Speakers

Michael Dowling is one of the health care industry’s most highly respected voices, achieving the No. 1 ranking in Modern Healthcare magazine’s 2022 list of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.” As a health care executive over the past three decades, he has been a no-excuses advocate for reforms that have helped the industry become more patient-focused and committed to quality and safety. His willingness to take a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration has earned widespread praise and recognition from peers and the news media. During his years in academia and government, Mr. Dowling has distinguished himself as a compassionate voice for those in need, developing and promoting innovative health and human services policies. 

As president and CEO of Northwell Health for 22 years, he has demonstrated invaluable leadership in overseeing a rapidly expanding clinical, research and academic enterprise with annual revenue of $18 billion. With a workforce of more than 85,000, Northwell is the largest health care provider and private employer in New York State, caring for more than two million people annually through a vast network of 21 hospitals, more than 900 outpatient facilities—including 220 primary care practices and 50-plus urgent care centers—along with home care, rehabilitation and end-of-life services. 

Hailing from Ireland, Mr. Dowling bridges borders and brings a global perspective to health care. In 2020, he received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, which recognized his contributions to Ireland and to Irish communities abroad, presented by the President of Ireland. He also received an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and is a board member of the Foreign Policy Association. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and the North American Board of the Smurfit School of Business at University College in Dublin, Ireland. He also earned his bachelor’s degree from University College Cork, and went on to receive honorary doctorates from Queens University Belfast and University College Dublin. Mr. Dowling was the Grand Marshal of New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2017, when he was also inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame. 

Mr. Dowling has invested heavily in Northwell’s research arm, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, home to 50 research labs, 3,000 clinical research trials, and 5,000 scientists and staff who are transforming the treatment of conditions like lupus, arthritis, sepsis, cancer, psychiatric illness and Alzheimer’s disease. Feinstein has gained stature as the global headquarters of bioelectronic medicine research, where physician scientists are tapping neural pathways that signal the body to heal itself, reducing reliance on prescription drugs. 

Under Mr. Dowling’s leadership, Northwell has also pursued a visionary approach to medical education, developing innovative curricula at its Zucker School of Medicine and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Northwell’s graduate medical education programs have become one of the nation’s largest, training more than 1,900 medical residents and fellows annually. Further underscoring his commitment to education, Mr. Dowling’s first act when becoming Northwell’s CEO in 2002 was creating a corporate university, the Center for Learning & Innovation, which has helped instill a culture of lifelong learning among employees at all levels of the organization. 

Mr. Dowling’s highly visible leadership style enabled the health system to successfully navigate the intense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably in 2020 when the New York metropolitan area was at the epicenter of the epidemic’s first wave. Mr. Dowling detailed his and Northwell’s experiences in a book titled Leading Through a Pandemic: The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis. 

Northwell clinicians treated more than 350,000 COVID patients and the health system used its innovative culture to significantly expand bed capacity and leverage its resources to ensure adequate supplies of lifesaving drugs, ventilators, personal protective equipment and other essential provisions to protect patients and caregivers, including administering the nation’s first COVID vaccines in December 2020. 

In addition to his 2020 book about Northwell’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Dowling is the co-author of a 2020 memoir titled After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant’s Journey from Ireland to America, which chronicles his poverty-stricken childhood in Ireland, his years as a social policy expert in academia and in New York State government, and his ascent to becoming one of the health care industry’s preeminent leaders. He is also the co-author of the 2018 book, Health Care Reboot: Megatrends Energizing American Medicine, about the trends that are driving the nation’s health care system toward greater quality, safety, access and affordability. 

Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Dowling was the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, playing a key role in initiating mergers and acquisitions that enabled Northwell to become New York’s largest integrated health system. Before joining Northwell in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Mr. Dowling served in New York State government for 12 years during the 1980s and early 1990s, including seven years as deputy secretary of human services to former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, state director of health, education and human services, and later, commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services. He initiated numerous innovative programs aimed at expanding primary care access to the medically underserved and uninsured, and helping the state to combat the crack cocaine epidemic at that time. 

Before his public service career, Mr. Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County. He was also a former instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Continuing Professional Education. 

Mr. Dowling has been honored with many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including: The Conference Board’s 2023 Committee for Economic Development Distinguished Leadership Award, the 2021 Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, the Columbia University School of Business’ 2020 Deming Cup for Operational Excellence, the 2012 B’nai B’rith National Healthcare Award, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership’s 2011 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems’ 2011 CEO IT Achievement Award, the Ellis Island Honors Society’s 2007 Medal of Honor, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the American Jewish Committee’s National Human Relations Award, the State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the Mental Health Association of New York State’s Outstanding Public Service Award, and the American Society for Public Administration’s Alfred E. Smith Award. 

Mr. Dowling is a member of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, the Greater New York Hospital Association, the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), the League of Voluntary Hospitals of New York, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), The Healthcare Institute and the Long Island Association and many other professional organizations. 

Kevin J. Tracey, is President and CEO and the Karches Family Distinguished Chair in Medical Research at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research; Professor of Neurosurgery and Molecular Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell; and Executive Vice President, Research, at Northwell Health, in New York. A leader in the scientific fields of inflammation and bioelectronic medicine, his contributions include discovery and molecular mapping neural circuits controlling immunity and identifying the therapeutic action of monoclonal anti-TNF antibodies.

Professor Tracey received his B.S. (Chemistry, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Boston College in 1979, and his M.D. from Boston University in 1983.  He trained in neurosurgery from 1983 to 1992 at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center and was a guest investigator at the Rockefeller University before moving in 1992 to The Feinstein Institutes.

