark G. Kuczewski, PhD, is the Fr. Michael I. English, S.J., Professor of Medical Ethics. He is also the director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy and chair of the Department of Medical Education at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Mark is a past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). He has been engaged in bedside clinical ethics issues for more than 25 years and much of that experience forms the basis for the popular text, An Ethics Casebook for Hospitals: Practical Approaches to Everyday Ethics Consultations (2nd edition, Georgetown University Press).

For the last decade, he has been an articulate spokesperson for the just and equitable treatment of immigrant patients including creating with Drs. Johana Mejias-Beck and Amy Blair the Sanctuary Doctor website to assist clinicians in supporting immigrant patients. He also led the effort to make the Stritch School of Medicine the first medical school in the nation to openly welcome applicants who are DACA recipients. For his work om behalf of immigrants, Mark has received numerous awards including the Moral Courage Award from Faith in Public Life, the Carmen Velasquez Warrior Award from Alivio Medical Center, and the Strangers No Longer Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago. Mark was also named (with Maria Vidal de Haymes) the Loyola University Chicago 2017 Faculty Member of the Year.

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Bettina Lanyi serves as organizational liaison for the Brady campaign, where she has led public health and communications efforts including the ASKing Saves Kids safe storage awareness program, co-founded by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the creation of the End Family Fire program. Prior to joining the Brady campaign in 2015, she led public health awareness and communications campaigns at the American Cancer Society and at KPMG Consulting, and for clients including the Department of Defense and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Alex Lawson is the Executive Director of Social Security Works, the convening member of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition— a coalition made up of over 340 national and state organizations representing over 50 million Americans. Lawson previously served as the Communications Director for the organization. In his current role, he coordinates the multifaceted education and advocacy operations to protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations while maintaining Social Security as a vehicle of social justice.

Lawson is also the owner of We Act Radio and its video and livestream production arm NMG Live. We Act is a media corporation that combines broadcast and new media to deliver shows in the formats people use most. We Act’s original programs can be found streaming at WeActRadio.com; on AM and FM radio stations around the country; on podcast or iTunes; and livestreaming on We Act’s YouTube channel.

Dr. Tao Le developed a passion for medical education as a medical student. He currently edits more than 15 titles in the First Aid series, including First Aid for the USMLE Step 1. In addition, he is the founder and editor-in-chief of the USMLE-Rx online video, test banks, and flash cards series. Dr. Le earned his medical degree from UCSF in 1996 and completed his residency training in internal medicine at Yale University and his allergy and immunology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University.

Barbara Lewis, MBA, began her career as a journalist writing for numerous national publications from The Wall Street Journal to Modern Healthcare and the British Medical Journal. She returned to school, obtaining an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she taught business communication. Barbara founded a marketing consulting firm in 1991; however, she left her career when she spent two weeks in the ICU with her sister who tragically passed away in 2012. She decided to dedicate the rest of her life to improving the patient experience. She is the former Co-chair of The Beryl Institute’s Global Patient & Family Advisory Council and the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Regional Member Advisory Council. Barbara is the Managing Editor of DocCom, an on-line communication skills learning program for medical students, residents and physicians, which sponsors a podcast – Healthcare Communication: Effective Techniques for Clinicians. She is the Managing Director of the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care. Barbara is the author of the books, Get a Black Belt in Business and Get a Black Belt in Marketing, based on her black belt in karate.

Claire McAndrew is the Director of Campaigns and Partnerships at Families USA. Ms. McAndrew oversees advocacy work focused on the organization’s mission to ensure high quality, affordable health coverage and care for all. Her portfolio includes federal and state advocacy to protect the gains in coverage and care achieved by the Affordable Care Act. She also oversees Families USA’s state and federal advocacy to improve provider access through consumer protections for network adequacy, provider directories, and balance billing.

Ms. McAndrew provides extensive strategic campaign assistance to state and national organizations, and she frequently speaks on health care advocacy issues around the country. In addition, she is a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and Vice-Chair of the Standing Advisory Board to the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange.

Previously Ms. McAndrew served as Private Insurance Program Director at Families USA, managing the organization’s policy work on private insurance issues including those related to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces. Ms. McAndrew has also authored numerous publications on issues including health insurance marketplaces, private insurance regulation, network adequacy, wellness incentive plans, COBRA continuation coverage, and limited-benefit health plans.

