2024 Speakers

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.

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.

David Battinelli, MD, is transitioning from his role as senior vice president and chief medical officer where he was responsible for the overall professional management of clinical, education, research and operational issues related to medical and clinical affairs. He is assuming the role of physician-in-chief in the coming weeks as Northwell Health’s senior physician on all clinical, research and education issues.

While CMO he also served as the chief operating officer for the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research where he oversaw all operational and budgetary issues for Northwell’s research enterprise growing extramural funding and endowments while improving overall efficiency and research productivity.

Previously, he also served as the health system’s chief academic officer and senior vice president of academic affairs, in charge of all undergraduate and graduate educational programs, all continuing medical education, and academic affairs and institutional relationships. Dr. Battinelli is also vice dean and the Betsey Cushing Whitney Professor of Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine and will be assuming the role of Dean this summer. A founding member of the SOM he previously he served as the dean for medical education and chaired the committee charged with developing the curriculum for the new medical school.

A board-certified internist, Dr. Battinelli came to Northwell Health from Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he served as vice chair for education, program director, internal medicine residency program and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. He was also an active staff physician at BMC and the Boston Veterans Administration.

Dr. Battinelli is a past president of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. He has worked closely with and served on numerous committees for a variety of national medical organizations including the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians, and the Accreditation Committee on Graduate Medical Education, among others. In addition, he has lectured extensively on clinical education, faculty development of teaching skills and internal medicine, and is a noted speaker and author on these subjects.

Dr. Battinelli earned his medical degree from the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, NJ, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Scranton. He completed his residency and chief residency at the Boston City Hospital.

Errol Louis is the Political Anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts “Inside City Hall,” a nightly prime-time show that focuses on New York politics.

He regularly interviews top political and cultural leaders, and has moderated more than two dozen debates, including the race for mayor, public advocate, city and state comptroller, state Attorney General and the U.S. Senate.  He also was a panelist in a 2016 Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Additionally, Louis is an adjunct professor of Urban Reporting at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Prior to joining Spectrum News NY1, Louis served on the Daily News’ editorial board, and he still pens weekly opinion columns for the newspaper. He also hosted a weekday talk show on AM1600 WWRL.

A graduate of New Rochelle High School, Louis attended Harvard College, where he graduated with a B.A. in Government. He also earned an M.A. in Political Science from Yale University and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH is the inaurual Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he directs the Center for Gun Policy and Research and serves as co-lead of the Violence Prevention Workgroup of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Dr. Webster is one of the nation’s leading experts on the prevention of gun violence and has published widely on gun policy, violence prevention, youth violence, intimate partner violence, suicide, and substance abuse. He  is the lead editor and a contributor to Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Dr. Webster’s research has informed policies to reduce gun violence at the local, state, and federal level. He previously led Baltimore’s Homicide Review Commission and now leads the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction. His awards include the American Public Health Association’s David Rall Award for science-based advocacy (2015), Baltimore City’s Health Equity Leadership Award (2016), Pioneer Award from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids (2017), and Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award (2017).

As physician-in-chief, Lawrence Smith, MD, MACP, is Northwell Health’s senior physician on all clinical issues. He previously served as Northwell’s chief medical officer. Dr. Smith is the founding dean of the Zucker School of Medicine, which received full accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and whose first class graduated in May 2015.

Dr. Smith joined Northwell in May 2005 as chief academic officer and senior vice president of academic affairs. In this capacity, Dr. Smith strengthened Northwell’s graduate medical education programs and expanded medical school affiliations, significantly enhancing Northwell’s ability to recruit medical students and residents. In addition, Dr. Smith was responsible for overseeing Northwell’s medical student education programs and academic faculty appointments. He was also accountable for establishing close relationships with doctors and hospitals throughout Northwell that enhanced its partnerships with staff and community-based physicians and improved physician recruitment efforts.

Before joining Northwell, Dr. Smith was at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, where he served as dean and chair of the Department of Medical Education, founder and director of the school’s Institute for Medical Education, professor of medicine and an attending physician. He joined the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1994 as vice chair of the Department of Medicine and residency program director. Prior to his career at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Smith practiced general medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, where he became a full-time faculty member, director of education and program director of the hospital’s residency program in internal medicine. He began his career practicing general internal medicine in Huntington.

