Expert Participants

Isaac Ashkenazi is an international expert on disaster management and leadership, community resilience and mass casualty events with both extensive professional and academic experience. He is the Director of the Urban Terrorism Preparedness Project at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint program of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Katherine Baicker is Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine. 
 

Sharon Begley, the senior health & science correspondent at Reuters, was the science editor and the science columnist at Newsweek from 2007 to 2011. From 2002 to 2007, she was the science columnist at The Wall Street Journal. She is the co-author (with Richard J. Davidson) of the 2012 book The Emotional Life of Your Brain and the author of the 2007 book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.

Jacqueline Bhabha is FXB Director of Research, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.  She received a first class honors degree and an M.Sc. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from the College of Law in London.

JudyAnn Bigby, M.D. served as Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She will be leading an eight-week independent study group called Lessons in Leadership: Developing a Population Based Approach to Health and Human Services Delivery.
 

Robert Block is the current President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was the founding chair of the American Board of Pediatrics subboard on Child Abuse Pediatrics and continues to serve on the subboard. Dr. Block is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, where he served as Chair of the Department of Pediatrics for 12 years, capping a 36-year tenure at the medical school. Dr. Block served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect for 10 years, the final 4 years as chair of the Committee.

Don R. Boyce is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for HHS/ASPR and Director of the Office of Emergency Management.  In this capacity, he oversees the federal government’s primary planning and response arm for public health and medical emergency support, known as Emergency Support Function # 8 of the National Response Framework.

Flavia Bustreo was appointed Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 1, 2010. A world-renown physician with a career in international health, Dr. Bustreo has been a key force in prioritizing women's and children's health globally. Her work has focused on policy development concerning child and maternal health, policy implementation and partnership-building with a wide range of stakeholders.

Dr. Lilian Cheung is Lecturer and Director of Health Promotion & Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition.

David Cutler has developed an impressive record of achievement in both academia and the public sector. He served as Assistant Professor of Economics from 1991 to 1995, was named John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences in 1995, and received tenure in 1997. He is currently the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in the department of economics and Kennedy School of Government and recently completed a five-year term as associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for Social Sciences.

Bess Dawson-Hughes graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine, completed her house training at Tufts, and went on to an endocrine fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She then received an Individual National Research Service Award at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dawson-Hughes has served on the councils of several professional organizations, including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the American Society of Clinical Nutrition and the International Bone and Mineral Society.

In a special April 2003 edition on “European Heroes”, Time Magazine described Albina du Boisrouvray as an “alchemist” who turned private pain and personal wealth into loving care for the estimated 100 million AIDS orphans and vulnerable children expected in this decade.
 

David Eisenberg is an Associate Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and Executive Vice President for Health Research and Education at the Samueli Institute. He also is founder of Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives. From 2000-2010, Eisenberg served as the founding Director of the Osher Research Center at Harvard Medical School and the founding Chief of the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies.

Maggie Fox has been global Health and Science editor at Reuters since 2006, coordinating coverage of stories ranging from the swine flu pandemic to AIDS, malaria and the politics of stem cell research.

Julio Frenk became Dean of the Faculty and T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development at the Harvard School of Public Health on January 1, 2009. Dr. Frenk is an eminent authority on global health who served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006.

 
Julie Gralow is Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM), and an Associate Member, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She is Director of Breast Medical Oncology at UWSOM and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, serves as Associate Program Head for the UW/FHCRC Consortium Women's Cancer Program, and is a member of the FHCRC Scientific Steering Committee.

Jeanne Guillemin's training in sociology and anthropology has led to her involvement in issues regarding infectious diseases and biological weapons. She is the author of Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak (University of California Press, 1999), which documents the inquiry into the controversial cause of the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak. Her next book was Biological Weapons: The History of State-sponsored Programs and Contemporary Bioterrorism (Columbia University Press, 2005).

David Hemenway, Ph.D., is Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.  Once a year he spends a week at the University of Vermont as a James Marsh Visiting Professor-at-Large.
 
Dr. Hemenway teaches classes on injury and on economics. He has won ten teaching awards at Harvard School of Public Health.
 

Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and the first to serve on a number of corporate boards. She is widely recognized for her innovative research in health care, including her early predictions of the unraveling of managed care and the rise of consumer-driven health care, a term that she coined. Money has dubbed her the “Godmother” of consumer-driven health care.
 

Eric H. Holder, Jr. was sworn in as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States on February 3, 2009 by Vice President Joe Biden. President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Mr. Holder on December 1, 2008.

