Peter Adamo holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at El Paso.  His initial work experience was in manufacturing settings planning production and improving methods.  He began his career in health care at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia as a Management Engineer.  In his desire to learn more and do more in health care, he accepted promotions and filled roles throughout the United States with both for-profit and not-for-profit health systems.  Based on his range of experiences—from staff to line management, as well as single-hospital leadership to multi-hospital chief executive rules—Peter had the opportunity to see and learn what is important at all levels of an organization.  He opened hospitals, helped them merge, nurtured their growth, turned them around, and even consulted to health systems in need of operational improvements.

Peter’s approach to serving his colleagues focuses on building pride while uncovering the innate joy associated with helping others when they need care the most.  His travels have included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, New Mexico, and California.  In each of these locations, he extended his expertise in the communities he serves.  He is committed to offering his service to local community boards, and he prioritizes community-improvement initiatives as part of his leadership.

Peter lives in Malvern, Pennsylvania today with his wife, Melanie, and his stepson, Milledge.  He enjoys learning how advances in technology can address pressing needs in society, particularly in health care, and his personal motto is to find a way to leave things better than the way he found them.

• Strategic Planning

• Organizational Development

• Medical Staff Engagement

• Community Involvement

• Process Improvement / Operational Turnarounds

Dr. Anderson is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Public Health Prevention Specialist (PHPS) fellow, and Eagleton Institute of Politics fellow (New Jersey State Legislature). She is the founder and CEO of Denise Anderson & Associates (DA&A), LLC, an independent public health and healthcare consultancy leader offering tailor-made and comprehensive solutions in organizational capacity development, curriculum design and facilitation, and research. Through unparalleled expertise, we as “Good Public Health Practitioners” provide transformative solutions to help organizations flourish – all focused on helping health systems reduce emergency department visits & admissions while simultaneously improving client outcomes, empowering employees through enhanced staff experience and reduced burnout, as well as providing unprecedented levels of service for customers with an improved user journey.

DA&A, as a firm that has been capitalizing on the power of healthcare and public health expertise for over two decades – offers expertise as thought partners to help organizations transform, allowing clients to realize impactful data-driven decision-making and increased profits. Dr. Anderson is a board member of the Northern New Jersey American Red Cross, where she serves as the Co-Chair of the Regional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee.

• Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition

• Performance Measurement and establishing a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI)

• Practice Transformation

• Service line generalist – primary care, chronic disease management, maternal and child health, HIV, behavioral health, and housing

• Population experience – urban, low socioeconomic status, experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ plus, and recently incarcerated.

Dr. Andresen’s career, which is rooted in critical care, has incorporated the principles of partnership throughout. Her inspired, vocational journey has spanned the fields of quality/ performance improvement; clinical research; patient, professional and community education and outreach; fundraising; innovative not-for-profit project development; and strategic planning with a clinical emphasis in cardiology, surgery, autism, and behavioral health. She has held related senior leadership roles within the hospital/ambulatory settings and not-for-profit organizations. She is passionate about patient (person) and (care) team activation/engagement through the practice of partnership-based leadership and human-centered design. She believes that these are key to achieving the Quadruple Aim, and cannot be attained in isolation. 

During the course of her profession, Dr. Andresen founded innovative programs to bridge gaps in the care and services that she identified. She has expertise in the function of human behavior and strives to establish collaborations and partnerships across persons/communities, disciplines, and settings. She is the co-founder and former director of the Fay J. Linder Center for Autism and Development Disabilities (a comprehensive transdisciplinary program providing diagnostic, treatment, school consultation, social skills training and clinical research), and is also co-founder and former director of the Westbrook Preparatory School (the first residential secondary school in the state of New York for students with High Functioning Autism / Asperger syndrome). In addition, she is a co-founder of the Rock Out Autism Foundation, a 501c3, whose mission is based on the concept of personal development through mentorships. For more than a decade, she has and continues to be an active member of the Asperger High Functioning Autism Association’s professional advisory board. 

Recently, Dr. Andresen (along with Dr. Rosof and Dr. McDonald) contributed to the development and publication of the nation’s first Charter on Professionalism for Health Care Organizations. It is an aspirational document that describes organizational behaviors that support a culture of professionalism focused on the domains of patient partnerships, corporate culture, community partnerships, and operations and business practices. The Charter has been endorsed by organizations nationwide. 

Dr. Andresen has lectured on topics across the U.S. ranging from cardiology to autism and advocacy for multiple stakeholders, including physicians, dentists, nurses, psychologists, educators, government leaders, and parents. She has been honored with the North Shore University Hospital Nurse Excellence Award, was named Nurse of Distinction by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, received the Ambulatory Nursing Center of Excellence Award from both Schneider’s Children’s Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center and received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. She is a member of the Association of Nurse Executives, the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design, Sigma Theta Tau, and the American Nurses Association. She also sat on the National Quality Forum’s Readmission Task Force in 2013 & 2014. 

Dr. Andresen completed her doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, where she majored in Health Innovation and Leadership, minored in Integrative Health, and earned a Certificate in Healthcare Design and Innovation. She is also a graduate of New York State’s Partners in Policymaking program. 