Prior to joining Families USA in 2007, Ms. McAndrew held positions in mental health and children’s health advocacy organizations. Ms. McAndrew holds an MPH in Health Policy from the University of Michigan and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Coming soon.

Keanan McGonigle is a fourth-year medical student at Tulane University School of Medicine. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in human biology from the University of Virginia in 2014 and completed a Master of Public Policy in 2015, also at the University of Virginia. He has been involved in AIDS advocacy throughout undergraduate years and medical training and currently serves as Chair of AMSA’s AIDS Advocacy Network. Keanan has interests and geriatrics, primary care, and HIV medicine and plans to pursue a residency in internal medicine after serving as AMSA’s Education and Advocacy Fellow in 2019-2020.

Justin Mendoza is the State Partnerships Manager at Families USA. In this role he works to support state consumer advocates by building cross-state collaborations through Families USA’s State Innovation and Learning Collaborative, advising on campaign strategy development and coalition building, and providing technical assistance on state legislation. Justin also works on Families USA’s drug pricing projects, where he provides strategic guidance and expertise on prescription drug pricing policy, and co-coordinates a monthly organizing table connecting organizations working to mobilize for lower drug prices. In addition to his work at Families USA, Justin’s current activities include serving on the board of directors of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a nonprofit student-driven organization working on access to medicines.

Before joining Families USA, Justin worked as the organizer for Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, where he built the drug prices organizing table, managed a social media presence, and created digital and field campaign strategies. He also spearheaded the Affordable Medicines Now conference held in Washington, D.C. in June 2018, which was a first-of-its kind convening with grassroots advocates, policy experts, and lawmakers dedicated to work toward making medicines affordable for all.

Prior to Public Citizen, Justin worked at Partners In Health, a global health nonprofit with offices in Boston, MA, on the PIH Engage team. There he worked to build a grassroots-based volunteer program which raised nearly $500,000 over his tenure and mobilized more than 4,000 advocates in grassroots advocacy efforts aimed at building sustainable global health financing.

Justin holds a MPH, with a certificate in regulatory affairs from Yale University and a BS in biomedical science and neuroscience from Central Michigan University.

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Dr. Nguyen grew up in the rural South and completed his medical education and residency training at LSUHSC – New Orleans. He has been involved in medical education since 2003, first as the Site Clerkship Director for rotating Stanford medical students for seven years. In 2010, he became the Program Director for the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Ob/Gyn Residency Program.

Dr. Nguyen is interested in resident wellness, global health, and advocacy. He practices general Ob/Gyn and is a board examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology. In his spare time, he keeps himself busy with cooking, refereeing his kids’ soccer games, and chauffeuring his 3 children around town.

Kerrie Nguyen is currently a PGY-2 at the Kaiser Permanente San Diego Family Medicine Residency. Her family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam when she was 1-years-old. She was raised in San Diego, attended Dartmouth College, studied abroad in China, and then attended medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans. Her medical interests include women’s, refugee, population health and minor procedures. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, traveling, trivia, and watching tennis and most sports.

Coming soon.

Carly Pildis serves as Senior Associate, Advocacy and Organizing for RESULTS. Previously, she served as Operation Vote Director for Obama for America- DC, Interfaith Organizing and Advocacy Fellow for Jubilee USA Network, and as a Political Organizer/Advocacy Consultant for American Jewish World Service for the 2008 NH Primary. She also serves as a Contributing Editor to Tablet Magazine.

Timothy E. Quill, MD, is Distinguished Professor in Palliative Care at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) where his is also Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, Medical Humanities and Nursing.  He was the Founding Director of the URMC Palliative Care Division and a Past President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is Acting Director of the URMC Schyve Center for Biomedical Ethics.

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 care and over 150 articles published in major medical journals.  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 MD 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 University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Quill is a Fellow in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a Master in the American College of Physicians and an ABMS certified palliative care consultant.

Lynn Quincy is Director of the Healthcare Value Hub at Altarum, a company that creates and implements solutions to advance health among vulnerable and publicly insured populations. At Altarum, the Healthcare Value Hub monitors and synthesizes evidence to help consumer advocates work on health care cost, quality and equity issues. Via their free resources, in person trainings and webinars, the Healthcare Value Hub employs a comprehensive view of the health and social services system, and the power of consumer voices, to achieve a health system that is equitable, patient-centered, allocates resources wisely and delivers uniformly high health outcomes.