Dr. Smith has held senior leadership positions in national societies for medical education and residency training, authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in the area of medical education and has received many awards and honors from national and international organizations. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Fordham College. In 2011, he was elected to Mastership of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Smith was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2014, invited to join the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017 and made chair of the Gold Foundation’s Program Committee in 2018. Dr. Smith serves on the Executive Committee and as treasurer for the Associated Medical Schools of New York. He serves as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Health Literacy and is a member of the NYS Board of Education Advisory Committee on Long-Term Clinical Clerkships and on the University of Rochester’s Board of Trustees Advisory Council. He is a former regent of the American College of Physicians, former member-at-large of the National Board of Medical Examiners and a former member of the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Smith is the first recipient of the Lawrence Scherr, MD, Professorship of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He was the recipient of the Solomon A. Berson Alumni Achievement Award in Health Science by New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from Fordham University and a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. His residency in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital was followed by military service as a captain in the Army Medical Corps at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Denver.

Jeff Oestreicher is an assistant professor at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, a Level I pediatric trauma center. Dr. Oestreicher co-chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Gun Violence Prevention initiative in New York State and is a researcher in pediatric gun violence. He received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at Mount Sinai Hospital.​

For the past fourteen years, Dr. Douglas Isaacs has served as Deputy Medical Director for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). As Deputy Medical Director, he is involved with the oversight of the 911 system as well as the education and training of Certified First Responders, EMTs, and paramedics. He is the Medical Director for Manhattan/Division 1, Special Operations Command, Rescue Paramedic program, Chair of the Medical Equipment Committee and is the Program Director for the FDNY-Northwell Health EMS Fellowship. He is also a Medical Team Manager for the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team, NY-TF1 and has been on numerous deployments. Over the past eight years, he has been the Director of FDNY’s annual Medical Special Operations Conference (MSOC) that is attended by professionals at the federal, state, local and international levels and is recognized as the leading forum for US&R and other pre-hospital professionals to actively share their best practices and ideas.

Dr. Isaacs earned his medical degree at Cornell University Medical College and completed residencies in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He is a practicing emergency medicine physician at Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Medical Center and is board certified in emergency medicine, and emergency medical services (EMS). He plays an active role as an Assistant Professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and a core faculty member of the Northwell Health emergency medicine residency program.

Jose M. Prince, MD, FACS, FAAP is the Vice Chair of Surgery at Northwell Health and is the system chief of Pediatric Surgery and Acute Care Surgery. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He also serves as the Associate Surgeon in Chief for Cohen Children’s Medical Center. He is the founding director of the Laboratory of Pediatric Injury and Inflammation in the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.

A native of Queens, NY, Dr. Prince was recruited to return 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. In addition, Dr. Prince completed a 3 year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. Timothy Billiar studying the innate immune response to injury. Dr. Prince graduated cum laude from the Yale University School of Medicine in 2000. At Yale, Dr. Prince was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship which he completed at the National Institutes of Health in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Washington, DC. Dr. Prince has authored more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals in addition to numerous clinical and scientific chapters.

Mark Rosenberg, MD, MPP, was president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Task Force for Global Health from 2000-2016. Under Dr. Rosenberg’s leadership, The Task Force grew to be one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the country.  He currently serves as President Emeritus.

Dr. Rosenberg’s leadership was characterized by a commitment to collaboration and compassion in global health. He co-authored Real Collaboration: What Global Health Needs to Succeed, which describes a model for global health collaboration that has been successfully applied to address health needs affecting the world’s most impoverished people.

While Dr. Rosenberg was president and CEO, The Task Force was instrumental in providing people in the developing world with greater access to vaccines for influenza, cholera, and other deadly diseases, and medicines for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases. Dr. Rosenberg also was an influential voice in persuading the United Nations (UN) to recognize road safety as a public health issue, at the time only the second such declaration that the UN had made.

Before joining The Task Force, Dr. Rosenberg served for 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including conducting early work in smallpox eradication, enteric diseases, and HIV/AIDS. He was instrumental in establishing CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and became the first permanent director in 1994, serving as director and Assistant Surgeon General.

Dr. Rosenberg is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and boards of several non-profit organizations and academic institutions, including the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Georgia Global Health Alliance, which he helped start. He is board-certified in both psychiatry and neurology and internal medicine with training in public policy. He serves on the faculty of Emory University School of Medicine, the Rollins School of Public Health, and Morehouse School of Medicine and served on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard School of Public Health.  His other books include Violence in America: A Public Health Approach, Patients: The Experience of Illness, and Howard Hiatt: How this Extraordinary Mentor Transformed Health with Science and Compassion.  Most important, he is married to Jill Rosenberg and has two children and two grandchildren.