• Health Innovation and Leadership

• Integrative Health and Healing

• Healthcare Design and Innovation

Before founding MEDIS, Dr. Barr served as the Executive Vice President of the Quality Measurement & Research Group at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). In this role, he oversaw the development of HEDIS® performance measures, research and analysis projects, contract and grant management, and NCQA’s consulting services. Additionally, Dr. Barr contributed to NCQA’s strategic initiatives, public policy, and educational programs and led the digital measures strategy for HEDIS.

Prior to NCQA, Dr. Barr held prominent positions at the American College of Physicians (ACP), including Senior Vice President of the Division of Medical Practice and Vice President of Practice Advocacy & Improvement. As a co-author of the ACP Advanced Medical Home policy paper, he championed the Patient-Centered Medical Home concept. Under his leadership, various programs and quality improvement initiatives were developed, including the ACP Practice Advisor and American EHR Partners. He also served as a Commissioner for the Maryland Health Care Commission and remains an active member of the Maryland Primary Care Program Advisory Council.

Dr. Barr’s extensive experience includes serving as the Chief Medical Officer for Baltimore Medical System, Inc. During his tenure in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University, he held multiple administrative roles, including Physician Director of Medical Management Programs for the Vanderbilt Medical Group. During that time, he attained his Master of Business Administration degree from the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Dr. Barr honorably served in the United States Air Force. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

• Healthcare quality measures and improvement

• Business Strategy Development

• Health information technology optimization

• Program/Policy/Advocacy Development

• Roundtable & Meeting Facilitation

David Bleich, MD, has over 20 years of experience in the fields of diabetes and endocrinology and is a nationally recognized expert in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. He has played leadership roles in diabetes organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, and the Department of Defense Diabetes Grant Review. Dr. Bleich has conducted grant-funded bench research in pancreatic beta-cell function and has spent over 10,000 hours caring for individuals with diabetes, as well as mentoring and teaching medical students, residents, and endocrine fellows. 

Dr. Bleich’s present focus is on improving the quality of diabetes care and developing a data-driven holistic approach to patient care. He is a strong education professional as Fellowship Director of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at Rutgers. 

Licensed in the State of New Jersey, Dr. Bleich completed his fellowship training at Harvard Medical School, received his MD from New York Medical College.  

• Endocrinology

• Diabetes

• Metabolism

• Internal Medicine

Dr. Jon A. Chilingerian is a tenured management professor at Brandeis University and an Adjunct Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine. He has been visiting professor of organizational behavior and health care management at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, since 1997.  He received his Ph.D. in Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.  He teaches graduate courses and executive education sessions in Organizational Theory and Behavior, Management of Health Care Organizations, and Health Services Research.   

He is the founding Director of the Executive MBA for Physicians at Brandeis University and Principle Investigator and Director of the AHRQ Doctoral Program in Health Services Research.  He is also founding director of the MD-MBA Program in Health Management with Tufts Medical School (1995-present), which today is the most extensive MD-MBA program in the United States with over 200 graduates. Since 1999, the program has graduated an average of 15 MD-MBA students each year.  

Professor Chilingerian has lectured across the globe, including Abu Dhabi, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, England, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, and Spain.  For twelve years, he has been teaching the Middles East Health Leadership Program in Abu Dhabi.   

He is Program Director of the Brandeis Health Leadership Program, a one-week residential program sponsored by the American College of Surgeons, and the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education. Between 1997 and 2011, he directed the European Health Leader’s Program, a two-week residential program with nearly 800 alumni.  In May 2012, he launched an Advanced Health Policy and Leadership Academy in partnership with the Hanley Center in Maine, which over the next five years, will train nearly 10% of all the physicians in the State of Maine. 

Dr. Chilingerian is the lead editor of a new Springer Nature Book on the “The New Science of Medicine and Management” expected to be out in 2020.  He is the author of International Health Care Management, published by Elsevier Press  (Summer 2005), and The Lessons and the Legacy of the Pew Health Policy Program, with Corinne Kay, published in 1997 by the Institute of Medicine National Academy Press.  He has scholarly papers and review essays published in journals such as Annals of Operational Research, Medical Care, European Journal of Operational Research, Health Services Research, Health Care Management Review, Medical Care Research and Review, Inquiry, Health Services Management Research, and The Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law.  In addition to authoring many articles and a book for the IOM, he is on the editorial board of several leading health care and management journals and has sat on review panels for the National Science Foundation.  

Dr. Chilingerian was Assistant Health Commissioner for the City of Boston (1978-1982) past-chair of the Health Care Management Division of the Academy of Management, and 2010 recipient of the Myron Fottler Exceptional Service Award for the Academy of Management. He is the recipient of several academic awards, such as the Academy of Management (Health Care Division’s) “Best Paper Award.” In April 2016, Dr. Chilingerian received a Recognition for Excellence from the American College of Surgeon’s Association for Surgical Education. 

His research focuses on managing health care organizations, ranging from studies of executive leadership and management of professionals to the measurement of performance (i.e., productive efficiency, quality, etc.), identification of physician best practices, and the analysis of effective operating strategies.  He is an expert on health care performance studies using mathematical programming and frontier analysis.   