In 1997, Mr. Holder was named by President Clinton to be the Deputy Attorney General, the first African-American named to that post. Prior to that he served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1988, Mr. Holder was nominated by President Reagan to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

With 33 years of experience at Boston EMS, Jim has served as an EMT, a Paramedic, a Shift Commander and as the Superintendent of Field Operations. Prior to assuming the duties of Chief of Department, he served as the Superintendent in Chief from 2004 through the fall of 2009. As the Superintendent in Chief, he participated in the development of major departmental policies as well as the planning and operations of EMS at many of Boston's major events and multiagency drills. Jim has completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s John F.

Adrian Ivinson is the founding director of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center. Professor Ivinson helped develop the vision of an integrated and tightly managed research center engaged in groundbreaking and collaborative research at Harvard Medical School, its affiliated research hospitals, and other leading research groups around the world. From 1993-2000 he held a number of leadership positions at the Nature Publishing Group, including editor-in-chief of Nature Medicine and Publisher of the monthly journals.

Stefanos Kales is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and Chief, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Kales is on the editorial boards of Environmental Health Perspectives and the Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health.

An expert in international humanitarian aid and disaster response, Stephanie Kayden is Director of the Humanitarian Studies program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She is an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kayden serves on the editorial board for the American Medical Association’s Journal of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness and has worked to improve emergency medical systems, humanitarian aid and disaster response in more than 20 countries. In 2010, Dr.

David C. King is Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at The Harvard Kennedy School and Faculty Chair of the Masters in Public Administration programs. Professor King is the primary faculty contact for students in the two-year MPA and the one-year Mid-Career MPA programs, for which he also chairs the Admissions Committees. Professor King chairs Harvard's Bi-Partisan Program for Newly Elected Members of the U.S.

Editor In Chief, Healthy Living, The Huffington Post

Laura Kubzansky, Ph.D., M.P.H. is Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Society and Health Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Harvard School of Public Health. Kubzansky received her Ph.D. (social psychology) from the University of Michigan, and completed a two year postdoctoral fellowship in social epidemiology as well as a M.P.H. at the Harvard School of Public Health. Kubzansky has published extensively on the role of psychological and social factors in health, with a particular focus on the effects of stress and emotion on heart disease.

Ellen Langer, Yale PhD, Harvard Professor of Psychology, artist, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three Distinguished Scientist Awards, the World Congress Award, the NYU Alumni Achievement Award, and the Staats award for Unifying Psychology, has authored eleven books and over 200 research articles on the illusion of control, perceived control, stress, successful aging, decision-making, to name a few of the topics. Each of these is examined through the lens of her mindfulness theory.

An expert in public health and rights-based responses to humanitarian crises, Jennifer Leaning is the Director of the Harvard University François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at HSPH and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Leaning served for five years as co-director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. From 1999 to 2005, Dr.

Marc Lipsitch is an epidemiologist and microbiologist who studies the population-level impact of medical and public health interventions to treat and control infectious diseases. His studies combine classical epidemiology, pathogen population genomics, mathematical modeling and laboratory experiments. Working closely with local, state, national and international health authorities, his group contributed to the modeling and analysis of the 2003 SARS epidemic and 2009 influenza pandemic, and most recently to the analysis of the 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak in Europe.

David Ludwig is a practicing pediatrician and researcher at Children’s Hospital Boston. He holds the rank of Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Ludwig is Founding Director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children's Hospital, one of the country’s oldest and largest multidisciplinary clinics for the care of overweight children. He also directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children’s Hospital.

Scott Malone is a correspondent in the Reuters Boston bureau covering the manufacturing sector, with a focus on conglomerates. He also covers New England business, economics and politics. On previous assignments for Reuters and U.S. newspapers, he wrote about initial public offerings, the U.S. stock market and international trade. He has reported from locations across the U.S., as well as Asia and Latin America.

Leonard Marcus is founding Director of the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Dr. Marcus is also founding Co-Director of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a collaborative effort of HSPH and the Kennedy School of Government, developed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense.
 

Roger McClellan is an advisor to public and private organizations on air quality issues. He has published extensively and is an internationally recognized authority in the fields of inhalation toxicology, aerosol science and human health risk analysis. He has served in advisory roles to numerous public and private organizations. He is past Chairman of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and served on panels that have reviewed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for all of the Criteria Pollutants.