Ms. Quincy also works at the federal and state levels on a wide variety of health policy issues, with a particular focus on health care costs, transparency, consumer protections, and consumers’ health insurance literacy. Ms. Quincy serves as a consumer expert in myriad venues, including policy conference planning, price transparency approaches, and more.

Prior to joining Altarum, Ms. Quincy held senior positions with Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports; Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.; the Institute for Health Policy Solutions and Watson Wyatt Worldwide (now Willis Towers Watson). She holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.

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Reshma Ramachandran, MD, MPP, is a Family Medicine resident at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. Prior to this role, Reshma served in a research faculty role as Assistant Scientist within the Innovation+Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative at Johns Hopkins, where she focused on antimicrobial resistance and access to medicines including state drug pricing proposals. She and her colleagues supported efforts in Maryland to curb high drug prices by helping draft legislation, providing background materials, and offering testimony at the Maryland General Assembly. She also helped edit the recent White Paper co-authored by the Yale Global Health Justice Project, National Physicians Alliance, and Universal Healthcare Foundation of Connecticut entitled, “Curbing Unfair Drug Prices: A Primer for States.” Reshma trained in both medicine at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Previously, she served as the first PharmFree Fellow with the American Medical Student Association focused on removing the undue influence of pharmaceutical companies on academic medical centers in terms of medical education and prescribing behavior. She currently serves as a board member of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) North America as well as a member on the Commission for Governmental Advocacy for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

Dr. Steven Reich is a fellowship trained spine surgeon. His practice is limited to disorders and surgery of the neck and back. He attended medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his Orthopaedic Residency at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. He is fellowship trained in spine surgery from The Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, one of only 13 regional spine trauma centers in the country. He has offered his expertise to the residents of New Jersey since 1992.

Dr. Reich is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, member of the North American Spine Society, and was the president of the New Jersey Spine Society since 2008. He is the former chairman of the New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research. He has many publications of spine surgery topics, and blends this research expertise with practical conservative therapy to achieve the optimum result for his patients.

Paul Anthony Rizk is an Orthopaedic Surgery resident at the University of Florida and recent graduate of UT Southwestern Medical School after completing degrees in Physics and Chemical Engineering at Lamar University. Paul developed a passion for the learning process and teaching after struggling with the transition into medical school. He hopes to continue to help refine the learning process for medical students and future residents at all levels of their training, ultimately teaching residents at an academic institution in the future. Paul is currently a writer for the medical test preparation company Pastest.

Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Her interests focus on clinical quality and operational improvements in health care systems. Previously, she was director of the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and managed the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and delivery system reform. She received her BA with honors, magna cum laude, in business economics from Brown University, her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha, and her DPhil (PhD) in Health Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She completed her residency training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.

Aaron Shapiro is the founder and executive director of Citizen Physicians, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to training medical students in effective civic engagement. He is a fourth-year medical student at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, a National Health Service Corps Scholar dedicated to working in primary care, and recently received his Master’s in Public Health in Leadership and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Joseph I. Shapiro was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1954. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and his M.D. from UMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School in 1980. Dr. Shapiro trained in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital (1980-83) and Nephrology at the University of Colorado (1983-87). He rose through the academic ranks there and moved to the University of Toledo (formerly the Medical College of Ohio) as Professor of Medicine and chief of Nephrology in 1997.

Dr. Shapiro became Chairman of Medicine in 1999, serving until 2012 when became Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine at Marshall University. Dr. Shapiro has been active as a clinician, teacher and researcher. He has received a number of awards for his scholarship, teaching, research and institutional citizenship including induction into Alpha Omega Alpha, Fellowship and Mastership in the American College of Physicians, American Society of Nephrology and American Heart Association and the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Award.

Dr. Shapiro maintains board certification and has been listed on the various “top doctors” lists including Castle Connelly. During this career, Dr. Shapiro has received more than 50M dollars in funding from the NIH as principal or co-principal investigator and authored more than 300 scientific articles, book chapters and patents. Dr. Shapiro has also been active as an entrepreneur, starting several companies based on scientific discoveries.

