Speakers

Richard Besser, MD, is the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), America’s largest health philanthropy, since April 2017. Previously, he had a distinguished career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ABC News. 

RWJF is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. Partnering with communities, practitioners, and institutions to advance health equity through funding, advocacy, and evidence-building we envision a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. 

Dr. Besser, an advocate for healthy communities and economic inclusion, emphasizes the importance of accountable public health systems and racial justice. He played a significant role in prioritizing health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Dr. Besser, a National Academy of Medicine member, serves on multiple boards, including Howard University’s Board of Trustees. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Recognized with the Surgeon General’s Medallion for his public health contributions, He volunteered as a pediatrician for over 30 years in community clinics across the country. He and his wife, Jeanne, have two adult sons.  

Bertha Coombs is CNBC’s senior health care reporter, covering health care services and policy, as well as financial markets and business news stories throughout the business day. 

Her health care coverage at CNBC has ranged from covering the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the evolution of health care technology, and the continuing push to disrupt pharmacy models and lower drug costs, to the launch of the IRA Medicare drug price negotiations. 

Over twenty years at CNBC, Coombs has covered the tech sector from the Nasdaq Marketsite and general market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.  Before joining the network, she reported for the pioneering streaming business network, Yahoo Finance Vision. Prior to that, she served as a reporter for ABC News One and a substitute anchor for “World News Now” and “World News This Morning.”  She began her reporting career in local news as a Leo Beranek Fellow at WCVB-TV in Boston. 

Coombs is a graduate of Yale University. Born in Havana, Cuba, she speaks fluent Spanish. 

John D’Angelo, MD, is the Senior Vice President and Regional Executive Director for Northwell Health’s Central Region, which includes North Shore University Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, LIJ Forest Hills Hospital, LIJ Valley Stream Hospital and Zucker Hillside Hospital, as well as Northwell’s 120+ ambulatory locations within the Nassau/Queens area. 

Additionally, Dr. D’Angelo serves as Northwell’s Chief of Integrated Operations. In this newly created role, Dr. D’Angelo leverages lessons learned in the COVID-19 response to seamlessly integrate Northwell’s extensive operational resources in the post-pandemic era. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Dr. D’Angelo was the Operations Chief for Northwell’s COVID-19 command center, managing Northwell’s operational response to the pandemic. 

Previously serving as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Northwell Health’s Emergency Medicine Service Line, Dr. D’Angelo was responsible for the clinical and operational performance of Northwell Health’s emergency departments, hospital-based observation units, and a rapidly expanding network of urgent care centers; an operation that serves nearly 1.5 million patients annually. 

As an Emergency Medicine physician for 25 years, Dr. D’Angelo has a keen understanding of clinical care delivery, quality, process improvement and operations management. He has spearheaded numerous initiatives that have distinguished Northwell over the years. Examples of his work include Northwell’s sepsis efforts, which earned The Joint Commission’s Eisenberg Award, the opening of Manhattan’s first free-standing emergency department, Lenox Health Greenwich Village, and the accreditation of Northwell’s emergency departments by the American College of Emergency Physicians for their expertise in caring for geriatric patients, making Northwell the first health system in the country to achieve universal accreditation. 

A leader and advocate in data transparency and access, Dr. D’Angelo co-led a team to create Real-Time Actionable Data, a product that has increased visibility of operational data to leaders and frontline staff in many clinical and operational arenas across Northwell; a solution that went on to earn Northwell’s top innovation award in 2019. 

Dr. D’Angelo has served as the Chair for the Northwell Health Physician Partners Board of Governors & Executive Committee since 2019. He is also an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. 

Michael Dowling is one of healthcare’s most influential voices, taking a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration that many health system CEOs shy away from. As president and CEO of Northwell Health, he leads a clinical, academic and research enterprise with a workforce of more than 85,000 and annual revenue of $16.5 billion. 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 more than 890 outpatient facilities, including 220 primary care practices, 52 urgent care centers, home care, rehabilitation and end-of-life programs, and 21 hospitals.

Northwell also pursues pioneering research at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and a visionary approach to medical education highlighted by the Zucker School of Medicine, the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies, and one of the nation’s largest medical residency and fellowship programs.

Mr. Dowling’s leadership has been invaluable to Northwell’s consistent expansion and prominence. In 2020, he successfully navigated the health system through the first COVID-19 epicenter in the US, detailing his experiences in Leading Through a Pandemic: The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis. Overall, Northwell has treated more than 350,000 COVID patients, and the health system utilized a strong innovative culture to expand hospital bed capacity (adding 2,000 beds in two weeks), 3D-print nasal swabs for COVID testing, convert bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines into mechanical ventilators and take advantage of its large, integrated health system to “load balance” and transport 810 patients from overrun hospitals to those that had bed capacity. Northwell also kept employees safe, investing in critical personal protective equipment to help those working the front lines, one of whom—Sandra Lindsay—was the first person in the US to receive the historic COVID vaccine in December 2020.

Prior to becoming president and CEO in 2002, Mr. Dowling was the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining Northwell Health 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, including seven years as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to the governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.