John E. McDonough is a Professor of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health and director of the new HSPH Center for Public Health Leadership. Most recently, he was the Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Fellow in Public Health at Hunter College in New York City. Between 2008 and 2010, he served as a Senior Advisor on National Health Reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

David Morgan is the Washington healthcare policy correspondent for Reuters. During a long career with the international news agency, he has served in several capacities including White House correspondent and has specialized in numerous areas such as health and science, macroeconomics, financial markets, military affairs, intelligence and national security. A graduate of Syracuse University, he lives in suburban Maryland with his wife and son. 

Bob Oakes has been WBUR’s Morning Edition anchor since 1992. He is one of the most well-known and respected news people in New England, with a 20-year career in radio broadcasting, including ten years with Boston’s all-news commercial radio station WEEI and coverage of national issues for the CBS Radio Network.

Deval Patrick was reelected to a second term as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in November 2010, renewing his commitment to expanding opportunity and prosperity in Massachusetts. Governor Patrick's life has charted a path from the South Side of Chicago to the U.S. Justice Department, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and now the Massachusetts State House. In each of these capacities, Governor Patrick has been guided by the advice of his grandmother: hope for the best and work for it.

Aaron Pressman is a correspondent for Reuters.

Ms. Rao has over twenty years of experience in the health sector in India at the state and national level. Most recently, she served as the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India and led the launch of the first national program for non-communicable diseases.  Ms. Rao has represented India on Boards of the World Health Organization, Global Fund, and UNAIDS.  She is co-chair of the WHO’s Advisory Panel on Developing a Global Health Systems Research Strategy and a founding Board member of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Michael R. Reich is Taro Takemi Professor of International Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Professor Reich received his BA in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, MA in East Asian Studies (Japan), and PhD in political science, all from Yale University. He has been a member of the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health since 1983. He also serves as director of the Takemi Program in International Health at Harvard. His main research interests are the political dimensions of health policy, health systems, and pharmaceutical policy.

Roberto J. Rodríguez serves in the White House Domestic Policy Council as Special Assistant to the President for Education. Previously, Rodríguez was Chief Education Counsel to United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. In this capacity, he managed the Democratic education agenda for the Committee and led policy development and strategy for legislation addressing early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, and adult education.

Cristine Russell is an award-winning journalist who has written about science, health and the environment for more than three decades. She is a Senior Fellow in the Environment and Natural Resources Program of the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy. Russell, a former national science reporter for The Washington Post, is currently a contributing editor for the Columbia Journalism Review and a correspondent for The Atlantic online.

Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as the 21st Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 28, 2009.  Since taking office, Secretary Sebelius has led ambitious efforts to improve America’s health and enhance the delivery of human services to some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including young children, those with disabilities, and the elderly.
 

Jack P. Shonkoff is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston; and Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. He also chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, a multi-university, multidisciplinary body of leading scholars. Under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr.

Honourable Dr Timothy Thahane was appointed to the position of the Minister of Energy, Meteorology and Water Affairs in June 2012. Following the May 2012 General Elections, Honourable Dr Thahane was elected to the National Assembly to represent the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) Political Party for Likhetlane Constituency No. 16.
 

Abigail Trafford – author, journalist and public speaker – focuses on the new stage of the life cycle after midlife but before traditional old age. Her book – My Time: Making the Most of the Bonus Decades after 50, (Basic Books in 2004, Paperback 2005) chronicles the social revolution of living longer, healthier lives. In her Washington Post column, entitled My Time, she explores the potential in this new stage for both individuals and society.

With nearly thirty years at the forefront of the fashion industry, having graced every magazine cover from Vogue to Time, Christy Turlington Burns has established a diverse career as a model, writer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, advocate, and filmmaker. Philanthropy and service have long been a part of Christy's personal and professional mission to make a lasting impact on the world. As the daughter of a Central American mother, she has supported numerous efforts to rebuild post-war El Salvador since the early 1990's.

Michael VanRooyen is the founder and Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) at Harvard University and an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. VanRooyen is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Gail Wilensky is an economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health foundation. She directed the Medicare and Medicaid programs and served in the White House as a senior adviser on health and welfare issues to President GHW Bush.

Gary Williams is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Co-Director of the Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center (AFCERC) at Texas A&M University. His areas of teaching and research include commodity promotion programs, international agricultural trade and development, agricultural policy, and marketing and price analysis. He holds a PhD and an MS degree in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and a BS in Economics from Brigham Young University. He speaks fluent Spanish and has lived and worked in Latin America throughout his career.

Dyann Wirth is Chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health. An international expert in tropical disease and molecular microbiology, Ms. Wirth directs the Harvard Malaria Initiative and is past President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She is also is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Award in Molecular Parasitology. Ms. Wirth graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin, spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow, and then completed her Ph.D.