Denise Octavia Smith is a Research Associate and Projects Manager at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Health Disparities Institute (HDI). Mrs. Smith conducts health services research, develops and coordinates partnerships, coalitions and multi-sector alliances, and builds community capacity to advance a health equity public policy agenda in Connecticut. In her role as the HDI Community Engagement Core Co-Lead, Denise has developed evidence-based tools and approaches to increase the value of health insurance and improve capacity to navigate health systems for under-represented communities of color in CT. Her arts-based strategies advance positive narratives, promote resiliency and wellness and elevate the voices of boys and men of color among health and social service providers, educators and employers. Her training and technical assistance to federally qualified health centers, faith and community-based organizations has strengthened the role, respect and legislative support of Community Health Workers as a critical bridge to achieve clinical and community integration in health services.

In 2013, Denise developed and implemented online and in-person training, statewide certification and consumer engagement strategies for Access Health CT with 400 culturally and linguistically diverse Navigators, In-Person Assisters and Certified Application Counselors resulting in Connecticut’s successful enrollment of over 30,000 residents.

Mrs. Smith is a 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leadership award recipient and a 2016 Universal Health Care Foundation “Leaders in Action” Fellow. Mrs. Smith serves as an advisor to the American Board of Internal Medicine Choosing Wisely National Patient Engagement Committee, the CT Office of Health Strategy Consumer Advisory Board, and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy “Governance of Learning Activities in Learning Healthcare Systems” PCORI research project.

Melissa Stiles received her MD degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City and completed her residency at the Madison Family Practice Residency Program in 1991 and a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at UCLA in 2001. She is currently a Professor in the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and the DFMCH’s Director of Faculty Development. She is a former medical director for Hospice of Madison and is also board certified in Palliative Medicine. Dr. Stiles was the Associate Director of the Madison Campus Residency Program from June, 2002 to June, 2006. She is a steering committee member for the Wisconsin Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Linda and Gene Farley Wisconsin Chapter of Physicians for a National Healthcare Program. She has volunteered for UW MEDIC free clinics since 1992.She was honored to receive the Marc Hansen Lectureship Award in 1997, the Baldwin E Lloyd, MD Clinical Teacher Award in 2003 and the WAFP Educator of the Year award in 2018. Special interests include violence prevention, geriatrics, palliative care, health care reform and using emerging technologies in medical education.

Melinda St. Louis is Campaign Director for Public Citizen’s Medicare-for-All Campaign. For the past 20 years, St. Louis has led multiple campaigns that challenge corporate power and promote economic justice and human rights, and is thrilled to now focus her energy on building a movement to finally deliver guaranteed health care for everyone in the United States. She received her master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.

Dr. Loice Swisher has been a nocturnist for two decades at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital, an inner-city community hospital associated with the Drexel Emergency Medicine Residency Program. Her plans for an academic career were radically altered when her daughter developed a malignant brain tumor and the resection surgery neurologically devastated her child.  Since that life-changing event, resilience has become a personal and professional passion. Dr. Swisher participates in residency, institutional, regional and national resilience committees.  In addition, she is a professional member of the American Association of Suicidology and the co-founder of the National Physician Suicide Awareness Day instituted on September 17, 2018.

Dr. Megan Testa graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 2007, and subsequently completed a residency in psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland (2011), followed by Fellowships in Forensic Psychiatry (2012) and Community Psychiatry (2013) at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Testa is currently an Assistant Professor at University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, where she teaches and supervises psychiatry residents, forensic psychiatry fellows, and community psychiatry fellows. She spends her clinical time providing psychiatric care to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, addictions, and criminal justice involvement, specializing in community reentry. She provides forensic consultation for the state of Ohio and the city of Cleveland, and is a regular participant at Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Trainings for Cleveland-area police officers. Dr. Testa maintains professional memberships in the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the National Physicians Alliance, and Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform. She has a strong interest in health policy and is engaged in advocacy for health justice and criminal justice reform at the state and local level.

Kelly Thibert is a second-year Family Medicine Resident at Grant Family Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. She attended the University of Central Florida (Go Knights!) in Orlando, Florida, where she majored in Molecular and Microbiology and minored in Women’s Studies. She attended Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in South Florida where she earned her Doctorate in Osteopathic Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees.

Before applying to residency, Kelly served as the National President for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), improving her health policy skills which she believes are vital to being an advocate and change agent for her patients and the communities in which they live. Kelly is passionate about comprehensive reproductive health, health policy and social activism.