An inventor with more than 75 United States patents, author of more than 400 scientific publications, he cofounded the Global Sepsis Alliance, a non-profit organization supporting the efforts of >1 million sepsis caregivers in more than 70 countries. His honors and awards include a Doctorates honoris causa from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and Hofstra University, New York; the Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award; Fellow of the AIMBE Class (2020), the Harvey Society lecture, New York; and lectureships from Harvard, Yale, Rockefeller University, the NIH, and elsewhere. His memberships include the American Society of Clinical Investigation (2001), the American Association of Physicians (2009), the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame (2012), Alpha Omega Alpha (2014), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2014), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2020). Professor Tracey is author of Fatal Sequence (Dana Press), and delivers lectures nationally and internationally on inflammation, sepsis, the neuroscience of immunity, and bioelectronic medicine.

As the EVP and Chief Strategy Officer for Health and Life Sciences globally at Salesforce, LaShonda Anderson-Williams partners with customers and partners to enable tangible impact in the health and life sciences industry through innovation, empowerment, and digital transformation. She is responsible for developing and executing the Global HLS Industry Strategy, Vision, and Go To Market for a $3B+ portfolio.

LaShonda’s mission is to bring the full power of Salesforce to the health and life sciences industry to provide more affordable care, connected experiences, better outcomes, and broader access in order to democratize healthcare. She brings 25 years of industry and technology experience to her role at Salesforce. Her expertise and thought leadership allows Salesforce to drive growth and customer success across the industry. 

Kelvin A. Baggett, M.D. is a Managing Director on Patient Square Capital’s Transformation and Growth Team, where he serves as the Head of Patient Impact and Chair of Patient Square’s EMPIRIC Institute (Excellence in Medicine, Patient Impact Research, Innovation and Care). In his leadership role with Patient Square’s EMPIRIC Institute, Dr. Baggett utilizes his extensive health care experience to measure and drive improvements in quality, care delivery, health outcomes, and patient impact on a large scale across Patient Square’s investments. 

With over 20 years of experience in healthcare, Dr. Baggett has held various roles as a physician, clinical leader, operator, advisor, and investor. Prior to joining Patient Square, Kelvin served as the Executive Vice President & Chief Impact Officer at McKesson, a Fortune 10 company. As a member of McKesson’s Executive Operating Team, he was responsible for global strategies and initiatives and played a pivotal role in shaping McKesson’s purpose of “Advancing Health Outcomes for All.” 

Before McKesson, Kelvin served as the Chief Operating Officer for Health Care Navigator, the Senior Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer at Tenet Healthcare Corporation, and prior to that as the Chief Operating Officer, Clinical Services Group for HCA Healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelvin served as a civic volunteer as the City of Dallas’ COVID-19 Health and Healthcare Access Czar. 

Kelvin completed his medical training in Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. He completed advanced training as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and as a Fellow at the Duke University School of Medicine. He earned his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the East Carolina University School of Medicine, a Master of Public Health Degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Richard Barakat is an internationally recognized surgeon and clinical investigator who was Chief of the Gynecology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 2001 to 2013 and held the Ronald O. Perelman Chair in Gynecologic Surgery. Dr. Barakat was the lead investigator on several influential clinical trials at MSK, including a study to compare the benefits of laparoscopic versus standard surgery for patients with endometrial cancer and was the lead investigator on an NIH funded national study evaluating symptomatic lower-extremity lymphedema in women undergoing lymphadenectomy for cervical, uterine and vulvar cancer. Dr. Barakat is author or co-author of more than 340 peer-reviewed articles and numerous textbook chapters and was the lead editor of Principles and Practice of Gynecologic Oncology, one of the leading texts in the field.  

In addition he served as a member and examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and for five years served as a director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. He was President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology from 2013 to 2014 and past President of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (2014-2016). From 2013 -2017, he served as Director of the MSK regional care network and Cancer Alliance. 

In 2018 Dr. Barakat joined Northwell Health to lead all cancer services and research and serve as professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. 

David Battinelli, MD, is Northwell Health’s physician-in-chief on all clinical, research and education issues. This role follows a transition from his position as Northwell’s senior vice president and chief medical officer (CMO), in which he was responsible for the overall professional management of clinical, education, research and operational issues related to medical and clinical affairs.

Dr. Battinelli is also dean and Betsey Whitney Cushing Professor of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. A founding member of the Zucker School of Medicine, he previously served as the vice dean and earlier as the dean for medical education and chaired the committee charged with developing the new medical school’s curriculum.

While CMO, he also served as the chief operating officer for the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research where he oversaw all operational and budgetary issues for Northwell’s research enterprise growing extramural funding and endowments while improving overall efficiency and research productivity.

Previously, he served as the health system’s chief academic officer and senior vice president of academic affairs, in charge of all undergraduate and graduate educational programs, continuing medical education, and academic affairs and institutional relationships.

A board-certified internist, Dr. Battinelli came to Northwell Health from Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he served as vice chair for education, program director for the internal medicine residency program, and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. He was also an active staff physician at BMC and the Boston Veterans Administration.

Dr. Battinelli is a past president of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. He has worked closely with and served on numerous committees for a variety of national medical organizations including the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians and the Accreditation Committee on Graduate Medical Education. In addition, he has lectured extensively on clinical education, faculty development of teaching skills and internal medicine, and is a noted speaker and author on these subjects.

Dr. Battinelli earned his medical degree from the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Scranton. He completed his residency and chief residency at Boston City Hospital.

Since 1989, Stanley M. Bergman has been Chairman of the Board and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., a Fortune 500® company and the world’s largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental and medical practitioners, with more than 23,000 Team Schein Members worldwide and operations or affiliates in 33 countries and territories. Henry Schein is a member of the S&P 500® index. In 2022, the Company’s sales reached $12.6 billion. Henry Schein has been a Fortune World’s Most Admired Company for 22 consecutive years.