Dr. Ranney is Chief Research Officer of AFFIRM Research (www.affirmresearch.org), the country’s leading non-profit committed to ending the gun violence epidemic through a public health approach. She is also a practicing emergency physician, Founding Director of the Brown Emergency Digital Health Innovation program, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School, Brown University. Her career focus is on developing, testing, and disseminating digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health issues. She is currently Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on 9 federally funded grants, and holds numerous national positions, including serving as an elected member of the Board of Directors of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Chair of the Rhode Island Governor’s Work Group for Gun Safety, and editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine. She is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She has received awards for technology innovation, public health, and research, including Rhode Island Woman Physician of the Year and the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Policy Pioneer Award. 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 in public health from Brown University. She was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire. She is active on Twitter @meganranney.

Robert M. McLean, MD, MACP, is President of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the national organization of internists. His term began during Internal Medicine Meeting 2019, ACP’s annual scientific meeting held in Philadelphia from April 11-13.

A resident of Woodbridge, Connecticut, Dr. McLean practices internal medicine and rheumatology in New Haven with the Northeast Medical Group of Yale-New Haven Health, where he is the Medical Director for Clinical Quality. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and has served as an Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital since 1994.

He most recently served on ACP’s Board of Regents, which manages the business and affairs of ACP and is the main policy-making body of the College. As a member of the Board of Regents, he was Chair of the Medical Practice & Quality Committee and has served on many ACP committees including the Health & Public Policy Committee, the Clinical Guidelines Committee, and the High Value Care Task Force. Dr. McLean has been a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) since 1998 and was elected a Master of the College in 2019. FACP is an honorary designation that recognizes ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of medicine, and MACP recognizes outstanding and extraordinary career accomplishments. Dr. McLean previously served as ACP Governor for the Connecticut Chapter from 2009-13.

Board certified in internal medicine and rheumatology, Dr. McLean earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a medical degree from University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed medical residency training and a rheumatology fellowship at Yale.

Dr. Ruth Waldbaum is a graduate of the George Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her Pediatric Residency at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital and became an Attending Physician in Pediatric Endocrinology at North Shore University Hospital. After many years in Pediatrics, Dr. Waldbaum pursued a passion for Psychiatry. She completed an Adult Psychiatric Residency and Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at North Shore University Hospital. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Waldbaum is Past-President of the Greater Long Island Psychiatric Association and head of it’s Task Force for Gun Safety. Dr. Waldbaum is the co-founder of a not-for-profit organization, Doctors4GunSafety. She is acting President of Doctors4GunSafety and remains a private practitioner in Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr. Sheldon Teperman, director of the trauma center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi since 2007, says there can be no better motivator to go to work every day than the likelihood that he and his colleagues will need to save someone’s life. Multiply that by 365 days and it’s not hard to understand why one of Dr. Teperman’s proudest accomplishments is gaining certification from the American College of Surgeons for all six of the city health system’s Level One trauma centers. “There were prominent national trauma surgeons who said Health + Hospitals could not do it,” Dr. Teperman says. “With certification, our trauma centers are again receiving national acclaim for the excellent care we deliver to injured patients.”

Dr. Teperman, who began his career at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi as an attending surgeon in 1995, considers the strength of the trauma centers a vital part of providing high-quality care to all New Yorkers. “My colleagues and I at Jacobi and Health + Hospitals have spent a lifetime leveling the playing field of health care,” he says. He recalls his own mother coming into the Jacobi trauma center after a bad fall. “She received amazing, compassionate care—not because she was the mother of the trauma director but because she was an injured human being. Ask around and you will find my mom’s story is shared by all kinds of New Yorkers. We are in it together.”

Growing up, Dr. Teperman was inspired by his father, a Russian immigrant who became a lawyer, dentist and maxillo facial surgeon. “He dreamed that his children would also lead a life of service. He imbued us with that sense of purpose.” Now Dr. Teperman himself is an inspiration to the students he teaches and trains—as they are to him. “On difficult days, and we have quite a few of those, I am buoyed by their compassion, dedication, wisdom and sense of humor. They inspire me to be a better doctor and a better teacher.”

