Morabia completed his undergraduate studies at Collège Calvin in Geneva in 1971, majoring in Greek and Latin. After receiving his M. D. from the School of Medicine at the University of Geneva in 1978, Morabia trained in internal medicine at the University Hospital of Geneva and in occupational medicine in Italy. He is board certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine. In 2009, he was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1986, Morabia received a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation to study at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, where he obtained M. P.H. and Ph. D. degrees in epidemiology, the first such PhD awarded to a Swiss citizen, and an M. H.S. in biostatistics. In August 1990, he became chair of the Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the University Hospital of Geneva, the first epidemiology group ever created in a Swiss hospital. Under his leadership, the unit grew into a division, and he was subsequently appointed professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Geneva. He is currently professor of clinical epidemiology at the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, and professor of epidemiology at the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at Queens College, City University of New York. His domain of research are urban health and history. He is PI of a cohort study of cardiovascular diseases among men and women who volunteered during the months following the 9/11 attack to clean the debris of the WTC towers. He is supported by the National Library of Medicine to write a textbook on the history of epidemiologic methods and concepts. Dr Morabia lectures and teaches on the history of epidemiology internationally in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. Alfredo Morabia also serves as the Editor in Chief of the AJPH (former American Journal of Public Health) and Editor of Epidemiology in History at the American Journal of Epidemiology. His last book, Enigmas of Health and Disease: How Epidemiology Contributes to Unravel Scientific Mysteries was published by Columbia University Press in 2014.

Darrell P. Wheeler is Interim Provost & Sr. VP for Academic Affairs and Vice Provost for Public Engagement at the University at Albany – SUNY. Previously he was Dean of Social Welfare University at Albany – SUNY and Dean School of Social Work Loyola University Chicago. Wheeler has also held academic positions at Hunter College, Columbia University, and the University of North Carolina – Greensboro.

He is an educator and researcher on HIV prevention and intervention in the African-American gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. His work has been funded by key health organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recent research studies include HPTN073 protocol chair; co-chair for HPTN061 (NIH sponsored) and Principal Investigator for B-ME (CDC sponsored). His work has demonstrated a deep understanding of social work practice methods and the social work community. Wheeler has used research to advance the use of data and evidence in developing innovative programs and policy initiatives.

He currently services as Vice Chair of the US Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and is the President of the US Board of the National Association of Social Workers. He has also served on the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. In 2015, he was named among the 30 most influential social workers alive today. Wheeler earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1992, a master’s degree in public health at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990, a master in social work from Howard University in 1988, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Cornell College in 1981.

Jay Berry is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. As a general pediatrician and hospitalist, he coordinates care for children with complex medical problems and needs. Berry’s quality improvement initiatives and health services research have focused on optimizing health outcomes and reducing unnecessary resource utilization for children with medical complexity through proactive care planning, integrated health information management, high-quality discharge planning, and use of home and post-acute care services. He leads the international Complex Care Quality Improvement Research Collaborative, sponsored by the Children’s Hospital Association. His work has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Agency Healthcare Research and Quality, Maternal Child Health Bureau, Cardinal Health Foundation, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, and European Commission. His work has been published in JAMA, The BMJ, Health Affairs, and PLoS Medicine. He is the recipient of the Young Clinician Research Award given by the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, the Outstanding Achievement for Scientific Contribution Award given by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award.

Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable is director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He oversees the institute’s $281 million budget to conduct and support research, training, research capacity and infrastructure development, public education, and information dissemination programs to improve minority health and reduce health disparities. NIMHD is the lead organization at NIH for planning, reviewing, coordinating, and evaluating minority health and health disparities research activities conducted by NIH Institutes and Centers.

Pérez-Stable’s expertise spans a broad range of health disparities disciplines. His research interests have centered on improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities and underserved populations, advancing patient-centered care, improving cross-cultural communication skills among health care professionals, and promoting diversity in the biomedical research workforce.

Recognized as a leader in Latino health care and disparities research, Pérez-Stable has spent more than 30 years leading research on smoking cessation and tobacco control policy in Latino populations in the United States and Latin America. His collaborations with researchers and public health advocates in Argentina have helped to put tobacco use on the country’s public health agenda, raising awareness of tobacco use as a critical public health problem, building capacity for tobacco control policy, and creating opportunities for prevention and treatment measures through physician education and smoking cessation programs.

Prior to becoming NIMHD director, Pérez-Stable built a career at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he was a professor of medicine, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and director of the Center for Aging in Diverse Communities (CADC), which is funded by NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA). Through the CADC, he continued his commitment to developing a diverse workforce in clinical and population science research by mentoring and collaborating with many minority fellows and junior faculty from a variety of disciplines. Pérez-Stable was also director of the UCSF Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations, which addresses issues for African Americans, Asians, and Latinos in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease, aging, and reproductive health.