Mr. Bergman serves as a board member or advisor for numerous institutions including New York University College of Dentistry; the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine; Hebrew University; Tel Aviv University; the University of the Witwatersrand Fund; The World Economic Forum’s Health Care Governors; the Business Council for International Understanding; the Japan Society; and the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Bergman is an honorary member of the American Dental Association and the Alpha Omega International Dental Society. Mr. Bergman is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the CR Magazine Corporate Responsibility Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2017 CEO of the Year award by Chief Executive Magazine; Honorary Doctorates from The University of the Witwatersrand, Western University of Health Sciences, Hofstra University, A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Case Western Reserve University and Farmingdale State College (SUNY), and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Honorary Fellowship from King’s College London – Dental Institute and the International College of Dentists.

Stan and Dr. Marion Bergman and their family are active supporters of organizations fostering the arts, higher education, cultural diversity and grassroots health care and sustainable entrepreneurial economic development initiatives in the United States, Africa and other developing regions of the world.

Mr. Bergman is a graduate of The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and is a South African Chartered Accountant and a NYS Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Prior to joining the health system, Mr. Bouton was a research leader at Battelle, the world’s largest nonprofit research and development (R&D) organization, and was involved in medical device R&D programs for 18 years. He developed cancer detection algorithms in the late 90’s to help surgeons pinpoint and remove tumors more effectively. Later, he developed neural decoding methods that allowed the first paralyzed person with a brain implant to move again with their own thoughts.

Mr. Bouton’s work has been featured on 60 Minutes and TEDx, and he holds over 70 patents worldwide. He has been awarded two R&D 100 Awards and was recognized by the US Congress for his work in the medical device field. He has been named Inventor of the Year and Distinguished Inventor by Battelle, and was selected by the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 to attend the Frontiers in Engineering Symposium. Mr. Bouton received his BS in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University and his MS in Engineering Mechanics at Iowa State University with Honors.

 Having been appointed by the Board of Bishops of the A.M.E. Zion Church as Zion’s second Chief of Protocol in 50 years, Rev. Dr. Malcolm J. Byrd is responsible for establishing order and custom for all national services and ceremonies of the A.M.E. Zion Church. 

Dr. Byrd is a Long Island, New York native, yet he spent his formative years living in Detroit, Michigan and Gastonia, North Carolina where he completed his Secondary Education. He entered the ministry in 1998 at age 14 and was licensed as an exhorter by Presiding Elder H.L. Hall at the Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church in Gastonia, NC. 

Dr. Byrd is an alumnus of Livingstone College, a historically black college in North Carolina where he served as a Presidential Scholar, President of the Student Government Association, President, NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and member of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Byrd received an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York, at Purchase. He is also a graduate of the Pacific School of Religion of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA with a graduate degree in theological studies. He is a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ with a concentration in Homiletical Theology. He was an undergraduate fellow of the Fund for Theological Education. In October of 2019 Dr. Byrd was the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology Degree from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. 

Dr. Byrd has served in various capacities in local and national leadership. From 1998 to 2002 he was the National Chaplain for the Varick International Christian Youth Council. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Woodson University. He served as Vice-Chair of the board for the Brockton Church and Community after School Program, Trustee of the Robert Perry Corporation, Barber Scotia College Foundation, and currently President of the Leon W. Watts II Memorial Scholarship Fund. Dr. Byrd is a member of the Board of Directors of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New York, a National Park. Rev. Byrd was recently tapped by the National Council of Churches to serve as the Director of Logistics for the “ACT Now to End Racism Rally” that drew thousands on April 4, 2018 in Washington, DC. 

As an ordained Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Dr. Byrd enjoyed successful pastorates in Brockton, Massachusetts, North Attleboro, Massachusetts and Greenport, New York. He also served as the Senior Pastor of the historic Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, (Founded 1818) the oldest continuous black church in Brooklyn, New York as well as the Senior Pastor of the First A.M.E. Zion Church-San Francisco, California, one of oldest African American institutions west of the Mississippi, organized in 1852, where through his leadership the mortgage on the parsonage was liquidated 19 years ahead of schedule, a pipe organ installed and the church fully renovated. He is the founder of the First Church Community Outreach, a 501c3 organization that seeks to build and encourage beloved community. During his years in San Francisco, he was engaged in social and ecumenical ventures that have once again made First Church a hotbed of social justice activity in San Francisco. 

Dr. Byrd has organized and led many efforts and public demonstrations to draw attention to the plight of marginalized and disinherited people. He led the fight to save the Upward Bound program at the University of San Francisco. Byrd is a founding member of the 100 Coalition. Dr. Byrd was the Pastor of the historic (Organized in 1820) Jackson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Hempstead, New York for 5 years and in June of 2019 he was appointed the pastor of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion in Harlem, New York, the oldest Black institution in New York State and the Mother Church of Zion Methodism. 

Dr. Byrd has been described as a master orator with a keen focus upon English prose and lore of yesteryear. He speaks to over 100 audiences around the nation each year (with professional representation). He has been featured as a headliner at various national conferences, colleges and universities, religious congregations and civic observances. He has lectured and preached at Harvard University on numerous occasions at the invitation of its university ministry, and its late minister The Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes at The Memorial Church in the center of Harvard yard. One such lecture was titled, “The Life and Faith of Rev. Benjamin Franklin Wheeler, D.D.”, an A.M.E. Zion clergyman of the 19th century. He participated in a widely publicized discussion at the Schomburg Center for African American Research in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, NY. He has shared panels and pulpits with internationally renowned luminaries as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Gerasimos II, Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Amos C. Brown, Rev. Cecil Williams, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others. His areas of speaking interest are vast covering a territory that spans from Christian formation, African American Religious History, Social Justice, to Youth and Young Adult Development. Recently, he was honored to be the preacher for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington service held in San Francisco’s iconic Grace Cathedral. At the 2004 Fall Convocation at Livingstone College, as the President of the Student Government Association, Dr. Byrd approached the lectern and delivered his opening address to the trustees, faculty and students entirely in Classical Latin (Much like Harvard, Brown, and other institutions). This moment has been called one of the most memorable events in the recent history of the 130 year old institution. 