Dr. Trivedi is an internal medicine physician with over 20 years of experience in clinical medicine, health policy research, strategic communications and health care advocacy. He has held leadership roles in academic, military, political and public and private sector settings. A former Navy Officer, Dr. Trivedi served as the medical team commander for the first ground troops to enter Iraq in 2003. He oversaw the care of over 1,500 forward deployed Marine Corps and Naval forces as well as civilians and enemy prisoners of war and treated over 300 trauma injuries as the first physician on scene. For his service, Manan earned the Combat Action Ribbon and his unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

As a VA health services researcher in 2006, Dr. Trivedi drew attention to PTSD and other mental health issues among OEF and OIF veterans via qualitative studies that helped shape Veteransʼ mental health policy; and while serving with the Navy Surgeon General as the Department Head of Emerging Health Policy, he focused on cost containment in the Military Healthcare System (MHS) and led the $2.5 million evaluation of the medical home primary care system and all clinical aspects of the development of the $18 million operational injury and treatment model used for Navy casualty prediction and vulnerability testing.

Dr. Trivedi was the Democratic Nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6th district for three consecutive cycles. In his campaigns, he fought for strong health care and social justice platforms and led the charge in advocating for evidence-based policy solutions. Dr. Trivedi also has extensive experience in clinical hospital medicine in academic and tertiary medical centers and with larger health care systems including Kaiser Permanente. He currently works as a hospitalist in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and lives with his wife, Surekha, and his two daughters, Sonia, and Ashmi.

Dr. Tsai is the National President of AMSA. He recently graduated with his MD and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He grew up outside New Orleans, LA, he enjoys singing, and he plans to pursue psychiatry for residency training.

Bryan has served as a trusted advisor to physicians, physician leaders and health care executives, in a number of capacities. Prior to joining J3P, he served as Vice President of Industry Excellence for Select International, a PSI Company, where he created and led the health care practice. As Vice President and Corporate Counsel for the consulting division of Zimmer Orthopaedics, he provided guidance to health system leaders on service line growth and physician-hospital alignment strategies. As an attorney, he represented physicians in their business, regulatory and career matters.

He continues to teach, write and speak about a variety of topics including health care talent and culture, physician success, and physician leadership. Recent publications on physician career success have appeared in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research and the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma.

He received his undergraduate degree from Juniata College, his Master’s Degree from Boston University and his Law Degree from Duquesne University where he published works on medical informed consent, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Dr. Tracy Webb received her DVM degree from The Ohio State University and then completed a small animal medicine and surgery internship followed by an emergency and critical care residency at Angell Animal Medical Center. Tracy then moved to Colorado where she received a PhD in Immunology/Pathology and remained at Colorado State University (CSU) in a Research Scientist role as well as performing clinical work. Tracy is the Coordinator of the Clinical Review Board at CSU, a member of the COHA Communication and Collaboration subcommittee, and involved in various initiatives to encourage and support quality clinical trials and the use of natural animal models to accelerate translational research.

Dr. Dustyn Williams is the Founder and Lead Educator at OnlineMedEd which serves 150,000+ medical learners every month. Until January 2019, he was also a hospitalist, the clerkship director in internal medicine, and Core Faculty for the residency program at Baton Rouge General, where he specialized in curriculum development and in the remediation of medical students and residents. He remains committed to the ongoing success of medical students and residents through medical school and residency.

Robin joined the Child Family Health International team in 2015 as Assistant Director managing programs in Africa and Asia. Now in the role of Managing Director, she provides program management and support for all of CFHI’s programs and operations, helping to ensure program safety and quality, best practices in international education, and strong institutional and global partnerships.

Robin’s professional background includes extensive work in international education, global health, and asset-based development. Robin holds an MBA from Florida International University and a BA in Sociology/Anthropology with a minor in Ethnic Studies from Lewis and Clark College. She completed a course at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, helping to inform her interest in increasing intercultural competency in global work and education, and subsequently co-authored the Cultural Detective Dominican Republic series. Robin received a Fulbright Fellowship grant in 2007 and spent a year researching gender-based violence in the Dominican Republic, where she subsequently lived for nearly five years. Robin is passionate about supporting thoughtful, ethical and asset-based strategies to address health disparities and support underserved communities.