2024 Speakers

Rob Allen is president and CEO of Intermountain Health, a leading nonprofit health system headquartered in Utah with locations in seven states and operations across the western U.S. Prior to beginning his role as president and CEO in November 2022, Rob served as chief operating officer for five years. He was named as one of the top 25 COOs in healthcare by Modern Healthcare. Rob has served in executive leadership at Intermountain for 27 years.

Under his leadership, Rob has helped propel Intermountain to national recognition as a leading model for innovating health and wellness solutions, increasing value, and improving affordability and accessibility to all. He led the system efforts to develop and launch innovative outreach, telehealth, and clinical shared service models. He led Intermountain’s nationally recognized operational work and continuous improvement culture to align providers, caregivers, and services across much of the interior west.

Rob has also held CEO roles at hospitals and health systems in Wyoming, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. A fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Rob has served on many foundation, chamber, and service boards. One of Rob’s ongoing passions is mentoring healthcare executives—nurturing leadership excellence for the future.

Rob earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Utah State University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in operations management from Brigham Young University. His love of healthcare began during his childhood as he was raised on a farm in Star Valley, Wyoming, where his mother served as a nurse and later as administrator at Star Valley Hospital. He and his wife, Becky, have three children and five grandchildren.

Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, 60,000 employees, medical groups with some 4,200 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called SelectHealth with more than one million members, and other health services. With its mission of Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs.

Mark Bryant is the Founder and Executive Director of the Gun Violence Archive.  

The Gun Violence Archive, founded in 2013, is an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 7,500  law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. GVA is an independent data collection and research group with no affiliation with any advocacy organization. 

Mark has a deep background in data analysis, and is based in Lexington, KY.  

William Jefferson Clinton, the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice, led the U.S. to the longest economic expansion in American history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. 

After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation, and today, the renamed Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, works to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for girls and women, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change. 

Today the Foundation has staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the independent Clinton Health Access Initiative, through which over 11.5 million people in more than 70 countries have access to CHAI-negotiated prices for HIV/AIDS medications. The Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership are applying a business-oriented approach to promote sustainable economic growth and to fight climate change worldwide and in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity and preventable disease through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Clinton Health Matters Initiative. Established in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. So far, more than 3,600 Clinton Global Initiative commitments have improved the lives of over 435 million people in more than 180 countries. 

In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton has joined with former President George H.W. Bush three times – after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008, and with President George W. Bush in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Today the Clinton Foundation supports economic growth, job creation, and sustainability in Haiti. 

President Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. He and his wife Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton have one daughter, Chelsea, and live in Chappaqua, New York. 

Michael Dowling is one of healthcare’s most influential voices, taking a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration that many health system CEOs shy away from. As president and CEO of Northwell Health, he leads a clinical, academic and research enterprise with a workforce of more than 83,000 and annual revenue of $16.5 billion. Northwell is the largest health care provider and private employer in New York State, caring for more than two million people annually through a vast network of more than 890 outpatient facilities, including 220 primary care practices, 52 urgent care centers, home care, rehabilitation and end-of-life programs, and 21 hospitals.

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

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

Prior to becoming president and CEO in 2002, Mr. Dowling was the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining Northwell Health in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Mr. Dowling served in New York State government for 12 years, including seven years as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to the governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.

Before his public service career, Mr. Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County.

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

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

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

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

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

Survivor. Beverly Emers takes pride in living by the motto of her alma mater, Hunter College: “miha cura futuri,” or “the care of the future is mine.” She cares for the future in her many roles in the Bronx Community. Her studies in Sociology, Human Services & Human Rights provided her with training that complements her personal experiences and inspires the work she does  

She lives in the South Bronx, a community often bombarded by gun violence. Beverly’s activism focuses on addressing predictors & removing barriers to reduce violence. Organizer, Policy Strategist, Case Planner, Curator, Neighbor, Community Liaison & Leader who utilizes her advocacy in various roles to improve public health.  

Beverly curates “Giving Light,” a Social Justice series at BronxArtSpace in the spring and is a Department of Transportation managing assistant of an Open Street safe zone. Her current work and affiliations are with Children’s Aid NYC, Welfare Rights Initiative, Bronx Community Board 3, & The Soul Box Project. Her interests are how trauma metabolizes out of the body and art as a preventive/healing tool. 

Michelle brings together leading creative agencies, corporate partners, media and technology platforms, and nonprofit and government clients for the Ad Council and its over 30-plus social impact campaigns.

Michelle oversees national campaigns that transform culture, including the award-winning Real Deal on Fentanyl and Tear the Paper Ceiling efforts, the latter designed to raise awareness of the invisible barrier that comes for people without a bachelor’s degree. 

In 2021, Michelle co-led the development and grassroots activations for the Ad Council’s COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative, the largest and most urgent communications effort in American history. The groundbreaking campaign received more than $240M in donated media support and 52B impressions in earned media, with 75% of Americans eligible for the vaccine seeing the content, and 80% of adults in the U.S. ultimately receiving at least 1 dose of a COVID vaccine. 

Additionally, under her leadership, the Ad Council implemented iconic campaigns like Smokey Bear’s “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires,” the longest running social good campaign in U.S. history, “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” and Buzzed Driving Prevention work, and “You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Be a Perfect Parent” foster care adoption efforts. Her campaigns have won numerous accolades, including a Daytime Emmy and an Effie. 

She has also led the organization’s Creative Review Committees, made up of nearly 30 of the industry’s top agency leaders. The Committees meet regularly to review, refine and raise the bar on the Ad Council’s campaigns. With over 25 years of experience, Michelle has proven ability in enacting change around pressing social issues like opioid abuse, gun safety, refugee support, and girls in STEM.

Michelle serves as a frequent judge for industry awards, including Advertising Week’s D&D Impact Awards, the 4A’s Impact Awards, Effie Awards, and also for the Project Yellow Light and End Family Fire Scholarship Competitions.

Michelle has made social good a priority outside of her Ad Council work as well. She has participated on the selection board for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s IF/THEN Ambassadors program, and also works with the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue, the Gun Safety Alliance to Reduce Gun Violence, and Just Tryan IT, which assists families struggling with childhood cancer.

She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park and has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. Michelle currently resides in Washington, DC with her family, and is the proud owner of a shelter pet. 

Dr. Kalman received her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She performed all her clinical training (internal medicine residency, chief medical residency, clinical cardiology, advanced heart failure) at Mount Sinai, New York. She has also completed a physician leadership course at the Health Management Academy and a health care delivery executive program at the Harvard University School of Business. Dr. Kalman began her professional career as an academic cardiologist, directing clinical and research heart failure programs at Beth Israel Medical Center, Tisch Hospital at New York University, and Mount Sinai Medical Center. In addition to her outstanding clinical skills and dedication to patients, Dr. Kalman was tremendously effective in organizing and galvanizing clinical, research, and administration to build programs focused on the needs of complex patients with advanced heart failure.  

She came to Northwell Health in 2014 as associate medical director of Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the North Shore LIJ Health System. She then moved to Lenox Hill Hospital as medical director (2015-2018) and was also health system’s medical director of patient experience (2016-2021). In 2018, Dr. Kalman became executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital and showed exemplary leadership during the pandemic.  

In 2021, she was appointed chief medical officer and deputy physician-in-chief at Northwell Health. Dr. Kalman is truly a visionary leader, a problem-solver, a connector, and a strategic mind. She is a professor of cardiology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.  

She is a well-recognized, highly respected national health care trailblazer and has helped put Northwell on the national map in many areas, including patient experience, crisis management, and effective change. 

David Muhammad is a leader in the fields of criminal justice, violence prevention, and youth development. Mr. Muhammad is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR).   

NICJR works to reduce incarceration and violence, improve the outcomes of system-involved youth and adults, and increase the capacity and expertise of the organizations that serve these individuals.   

Through NICJR, David provides leadership and technical assistance to the Gun Violence Reduction Strategies in the cities across the country, including Oakland, CA; Indianapolis, IN; and Washington, DC. David helped lead a partnership of organizations and technical assistance providers that achieved a 50% reduction in shootings and homicides in Oakland. David was the main author of NICJR’s report on Oakland’s Successful Gun Violence Reduction Strategy.  

David has worked to implement positive youth development into youth justice systems around the country and was the primary author of NICJR’s seminal report, A Positive Youth Justice System. For three years, David was extensively involved in developing a detailed reform plan for the Los Angeles County Probation Department, the largest probation department in the country. He also served as the technical assistance provider for the Sierra Health Foundation’s Positive Youth Justice Initiative, providing training and consulting to several California probation departments. 

Mr. Muhammad has been the federal court appointed monitor overseeing reforms in the Illinois juvenile justice system in the MH v. Monreal Consent Decree. Mr. Muhammad is also the federal monitor in the Morales Settlement Agreement, which requires the Illinois Parole Review Board and the Illinois Department of Corrections to reform its parole system. David is also a member of the Antelope Valley Monitoring Team which is charged with monitoring the Los Angeles Sherriff’s Department’s implementation of a federal Settlement Agreement. He was recently appointed   

The former Chief Probation Officer of the Alameda County (California) Probation Department, David was responsible for overseeing 20,000 people on probation, a staff of 600, and a $90 million budget. In 2010, David was named the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Probation in New York City, the second largest Probation Department in the country, where he was responsible for overseeing 35,000 people on probation and a staff of 900. David served as the Chief of Committed Services for Washington, DC’s, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS). His responsibilities at DYRS included 300 staff, a $42 million annual budget, a juvenile institution, and 900 youth committed to his department’s care.   

In 2013, Mr. Muhammad was the first Executive Director of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) in Los Angeles. ARC has grown to become one of the largest and most prominent service providers and policy advocacy organizations for the formerly incarcerated in California.  

While Executive Director of The Mentoring Center in Oakland, Ca., David was contracted by the City of Richmond, CA to help design the Office of Neighborhood Safety, which has since been credited for bringing significant reductions in violence to the city.   

As a graduate of Howard University’s School of Communications, David also has an extensive journalism career. David also completed a course on “Systems Dynamics for Senior Managers” at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, MA. In August of 2008, David completed a certificate program on Juvenile Justice Multi-System Integration at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. 

Chris Murphy, the junior United States Senator for Connecticut, has dedicated his career to public service as an advocate for Connecticut families. Senator Murphy has been a strong voice in the Senate fighting for job creation, affordable health care, education, sensible gun laws, and a forward-looking foreign policy.

As a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) Senator Murphy has worked to make college more affordable and ensure that our public education system works to serve all students. Senator Murphy also led a bipartisan effort to reform our mental health system, working across the aisle to craft the first comprehensive reform to our nation’s mental health laws in decades. 

Senator Murphy has laid out a forward-thinking foreign policy vision for the United States. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he has been an outspoken proponent of diplomacy, international human rights and the need for clear-eyed American leadership abroad.  

Following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, Senator Murphy became one of the leading proponents of commonsense reforms to reduce gun violence. He has championed a number of bipartisan bills aimed at expanding background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murphy has fought to increase investments in Connecticut manufacturing and promote procurement of world-class national defense products made in the state. He has fought to expand American manufacturing and create jobs through his Buy American initiative, which urges the U.S. government to spend taxpayer dollars on American-made goods. Additionally, Senator Murphy has worked in partnership with local city and town leaders to rehabilitate former brownfields and factory sites so that they can be developed into new community spaces and businesses.  

Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Murphy served Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District for three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his time in the House, Murphy worked to improve access to housing for homeless veterans, foster job creation and advocate for affordable healthcare for all Americans. Murphy authored the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act to revitalize housing programs for people with disabilities. The bill was signed into law by the president in 2010. 

Before getting elected to Congress, Murphy served for eight years in the Connecticut General Assembly where he was the author of the state’s historic stem cell investment legislation and the state’s workplace smoking ban. Senator Murphy grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and attended Williams College in Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law and practiced real estate and banking law with the firm of Ruben, Johnson & Morgan in Hartford, Connecticut.

He is married to Catherine Holahan, an attorney. They have two young sons, Owen and Rider, and a cat, Ramona.

Jose M. Prince, MD, FACS, FAAP is the Surgeon in Chief of Cohen Children’s Medical Center and Vice Chair of Surgery and system chief of Pediatric Surgery and Acute Care Surgery at Northwell Health.  He is a Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.  As the founding director of the Laboratory of Pediatric Injury and Inflammation in the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, he has pursued pediatric trauma injury prevention research with a focus on firearm safety.  He serves as the executive sponsor for the Northwell Center for Gun Violence Prevention.

A native of Queens, Dr. Prince returned to New York from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to join the founding faculty of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in 2010.  He completed both his general surgery and pediatric surgery training in Pittsburgh and is board certified in both specialties.  Dr. Prince graduated cum laude from the Yale University School of Medicine and has authored more than 80 clinical and scientific articles.

Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher, and national advocate for innovative approaches to public health. In July 2023, she joined Yale University as Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, where she is also the C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health.  

 Her research focuses on developing, testing, and disseminating digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems, and on COVID-related risk reduction. She has held multiple national leadership roles, including as co-founder of GetUsPPE during the COVID-19 pandemic and Senior Strategic Advisor to AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute, focused on ending gun violence through a non-partisan public health approach. She was previously the Warren Alpert Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine, Deputy Dean of the School of Public Health, and Founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health at Brown University. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the Aspen Health Innovators’ Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. 

 She earned her bachelor’s degree in history of science, graduating summa cum laude, from Harvard University; her medical doctorate, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha, from Columbia University; and her master’s degree in public health from Brown University. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Injury Prevention Research at Brown University. 

Jim Ross was elected to the office of Mayor at the City of Arlington in June 2021. Jim has spent decades serving his community and his country.  As a proud resident of Arlington for nearly forty years, he has witnessed the growth, and growing pains, this community has endured.  

From 1979 to 1983, Jim served this country as a United States Marine. With assignments at home and abroad, he served the Marines in numerous capacities.  Having received his Honorable Discharge in 1983, Jim moved to Texas where he was soon hired by the Arlington Police Department.  

During his thirteen-year career as a Police Officer, Jim was a member of Arlington’s first full time Special Operations Unit (SWAT), taught self-defense and physical fitness at the police academy and spent over six years investigating illegal narcotics trafficking, both locally and with the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force.  His commendations and accomplishments as a Marine and police officer are numerous. 

In 1996, Jim decided to make a career change and go to law school, which he completed in twenty-eight months.  He studied and passed the State of Texas Bar exam on his first attempt and was licensed as an attorney in May 1999.  During his first ten years of practice, Jim represented thousands of clients while working environmental exposure cases for some of the country’s most prestigious law firms. In 2009, Jim left the larger firms to pursue private practice and established The Jim Ross Law Group, P.C. 

In November 2017, Jim opened the Mercury Chophouse – Arlington, a fine dining steakhouse. In 2023, he opened the Hearsay Arlington lounge and restaurant in Choctaw Stadium. 

As an active and proud resident of Arlington, Jim has served on the board of directors for the Arlington Police Foundation, the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Margarita Society, Special Olympics, and the American Heart Association.  As Mayor, he serves on the boards of the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation, Gene and Jerry Jones Family Arlington Youth Foundation, Texas Municipal League, and National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation; as a member of the Tarrant County Workforce Governing Board, North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Regional Transportation Council, Tarrant Regional Transportation Council,  and Downtown Arlington Management Corporation; and is the co-chair of the US Conference of Mayors’ Infrastructure Law Implementation Task Force and the Veterans Affairs Task Force. 

More than a passionate lawyer, businessman, and advocate for all, Jim is a family man with four children and five grandchildren. 

As senior vice president of community and population health, Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH, oversees Northwell Health’s community and public health strategy, including community health equity, community relations, strategic community partnerships, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Community Health Needs Assessment.  

Dr. Salas-Lopez’s leadership was critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her team partnered with many community and faith-based leaders to identify their most-pressing needs.  This became the catalyst for the creation of Northwell’s Health Equity Taskforce comprised of over 100 community, faith, and tribal nation leaders that today continue to work on health equity and social issues that impact health. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez joined Northwell in 2019 as senior vice president for transformation, responsible for system value-based initiatives that improve health and care delivery. She assumed her leadership role after serving as the chief transformation officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network, where she led strategy and oversaw a unique and broad portfolio, including community-based and population health initiatives, telehealth, connected care, and innovation, strategic partnerships, and operational redesigning of the clinical delivery system. 

At Lehigh Valley, Dr. Salas-Lopez held various academic and clinical leadership positions. In 2009, she was appointed as the Leonard Parker Pool Chair of Medicine, a role she served in until 2015 when she became an associate chief medical officer. In 2017, she was appointed chief transformation officer for Lehigh Valley Health Network. Academically, she was a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine and the College of Public Health. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. 

She has collaborated with many community and faith-based organizations on issues related to social needs, prevention, health disparities, and healthcare access. She has led initiatives to improve quality of care and the health of the community, reduce costs, and provide better care coordination. 

Dr. Salas-Lopez is a nationally recognized speaker and educator on women leaders, healthcare disparities and equity in care, cultural awareness and language-appropriate services, and the impact of social and economic factors on health. In 2021, Modern Healthcare named her to its annual Top 25 Women Leaders as a “Woman to Watch.”  She also received the 2021 Tribute to Excellence in Health Care award from the United Hospital Fund. Dr. Salas-Lopez was recognized in 2021 by the Hospital Association of New York State with a Community Health Improvement Award. She also has earned a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award, the Long Island Coalition for Homeless Key of Excellence Award and the 2021 Empire Whole Health Heroes Award. 

As director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, Chethan Sathya, MD, oversees the health system’s expansive approach to firearm injury and mortality prevention. Northwell, which established the center as the first of its kind in 2019, has taken a public health approach to gun violence, focusing on key areas such as research, education (health care workers, nurses, medical students, residents), advocacy and community engagement.

Dr. Sathya is a powerful voice and advocate for firearm injury prevention. His role as a pediatric trauma surgeon exposed him to the dramatic and irresponsible results of gun violence, which has fueled his passion to find solutions to the national issue. Among his goals, Dr. Sathya is leveraging Northwell’s diverse patient population and wide reach to implement preventative strategies and perform high-level research. He has presented on gun violence prevention in various forums and in top media outlets such as CNN, Scientific American, The Washington Post, CBC and Huffington Post, among others.

Dr. Sathya also serves as associate trauma director at Cohen Children’s and he’s an assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He completed medical school and general surgery training at the University of Toronto, followed by Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He also holds a master’s in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto, in addition to completing a fellowship in global journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto. He is active in trauma research and works closely with the American College of Surgeons on trauma quality improvement initiatives.

During his clinical training in Chicago, he treated numerous children and babies with firearm injuries and now continues to do the same in New York. As a surgeon-journalist with firsthand experience pulling bullets out of children – many of who die – Dr. Sathya has a unique perspective and deep routed passion in telling the stories of children affected by gun violence.

He has been an invited speaker at a number of prestigious events, including the American Hospital Association Leadership Summit on Violence Prevention and the Healthcare Association of New York State symposium on best practices in gun violence prevention, where he was the keynote speaker. He’s also a consultant to the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, serving as a core member of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) taskforce and the national firearm injury data collection initiative. Dr. Sathya also serves as a member of the Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns Executive Committee.

Dr. Abdul Shaikh is the Global Leader for Population Health for Amazon Web Services (AWS).  He brings more than 20 years of experience helping healthcare providers, payors, researchers, governments and nonprofits harness data for more equitable, efficient, and person-centered care.  Prior to AWS, Abdul was the Population Health Leader for PwC, leading strategy, design and organization transformation, and served as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and ONC. In this latter role his service was recognized by the Whitehouse for leading the first COMPETES Act innovation prize competitions.  Abdul’s professional activities include serving on the HIMSS SDoH Committee, AWS Health Equity Initiative Review Committee, and the National Academy of Medicine’s Digital Health Action Collaborative. Trained in public health and health services research at the University of Michigan, Abdul completed his Masters in Health Science at the University of Toronto and post-doc Cancer Prevention Fellowship at NCI.   

Kim Smith is the Director of Programs for the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab, where she works across a portfolio of research projects in close partnership with government agencies and local nonprofits. She works extensively on the Crime Lab’s efforts to make data more accessible to the public, most recently by supporting the development and release of the City of Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard, a tool for non-profit organizations, the media, and the general public, which provides near-real-time data and visualizations of violence trends.

Prior to joining the Crime Lab, she worked at Innovations for Poverty Action, a research organization dedicated to discovering and advancing what works to improve the lives of people living in poverty. Kim was one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ 40 Under 40 in 2022 and a fellow in the 2023 class of Leadership Greater Chicago. Kim holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from McGill University.

Amy L. Solomon serves as the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Nominated by President Biden and confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the Senate on April 18, 2023, Amy leads the Justice Department’s principal funding, research, and statistical component, overseeing about $5 billion annually in grants and other resources to support state, local and tribal criminal and juvenile justice activities and victim service programs. Prior to her confirmation, Amy served as OJP’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General since May 2021. 

Before 2021, Amy was Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures, where she launched and led a corrections reform portfolio, which aimed to transform the culture of prisons; spark a fundamental shift in the focus of community supervision from catching failure to promoting success; and expand economic opportunities for people with a criminal record. Amy actively collaborated with other philanthropies, serving on the Executive Committee of the Criminal Justice Funders Forum and the founding Clean Slate Advisory Board. 

From 2010 to 2017, Amy served as director of policy for OJP and as senior advisor to OJP’s Assistant Attorney General. She worked to shape, launch, and implement a broad range of domestic policy initiatives focused on criminal justice reform, urban policy, and building trust between the justice system and communities of color. Amy was also executive director of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, a cabinet-level body established by President Obama comprising more than 20 federal agencies. The Council spearheaded the federal Ban the Box rule, fair housing guidance, the Second Chance Pell initiative and Medicaid guidance for the justice-involved population. 

Amy previously spent 10 years at the Urban Institute, directing projects relating to prisoner reentry and public safety. She also worked at OJP’s National Institute of Justice where she developed community crime-reduction and reentry initiatives. In addition, Amy has managed a community service program for justice-involved individuals; developed reentry strategies for a state department of correction; and worked with juveniles in probation, halfway house, and school settings. 

Amy has served on numerous advisory councils and boards, helping shape innovative approaches to criminal justice challenges in collaboration with policymakers and practitioners, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and the advocacy community. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan. 

Dr. Steven Sumner, MD, MSc, serves as Senior Advisor in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention where he provides strategic direction to both CDC staff and external partners implementing firearm violence-related data collection, research, and prevention activities. His recent work has focused on improving use of electronic medical record and clinical text data for firearm violence research, advancing new real-time data sources and forecasting models for firearm homicide and suicide, advising on epidemiologic field investigations for firearm injury among CDC’s state and local partners, and supporting CDC’s extramurally funded firearm injury research portfolio.  

Dr. Sumner previously served as Senior Advisor for Data Science and Innovation in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, leading the Center’s work in machine learning and natural language processing for injury prevention. His work established new data sharing and research collaborations with technology sector partners, non-governmental organizations, and other federal agencies to advance innovation in violence and injury prevention.  

His published research has appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and BMJ, among other leading scientific journals and has been awarded CDC’s Excellence in Quantitative Sciences Award, one of the agency’s highest honors in data and research methodology.   

Dr. Sumner is an Internal Medicine physician, completing his residency at Duke University, and has completed research fellowships with CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and through the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center. 

Dr. Ashwin Vasan is the 44th Health Commissioner of New York City. He is a practicing primary care physician, epidemiologist and public health expert with nearly 20 years of experience working to improve physical and mental health, social welfare and public policy outcomes for marginalized populations in New York City, nationally and globally.

In his role as Commissioner since early 2022, Dr. Vasan has reshaped the city’s public health system to focus on addressing the main drivers of declining life expectancy in the post-COVID emergency era, including overdoses, chronic and diet-related diseases, birth inequities, climate change, and gun violence, while simultaneously strengthening the Health Department’s emergency response-readiness capacities. Throughout this work, he has brought in a unique, unparalleled focus to combating the mental health crisis, releasing a comprehensive citywide mental health plan addressing the second pandemic – a crisis of mental health plaguing youth, vulnerable New Yorkers with severe mental illness, and those impacted by the overdose epidemic. Dr. Vasan has concurrently led several other key health priorities, such as the launch of HealthyNYC, a campaign to reverse the downward trend in life expectancy, launch of TeenSpace among other social media efforts to combat the negative impact of social media on kids’ mental health. He also led the ongoing response to COVID-19 as the first American jurisdiction to kickstart vaccination efforts, combatting the 2022 mpox outbreak and pioneering readiness and response to the first case of polio in the US in a decade. Under his leadership, the city also took charge on protecting reproductive rights by launching the NYC Abortion Access Hub, connecting people from New York and nationwide to providers and becoming the first jurisdiction in the US to offer free medication abortions in its clinics. Recently, under his leadership, the Health Department launched a historic debt relief initiative to purchase and cancel medical debt for half a million New Yorkers.

Having begun his career in global health working at Partners in Health and the HIV Department of the World Health Organization, he most recently served as the President and CEO of Fountain House, a US-based mental health nonprofit. He currently serves as faculty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Vasan received his BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles; his ScM in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health; his MD from the University of Michigan; and his PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine-primary care at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His work has been published extensively in academic literature in journals such as the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Policy and Planning, and AIDS, and has been featured in several mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times, BBC World News, NPR, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, and NBC News Think.

Robert Wilcox serves as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Previously, Rob served as the Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. His tenure at Everytown has included advising policymakers at all levels of government, leading the organization’s federal advocacy efforts, and testifying before Congress. Previously, Wilcox worked at Brady, served on the Board of Directors of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and practiced law at a firm in New York City. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Northwestern School of Law. His work honors his cousin Laura, who was shot and killed at nineteen, and is inspired by the tireless advocacy efforts of his Aunt Amanda and Uncle Nick.