Dr. Byrd is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., 100 Black Men Inc, American Academy of Religion, NAACP, a 32nd degree Prince Hall Mason (Boyer Lodge #1), 100 Coalition, and the University Club of San Francisco. He is a member of the Trustee Board of Wayland Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Board of Visitors of Howard University School of Divinity. 

Currently at age 37, Dr. Byrd has spent a considerable amount of his life fighting for causes aimed at assisting the plight of downtrodden and marginalized people. He is fondly regarded as the “Picketing Preacher.” He shares the sentiment of the great civil rights clergyman, The Reverend Vernon Johns, “When you see a good fight, get in it!” Dr. Byrd hopes that though his various talks, lectures, addresses, and sermons that dormant levels of consciousness will be awakened as a rose reveling its unfurled glory for the first time before the heavens. 

Dr. Byrd lives in the Village of Harlem, New York. 

As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to improve lives and inspire emerging leaders across the United States and around the world.  This includes the Foundation’s early child initiative Too Small to Fail, which supports families with the resources they need to promote early brain and language development; and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a global program that empowers student leaders to turn their ideas into action. A longtime public health advocate, Chelsea also serves as vice chair of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and uses her platform to increase awareness around issues such as vaccine hesitancy, childhood obesity, and health equity.  

In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, She Persisted in Science, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference; Don’t Let Them Disappear; It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going; and Welcome to the Big Kids Club. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar. Chelsea’s podcast, In Fact with Chelsea Clinton, premiered in 2021 and is the co-founder of HiddenLight Productions.    

Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc, their children Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper in New York City. 

Katie Couric (@katiecouric) is an award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author of her memoir, Going There, which was published in October 2021. She is also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). Since its launch in 2008, Stand Up To Cancer has raised more than $700 million to support cutting-edge collaborative science and its research has contributed to nine new FDA-approved therapies.

In 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media (KCM), which has developed a number of media projects, including a daily newsletter, a podcast, digital video series, and several documentaries. KCM works with purpose-driven brands to create premium content that addresses important social issues like gender equality, environmental sustainability, and mental health.

Previous documentaries produced by KCM include America Inside Out with Katie Couric, a six-part series for National Geographic; Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric, for National Geographic; Under the Gun, which aired on EPIX; and Fed Up, available on iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube. Couric was also the executive producer of Unbelievable on Netflix and is developing other scripted projects.

Couric was the first woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast, serving as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011 following 15 years as co-anchor of NBC’s Today show. She also hosted a syndicated show and served as the Yahoo Global News Anchor until 2017.

She has won a duPont-Columbia, a Peabody, two Edward R. Murrows, a Walter Cronkite Award, and multiple Emmys. She was twice named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and was a Glamour Magazine woman of the year three times. She has also received numerous awards for her cancer advocacy work; honored by both the Harvard and Columbia schools of public health, the American Cancer Society, and The American Association of Cancer Researchers.

In addition to Going There, Couric is also the author of two children’s books and The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives. 

Peter Coveney is a Professor of Physical Chemistry, Honorary Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Centre for Computational Science (CCS) and Associate Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London (UCL). He is also Professor of Applied High Performance Computing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Member of Academia Europaea. Dr Coveney has made outstanding contributions across a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials, computer science, high performance computing and biomedicine, much of it harnessing the power of supercomputing to conduct original research at unprecedented space and time scales. He has shown influential leadership across these fields, manifested through running multiple initiatives and multi-partner interdisciplinary grants, in the UK, Europe and the US. His achievements at national and international level in advocacy and enablement are exceptional. Dr Coveney has published more than 500 scientific papers and co-authored three books with Roger Highfield, Virtual You (Princeton University Press, 2023), and two best-selling books Frontiers of Complexity (Random House Publishing Group, 1996) and The Arrow of Time (‎Fawcett Books, 1992). He is lead author of the first textbook on Computational Biomedicine (Oxford University Press, 2014). His latest book Virtual You explores the emerging science and technology of digital twins and shows how “digital twins” of patients are making medicine truly predictive and personalised. Virtual You has received many favourable reviews in the media and was recommended by the Financial Times as a “book to read in 2023”.

Bunny is a Harvard-trained, award-winning healthcare leader, entrepreneur and influencer who has dedicated her career to driving change and innovation in healthcare. Successful across entrepreneurial, corporate, and academic settings, she is highly regarded for her industry expertise and extensive network. She has become a recognized force in leading New York City’s transformation into a thriving hub of healthcare innovation. An expert in digital health, Bunny has her pulse on — and relationships to — the companies and people defining healthcare’s future. 

Jason Gorevic is chief executive officer and a member of Teladoc Health’s board of directors. Since taking the reins in 2009, he has led Teladoc Health to its position today as the world leader in virtual care, achieving significant growth in revenue, membership, and telehealth utilization. Under his leadership the company has established a proven track record of successfully shaping the market and driving healthcare transformation by executing on the strategic vision, delivering award-winning innovation, and effectively integrating each corporate acquisition. 

Nationally recognized as a thought leader and trailblazer in the virtual delivery of healthcare, Mr. Gorevic is fueled by a passion for improving healthcare outcomes and providing universal access to care. His extensive career in healthcare began at Oxford Health, and he has also held executive leadership roles at WellPoint, Inc. (now Anthem, Inc.) and Empire BlueCross BlueShield. 

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Justin leads HPE’s High Performance Computing (HPC) & Artificial Intelligence (AI) business group. The HPC & AI teams provide crucial digital transformation and artificial intelligence capabilities to customers who are involved in addressing some of the world’s most complex problems through data intensive workloads. The HPC & AI portfolio includes the HPE Cray EX, HPE Cray AI Development Environment, HPE Apollo, HPE Superdome Flex, and HPE NonStop solutions.  

Justin’s business also includes Hewlett Packard Labs, the central applied research group for the company, established in 1966 by founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard. 

While at HPE, Justin previously served as president & managing director of HPE Japan. In that role, he was responsible for all people and business operations in Japan, overseeing HPE’s activity in the region to drive growth across the full portfolio of hardware, software, and services. Justin also previously led the Compute Global Business Unit, overseeing the product portfolio and R&D for HPE’s industry standard server portfolio, as well as the go-to-market strategy for the OEM, Service Provider, and Telecommunications segments. Most recently, Justin led pan-HPE transformation efforts to accelerate the company’s as-a-service pivot. 

Prior to joining HPE in 2015, Justin was president of NCR Small Business where he scaled the company’s Cloud POS business growing its subscription revenue 10x in under 2 years.  At NCR, he also oversaw over $3.5B in acquisitions as vice president of Corporate Development and served as the general manager of NCR Entertainment where he grew the business before selling it to Outerwall, Inc. Before NCR, he held corporate development and operating positions at Symbol Technologies and Motorola, Inc. 

Justin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

Dr. Kalman received her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She performed all her clinical training (internal medicine residency, chief medical residency, clinical cardiology, advanced heart failure) at Mount Sinai, New York. She has also completed a physician leadership course at the Health Management Academy and a health care delivery executive program at the Harvard University School of Business. Dr. Kalman began her professional career as an academic cardiologist, directing clinical and research heart failure programs at Beth Israel Medical Center, Tisch Hospital at New York University, and Mount Sinai Medical Center. In addition to her outstanding clinical skills and dedication to patients, Dr. Kalman was tremendously effective in organizing and galvanizing clinical, research, and administration to build programs focused on the needs of complex patients with advanced heart failure.

She came to Northwell Health in 2014 as associate medical director of Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the North Shore LIJ Health System. She then moved to Lenox Hill Hospital as medical director (2015-2018) and was also health system’s medical director of patient experience (2016-2021). In 2018, Dr. Kalman became executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital and showed exemplary leadership during the pandemic.

In 2021, she was appointed chief medical officer and deputy physician-in-chief at Northwell Health. Dr. Kalman is truly a visionary leader, a problem-solver, a connector, and a strategic mind. She is a professor of cardiology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

She is a well-recognized, highly respected national health care trailblazer and has helped put Northwell on the national map in many areas, including patient experience, crisis management, and effective change.

Kerstin Kleese van Dam (2018 Woman of the Year Award in Science winner Brookhaven Town, 2006 British Female Innovators and Inventors Silver Award) is the Director of the Computational Science Initiative at Brookhaven National Laboratory, leading BNL’s computer science and mathematics R&D portfolio reaching from leading edge research to operational infrastructure provision. CSI research focuses on data analytics @ scale – novel hardware to new AI and applied mathematics methods for science, exascale computational modeling and quantum information science – quantum networking to quantum machine learning. Our new 60,000 sqft data center houses a highly specialized infrastructure for data intensive and near real time computing at scale, supporting our core experiments at BNL: RHIC, NSLS II and CFN, as well as others worldwide such as LHC Atlas and Belle II. BNL hosts one of the largest scientific data centers in the world. 

 Jeffrey Kraut has spent his career exclusively in the field of health policy and strategy. He coordinates the strategic, program and regulatory planning activities of Northwell, the development of its network of providers through merger, acquisition, or affiliated relationships, and developing the next generation of community health planning and strategic analytics throughout the Health System. He serves as associate dean for strategy for the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell since its founding. 

Jeff is a board member of Northwell Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies and provides strategy and management services to a portfolio of healthcare and technology companies. He represents Northwell on the Boards of Cognixion, a technology company that serves users with a wide variety of physical and neurological disabilities to communicate through the use of augmented assisted reality, Hume AI which translates scientific insights to improve human emotional experience, and Purple Sun, a light-based company focused on reducing hospital acquired infections. 

He has participated in developing and shaping statewide health policy by serving under the current and past four governors where he is Chair of the Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) which oversees public health, health planning, regulatory and Certificate of Need activities in New York State. Jeff has also led complex planning efforts involving multiple stakeholder groups to improve the organization and delivery of care for communities served by safety net providers. He is a board member of the New York eHealth Collaborative, the entity responsible to coordinate the development of the NYS Health Information Network and he has been a vocal and active advocate to empower patients by promoting the interoperability and sharing of health data. 

Jeff is nationally recognized for his health planning, and policy development skills. He served on the board of the American Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development where he was the 2017 recipient of its Leadership Excellence Award, the highest award bestowed nationally for health care strategy professionals. He is a Board member of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and served on the Standards Council of the Commission on Accreditation on Healthcare Management Education. 

He is also active in regional economic development and community building activities as a board member of the Long Island Regional Planning Council and past president of The Brookville Center for Children Services. Jeff serves as a health policy advisor to ERASE Racism and is a member of the Energeia Partnership which is dedicated to achieving social equity through regional private/public partnerships. 

Prior to joining Northwell, Jeff served as the Vice President for Policy and Planning at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Jeff began his career participating in the conduct of clinical research and then joined RMR Health Consultants which was merged into the health care consulting group of KPMG Peat Marwick. He received an MBA in Healthcare Management from Baruch College/Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and is a graduate of Stony Brook University. 

Carolee Lee is an innovator, entrepreneur and thought leader dedicated to improving women’s health and wellbeing, and their opportunities to succeed. She was founder and CEO of Carolee Designs, one of the world’s leading accessories brands. After the sale of her business to Luxottica, Carolee focused her energies on women’s health and life planning. In 2008, she founded AccessCircles, a global, by-invitation network committed to bringing women access to leaders, resources and experiences that can help transform their lives. Carolee launched WHAM in July 2018 as an initiative of AccessCircles to focus on increasing awareness of women’s health issues, investing in women’s health research and implementing strategies to improve the inequities and bias in research while accelerating scientific discovery before it became its own 501c3 in 2021. 

Throughout her career, Carolee has embraced mentoring and leadership roles in many diverse business organizations and is active in numerous civic, philanthropic and educational organizations. Carolee currently serves on the board of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. She is a past president of the Committee of 200 and served as the Chair of its Foundation Board. Carolee served as a director on the board of DSW, Inc., the Museum of Arts and Design, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Women’s Leadership Board at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She also served on the board of The Society for Women’s Health Research. 

Geoff Martha is Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, the global leader in healthcare technology. In his role, Geoff leads the $32 billion company and its 95,000 employees to deliver groundbreaking technology solutions for more people in more places around the world. Geoff leads the enterprise in pursuit of fulfilling the Medtronic Mission to use technology to improve human welfare. Since becoming CEO in 2020, he has been recognized as a driven and innovative executive, including as a top CEO in healthcare technology by the Healthcare Technology Report and as one of Modern Healthcare’s most influential people in healthcare. 

Under his leadership, Medtronic is leveraging the latest advances in cutting edge technology to transform healthcare. In 2023, Medtronic was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the first time, reinforcing the impact the company has had with its unwavering commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity (ID&E). Fortune and Great Place to Work named Medtronic one of the ‘World’s Best Workplaces’ in 2022, and the company has been consistently recognized as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

Geoff joined Medtronic in 2011, and notably led the acquisition and integration of Covidien, the largest acquisition in the history of the medical technology industry. Before joining Medtronic, Geoff spent 19 years at GE Healthcare and GE Capital. 

Geoff is a member of the Business Roundtable and the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council. He serves as a board member of the U.S.- China Business Council and is also President of the Executive Committee of the board of directors for the Minnesota Business Partnership. In 2021, he served as co-chair of the Taskforce on Health and Life Sciences for B20, a G20 engagement group. 

An ardent supporter of philanthropic and diversity initiatives, Geoff serves on the Board of Trustees for the Asia Society and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Medtronic Foundation, the Northside Achievement Zone, and the YMCA of the North. He is also part of OneTen, a coalition of cross-industry leaders committed to breaking down systemic barriers for Black Americans and serves as Medtronic’s Executive Sponsor to FIRST Robotics. 

Geoff received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Pennsylvania State University, where he currently serves on the Development Council for its College of Liberal Arts. He was also captain of the Penn State men’s hockey team and later inducted into its Hockey Hall of Fame. 

Follow him on Twitter (@GeoffMartha) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/geoff-martha). 

Mark is the CEO of Ascertain, a healthcare AI company creation platform focused on merging deep technical and clinical expertise to deliver high-quality, equitable, and affordable healthcare.

Previously, Mark has led partnering efforts across Amazon’s business units (AWS, Health, Devices, and others) focused on the Healthcare and Life Science. Previously, he led AWS’s HCLS AI/ML business development efforts worldwide. Mark has served as early leadership in two exited medical device companies ($BFLY, $HYPR) and was on the founding team of the Mass Gen Brigham Data Science Office (formerly the Center for Clinical Data Science). He is a licensed, board-certified radiologist.

Dr. Andy Moye is Chief Executive Officer and board member for Paige, a company with a vision to transform cancer diagnostics through AI.  Paige was spun out of Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2018 and during his time with the company, Moye’s accomplishments include the U.S. launch of Paige Prostate, the first and only AI-based pathology product to receive FDA approval for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) use in detecting cancer in prostate biopsies.  Andy has always been driven to serve others, and began his career as a Flight Officer in the US Navy, flying missions in Iraq and the Middle East.   Dr. Moye is also passionate about making a difference in the fight against cancer, and has worked across the molecular diagnostics, biotechnology, and life sciences industries at the forefront of precision medicine in oncology.  Notably, he served as Head of Commercial Operations in North America and Latin America for Philips Digital Pathology solutions, delivering significant growth in both markets for emerging businesses.   He has also served in senior executive roles at leading healthcare companies including Ontada, a division of McKesson, Caris Life Sciences, and WaferGen Bio-systems, now part of Takara Bio.   Andy Moye’s educational career includes a Bachelor of Science in Physiology from the University of Arizona, an MBA from the University of Florida, and a PhD in Health Economics from Walden University.  Andy has won numerous awards for leadership including Top 25 Healthcare Technology Leaders in Dallas and was recently named to the JPMorgan Chase 2024 CEOcircle cohort for Bunker Labs, an executive program for military veteran CEOs and entrepreneurs. 

Dr. Tara Narula is a board-certified cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, an Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell, the Associate Director of the Women’s Heart Program at Lenox Hill Hospital and Director of Communications for the Katz Institute of Women’s Health.  She is also a nationally recognized medical journalist. She is an NBC News Medical Contributor, the former CNN Medical Correspondent within CNN’s award-winning Health, Medical and Wellness team and previously was the Senior Medical Correspondent at CBS News reporting for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms including “CBS Mornings”, “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell”, “CBS Saturday Morning”, “CBS Sunday Morning” and “CBS Streaming Network”. She has been a past contributor as well to O, Oprah Magazine. She joined Lenox Hill Heart & Vascular Institute of New York in 2010 and provides outpatient consultative care. After graduating from Stanford University with degrees in Economics and Biology, she was founder and CEO of her own small business, Sun Juice Inc. Subsequently she obtained her medical degree at USC Keck School of Medicine where she graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha Society Honors. Dr. Narula completed her residency in internal medicine at Harvard University/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and her fellowship training in cardiology at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Narula is currently a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC). She serves as a national spokesperson for the American Heart Association and the AHA’s Go Red for Women Initiative. She is co-director of a mentoring program for women in medicine called FaceofCardiology which serves to help guide women pursuing possible careers in cardiology. She is a recipient of a 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Live News Program CBS Mornings, the 2019 WomenHeart Nanette Wenger Award for Media and the Super Doctors Award for NYC 2014-2023. Her interests include women’s health, prevention, mental health and resilience. Her upcoming book on resilience is set to be published in the spring of 2024.

Dave Ricks is chair and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company. A Lilly veteran for more than 25 years, with experience in marketing, sales, drug development and international operations, Dave became CEO in January 2017 and was elected chair of the company’s board of directors effective June 2017. 

A global biopharmaceutical leader, Lilly has been pioneering life-changing discoveries for nearly 150 years — and today the company’s medicines help more than 51 million people across the globe. Harnessing the power of biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine, Lilly scientists are urgently advancing new discoveries to solve some of the world’s most significant health challenges – including diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and debilitating autoimmune diseases. Under Dave’s leadership, Lilly has delivered record R&D output and business results, positioning the company for strong growth and expanded impact on human health around the world. 

Dave joined Lilly in 1996 as a business development associate and held several management roles in U.S. marketing and sales before moving into international leadership positions. He led Lilly’s operations as general manager in Canada and China – one of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets – and then returned as president of Lilly USA, the company’s largest affiliate. In 2012, Dave was promoted to president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, then the company’s largest business unit, overseeing drug development and commercial operations in neuroscience, pain and immunology. 

Dave earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in 1990 and a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana University in 1996. Recently, Dave was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Management from Purdue. 

Dave serves on the board of directors for Adobe and Business Roundtable. In addition, he is a member of the board and former board chair of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Dave is a member of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Association’s CEO Steering Committee, The Business Council and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Council for Inclusive Innovation. 

Closer to home, Dave is heavily engaged in the development and well-being of Central Indiana and serves on the executive committee and board of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. 

Sam Rodriques is an entrepreneur, technologist, and inventor in the biotechnology space. He has invented a new nanofabrication method, a new approach to sensing neural activity with probes in the bloodstream, and new ways to extract spatial and temporal information from RNA sequencing. 

He is the founder of the Applied Biotechnology Laboratory at the Crick Institute. Prior to founding the ABL, he was an entrepreneur in residence at Petri, a biotech accelerator in Boston, Massachusetts, and co-founded Saturn5, a company developing patient-oriented neurosurgical tools. 

In the spring of 2019, he graduated with a PhD in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having worked between the MIT Media Lab, the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Prior to that, he graduated summa cum laude with highest honors in Physics from Haverford College, where he worked on new methods for calculating quantum entanglement in multipartite quantum systems. 

He has received numerous national awards and fellowships to support his studies and research, including the Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a Churchill Scholarship. He has a broad diversity of interests, ranging from diagnostics to gene therapies and new methods for detecting and treating brain disorders. 

As senior vice president of community and population health, Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH, oversees Northwell Health’s community and public health strategy, including community health investment, community relations, strategic community partnerships, as well as the smoking cessation, human trafficking and Food as Health programs. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez’s leadership has been critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her team have partnered with various community and faith-based leaders to identify their most-pressing needs, which became the catalyst for Northwell’s faith-based testing initiative — a program where Northwell partners with community and faith-based centers to offer free diagnostic and serology (antibody) testing. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez is also leading the Long Island Regional Health Equity Task Force, which has been tasked with providing equitable and safe COVID-19 vaccine distribution and education to lower-income communities. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez joined Northwell in 2019 as senior vice president for transformation, responsible for system value-based initiatives that improve health and care delivery. She assumed her leadership role after serving as the chief transformation officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network, where she led strategy and oversaw a unique and broad portfolio, including community-based and population health initiatives, telehealth, connected care, and innovation, strategic partnerships, and operational redesigning of the clinical delivery system. 

At Lehigh Valley, Dr. Salas-Lopez held various academic and clinical leadership positions. In 2009, she was appointed as the Leonard Parker Pool Chair of Medicine, a role she served in until 2015 when she became an associate chief medical officer. In 2017, she was appointed chief transformation officer for Lehigh Valley Health Network. Academically, she was a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine and the College of Public Health. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. 

She has collaborated with many community-based organizations on issues related to prevention, screening, and healthcare access and has partnered with other healthcare institutions to address community needs. She has led initiatives to improve quality of care and the health of the community, reduce costs, and provide better care coordination. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez is a nationally recognized speaker and educator in women leaders in medicine, healthcare disparities and equity in care, cultural awareness and language-appropriate services, and the impact of social and economic factors on health. In 2021, Modern Healthcare named her to its annual Top 25 Women Leaders as a “Woman to Watch.” 

She also received the 2021 Tribute to Excellence in Health Care award from the United Hospital Fund. Dr. Salas-Lopez was recognized in 2021 by the Hospital Association of New York State with a Community Health Improvement Award. She also has earned a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award, the Long Island Coalition for Homeless Key of Excellence Award and the 2021 Empire Whole Health Heroes Award. 

Eric A. Stahlberg is director of cancer data science initiatives at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) where he spearheads efforts to advance the application of predictive modeling for health and wellbeing with a particular emphasis on digital twin approaches. He joined FNLCR in 2011 to launch and direct the bioinformatics core for the NCI Center for Cancer Research before undertaking an NCI-funded initiative in 2014 on applications of high-performance computing (HPC) in cancer research.  His efforts were instrumental in establishing the collaboration between the NCI and the US Department of Energy on the joint design of advanced computing solutions for cancer. His efforts were instrumental in the formation of the Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) public-private collaboration, an innovative effort involving multiple national laboratories, academia and industry to dramatically speed discovery of new drugs and development disease treatments by integrating predictive and generative AI approaches, advanced computing and experimental data into an open platform.