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.

Mr. Dowling has been honored with many awards over the years. In 2020, he received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, which recognizes individuals for their contributions to Ireland and to Irish communities abroad, presented by the President of Ireland. He has received an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and is a board member of the Foreign Policy Association. In 2017, he was selected as the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City; received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for Irish Abroad and was inducted to the Irish America Hall of Fame. He also has received the 2012 B’nai B’rith National Healthcare Award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2011 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. In 2020, Mr. Dowling received the Deming Cup from the Columbia School of Business.

In 2011, Modern Healthcare magazine awarded Mr. Dowling with the CEO Information Technology Award. He also was ranked first in Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare list in 2022, a list on which he has appeared 16 times.

Additional awards include the National Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee, the Distinguished Public Service Award from the State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of New York State, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of Nassau County, the Alfred E. Smith Award from the American Society for Public Administration, the Gold Medal from the American Irish Historical Society and the Foreign Policy Association Medal, which is the highest honor bestowed by the organization. He was also ranked No. 44 among large company CEOs in the US and was the nation’s top-ranking health care/hospital CEO on Glassdoor’s Top CEOs in 2019 list.

Mr. Dowling is past chair of the Healthcare Institute and the current chair of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences and the North American Board of the Smurfit School of Business at University College, Dublin, Ireland. He also serves as a board member of the Long Island Association. He is past chair and a current board member of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and the League of Voluntary Hospitals of New York. Mr. Dowling was an instructor at the Center for Continuing Professional Education at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Mr. Dowling grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He earned his undergraduate degree from University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, and his master’s degree from Fordham University. He also has honorary doctorates from Queen’s University Belfast, University College Dublin, Hofstra University, Dowling College and Fordham University.

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. 

Arvind Krishna is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. As a business leader and technologist, he has led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain. He has also played a significant role in the development of innovative IBM products and solutions based on these emerging technologies. 

Over his 30-year career at IBM, Arvind led a series of bold transformations and delivered proven business results. He most recently drove the successful USD 34 billion acquisition of Red Hat – the largest software acquisition – that has defined the hybrid cloud market. Together, IBM and Red Hat give clients the unique ability to build mission-critical applications once and run them anywhere. 

Arvind previously was senior vice president of Cloud and Cognitive Software, where he pioneered the company’s hybrid cloud business, transformed IBM’s entire software and services portfolio and offerings for cloud, and grew the business. He also headed IBM Research, where he drove innovation in core and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, cloud platform services, data-driven solutions, and nanotechnology. In 2016, Wired Magazine selected Arvind as “one of 25 geniuses who are creating the future of business” for his foundational work on blockchain. 

As general manager of IBM Systems and Technology Group’s development and manufacturing organization, Arvind led the strategy for data-centric systems and the widespread industry adoption of open and collaborative technology standards. He also grew the IBM Information Management business by 50 percent. 

At IBM, Arvind has been an outspoken advocate for learning at every stage of one’s career. He has made scientific contributions in a number of technical fields, including wireless networking, security, systems, and databases. In addition, he founded IBM’s security software business and helped create the world’s first commercial wireless system.

Arvind is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and he serves on the Board of Directors of Northrop Grumman and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum. Arvind has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the recipient of distinguished alumni awards from both institutions. 

Dr. Geoffrey Ling is a pharmacologist and physician and co-founder of On Demand Pharmaceuticals. Clinically, he is a professor of neurology, neurosurgery and anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and an attending neuro critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He serves as the Chair of the Veterans Administration’s National Research Advisory Council.

Dr. Ling is a retired U.S. Army colonel after 21 years on active duty. He served as an intensive care physician with the 452nd CSH (combat support hospital) in OEF-Afghanistan (2003) and 86th CSH and 10th CSH in OIF-Iraq (2005). Also, COL Ling has had four in-theater missions as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “Gray Team” to assess traumatic brain injury (TBI) care in both combat theaters (2009, 2011). The 10th CSH named him their first “Physician of the Month.” Dr. Ling was also a “requested by name” consultant to Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s trauma team following her tragic attack.

He was the Founding Director of the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he was previously a program manager and Deputy Director of the Defense Sciences Office. He served as an Assistant Director in the Science Division of President Obama’s White House Office of Science, Technology and Policy (OSTP). His BA with honors is from Washington University in St. Louis, MD from Georgetown University (elected to AOA) and his PhD in neuropharmacology is from Cornell University. He completed his neurology residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, neuro critical care fellowship at Johns Hopkins and research fellowship in neuropharmacology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is board certified in both neurology and neuro critical care. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Joseph Moscola, PA, MBA, is executive vice president, enterprise services for Northwell Health. In this role, Joe will lead several critical functions that drive the organization and the care our team members provide, including human resources, information technology, facilities & construction, real estate, and shared services administration. In addition, he will be responsible for leading strategic business initiatives that are driving new revenue streams for the health system, including FlexStaff and Northwell Direct and further integrating learning and development for clinical and non-clinical team members into our people strategy. 