• Health Care Management 

• Leadership Training and Development  

• Performance Measurement

• Organization Theory & Behavior

• Research Methods 

Charles G. Curie is the principal and founder of THE CURIE GROUP, LLC, a management and consulting firm specializing in working with national and international leaders in public and private healthcare, particularly mental health (MH) services and substance use (SU) treatment and prevention arenas, to facilitate the transformation of services and to attain increasingly positive outcomes in the lives of people worldwide. Curie has over 40 years of professional experience in the MH and SU services fields and has authored and co-authored articles on various topics related to the field, including co-occurring disorders and the reduction and elimination of seclusion and restraint practices.

In 2001, Curie was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to head the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). As SAMHSA Administrator, Curie led the $3.4 billion agency responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the Nation’s SU treatment and prevention and MH services. Articulating the vision of “a life in the community for everyone”, Curie charted a new course for SAMHSA. Highlights of accomplishments include: The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, the Strategic Prevention Framework for substance use prevention, Access to Recovery, National Outcome Measures, and work with post-conflict and war-torn countries MH and SU systems.

Prior to his confirmation as SAMHSA Administrator, Curie was appointed by Governor Tom Ridge as Deputy Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) for the Dept. of Public Welfare in Pennsylvania. During his tenure the Behavioral HealthChoices Medicaid managed care program was implemented and he established a policy to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint practices in the state hospital system. This program won the 2000 Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University, The Ford Foundation and The Center for Excellence in Government.

Previous professional experience includes Director of Risk Management Services, Henry S. Lehr, Inc., Bethlehem, PA; President/CEO, Helen H. Stevens Community Mental Health Center, Carlisle, PA; and Executive Director/CEO, Sandusky Valley Center, Tiffin, OH.

Curie has received numerous awards and honors, including a Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa from Huntington University, 2012; the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration (SSA) E. Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award, 2011; The John P. McGovern Award for Substance Abuse Prevention, 2005; and The Society of Prevention Research Public Service Award, 2004.

Curie holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice (fka School of Social Service Administration) and a Bachelor of Arts from Huntington University. He was appointed to the 2020 Behavioral Health Integration Task Force of the Bipartisan Policy Center, Washington, DC and serves on a number of corporate and non-profit boards.

• Mental Health

• Addictions Treatment

• Public Policy

• Strategic Planning

• Public Administration

Didi is a part-time lecturer at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in the School of Social Work. Ms. Deitcher has more than 22 years’ experience working directly with children and their families to support and streamline their educational experience. She maximizes their retention and benefit by focusing on their individualized development and skillset and creating customized educational plans and pathways for each child.  

She is currently the Supervisor of Educational Services in the Highland Park Public Schools. In 2015 she was awarded the Educational Services of the Year Award and recognized for her professionalism and expertise within her field.  Additionally, Ms. Deitcher has a private practice in Edison, New Jersey, where she specializes as an Educational Consultant and family therapist. Her strong clinical background, coupled with her knowledge of special education, allows for a personalized, evidence-based approach to behavioral counseling of children and their families and caregivers. 

• Educational Services

• Parenting

• Child Development

Sanford J. Gips, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I. is triple board certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, and interventional cardiology and has practiced with The Heart House since 2001. Dr. Gips is a highly experienced vein expert and educates medical students as a Clinical Assistant Professor Department of Medicine, UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. His affiliations include the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. He is also a member of the American College of Physicians. 

Dr. Gips has been published on various topics in cardiology and has participated in, or is currently participating in, almost four-dozen clinical trials. He is licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and holds privileges at several hospitals throughout Southern New Jersey. 

Dr. Gips completed his residency and fellowship in Interventional Cardiology and Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and received his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

• Cardiovascular Disease

• Internal Medicine

• Interventional Cardiology

Dr. Lisa Gleason is a passionate educational leader who is committed to the highest levels of academic excellence and radically innovative engagement in New Jersey’s public schools. “At the hub of great teaching and learning is a curriculum that must be authentic, inclusive, and meaningful. Only then can we spark insightful, challenging classroom conversations that inspire students to make meaning of the world around them and act as agents of change for the future.”

Dr. Gleason’s work in the field of education includes the development of the Monmouth County Curriculum Consortium, a network of more than 60 New Jersey districts that collaborate in the development and execution of high quality curricular initiatives. Her teaching career spans all grade bands from kindergarten through high school – from Point Pleasant Borough Schools, Asbury Park School District, and Tinton Falls Schools. Her administrative career began in
Belmar School District, where Dr. Gleason served as the principal and director of curriculum and led the successful development of a regional STEAM Tank Makerfest, a student-centered opportunity to engineer innovative solutions to global issues. In 2017, Dr. Gleason joined the Wall Township School District, serving as the K-12 director of curriculum and focusing her efforts on the development of teacher leadership, mentorship, and the continued expansion of student-centered, collaborative opportunities to research, identify, and address global issues.

In addition to her service on the executive advisory board of the Monmouth County Curriculum Consortium, Dr. Gleason served as the NJASA liaison to the New Jersey Amistad Stakeholder Group, a council charged with infusing an authentic history of Africans and African-Americans within the social studies curriculum and raising public awareness about the importance of the history of African-Americans to the growth and development of American
society in global context. She is currently leading the development of the Ocean County Women in Leadership organization, dedicated to supporting a network of women in or aspiring to positions in educational leadership.

Dr. Gleason holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing & Communications from the State University of New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She completed her masters degree in School Administration and Leadership at Georgian Court University, where has been an adjunct professor since 2017 in the School Administration and Leadership MA program. Dr. Gleason recently joined the university’s steering committee in the development of a doctoral
program in Educational Leadership. She earned her doctorate in Education from Saint Peter’s University in 2017.

In Fall 2020, Dr. Gleason welcomed the extraordinary opportunity to join the New Jersey Department of Education as the Assistant Commissioner of the Division of Academics and Performance. There, she continued her commitment to a leadership vision that empowers educators to be innovative stewards of high quality, culturally-responsive, and personalized instruction that motivates students to be self-directed, collaborative, and emotionally resilient thinkers and leaders who are well-prepared to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Her contributions to the NJDOE’s “Road Forward” framework included evidenced based practices for accelerated learning, and best practices in summer and beyond-school day learning models. She continues to serve on the NJASA Governmental Relations committee and is the Ocean County liaison to NJASA Women in Leadership, and recently testified before the Assembly Education Committee for flexibilities for teacher certifications during the post-COVID teacher shortage.

Presently, Dr. Gleason serves as the Superintendent of both Lavallette and Seaside Park School Districts along the Jersey barrier island, where she has led the implementation of New Jersey’s first Montessori public preschool. She continues to find opportunities for innovative, student-centered curricular initiatives, such as the new STEAM aquaponics system which promotes project-based learning and community partnerships, and a career awareness and exploration framework that helps students discover their interests, skills, and and values as they begin understanding more about the working world.

Dr. Gleason resides with her family in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. She is an avid reader, writer, gardener, and self-proclaimed “home chef.”

• Instructional and Curricular Leadership Pre K-12 / Higher Education

• Staff Professional Development – “Change Process – Successfully Navigating Necessary Change”

• Educational Technology

• Strategic Planning

• Communications and Community Engagement

Alex Guerrero is a trauma surgeon and clinical informatician based in New York City. He is the founder of InterTrauma, a virtual Department of Surgery with facilities in 5 states. In addition to being an experienced clinician, board-certified in Clinical Informatics, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeon, he is the principal investigator on several large public health projects in Africa. One of these projects was the recipient of the inaugural Ross Prize for Cities, bestowed on a project which has provided “transformative urban change.” He was the first U.S. surgeon to obtain a Masters in Trauma Sciences and has also served as a War Surgeon with Medicine San Frontiers.

• Clinical Informatics

• Public Health

• Post-operative patient engagement

• Quality Metrics

Dr. Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, FAAN is Professor Emerita at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (NYU Meyers). From 1997-2022, she held significant leadership roles as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, Interim Dean, and Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing.

Dr. Haber has been an internationally recognized leader in psychiatric nursing for the past 40 years.  She was the author of the award winning, classic textbook, Comprehensive Psychiatric Nursing, published for 8 editions and translated into 5 languages.  She was the recipient of the ANA Hildegarde Peplau Award and a two time awardee of the APNA Psychiatric Nurse of the Year Award. Consistent with the current emphasis on integrating behavioral health in primary care, Dr. Haber has been a longtime advocate of the integration of mental health and physical health and published widely on this topic.

She is also a recognized expert in evidence-based practice and co-author of two award winning nursing research texts, Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-based Practice, now in its 10th edition and translated into five languages and Evidence-Based Practice for Nursing and Healthcare Quality Improvement.

Dr. Haber played a leadership role as Co-Principal Investigator and Principal Investigator on a series of NIH funded studies, including an R15 and RO1 investigating the effect of psychoeducational and counseling interventions on physical, emotional, and social adjustment of women with breast cancer and their partners, as well as Co-Principal Investigator on a qualitative study investigating the experience of survivorship for women with breast cancer.  The findings of these studies have been disseminated in high impact peer review journals, local and national presentations, and are frequently cited in the literature.  This program of research also resulted in an award winning four part DVD series, Journey to Recovery:  For Women with Breast Cancer and Their Partners and a book, Breast Cancer: Journey to Recovery,

Dr. Haber is the Executive Director of a national nursing oral health initiative, the Oral Health Nursing Education Practice (OHNEP) Program, funded by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health Advancement and was the Principal Investigator on the HRSA-funded program, Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH). Dr. Haber is the lead author of the landmark (2015) AJPH publication, Putting the Mouth Back in the Head:  HEENT to HEENOT. Since 2005, Dr. Haber has been an NYU leader of interprofessional education and practice, with a special focus on oral-systemic health, collaborating with interprofessional partners at NYU College of Dentistry, School of Medicine, and LIU School of Pharmacy.

As Executive Director of OHNEP, Dr. Haber is a Core Partner of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH). She was a member of the HRSA Expert Panel that developed the 2014 Interprofessional Oral Health Core Competencies for Primary Care Providers and a member of the Technical Expert Panel that developed the 2015 Qualis Health White Paper, Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care. She contributed to the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) 2022 report, Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges. Dr. Haber has been invited to join numerous Advisory Boards, including the Veteran’s Administration (VA) NVHAP National Advisory Board, the Primary Care Collaborative National Steering Committee on Shared Principles, the CIPCOH 100 Million Mouths Advisory Board, the National Medically Necessary Medicare Dental Benefit Consortium, and the National Maternal Child Oral Health Think Tank.  Dr. Haber has consulted, presented and published widely on interprofessional education and practice as well as oral-systemic health issues.

Dr. Haber is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the New York Academy of Medicine and a  Board Member of the Santa Fe Group. She is the 2011 recipient of the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award, 2014 NYU Meritorious Service Award, and the 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice, the 2017 DentaQuest Health Equity Hero Award and in 2019, the OHNEP Program received an EdgeRunner Award from the American Academy of Nursing.

• Population Health; Health Equity

• Nursing; Patient-Centered Care

• Oral Health and Integration of Oral Health and Overall Health

• Mental/Behavioral Health

• Health Literacy

Shaival Kapadia, M.D., is a Richmond cardiologist with Bon Secours Mercy Medical Group. He is also a docpreneur cofounding two Richmond based startups, Iggbo and C3Nexus. He is currently an advisor for Monj, a digital health startup based out of the Bay Area, and serves as a consultant for GoMo Health. 

His decades of experience as a board-certified cardiologist, author, and nationally recognized speaker bring a mastery of clinical medicine that’s often lacking in preventative care. But Dr. Kapadia’s real goal is to change the way we care for real people. 

Dr. Kapadia received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He then completed his residency in internal medicine at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. He went on to complete a fellowship in cardiology at Brown University at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. He is board certified by the American Board of Cardiovascular Disease. 

Dr. Kapadia is a community leader and professional resource in the fields of cardiac wellness and disease prevention. He has been providing cardiology care to patients in Richmond for almost 20 years, and during that time, he has given numerous talks and seminars to fellow physicians and the community. He has been voted “Top Doc” in Richmond Magazine from 2008 to 2014 by his peers. Dr. Kapadia is committed to treating the whole patient–body, mind, and spirit. 

• Early Detection & Wellness

• Heart Failure

• Digital Health

• Clinical Research

• Cardiovascular Health

Robert Kley is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Mental Health Association in New Jersey, serving in that position for the past 18 years. Under his leadership, the organization has created a broad array of innovative community-based programs addressing the community’s behavioral health challenges. These include MHANJ Call Center that receives over 60,000 information and referrals calls per year, Mental Health First Aid for NJ that has trained over 10,000 individuals as gatekeepers to accessing mental health services, NJ Connect for Recovery – a family-focused support program for those dealing with the opioid epidemic. In 2012 he oversaw the NJ Hope and Healing Hurricane Sandy FEMA Crisis Counseling Program. Kley has been a leading advocate in the creation of services being provided by peers- individuals in recovery and working to integrate physical and behavioral health services. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and lives in Brick, NJ. 

• Behavioral Health and Innovation

A true entrepreneur, Lawrence “Larry” Krampf has founded and aquired multiple marketing and communications ventures over the past several decades. When Larry acquired Marke Communications and Nancy H. Becker Associates in 2003, he became a driving force behind accounts in healthcare, pharma, insurance, technology, telecommunications, and many other industries. Serving the community has also played a major part in Larry’s career. He serves on the Board of the NJ State Chamber of Commerce, Cancer Care, Inc., Middlesex County Regional Chamber of Commerce (MCRCC), Hopewell Valley Children’s Theatre, Past Chairman of the Board of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce and the MCRCC, Trustee for the Garden State Arts Center Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Chamber, NJN Foundation, Luxury Council, NJ Tech Council, BioNJ, Founding Member of Jasna Polana TPC, Member of the Nassau Club and the Thomas Edison College Foundation.  He has chaired many community events over the years for the American Heart Association, Cancer Care, Foundation Fighting Blindness and was an advisor to the Health Care Quality Institute. Larry was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame of New Jersey November 9, 2022.

• Integrated marketing and communications expertise working with Health Care Providers including Hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC’s)

• Health Plans/Managed Care, Pharma, Biotech and Medical Devise Companies

Stephen Lazoritz, MD, CPE, is the GoMo Health Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Maternal Child Health and Development Global Network. Steve’s focus continues to be on advancing the integrated physical and emotional care of women and their babies.

Before joining the GoMo Health team, Steve was the Managed Care Medical Director at WellCare in Nebraska and Arbor Health Plan. Board-certified in pediatrics, Steve is a Certified Physician Executive (CPE) and presently serves as a contributing service faculty Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Creighton University School of Medicine. Steve is an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a Clinical Associate at the University of Nebraska Medical Center School of Nursing.

Having spent more than 10 years as Medical Director of Child Advocacy centers in Buffalo, New York and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, establishing and activating care plans for children who had been abused and neglected, Steve was recruited as Vice President of Medical Affairs at the Children’s Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, where he expanded and cultivated physician relationships. Subsequently, Steve served as the Chief Medical Officer at the Omaha Military Entrance Processing Station, where he earned the Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, the Commanders Award for Civilian Service, and the Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service.

Steve graduated from medical school at SUNY Buffalo and completed his residency in pediatrics at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. He served in the United States Navy for seven years and the United States Army for four and has been a member of the faculties of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Rick Lee has made a career in the creation and sales of specialty health care applications and services sold to employers and health plans. He was one of the early architects of the managed mental health (1982) and disease management (1994) industries. He is a youthful 69 years old.

Rick’s first meaningful health care employment was as a teacher in a psychiatric hospital from 1975-79. After earning a graduate degree in health policy at the U of Wash, he joined the Naionall Business Group on Health and rose to the #2 position by 1985. In the late ’80s, he was head of sales and part of the founding team of Value Health, Inc.; a specialty managed care company that grew to a $1.5 billion IPO in 3 ½ years. Rick was the company’s SME in behavioral health.

Mr. Lee founded Quality Oncology, a cancer disease management firm, in 1995 and was instrumental in the company’s growth and ultimate sale to Matria Healthcare in 2003. The company was patient-centric, long before that was in fashion. Oncology nurses and social workers reached out to patients in the comfort of their homes and discussed impending visits to the doctor and side effect management. Clients were payers.

In 2006, he returned to the Behavioral Change vertical, first as President of Magellan’s Employer Division, and the largest EAP in the US. There he introduced to his 1300+ employer customers NAVIGO, a health and wellness solution founded on the principles espoused by Ed Wagner, MD (Collaborative Care Model), and Marty Seligman, Ph.D. (Positive Psychology) to coach employees to better health.

Then, as founder and CEO of Healthrageous, a behavioral change company launched in 2009 by Partners HealthCare, he implemented one of the first device-enhanced, wellness solutions which sold to Humana in September 2013. In June 2016, Rick led an investor syndicate in the acquisition of MeYou Health from Healthways. He served as the company’s CEO in Boston for the next 21 months. The company specialized in unearthing concepts derived from the gaming industry and applying them to consumer motivation and engagement.

Rick is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Washington School of Public Health, where he received an M.H.A. Rick started in DC, where he worked for Congressman David Stockman and then the National Business Group on Health. He has often been characterized for thinking outside of the box and coloring outside the lines. He is Chairman of the board at CancerLife and M3 Information. He consults closely with Mytonomy (Bethesda, MD), a shared decision-making platform for health systems; New Directions Behavioral Health, a behavioral health integrator, owned by 7 Blues; and Archetype Solutions Group, an incubator in Philadelphia. In his spare time, Rick has four engagements a month with Assisted Living Centers in Northern Virginia, where he plays guitar and sings from the Great American Songbook.

• Start ups

• Behavioral Health
  

• Cancer

• Employers and Health Plans as Buyers
  

•  Acting, Singing, and Playing the Guitar

Dr. Leyland-Jones is the Chief Medical Officer and Scientific Advisory Board Member for the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR).   He also serves as the Chief Medical Officer of OTraces, SCITech Development, and the N OF 1 Mission.  Dr. Leyland-Jones is also the CSO of The Darwin Foundation, collectively devoted to the implementation of prevention and cure of malignancy globally.  He sits on several national and international boards including the Asian Foundation for Cancer Research (AFCR), NED Biosystems, Non-Pareil, and Ratio. He is the Director Emeritus for the WIN Consortium.  He founded several companies, including Xanthus, AKESOgen, and Viviphi.

Dr.  Leyland-Jones holds biochemistry, medical, and doctoral degrees from the University of London. Following residency training at Hammersmith, Brompton, St. Bartholomew’s, and London hospitals, he completed a clinical pharmacology fellowship at Cornell University and a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He then joined the academic staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospitals with a special research interest in Early Phase clinical, clinical pharmacological, and biomarker evaluation of many anticancer compounds, including the platinums and anthracycline analogs in use today. In 1983, he moved to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to head the Developmental Chemotherapy section. During his time with the NCI, he was responsible for the overall development of approximately 70 anti-cancer compounds in various stages of transition from in-vitro screening to Phase III clinical trials.  He helped oversee the early development of paclitaxel in Phase 1 and 2 trials.

From 1990 to 2000, he served as founding chair of Oncology and director of the McGill University Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He recruited and built a broad multifaceted cancer center, including a robust cross-hospital clinical trials enterprise, with deep clinical pharmacologic and biomarker support. Dr. Leyland-Jones continued as the Minda de Gunzberg Chair in Oncology and professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada for 7 additional years, focusing on the development and biomarker strategies of several of the new targeted oncologic agents.

Dr. Leyland-Jones joined Emory University in 2000 as the Director of the Winship Cancer Centre and Associate Vice-President of Health Sciences.   Dr. Leyland-Jones lead the Centre to obtain National Cancer Institute Cancer Centre Designation, the first in the State of Georgia, and for the first time in 30 years.  Dr. Leyland-Jones was instrumental in building the Genomics Medicine Program at the Avera Cancer Institute in Sioux Falls, SD where he was the Vice President of Molecular and Experimental Medicine from 2014-2019.

Dr. Leyland-Jones’ principal academic contributions have been in the fields of anticancer therapy development, the pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacogenetics of oncological clinical trials, the translation of preclinical models into the clinic, biomarker endpoints in Phase I/II clinical trials, and screening and mechanistic studies of novel targeted and chemotherapeutic anticancer agents.

Dr. Leyland-Jones is the recipient of numerous research grants and has served as principal, co-principal, and co-investigator on more than 100 clinical studies. He has authored and co-authored more than 215 peer-reviewed articles and book contributions, 25 books and book chapters, 430 abstracts, and 35 patents.  He has a robust speaking and private consulting practice that takes him all over the world.

• Oncology

Steven R. Peskin, MD, MBA, MACP is CEO of SRP Advisors. He currently serves in an advisory role to several companies in life sciences, medical device industry, and physician services organizations. Up until August 2022 he was the Executive Medical Director, Population Health at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. His expertise encompasses physician leadership, population health management, clinical and operational performance improvement in health care, medical education and scientific communications. He has been one of the driving forces for the creation of and successful maturation of value based models in New Jersey. Dr. Peskin serves on the Board of the Vanguard Medical Group Clinically Integrated Network.

Dr. Peskin is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is a clinical preceptor at The Eric B. Chandler Clinic for interns and residents in Internal Medicine. Dr. Peskin assists with the Population Health and business of medicine training for the Rutgers RWJ Internal Medicine physicians in training. Dr. Peskin was advanced to Master of the American College of Physicians in 2020.

Dr. Peskin received his bachelor’s degree from The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. He completed residency at Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston and holds an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Physician leadership

• Medical Delivery Management

• Performance Improvement in Healthcare

• Clinical/scientific communications for health care professional and consumer audiences

Thea Lynn F. Shiansky is an experienced healthcare leader with over 15 years of clinical and operational leadership at the system, hospital and bedside level. Mrs. Shiansky holds a Masters in nursing administration from NYU where she graduated as a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Currently, Mrs. Shiansky plays a key role in improving patient quality across Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. Prior to this, she coordinated hospital operations and patient flow across New York city’s Mount Sinai Health System, including the system-wide response to COVID-19. Her healthcare leadership is built upon a foundation of bedside experience as a registered nurse and team lead for multiple level 1 trauma centers across New York City and Chicago inner-city hospitals as well Mount Sinai’s cardiothoracic ICU. She has a passion for improving access and quality of care for patients and is excited about how digital health will transform the future of healthcare.

• Healthcare Operations- System Level

• Critical Care

• Emergency Management/Trauma

• Outreach and Engagement for People with Complex Needs
  

• Home Health

• Digital Health

Cory Storch has served Bridgeway Rehabilitation Services since 1977. He began his career at Bridgeway as a new graduate of the University of Arizona’s Master’s Degree program in Rehabilitation Counseling, after earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from The State University of New York at Buffalo. Cory has served in the positions of Team Leader, Program Director, Executive Director, and ultimately in his current role as President & CEO.

For more than 40 years, Cory has advocated for the recovery and community integration of people with mental health conditions, many who also struggle with co-occurring addictions, chronic medical conditions, poverty, and homelessness. Under his leadership, Bridgeway grew from a primarily vocational organization serving fewer than 200 people in Union County in 1968, to a leading psychiatric rehabilitation provider serving more than 5,000 people annually in central and northern N.J. Bridgeway now provides comprehensive programs that include Assertive Community Treatment, Supported Education and Supported Employment; Homeless Outreach and Supportive Housing; jail diversion; crisis intervention; intensive in-home supportive housing; integrated mental health, and primary health care; and psychiatric emergency screening performed in innovative crisis living room settings.

Cory was a founding member and the first Chairman of the Board of the Supportive Housing Association of NJ, an agency that has grown to play a significant role in housing for the disabled. He has also served on the Board of the New Jersey Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (NJPRA) and has chaired its Public Policy Committee.

In 2002 NJPRA honored Cory with the Mort Gati Award, presented to mental health professionals who embody the philosophy of psychiatric rehabilitation, demonstrate a positive impact upon mental health needs and services, advocate for equal opportunities, human rights, and improved quality of life for persons in recovery. He also received the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association’s Irvin Rutman Award, named for the contributions of Dr. Irvin D. Rutman, Founding President of the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association. The United Way of Greater Union County presented Cory with the Dell Raudelunas Spirit of Caring Award in 2016 for his exceptional commitment to community service.

In his role as 2nd Ward Councilman in the City of Plainfield, which he has held for 16 years, Cory established the city as a Mental Health Stigma-Free Zone. He also served as a Board of Education and Planning board member.

Cory has been married to Lois Mattson for 40 years. Cory and Lois met as colleagues at Bridgeway, married, and raised their children, Alexa, and Matthew in Plainfield, New Jersey.

• Strategic Planning for Behavioral Health

• Public Policy and Systems Advocacy

• Program Development for Behavioral Health

• Outreach and Engagement for People with Complex Needs
  

Dr. Michelle Tollefson is honored to serve as the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Secretary and a member of the Board of Directors. She is an ACLM Fellow and board certified in lifestyle medicine as well as obstetrics and gynecology. She is on ACLM’s Education and Membership Committee and is the founding co-chair of both the Women’s Health Member Interest Group as well as the Pre-Professional Lifestyle Medicine Education Member Interest Group.

For over a decade she has been active in the lifestyle medicine and wellness coaching movements, as one of the first physicians certified in Wellness Coaching. Dr. Tollefson was previously the Medical Director of Women’s Wellness Education for a Colorado health system and in full time clinical practice and now volunteers at a non-profit clinic. As an associate professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, she developed and oversees the bachelor’s level Lifestyle Medicine major and minor which is the first in the country.

Dr. Tollefson has published multiple articles in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM), served as the guest editor of AJLM’s conference edition, and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Women’s Health Lifestyle Medicine book that will be released as part of Dr. Rippe’s Lifestyle Medicine book series.

She is a breast cancer survivor, inspirational speaker, and advocates for the power of lifestyle medicine in being a component of breast cancer treatment plans. She is on the ACLM Speaker’s Bureau, lectures nationwide on a variety of topics related to lifestyle medicine and women’s health and is passionate about optimizing women’s health across the lifespan.

• Lifestyle Medicine
  

• Obstetrics and Gynecology

Kaprice Welsh has worked in women’s health care for over 30 years. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing from Syracuse University, and her Masters of Science degree in Nursing, a Certificate of Midwifery and a Masters of Public Health from Columbia University. Kaprice has spent much of her career in clinical practice as a registered nurse on labor & delivery and as a certified nurse midwife. In 2009 she joined the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) as the Perinatal Nurse Program Manager overseeing statewide contracts for the regional perinatal centers, and prenatal care programs. In 2011 she became the Director of Women’s Services, at the Georgia Department of Community Health (Medicaid) where she focused on public health policy in women’s health services and was integrally involved with implementing the states first family planning waiver program increasing access to women’s health care services across Georgia. Kaprice spent over a decade with Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society as their Clinical Liaison where she supported OBGYN’s across the state providing outreach, educational programming and engaging community partners and stakeholders on key priorities to advance the health and wellbeing of women and Infants. She is a clinical faculty for undergraduate nursing students at Emory University and Chamberlain University.

Kaprice is a valued leader, and brings subject matter expertise to her work with partners and serves on numerous boards and committees including; a member on numerous committees and workgroups including, but not limited to; March of Dimes Mom Baby Action Networks MBAN) Advisory committee, and Co-chair of the MBAN Dismantling Racism workgroup, faculty for the Institute of Healthcare Improvements addressing inequities in postpartum care, co-chair of the Association of Women’s Health and Obstetric and Neonatal Nursing (AWHONN) health equity committee,  board member on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist (ACOG) health equity committee, and Co-lead of the he Moms Heart Matter postpartum hypertension program at Liberty Regional Hospital.

Kaprice is also a national speaker on maternal mortality and health equity for black birthing women (and persons).

• Health Equity

• Midwifery-Womens Health/Birth/Maternal wellness

• Maternal and infant morbidity and mortality

• Engaging health care systems-quality improvement

Dr. Xenakis is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist with many years of clinical, academic, and management experience. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1998 at the rank of brigadier general and entered an active career in start-up medical technologies and clinical practice. He has advised the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior Department of Defense officials on psychological health, the effects of blast concussion, and suicide. During his career in the Army, he pioneered the introduction of telemedicine applications including the development of a device for electronic house call services. He has an active clinical and research interest in promising medical technology, including quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). He founded of the Center for Translational Medicine to develop treatments and conducts tests on brain related conditions affecting soldiers and veterans.

Dr. Xenakis has numerous medical publications and is an Adjunct Professor at the Uniformed Services of Health Sciences of the military medical department and on the Executive Board of the Center for Ethics and Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

• Psychedelic-assisted therapy

• Posttraumatic stress disorder

• Applying artificial intelligence to medical treatments

• Military medicine

• Healthcare leadership

Dr. Susan Zbikowski is a successful entrepreneur, business leader, research executive, and behavior change expert with 15+ years’ experience helping businesses grow and become more profitable through research and data analytics. Her research interests relate to behavioral and technology-supported interventions to reduce health risk behaviors such as tobacco use, unhealthy eating, and sedentary lifestyles across the lifespan. She has served as a co-investigator on nearly 25 grants and has over 70 peer-reviewed publications. In 2018, she founded inZights Consulting, LLC.  Dr. Zbikowski works with start-ups and growing companies to improve their products, outcomes, and business results with an evidence strategy that combines data thought leadership, and scientific best practices. She has previously held roles as Chief Behavioral Scientist and Director of Wellness Science and Analytics at Humana and Senior Vice President of Research, Training, and Evaluation Services at Alere.

• Health Behavior Change

• Wellness

• Digital Health Programs

• Health Disparities

• Research and Data Science