Dr. Stahlberg earned his doctorate in quantum chemistry from the Ohio State University having obtained bachelor’s degrees in computer science, chemistry and mathematics from Wartburg College. His post-doctoral experience at Argonne National Laboratory and subsequent efforts at Cray Research helped lay the foundation for his career at the intersection of cutting-edge HPC and life sciences. His work in massively parallel computing applications in chemistry received recognition with honorable mention for the Intel Grand Challenge competition.  Dr. Stahlberg’s commitment to standards-enabled innovation is exemplified with significant contributions to the HPC field and now sits on the technical steering committee for OpenFL, an Intel supported effort to develop open standards for federated machine learning.  Dr. Stahlberg has a significant and sustained track record of working at the intersection of biology and data-intensive computing to deliver impactful outcomes to diverse stakeholders. His track record includes over 50 publications. He has developed cutting-edge bioinformatics software as well as innovative solutions for data management, AI model management, and information delivery.

His professional service has included co-founding the Computational Approaches for Cancer workshop at the annual SC supercomputing conference, the HPC Applications of Precision Medicine workshop at the annual ISC conference in Germany, the Ohio Collaborative Conference on Bioinformatics, and the 2016-2018 meeting series Frontiers of Predictive Oncology and Computing. He played a critical leadership role in the 2020-2021 NCI-DOE Predictive Oncology meeting series, including initial workshops and meetings on cancer patient digital twins and precision radiation oncology.

Dr. Stahlberg’s focus on innovation has been cultivated in a diverse set of organizations including working for established companies as well as several startup ventures in areas of medical visualization, computational drug discovery, and developing software for wireless medical devices receiving FDA 501K approvals. His visionary perspective and inclusive approach lead to frequent opportunities as an invited presenter and panelist. With a strong commitment to education and knowledge exchange, Dr. Stahlberg frequently serves as an instructor and lecturer at colleges and universities where he shares his experiences and insights with tomorrow’s future scientific leaders.

He has been recognized as one of the FCW top 100, received the President’s award from Frederick National Laboratory, and has received the distinguished alumni award from his alma mater, Wartburg College.

For more than 20 years, Keith Thomas lived and worked in New York City at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

During the height of the pandemic, on July 18, 2020, a diving accident caused Keith to suffer injury at the C4 and C5 level of his vertebrae in his spine, leaving him unable to move and feel from the chest down.

Alone and isolated in the hospital for more than six months, Mr. Thomas found new hope by participating in a  first-of-its-kind clinical trial at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the home of research at Northwell Health. After a 15-hour brain surgery, a team of bioelectronic medicine researchers, engineers and surgeons – led by Chad Bouton, professor at the Feinstein Institutes’ Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine –successfully implanted microchips into Mr. Thomas’ brain and developed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to re-link his brain to his body and spinal cord. This novel double neural bypass has restored some of Keith’s movements and sense of touch for the first time in three years since his accident.

Remarkably, researchers say Mr. Thomas is already starting to see some natural recovery from his injuries thanks to this new approach, which could reverse some of the damage for good.

Mr. Thomas graduated from SUNY Oneonta and currently lives back at home in Massapequa, NY, with his family.

Daisy Wolf is an investing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she focuses on healthcare technology. In particular, she specializes in healthcare AI and software, consumer health, and the intersection of healthcare and fintech. Daisy is involved with companies like Honor, Marker Learning, Pomelo Care, Ribbon Health, and Season Health. 

Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Daisy worked at Meta in the Global Business Group, where she led company growth efforts within government and politics. In addition, Daisy has held various roles at multiple startups and covered technology at a hedge fund. 

Daisy holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College. Daisy is based in New York City and her interests include musical theater, political memoirs, and poker. 

Paul Root Wolpe is the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics; a professor in the departments of medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, neuroscience and biological behavior, and sociology; and the director of the Center for Ethics. Dr. Wolpe moved to Emory University in summer 2008 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on the faculty for more than 20 years in the departments of psychiatry, sociology, and medical ethics, and faculty in its Center for Bioethics. 

Dr. Wolpe spent 15 years as senior bioethicist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He is the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience and sits on the editorial boards of more than a dozen professional journals in medicine and ethics. He is the president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors; a past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities; a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest medical society; and a fellow of the Hastings Center, the oldest bioethics institute in America. He also served as the first national bioethics adviser to Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 

His publications span the fields of sociology, medicine, and bioethics, and he has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias on bioethical issues. A futurist interested in social dynamics, Dr. Wolpe focuses on the social, religious, ethical, and ideological impact of medicine and technology on the human condition. Considered one of the founders of the field of neuroethics, which examines the ethical implications of neuroscience, he also writes about other emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence. His teaching and publications range across many other fields of bioethics, including death and dying, genetics and eugenics, sexuality and gender, mental health and illness, alternative medicine, and bioethics in extreme environments such as space. He frames those discussions through his sociological interest in knowledge formation, ideology, religion, and social movements. He also writes and talks about the Jewish contribution to thinking about the ethical aspects of medicine and technology. He is the co-author of the textbook Sexuality and Gender in Society, and editor and a key author of the end-of-life guide Behoref Hayamim: In the Winter of Life. 

Dr. Wolpe has served on a number of national and international nonprofit organizational boards and working groups, such as Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence Selection Committee and DARPA’s Neuroscience ELSI Panel. He has testified twice to the President’s Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Responsible Science Committee that rewrote the canonical volume “Responsible Science,” and Co-Chaired the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Commission looking into reorganizing the APA’s ethics procedures in response to disclosure of its participation in ‘enhanced interrogation’ collaboration with the CIA and Department of Defense.  He is also a consultant to academic institutions and the biomedical industry. 

A dynamic and popular speaker internationally, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by the Teaching Company as a “Superstar Teacher of America,” and his courses are distributed internationally on audio and videotape. He has won the World Technology Network Award in Ethics, has been featured in a TED talk, and was profiled in Atlantic Magazine as a “Brave Thinker of 2011.” Dr. Wolpe is a contributor to broadcast and print media, as well as having been featured on 60 Minutes and profiled in the Science Times of the New York Times.