Previously, Mr. Moscola served as chief human resources officer and drove the creation and successful launch of our employee promise, refreshed values, and the Northwell Career Experience, which helps team members learn, grow and thrive in the organization. He also led Human Resources’ highly effective pandemic response, which focused on supporting the intense staffing needs of the organization, and the emotional, psychological and physical well-being needs of our team members. 

Mr. Moscola also previously served as senior vice president and executive director of Ambulatory Operations. In this role, he oversaw the $1.1 billion ambulatory operation, working with clinical and administrative service line leadership, Northwell Health Physician Partners and clinical joint ventures. 

He began his career as a physician assistant in cardiothoracic surgery and later transitioned to an administrative career, serving as administrative director for neuroscience at South Shore University Hospital, then senior administrative director of neurology and neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. 

Holding a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University, Mr. Moscola earned an MBA from Adelphi University and a physician assistant certificate from Catholic Medical Centers-Bayley Seton Campus. He also graduated as a Fellow of the Health Management Academy. 

Aside from his executive role at Northwell, Mr. Moscola serves on the Board of Directors for Farmingdale State College and Nassau Community College, and he is a trustee of the 1199 Pension Fund serving employees for the New York Region. 

Darilyn V. Moyer, MD, MACP, FRCP, FIDSA, FAMWA, FEFIM, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Physicians (ACP).

Board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Moyer was elected into Mastership (MACP) in ACP in 2022, which recognizes outstanding and extraordinary career accomplishments. Prior to that she was awarded Fellowship in ACP, an honorary designation that recognizes ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of medicine. She serves on ACP’s Board of Regents, which manages the business and affairs of ACP and is the main policy-making body of the College, chaired ACP’s Board of Governors, and served as Governor of ACP’s Pennsylvania Southeastern Chapter. She is a Founding Board Member of the Gender Equity in Medicine and Science (GEMS) Alliance, Past President of Council of Medical Subspecialty Societies and former member of the Board of Directors, and Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Directors for the Primary Care Collaborative and is a member of Women of Impact. Dr. Moyer is the recipient of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) 2023 Inspire Award, the American Medical Association (AMA) Women Physicians Section (WPS) 2022 Inspiration Award and the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Courage to Heal 2021 Award. She is also a recipient of the 2020 American Medical Women’s Association Elizabeth Blackwell Award, as well as the recipient of the 2020 Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University Alumni Achievement Award.

Prior to becoming ACP’s EVP and CEO, Dr. Moyer was a Professor of Medicine, Executive Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine, Internal Medicine Residency Program Director and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. She was previously the Co-Faculty Advisor for the Temple University School of Medicine Internal Medicine Interest Group and for the Temple University School of Medicine Student Educating About Healthcare Policy Group. She received the Temple University School of Medicine Women in Medicine Mentoring Award in 2012.

Dr. Moyer’s research and scholarly activity interests and presentations have been in the areas of medical education, high value care, patient safety, professionalism and digital media, gender equity, and HIV/infectious diseases.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in the Biological Basis of Behavior, Biology and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and attended medical school at Temple University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Temple University Hospital and served as a Chief Resident/Clinical Instructor of Medicine. She went on to complete an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Dr. Moyer currently practices part time at the Temple University Internal Medicine Associates.

Murthy Simhambhatla was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Evolus, a medical aesthetics company with a lead biologic drug, DWP-450, which he led towards an IPO in 2018. Prior to Evolus, Dr. Simhambhatla was a Senior Vice President at Abbott Laboratories and President of Abbott Medical Optics, a $1B-plus global ophthalmic business focused on cataract and refractive surgery. 

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.

Craig Venter, PhD, is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research. Dr. Venter is founder, chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research organization with approximately 120 scientists and staff dedicated to human, microbial, synthetic, and environmental genomic research, and the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics.

Dr. Venter began his formal education after a tour of duty as a Navy Corpsman in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After earning both a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and a PhD in physiology and pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego, he was appointed professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health campus where he developed expressed sequence tags or ESTs, a revolutionary new strategy for rapid gene discovery. 

In 1992, Dr. Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, now part of JCVI), a not-for-profit research institute, where in 1995 he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using the new whole genome shotgun technique. 

In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed. This research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal, Science. He and his team at Celera also sequenced the fruit fly, mouse, and rat genomes. 

Dr. Venter and his team at JCVI continue to blaze new trails in genomics. They have sequenced and analyzed hundreds of genomes, and have published numerous important papers covering such areas as environmental genomics, the first complete diploid human genome, and the groundbreaking advance in constructing the first self-replicating bacterial cell using synthetic DNA. 

Dr. Venter is one of the most frequently cited scientists, and the author of more than 280 research articles. He is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, public honors, and scientific awards, including the 2008 United States National Medal of Science, the 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, and the King Faisal International Award for Science. Dr. Venter is a member of numerous prestigious scientific organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Microbiology. 

Dr. Venter is also a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded several companies including  Synthetic Genomics, Inc., now Viridos and Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI).