Course Director
Julie Silver, MD
Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Harvard Medical School
Associate Chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Spaulding Rehabilitation Network
Massachusetts General Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital
As a social entrepreneur committed to improving healthcare for underserved populations, Dr. Silver founded a start-up company and developed a best practices model for cancer rehabilitation care that hundreds of U.S. hospitals adopted, and this was featured on the Discovery Channel’s TV show Innovations. Recently, Dr. Silver’s work has focused on the mission and values of healthcare leaders, physician burnout, and improving disparities in the medical workforce. Her work is focused on high-impact strategic initiatives aimed at supporting rapid healthcare change, and teaching other healthcare professionals to lead them as well. Dr. Silver has been published in many high-impact journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA network publications. She has written and edited numerous books and is formerly the Chief Editor of Books for Harvard Health Publications—the official publishing division for Harvard Medical School. Dr. Silver has received many awards, including the Boston Globe’s Top Innovator in Medicine, and has been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including The New York Times, The London Times, and NPR. Dr. Silver is currently affiliated with Spaulding Rehabilitation, Massachusetts General, and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals.
Harvard Medical School Faculty
Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Fabrisia Ambrosio is the Atlantic Charter Director of the Discovery Center for Musculoskeletal Recovery at the Schoen Adams Research Institute in the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. She is also a faculty member in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ambrosio’s research has the long-term goal of developing innovative approaches to improve skeletal muscle healing and functional recovery. Her translationally oriented laboratory investigates underlying mechanisms by which mechanical signals can be used to enhance endogenous and/or donor stem cell function after injury or in the setting of disease. Dr. Ambrosio has published and recorded several educational modules on the topic of Regenerative Rehabilitation—the integration of regenerative medicine with rehabilitation science—and has assumed international leadership roles in several work group efforts to promote the field. She is the lead director of the Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research & Training (AR3T), an NIH-funded center that supports the expansion of scientific knowledge, expertise, and methodologies across the domains of rehabilitation science and regenerative medicine. Dr. Ambrosio is also the Founding Course Director of the Annual International Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation and the Founding Director of the International Consortium for Regenerative Rehabilitation, which includes 16 partnering institutions representing North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2022, she was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.
Cheri Blauwet, MD, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Cheri Blauwet, MD is an Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and Chief Medical Officer for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. She also serves as Founding Director of the Kelley Adaptive Sports Research Institute. Dr. Blauwet is a former Paralympic athlete in the sport of wheelchair racing, competing for the United States Team in three Paralympic Games (Sydney '00, Athens '04, Beijing '08) and bringing home a total of seven Paralympic medals. She is also a two-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons. Translating her background as an athlete to the clinic setting, Dr. Blauwet now serves as a Member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Medical Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as well as numerous other leadership roles throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Movement.
Yelena Bodien, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Bodien is the Associate Director of the Laboratory for Neuroimaging of Coma and Consciousness and an Assistant Professor of Neurology and of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bodien has devoted her career to improving the lives of patients who have sustained a severe brain injury. She uses novel neuroimaging techniques and standardized neurobehavioral assessment to advance diagnostic precision and functional outcomes in acute and chronic stages of recovery. In her role as a core member of the James S. McDonnell Coma and Consciousness Consortium as well as the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI initiative, Dr. Bodien works towards this goal with collaborators in the United States and internationally. An active member of the American Congress for Rehabilitation Medicine, Dr. Bodien co-chairs the Brain Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group and recently led the effort to publish a case definition for the Post-traumatic Confusional State. Dr. Bodien is especially passionate about mentoring, and enjoys sharing her research interests with students, residents and post-docs.
Adaira Landry, MD, MEd, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Adaira Landry, MD MEd is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. She is the Assistant Residency Director for the Harvard Emergency Medicine Residency Program and current Academic Society Associate Director and Advisor for the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Landry is the Co-Chair for the Diversity and Inclusion Committee within the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice. She is an advisor for Academic Life in Emergency Medicine, a leading medical education online resource. She is currently co-authoring a book with HarperCollins titled MicroSkills, which delivers strategic and concrete skills to navigate the workplace.
Dr. Landry was born in Rialto, California and in 2002 attended University of California, Berkeley to study Molecular Cell Biology and African American Studies. She completed her medical school training at David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles in 2011, her Emergency Medicine residency at New York University as Chief Resident in 2015, and a combined fellowship in ultrasound at the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a master’s degree in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education program in 2017. Her academic interests focus on mentorship of underrepresented students and trainees. In 2020 she was awarded the Massachusetts General Brigham Outstanding Mentor Award and the EMRA Mentor of the Year Award for her dedication to mentorship. In addition, she speaks nationally on strategies to optimize mentor-mentee relationships and has recently spoken at the Student National Medical Association as well as the American Women’s Medical Association. She has completed the Women’s Leadership Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has published in NEJM, Academic Medicine, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, CNBC, and Women's Health Magazine. She is also a wife and a mother to 3 children. She hopes to raise her 3 children to understand and value the importance of supporting others in need.
Sareh Parangi, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; Surgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital; Chair of Surgery, Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Dr. Parangi is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston and a busy endocrine surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She currently serves as Chair of Surgery at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She has interest and expertise in thyroid and parathyroid tumors. She focuses her clinical efforts on endocrine surgery and applies her basic science knowledge and expertise to tumor progression in thyroid cancer. She has repeatedly been one of the Boston surgeons named in "Best of Boston" in Boston Magazine and her excellence in both research and her clinical expertise have earned her a national reputation. Dr. Parangi graduated from Barnard College and earned her medical degree from Columbia University. She completed her residency at UCSF during which time she completed a Fellowship in Molecular Medicine. She is one of a handful of thyroid surgeons with expertise in molecular biology and has over 100 publications, many on thyroid cancer therapeutics in premier journals. She serves as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the MGH Department of Surgery.
Dr. Parangi is a Past President of The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) and has in the past served as Treasurer of the most prestigious organization of endocrine surgeons in the US, The American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES). She is also Secretary of the International Thyroid Oncology Group and a member of both the American Thyroid Association and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. She has won numerous awards nationally and at Harvard Medical School for her NIH funded research in the role of BRAF oncoprotein in thyroid cancer invasion. Her active research focuses on understanding why some patients with thyroid cancer do worse than others and how to help them. She is active in many organizations that promote gender equity and diversity in surgery and medicine because she feels there is still a large need in promoting women to leadership positions in academia and in surgical organizations. She believes that although promotion of women in surgical subspecialties has been slow (which is obvious to her, given her personal story on becoming the 2nd-ever female Professor of Surgery at MGH), now is the time to institute bigger systematic changes that will ensure that the best and the brightest get attracted to and succeed in surgery.
Kathryn Rexrode, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine
Dr. Rexrode is the Chief of the Division of Women’s Health in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) where she leads state-of the-art women’s health clinical programs as well as driving research, education and advocacy to improve the health of women. Dr. Rexrode is also a research scientist with over 250 publications, and multiple NIH grants focused on women’s health and sex differences. As Director of the Office of Women’s Careers in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at BWH, Dr. Rexrode leads initiatives to advance gender equity including programs to support female professionals and their academic advancement, to address issues of diversity and inclusion, and to reduce the impact of unconscious bias. She also directs the Women’s Leadership Program for junior faculty at BWH and has lectured widely on leadership skills for women in academic medicine. Across her career, from mentorship to clinical practice, from research to teaching, Dr. Rexrode pursues her goal of helping women become healthier, happier, and more successful.
Danielle Sarno, MD, Instructor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Danielle Sarno is an Instructor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, Chair of the Wellness Committee in the Department of Neurosurgery, and Co-Director of the Harvard Interventional Pain Simulation Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is double board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine. Dr. Sarno utilizes a patient-centered, multidisciplinary approach in her treatment of spine disorders, with a focus on optimizing function and improving quality of life. Dr. Sarno’s research interests include simulation for interventional pain education, radiation safety, therapeutic neuroscience education, and clinical innovations to enhance the experience for patients with chronic pain.
Julie Silver, MD, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School; Associate Chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital
Course Director—see top of page for biographical details
Natalie Strand, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine
Harvard-Affiliated Faculty
Tracey Hunter, MD, Resident Physician, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and Harvard Medical School
Dr. Tracey Hunter is currently a second-year physician resident specializing in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She strives to enhance the functional quality of life of her patients and advance healthcare equity through disparities work. As a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipient and two-time awarded academic scholar in medicine, she has been dedicated to healthcare research for over a decade. She graduated from David Geffen School of Medicine and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the George Washington University, where she was inspired by the HIV pandemic to serve as a health advocate for marginalized communities. Dr. Hunter has co-authored over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, including four bodies of work highlighting the detrimental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health outcomes of disadvantaged populations. She has also presented several research posters at national medical conferences, including a study on carboplasty, a novel stem-cell intervention, commercialized in 2022, for knee osteoarthritis.
As a recreational athlete with a special interest in musculoskeletal medicine and interventional pain, Dr. Hunter prioritizes fitness for herself and hopes to assist her patients in optimizing individualized goals for physical mobility that improve their health of mind and body. Inspired by an organization that helped pave her way to medical school, she is also passionate about youth mentoring and diversifying the future face of medicine.
Nicole Katz, MD, Resident Physician, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and Harvard Medical School
Nicole Katz, MD is a resident in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School. After creating a Dance Science major at Skidmore College, Dr. Katz founded The Healthy Dancer Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating dancer-specific health education to preprofessional and professional dancers through in-person and online platforms. As a researcher of musculoskeletal health and diversity in medicine, she has published on topics such as the Female Athlete Triad, sex differences in sports medicine injuries, and diversity and inclusion of authors in clinical practice guidelines. Dr. Katz is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) award-winning researcher and has presented her research at regional, national, and international conferences such as those of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, American College of Sports Medicine, and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. She is equally committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in medicine through programming. Her work has led to several awards including being inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in recognition of her position as a role model, mentor, and leader in medicine.
Lynne Brady Wagner, MA, CCC-SLP, MRMC, HEC-C, Chief Learning and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Lynne Brady Wagner serves as the Chief Learning and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee, and Associate Director of the Spaulding Stroke Wellness Institute at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network (SRN). In her 25 years at SRN, she has fulfilled many roles including speech-language pathologist, Director of the Stroke Rehabilitation Program, and Director of the Clinical Scholars Program.
Guest Faculty
Jessie Allan, MD, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine
Jessie Allan, MD, is a pediatric hospitalist for Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Clinically, Dr. Allan cares for patients in the newborn and intermediate care nurseries, as well as on acute inpatient floors at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Beyond her clinical roles, Dr. Allan is most passionate about gender equity in medicine and serves on the Steering Committee of the non-profit organization Women In Medicine®. She is the co-founder and immediate past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Section on Hospital Medicine (SOHM), Women in Pediatric Hospital Medicine sub-committee, and was awarded the 2022 AAP Collaborative Impact Award.
Dr. Allan has published on the presence of gender bias and underrepresentation of women in leadership and scholarly activities in Pediatrics. Her research has been recognized with awards such as top article and top research abstract. She has spoken at institutions around the country on gender equity in Pediatrics and was a 2022 Women In Medicine #SheForShe nominee. Dr. Allan was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the AAP Section of Hospital Medicine, serving over 5,000 pediatric hospitalists, and aims to continue the Section’s mission of inclusivity. Dr. Allan is also a strong advocate for pediatric hospitalists and women in medicine via social media channels. She was the inaugural Social Media Editor for the Women In Medicine Summit Conference which reached 48 million impressions in one weekend. She is currently the Assistant Digital Media Editor for Hospital Pediatrics and serves on the journal’s editorial board.
Laurie Baedke, MHA, FACHE, FACMPE, Director of Healthcare Leadership Programs and Program Director of the Executive MBA in Healthcare Management, Creighton University
Ms. Laurie K. Baedke is a faculty member, Director of Healthcare Leadership Programs, and Assistant Dean of Physician Leadership Education at Creighton University. She is a published author, a frequent speaker at national conferences and healthcare leadership courses, and has specific expertise in physician practice management, leadership development, mentorship, executive coaching, emotional intelligence, and strengths-based leadership. Ms. Baedke holds a bachelor’s degree in human services and business administration and a master’s degree in healthcare administration. She is a board-certified Fellow of both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Medical Practice Executives, and she has been certified by The Gallup Organization as a Strengths Performance Coach since 2006.
Ms. Baedke is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nebraska ACHE Regent’s Early Career Excellence Award (2001), the Region 5 ACHE Regent’s Award to Healthcare Excellence (2006), and the ACHE Exemplary Service Award (2018). Professionally, she has served on four national committees for ACHE: the Early Careerist Committee, Products, Programming, and Services Committee, the Chapter Committee, and the Examination Committee. Ms. Baedke is also active in civic leadership to her community, serving on the executive committee of the board of Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty. Her first book, titled The Emerging Healthcare Leader: A Field Guide, was published by ACHE’s Health Administration Press in 2015, with a second edition published in March, 2018. She contributed a chapter, "Entrepreneurship Basics for Practitioners," to the book Handbook of Private Practice, published by Oxford Press in 2017. Her most recent book, Mentor, Coach, Lead to Peak Professional Performance, was published in February, 2023.
Garrett Booth, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Garrett S. Booth, MD is an Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He serves as the co-medical director of apheresis and cellular processing, as well as the medical director for the medical laboratory scientist training program. Dr. Booth is a clinical educator focused on improving blood safety and utilization, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and pathology workforce disparities. He is the recipient of the 2022 Women in Medicine Summit #HeforShe award for his research in pathology and laboratory medicine workforce inequities.
Vanessa Britto, MD, MSc, FACP, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University; Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Executive Director of Health and Wellness, Brown University
Dr. Britto is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University where she serves as the Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Executive Director of Health and Wellness. She oversees the five departments that collectively comprise Health and Wellness for the University: Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Health Promotion, Emergency Medical Services, and Accessibility Services, totaling a staff of 200 people. The work of Health and Wellness supports and cares for 10,000 undergrads, graduate, and medical students.
Prior to returning to Brown in 2018 to serve in her current role, Dr. Britto was the Director of Health Services at Wellesley College for 16 years. She received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Returning to the east coast to train at Brown, Dr. Britto completed her residency and a general medicine fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital. While in fellowship she also received a Master of Science in Community Health. Prior to establishing a career in college health, Dr. Britto practiced medicine in federally qualified health centers, helped to establish a multidisciplinary women’s health practice, and also developed a hospital-based preventive cardiology program that she co-led while growing a private practice. She volunteers with two non-profit medical mission organizations that travel regularly to Cape Verde, W. Africa, and she is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians. Dr. Britto lectures nationally and internationally on health care disparities, adolescent health, and women’s health. Dr. Britto is passionate about workforce well-being and community health and welcomes opportunities to mentor students.
Cindy Crusto, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
Cindy A. Crusto, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology Section), Yale University School of Medicine, is Associate Dean for Gender Equity and Director of the Office for Women in Medicine and Science and the Director of Program Evaluation and Child Trauma Research at The Consultation Center.
Laura Desveaux, PhD, PT, Assistant Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto; Scientific Director, Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners
Dr. Desveaux is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners and the Lead for the Learning Health System Portfolio. She is also the founder and Executive Director of Women Who Lead, an organization dedicated to supporting the career advancement and leadership development of women in the health sector. Her career focuses on closing the gap between current performance and what science and experience tell us is possible. She realizes this passion through her noted roles and as a career coach, where she helps scientists, clinicians, and professionals use data to identify and unlock their potential.
Dr. Desveaux’s work in behavioral science tackles healthcare’s most persistent problems by examining what drives behaviors, how and why things work, and identifying how context influences success (and failure). Her core program of work focuses on studying leaders, individuals, and teams to identify elements of high performance in healthcare. This approach provides insights into how to effect change at both individual and system levels. She is also the founding partner of E2I Consulting, where she collaborates with health and social care organizations to bridge the evidence-to-practice gap by helping them apply the principles of implementation science and behavior change to their work.
Monica Verduzco Gutierrez, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Long School of Medicine, UT Health San Antonio
Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, is an accomplished academic physiatrist, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health in San Antonio, Texas. She previously was the Medical Director of the Brain Injury and Stroke Program at a top-two US News and World Report Best Hospital for Rehabilitation. She is currently the Clinical Chief of PM&R at the University Hospital System, and the Medical Director of Critical Illness Recovery and Neurorehabilitation at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospitals in San Antonio. Her area of clinical expertise is the care of patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke rehabilitation, and interventional spasticity management. She is currently directing a COVID-19 recovery clinic, the first in South Texas, which aligns with her mission to increase access to interdisciplinary care, optimize function, and improve quality of life for survivors with Long COVID.
Dr. Gutierrez is a passionate advocate for physiatry and for underrepresented groups in medicine via social media channels. She is the Social Media Editor of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Academic Physiatrists. In 2019, she received the Top 25 Women in Healthcare Award from the National Diversity Council and Healthcare Diversity Council, which recognizes the top women leaders in the city of Houston, and in 2021 she received the the Distinguished Member Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Paula Gutlove, DMD, International Consultant on Negotiation and Leadership; Deputy Director, Institute for Resource and Security Studies
Dr. Paula Gutlove is a teacher, trainer, and international consultant on conflict management, negotiation, and leadership, with a special interest in the role of women in these contexts. Dr. Gutlove is Deputy Director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS), is an Associate of the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School, and was the founding board chair of the International Alliance for Peacebuilding. She works with a wide range of academic, business, government, and non-government organizations. Her teaching and training work is done through graduate courses, lectures, workshops, and executive-education sessions in a range of settings including universities, government agencies, corporations, and non-profit organizations. She teaches in Boston-area universities and colleges including Harvard, Hult, Simmons, Tufts, and Bentley. Her consulting work includes policy analysis and the development, administration, and implementation of programs. This work has been done for organizations including the World Health Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the US Institute of Peace, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
At IRSS, Dr. Gutlove directs the Institute’s international program on conflict management, which advises and supports government and non-government organizations regarding negotiation, leadership, human security, and conflict management. Within that program, Dr. Gutlove founded and directs the international, award-winning project, Health Bridges for Peace. This project links health care with the prevention and resolution of inter-communal conflict, using a common interest in public health as an opportunity to bring people together for negotiation training, collaborative action, dialogue, and community reconciliation. Much of this work has been done in war-afflicted areas including the Balkans, the North Caucasus, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Dr. Gutlove was trained in social science (BS Psychology, Cornell University) and dental medicine (DMD, Boston University), and was a resident in oral surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She has held two post-doctoral fellowships in negotiation and conflict management: at the Bunting Institute at Harvard University, and at the Peace Research Center at the Australian National University.
Wendy Gutterson, MS, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Physician Management Resources
Wendy Gutterson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Physician Management Resources, a healthcare consulting company focusing on helping medical practices and healthcare organizations achieve greater success by boosting strategic, operational, and financial performance. Ms. Gutterson's financial and operational know-how springs from 20-plus years of practice leadership experience. Prior to launching Physician Management Resources, she worked in large and small physician practices, as well as academic departments at Tufts Medical Center, Lahey Clinic, Cambridge Health Alliance and Hebrew SeniorLife. Ms. Gutterson is a much sought-after speaker and was recently featured in Starting Up Smarter: Why Founders Over 50 Build Better Companies by Mary J Cronin. Ms. Gutterson earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a graduate degree in health care administration from Simmons University, Boston, where she is an honorary trustee.
Courtney Harris, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Disease, Medical University of South Carolina
Courtney Harris is an infectious disease specialist, with formal training and focus on transplant infectious disease and infections in immunocompromised patients. She was born and raised in Minnesota and subsequently attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for undergraduate studies majoring in Medical Microbiology and Immunology with a minor in Business, and then returned home for medical school at the University of Minnesota. She completed an internal medicine residency and a chief residency year at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. During her chief residency she focused on curriculum development in quality improvement. She then moved to Boston, MA, and completed her infectious disease fellowship and transplant infectious fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. During her infectious disease fellowship, she completed the Program for Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease. During her training, she was involved in local, state, and national organized medicine with formative experiences as a Board of Trustee representative for the Minnesota Medical Association for four years and 2-year representative on the national Council of Resident and Fellow Members of the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Harris is currently on the American Society for Transplantation Infectious Disease Community of Practice Executive Committee. Her track record during her training has led to recognition with several awards from her residency program, the Zumbro Valley Medical Society’s Outstanding Young Physician Award, and the Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society’s Kass Award for Clinical Excellence. She then joined the Medical University of South Carolina faculty as an assistant professor and is currently the Program Director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Fellowship Program, Medical Student Infectious Disease Clerkship Director, and Director of the Infectious Disease Cardiac Transplantation Program. She has presented nationally and published literature on improving gender equity in academic medicine, career development in transplant infectious disease, and fungal infection in immunocompromised patients. She also continues to work on clinical research projects on infections in patients with ventricular assist devices, and medical education scholarship.
Jennifer Hunt, MD, Chair of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville
Jennifer Hunt, MD is a physician executive and dedicated leader whose personal mission is to lift up a next generation of women healthcare leaders. In 2020, she joined the University of Florida in Gainesville as the Chair of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine after serving as Chair of Pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for almost a decade. She was recently appointed as the Chief of Staff of Shands Hospital, where she oversees the credentialing and privileging of more than 2200 medical staff members. Dr. Hunt also held this role at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and in both institutions, she is the first woman to serve in this position. Dr. Hunt has also held elected board level positions for a number of national pathology organizations, including two terms as a Governor for the College of American Pathologists and past roles as President of the Association for Molecular Pathology and the CAP Foundation. She is an internationally recognized expert in head and neck pathology and in molecular genetic pathology. She has published more than 160 scientific papers and numerous book chapters and books.
Outside of pathology, Dr. Hunt finds many ways to invest in mentoring, sponsoring, and promoting the careers of women physicians and scientists. She is a certified executive leadership coach and works with emerging, aspiring and current physician leaders across the country. Dr. Hunt facilitates popular leadership development workshops to help women build confidence, abandon self-doubt, overcome imposter tendencies, and live more powerful and intentional professional lives. She published an Amazon best-selling book about overcoming imposter syndrome, Unlocking Your Authentic Self. In all of her roles, from Chair, to physician leader, to executive coach, Dr. Hunt finds great joy in teaching people practical tools, skills, and strategies for personal empowerment and growth.
Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine with Tenure in the Division of Hematology, Oncology. Director of Communications Strategies in Medicine, and the Associate Director of Oncology Communication and Digital Innovation for the University of Illinois Cancer Center
Dr. Shikha Jain is a board-certified hematology and oncology physician. She is a tenured associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is the Director of Communications Strategies in Medicine and the Associate Director of Oncology Communication and Digital Innovation for the University of Illinois Cancer Center. Dr. Jain is the Founder and Chair of the Women in Medicine Summit as well as the Founder and President of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Women in Medicine®. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit IMPACT and was named one of Medscape's 25 Rising Stars in Medicine in 2020, one of Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Emerging Leaders in 2019, and was also awarded the Rising Star award by the LEAD Oncology Conference in 2019. She was appointed by the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS S&T) and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to the Committee on Addressing Inaccurate and Misleading Information on Biological Threats and the Working Group on Engaging the Scientific Community in Countering Scientific Mis- and Disinformation. She is on the Doximity Women in Medicine Advisory Board and is the consulting medical editor for Women in Oncology, on the editorial board of Healio HemOnc Today and the host of the podcast Oncology Overdrive. She was selected as a ResearcHERS ambassador by the American Cancer Society, and was honored by 500 Women in Medicine. She holds leadership roles in the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Illinois State Medical Society.
Dr. Jain gave a TEDx talk in 2019 on the gender moonshot and is a nationally renowned keynote speaker and has written for several national publications including CNN, USA Today, Scientific American, The Hill, US News, Doximity, and has been interviewed in the New York Times and Washington Post. She is a regular contributor to FOX 32 and has also been a guest on MSNBC, ABC7 and CBS, and other local and national news channels. Dr. Jain has also published extensively in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, PNAS, and JAMA.
W. Brad Johnson, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law, United States Naval Academy; Faculty Associate, Graduate School of Education, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Brad Johnson is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy, and a Faculty Associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Johnson is a clinical psychologist and former Lieutenant Commander in the Navy's Medical Service Corps. He is an award-winning mentor with mentor awards from the National Institutes of Health and the American Psychological Association. He is also a recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Teaching Excellence Award. He is the author of more than 130 journal articles and book chapters, and 14 books, many on the topic of mentoring. His most recent mentoring-related titles include:
• Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (2020), Harvard Business Review Press
• The Elements of Mentoring (3rd ed., 2018), St. Martin’s
• Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016), Harvard Business Review Press
• On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty (2nd ed., 2015), Routledge
• The Oxford Handbook of Education and Training in Professional Psychology (2014), Oxford University Press
Allison Larson, MD, MS, Professor and Chair of Dermatology, Georgetown University School of Medicine and MedStar Health
Allison R. Larson, MD, MS is Professor and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Health since 2021. Prior to this time, she was the Vice Chair for Education for the Boston University Department of Dermatology and Program Director for the Boston University Dermatology residency program. She previously served as an Assistant Dean for Medical Education at Boston University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, completed her residency in dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and her dermatopathology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Larson is a gender equity expert with a specific research focus on debt and compensation
Tiffany Love, PhD, APRN, FACHE, GNP, ANP, CHC, Associate Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, University of Vermont Health Network Porter Medical Center
Dr. Tiffany Love, founder of the Love Leadership Foundation, is an award-winning keynote speaker and C-suite executive with more than 30 years of healthcare experience at various hospital systems across the country, as well as at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an Adult and Gerontological Nurse Practitioner, as well as a certified Public Leader through the Harvard Kennedy School. She also serves as coordinator, nurse planner and guest faculty member for Harvard Medical School’s CME course, Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare and as an Advisory Council member for the Harvard Business Review. Additionally, Dr. Love is an Advisory Board Member for Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society’s Center for Excellence in Nursing Education and an advisor for their Nurse Leadership Academy for Practice.
As an international leader in the advancement of women and diverse healthcare executives, Dr. Love serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Healthcare Diversity Council, a non-profit dedicated to promoting culturally competent care, inclusiveness, and equity; she was also recognized as one of its “Top 3 Healthcare Diversity Leaders” in 2021. Previously, she received ACHE’s Service and Regent’s awards for being the organization’s most requested mentor and career advisor, as well as for developing multiple inaugural DEI committees, educational offerings and DEI initiatives that have successfully advanced diverse professionals to higher levels of leadership.
Aimee Lowe, JD, Founder, Lowe Legal Group, PC LLO
Aimee L. Lowe is the founder of Lowe Legal Group, PC LLO, a boutique law firm that provides legal services for executives and physicians, businesses, and entrepreneurs. She has worked with businesses, professionals, and physicians for years as executive advisor, general counsel, defender, litigator, and strategist. She represents professionals and physicians in complex contract and compensation negotiations and disputes. She works with companies of all sizes to provide strategic legal counsel in intellectual property, employment law, land acquisitions, and business mergers. Before forming Lowe Legal Group, Lowe was a Partner with both a Nebraska-based and Iowa-based law firm, served as judicial clerk with the Nebraska Court of Appeals, and held a role as in-house counsel where she oversaw federal and state regulations, internal audits, and drafted policy. Ms. Lowe served for several years as an Adjunct Faculty member with Creighton University School of Law. She is an honors graduate of the Creighton University School of Law; recipient of the Silver Quill Award; recipient of seven CALI Excellence Awards; and frequent speaker and writer on well-being, business, legal, leadership, faith, and debt-reduction topics.
Amy Oxentenko, MD, FACP, FACG, AGAF, Professor of Medicine, Vice Dean of Practice, Mayo Clinic
Dr. Amy Oxentenko is a Professor of Medicine and Vice Dean of Practice for Mayo Clinic. After completing her IM Residency, Chief Residency and GI Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Dr. Oxentenko joined the faculty there, serving as Program Director of Mayo’s GI Fellowship and Advanced GI Fellowship Programs, later transitioning to the role of IM Residency Program Director, Associate Chair for Education for GI and Associate Chair for Education for the Department of IM. She transitioned to Chair of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2020, and then in the fall of 2022, she was appointed as Vice Dean of Practice for all Mayo Clinic sites. She has been the recipient of Mayo’s Department of IM Distinguished Contributions to Medical Education Award, Mayo Clinic School of GME Program Director of the Year Award, Minnesota’s ACP Laureate Award, and was awarded the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Educator Award. She was named the 2020 Woman Disruptor of the Year by Healio GI and has been named as one of the “top 100 alumni” by her undergraduate alma mater.
Dr. Oxentenko is past Chair of the American College of Gastroenterology’s Women in GI and Finance Committees. She Co-Created and Co-Chaired the ACG Train-the-Trainer USA Program and is past Vice Chair for the World GI Organization Train-the-Trainer Program. Dr. Oxentenko has served as a Senior Associate Editor for the American Journal of Gastroenterology. She has been a member of the ACG Board of Trustees since 2017 and is now a member of the ACG Executive Team, with ACG Presidency planned to start in October of 2024. She has been heavily involved in national educational efforts, and now serves as Vice Chair of the Internal Medicine ACGME Review Committee. She has attended the Northwestern/Kellogg School of Management Finance for Executives Course and is the physician leader for the Mayo Clinic/Arizona State University Physician Business Leadership Academy.
Ranna Parekh, MD, MPH, Vice President, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ranna Parekh, MD, MPH joined MD Anderson as the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer in May 2022. Previous to her current role, she served in a variety of DEI leadership roles including the American College of Cardiology and the American Psychiatric Association, where she was also Deputy Medical Director and Director of the Minority Fellowship Program. Dr. Parekh is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. Prior to 2015, she practiced at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School and was the inaugural Director of the MGH Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Diversity. Dr. Parekh is co-author of the e-book Overcoming Prejudice in the Workplace (Harvard Health Publishers, 2012). She is also editor of the Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity (Springer Publishers, 2013) and co-editor of Cultural Sensitivity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (MGH Academy Press, 2016), Stigma and Prejudice: Touchstones in Understanding Diversity ( Springer Publishers, 2016), and Cultural Psychiatry with Children, Adolescents and Families (American Psychiatric Press, 2021).
Dr. Parekh has led trainings and lectured locally, nationally and internationally on topics including diversity, health care disparities, microaggressions, cultural psychiatry, facilitative mediation, collaborative negotiations, child and adolescent psychiatry, addictions, and psychopharmacology. She has lived, studied, and worked around the world including Japan, France, Poland, New Zealand and Australia. Dr. Parekh is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health (MPH), the adult psychiatry and child fellowship residency trainings programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and also holds degrees from Wayne State University (MD, BSc in Biology, BA in Chemistry and co-major in Black Studies). Dr. Parekh holds or has held academic appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital, George Washington University Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine.
Deborah Saltman, AM, MD, PhD, Chair, Independent Scientific Advisory Committee, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, United Kingdom
Dr. Deborah Saltman is the Chair, Independent Scientific Advisory Committee, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (UK). She holds positions as Honorary Professor at Imperial College, London and the University of Sydney and is Visiting Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. Previously, she was a clinical and scientific director. Dr. Saltman is member of the Order of Australia, a recipient of the Rose Hunt Medal (UK) and a Notable Australian Doctor. She has a doctorate in general practice, Fellowships of several family practice and public health boards and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has run leadership workshops for physicians worldwide. She currently works as a physician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sasha Shillcutt, MD, MS, FASE, tenured Professor and the Vice Chair of Strategy in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD, MS, FASE is a tenured Professor and the Vice Chair of Strategy in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). She is CEO & Founder of Brave Enough, as well as a well-published researcher in cardiac anesthesiology and gender equity, cardiac anesthesiologist, author, and international speaker. In 2016, Dr. Shillcutt was awarded the national American Medical Association's Women Physicians Section Inspiration Award by her peers. Her greatest passion is empowering and encouraging others to achieve wellbeing in their professional and personal lives. She speaks frequently to executives and leaders on the topics of professional resilience and gender equity. Her TEDx talk titled "Resilience: The Art of Failing Forward" has been viewed by thousands of people. Dr. Shillcutt's writing has been published in both the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. She leads conferences and retreats for professional women through her organization, Brave Enough. She is the author of Between Grit and Grace: How to be Feminine and Formidable. Her second book, Brave Boundaries, will be released in September of 2022.
Dr. Shillcutt underwent her residency in Anesthesiology at UNMC and completed an Executive Fellowship in Perioperative Echocardiography at the University of Utah Medical Center. She is a board-certified Anesthesiologist, is a testamur in the Special Competence in Adult Echocardiography (ASCeXAM) and has certification in advanced perioperative echocardiography (Advanced PTEeXAM) through the National Board of Echocardiography. She has been an NIH-funded researcher through the National Institute of Aging. She is a Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology, holds national leadership positions in the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology, and serves on the National Board of Echocardiography.
Christine Spadafor, JD, ScM, RN, Board of Directors Advisor & Management Consultant; CEO, SpadaforClay Group
Christine J. Spadafor is an experienced public and private company board director with deep expertise in risk management, regulatory compliance, DEI and ESG. She has a demonstrated track record leading successful large-scale transformational initiatives at the intersection of strategy, operations, finance and change management initiatives in a broad spectrum of domestic and international health-related companies—including a major academic medical center, hospitals, physician practice groups, biotechnology, medical equipment manufacturing, and mental health and clinical social services sectors. She has worked extensively as an advisor to Fortune 500 C-suite executives. Ms. Spadafor is CEO of SpadaforClay Group, a management consulting firm. She serves as an Independent Director on the boards of public and private companies: Intus Care, a healthcare software company; Boyd Gaming Corporation, a $3B NYSE-listed company, where she is the Chair of its Governance and Nominating Committee and a member of the Audit Committee; and until its recent acquisition, Kindred at Home, the largest provider of home care and hospice services in the US, where she served as the Chair of the Quality and Compliance Committee. Ms. Spadafor also serves on the Advisory Board of WBUR, one of the premier National Public Radio stations in the US, is a commentator on the BBC World Service “Business Matters” global radio broadcast and podcast and is a member of the Board of Trustees at Mercyhurst University. Ms. Spadafor graduated from Harvard Law School and received a Master of Science degree in Physiology from Harvard School of Public Health, which included course work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, she co-authored “Monitoring the Worker for Exposure and Disease: Scientific, Legal and Ethical Considerations in the Use of Biomarkers” published by Johns Hopkins University, with a professor in the Science and Technology core. In addition, Ms. Spadafor was a partner in three premier global management consulting firms (The Boston Consulting Group, CSC Index, AlixPartners), was an editor of The Harvard Environmental Law Review, and was selected by the Business Section of the American Bar Association/Direct Women as one of the top 20 female attorneys in the country with expertise for corporate board service. In addition to her educational background in science and public health, Ms. Spadafor worked as an ICU nurse at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, health and environmental scientist at the US Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency, General Counsel at a pediatric hospital, and served as an advisor to the United Nations in China on public health and sustainable environmental issues in third world countries.
For nearly 10 years, Ms. Spadafor dedicated her extensive experience in financial, operational, and organizational management to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, a nonprofit that serves abused, abandoned and homeless children. As CEO, she inherited a nearly bankrupt organization—and against all odds, set the ambitious growth strategy, restructured the corporation and corporate governance, and led the execution of a plan that resulted in an innovative turnaround that received national acclaim. Ms. Spadafor continues to be involved with several non-profit organizations as advisor or board trustee. She is a lecturer on Strategic Leadership in the Visiting Executive Program at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and is a frequent speaker/keynote at seminars, meetings and podcasts addressing gender equity, women in leadership and board governance topics, including Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, the American Medical Group Association and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She also holds two Doctor of Humane Letters degrees, awarded in recognition of her professional accomplishments and lifelong contributions to vulnerable and at-risk populations.
Natalie Strand, MD, Associate Professor of Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic
Dr. Strand is an Associate Professor of Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Strand is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the medical field. In 2020, she received the National Lisa Stearns Legacy Diversity Award from the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience in recognition of her work to promote diversity and inclusion within the pain medicine community. She has also executive produced a documentary with a grant awarded from the Mayo Clinic Commitment Against Racism, which highlights the importance of diversity and inclusion in healthcare. The film has been shared widely across the Mayo Clinic enterprise in the form of premieres, Grand Rounds, and hosted viewings.
Dr. Strand serves on the executive board of ASPN, has active roles in NANS and ASRA, and is a frequent faculty member at national pain meetings. She is also an advisor to Elevate MeD, a board member of IGNITE serving female medical students, and has had a career in television that includes a role as co-host of CNBC’s dLife. She has authored a book and written over 65 peer-reviewed published articles. She has a passion for wellness in the medical workforce, gender equity, and pain medicine.