As a co-principal investigator of the Redes En Acción National Latino Cancer Control Research and Education Network funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Pérez-Stable spearheaded the development of a research agenda on tobacco control for minority populations in the United States. In addition, he was an NCI-funded staff investigator and assistant director for health care disparities at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as a member of the NCI and Legacy Foundation’s Tobacco Disparities Research Network (TReND).

Pérez-Stable has been a leader in the field of research on aging among minorities and served as a member of the National Institute on Aging’s Advisory Council from 2011 to 2014 and as the chair of the Council’s Minority Task Force on Aging from 2012 to 2014. He has authored numerous scientific papers, reviewed articles for a variety of professional publications, and delivered keynote lectures and presentations at many domestic and international conferences.

Pérez-Stable has received many honors and awards throughout his career, including UCSF’s Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Society of General Internal Medicine’s John M. Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research, and election to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences. He was honored with the UCSF Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award in July 2015. Pérez-Stable was born in Cuba and grew up in Miami, Florida. He earned his BA in chemistry from the University of Miami and his MD from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He completed his primary care internal medicine residency and research fellowship at UCSF.

David T. Takeuchi is a professor, associate dean for research, and the inaugural Dorothy Book Scholar at Boston College School of Social Work. He is a co-founding director, with Tiziana Dearing and Ruth McRoy, of the Research and Innovations in Social, Economic, and Environmental Equity (RISE) at Boston College. Takeuchi is a sociologist with postdoctoral training in epidemiology and health services research. His research focuses on the social, structural, and cultural contexts that are associated with different health outcomes, especially among racial and ethnic minorities. He also examines the use of health services in different communities.

Takeuchi has published in a wide range of journals including the American Journal of Psychiatry, American Journal of Public Health, Archives of General Psychiatry, American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Medical Care, Social Science and Medicine, Sociology of Education, and Social Forces. He has received funding for his work from the National Institutes of Health, W.T. Grant Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Takeuchi received the Legacy Award from the Family Research Consortium for his research and mentoring and the Innovations Award from the National Center on Health and Health Disparities for his research contributions. Prior to Boston College, he was at the University of Washington for 13 years. He was honored with the University of Washington 2011 Marsha Landolt Distinguished Mentor Award. He is an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences; the Sociological Research Association, an honor society of the nation’s top sociologists; and the American Association of Social Work and Social Welfare. In August 2015 he received the American Sociological Association’s Lenard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Mental Health. He is currently secretary-elect (2015-2016) and secretary (2016-2019) of the American Sociological Association.

Kelly J. Kelleher is professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and public health in the Colleges of Medicine and Public Health at The Ohio State University; vice president of community health and services research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; and center director in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is a pediatrician and health services researcher focused on improving policy for, and the practice of, pediatric care for high-risk children adversely affected by poverty, violence, neglect, alcohol, drug use, or mental disorders. He serves or has served on several committees for the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for decades, and he is now the principal investigator on projects from NIMH, AHRQ, and CMS/CMMI. He is involved in strategy development for the Nationwide Children’s Healthy Neighborhood, Healthy Family zone focusing on collaborative efforts with neighborhood leaders, community agencies, and related partnerships to improve housing, employment, schools, and safety on the Near South Side of Columbus.

Tracy Battaglia, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, is a practicing Clinician-Investigator at the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health at Boston University where she has achieved national recognition for improving the health of vulnerable women at risk for delays in care. Battaglia is board certified in both General Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine. She serves as Director of the Women’s Health Unit in the Section of General Internal Medicine at Boston Medical Center, Director of the Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Center in the BU School of Medicine, and Director of the Community Engagement Program for the BU Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Her approach to health disparities focuses largely on engaging the community as partners in the research process, with an emphasis on cancer prevention and control interventions. She is the recipient of numerous awards from both the National Institutes of Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, as well as the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen Foundation, in support of her work designing, implementing and evaluating community-based programs to reduce delays in care delivery. She currently serves as Chair, Board of Directors for the New England Division of the American Cancer Society.

Thea James is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, and president of the Boston Medical and Dental Staff. She is also the Director of the Boston Medical Center site of the Massachusetts Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP). She is also the Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at the Boston Medical Center.

James has chaired and served on national committees within the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), served as a moderator, and has given public lectures and talks. She was appointed to the SAEM Women in Academic Emergency Medicine Task Force, is a member of the Boston University School of Medicine Admissions Committee, and in 2009, James was appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, where she presently serves as chair of the Licensing Committee. Dr. James is the 2008 awardee of the Mulligan Award for public service.

James’ passion is in Public Health both domestically and globally. She is a Supervising Medical Officer on the Boston Disaster Medical Assistance Team, under the Department of Health and Human Services, which has responded to several disasters in the United States and across the globe. She has deployed to post 9/11 in NYC, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, Bam, Iran after the earthquake in 2003, and Port-Au-Prince Haiti after the earthquake of 2010.

For twelve years James has traveled to Haiti, with colleagues and emergency medicine residents. A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, James completed an emergency medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, where she was a chief resident.

William Vega is a provost professor at the University of Southern California with appointments in social work, preventive medicine, psychiatry, family medicine, psychology, and gerontology. He is the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population at the USC School of Social Work. Vega is also the executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Prior to joining the Roybal Institute, he was director of the Luskin Center on Innovation and an associate provost at UCLA. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Vega has conducted community and clinical research projects on health, mental health, and substance abuse throughout the United States and Latin America. His specialty is multi-cultural epidemiologic and services research with adolescents and adults—work that has been funded by multiple public and private sources. He has published more than 200 articles and chapters, in addition to several books. In 2006, the ISI Web of Science listed him in the top half of 1 percent of the most highly cited researchers worldwide in social science literature over the past 20 years. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Community, Culture and Prevention Science Award from the Society for Prevention Research; the Award of Excellence in Research by a Senior Scientist from the National Hispanic Science Network; the Rema Lapouse Award from the Mental Health, Epidemiology; and Statistics Sections of the American Public Health Association.

Tanya Jones is a sociologist and policy analyst who studies institutional change and health sector reform in Ghana. A doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley and Thurgood Marshall Fellow at Dartmouth College, Jones has been engaged in international health as a development practitioner, scholar, and philanthropist throughout her career. Currently, Jones is president of Aya Global, a philanthropic advisory consulting practice. Formerly, as a portfolio manager at the Barr Foundation, she led the community health portfolio in East Africa and India, and was instrumental in developing innovative public health programs designed to reach national scale. She has worked with Pathfinder International, the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, and the Population Council in Ghana on issues of human rights and development. She holds advanced degrees in sociology and public policy from Princeton University and UC Berkeley. While at Harvard FXB Center, Jones will be consulting on FXB’s philanthropic strategy as well as completing a book on the institutionalization of national health policies aimed at increasing access to health care in rural Ghana.

Harold Phillips is the Director of the Office of Training and Capacity Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration’s, HIV AIDS Bureau (HRSA/HAB). His Office with a team of nearly 40 staff administers the Ryan White Program’s AIDS Education and Trainings Centers, Special Projects of National Significance and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

His work spans over twenty years in the field of HIV/AIDS and includes past positions as the Deputy Director of the Ryan White Part B and AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP), Director of Technical Assistance and Training at the National Minority AIDS Council, and 8-years as an independent consultant working with Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipients, planning councils and clients.

Phillips has used his expertise in working with federal, state, local, and international partners to strengthen health care systems, provide workforce training, plan and implement policy and program change and improve health outcomes for individuals living with HIV and other co-existing conditions. His work involves monitoring and evaluation including needs assessments to identify service gaps and barriers. His expertise includes work on disparities in access to health care for key and priority populations in the US and in PEPFAR countries. Phillips served on the CDC/HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee (CHAC) from 2003 – 2010. He has a Master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree from Kalamazoo College in Michigan

Pamela Riley is assistant vice president for Delivery System Reform at The Commonwealth Fund. Her area of focus is on transforming health care delivery systems for vulnerable populations, including low-income groups, racial and ethnic minorities, and uninsured populations. Riley was previously program officer at the New York State Health Foundation, where she focused on developing and managing grantmaking programs in the areas of integrating mental health and substance use services, addressing the needs of returning veterans and their families, and diabetes prevention and management. Earlier in her career, Riley served as clinical instructor in the Division of General Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In this capacity, she was a general pediatrician and associate medical director for Pediatrics at the Ravenswood Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center in East Palo Alto, California. Riley served as a Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Global Health Policy Fellow at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and has served as a volunteer physician in Peru and Guatemala. Riley received an MD from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in 2000, and completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, in 2003. Riley received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health as a Mongan Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy in 2009.

Thomas Byrne an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Policy at the Boston University School of Social Work. He is interested in the causes and conditions of homelessness, public housing, and community investment. Byrne was previously an investigator at the United States Department of Veterans National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans and is currently a member of the Research Advisory Committee at HEARTH, Inc.

Byrne is co-leading a research project along with Yoonsook Ha and Daniel Miller to identify key gaps in existing knowledge about unaccompanied homeless adults who experience related episodes of shelter use over time. This project is sponsored by the BU Initiative on Cities and features Boston as its case study.

Gail Steketee is Dean and Professor at the Boston University School of Social Work. She received her MSW and PhD from Bryn Mawr in Social Work. Her scholarly work has focused on developing and testing treatments for obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders, including OCD, body dysmorphic disorder and hoarding disorder. She has published over 200 articles and chapters, and more than a dozen books on these topics. She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and received the Outstanding Career Achievement Award from the International OCD Foundation in 2013. She was elected President of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in 2015. Her books include therapist guides, client workbooks and self-help books on OCD and OC spectrum conditions, especially hoarding. With colleague Dr. Randy Frost, she co-authored the best-selling book Stuff (Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), the first edited scholarly volume on hoarding disorder, the Oxford Handbook for Hoarding and Acquiring (2014), and a popular self-help book Buried in Treasures (2014) which won the Self-Help Seal of Merit from ABCT. She a gives frequent lectures and workshops on hoarding and related conditions to professional and public audiences in the US and abroad.