Sue Bornstein MD, FACP, is the Executive Director of the Texas Medical Home Initiative, a multi-stakeholder, practitioner-led organization whose mission is to promote accessible, continuous and coordinated person-centered primary care for all Texans.

Prior to being selected to lead the TMHI, Sue practiced Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas from 1995 – 2007, first in private practice and then as a palliative care and clinical ethics consultant. While at Baylor, she was elected President of the medical staff in 2005, the first woman to hold that position. Her work in medical education was recognized with several teaching awards from the Baylor Internal Medicine residents.

Dr. Bornstein serves on the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, the internal medicine specialty society and previously chaired the ACP’s Health and Public Policy Committee. While Chair of the HPPC, she was involved in the development of a number of policy papers including  the ACP’s 2018 paper “Reducing Firearm Injury and Death: An ACP Position Paper.” She serves on the Advisory Board  of AFFIRM Research. Dr. Bornstein is in her second term as a trustee of the Texas Medical Association.

Sue is a cum laude graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and earned her medical degree at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center where she was the recipient of the Gold Headed Cane award. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

John Miller was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism on Jan 8, 2014.

Deputy Commissioner Miller oversees both the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau which is responsible for intelligence collection and analysis as well as the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau operations, including the partnership in the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, the nation’s first and largest JTTF.

Deputy Commissioner Miller is the former Deputy Director of the Intelligence Analysis Division at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). It is there he served as part of the Analysis Division team to support the National Intelligence Managers and the Unifying Intelligence Strategies relating to global regions and threats. The Analysis Division is also home to the team that produces the President’s Daily Brief (PDB).

Prior to service with the ODNI, Deputy Commissioner Miller served as Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), heading the Office of Public Affairs and serving as the FBI’s National Spokesman. In addition, Deputy Commissioner Miller was the accountable executive for developing a compliance system to ensure that the FBI’s mission as a member of the US Intelligence Community was being carried out. The result was the Strategy Performance Sessions (SPS) lead by Director Robert Mueller. The SPS, similar to the Compstat system used by major police agencies, has become an effective tool to measure the effectiveness of the FBI’s intelligence programs. It brings the Director face-to-face over a live, secure video connection with the leadership and intelligence teams of the Bureau’s 56 field offices.

Before joining the FBI, Deputy Commissioner Miller was the Commanding Officer, Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Prior to the LAPD, he served as the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner, Public Information.

Along with his service in law enforcement and intelligence, Deputy Commissioner Miller was a well-known journalist and author. He began his career as a reporter, working in local and network news at NBC and ABC.  He was co-anchor of the ABC News show 20/20 with Barbara Walters and is the winner of eleven Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards and two DuPont Awards.  As a journalist, he was best known for his interview with terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, coverage of international terrorism and the events of 9/11.  Deputy Commissioner Miller is the co-author of the New York Times Best-Seller The Cell: Inside the 911 Plot.  He has served as an instructor at the FBI National Executive Institute and for the Defense Intelligence Agency Advanced Counterterrorism Analysis Course.  He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.

Dr. Tara Narula is a board-certified cardiologist, a CBS News medical contributor, an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine, and associate director of the cardiac care unit at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She contributes to various CBS News broadcasts and platforms including CBS THIS MORNING, CBS EVENING NEWS, CBSN and CBS SUNDAY MORNING.

She is also a frequent contributor to O, Oprah Magazine. She joined Lenox Hill Heart & Vascular Institute of New York in 2010 and provides outpatient consultative care as well as inpatient cardiac critical care. She is additionally board-certified in nuclear cardiology, echocardiography and internal medicine.

After graduating from Stanford University with degrees in economics and biology, she was founder and CEO of her own small business, Sun Juice Inc. Subsequently she obtained her medical degree at USC Keck School of Medicine, where she graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha Society honors. Dr. Narula completed her residency in internal medicine at Harvard University/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and she did her fellowship training in cardiology at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Dr. Narula is currently a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC). She serves as a member of the NYC Go Red for Women Committee and is a national spokesperson for the AHA. She is a recipient of the Super Doctors Award for NYC 2014-2018. Her interests include preventive cardiology, women’s health and the management of coronary artery disease.

Lonnie Phillips is the parent of Jessica Ghawi who was murdered in the Massacre at the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Summer of 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. In order to attend the trial of Jessi’s killer her and her husband Lonnie Phillips rented out their home and bought a camper trailer that ended up on a friends property for the duration of a trial which lasted over four months. After the trial was over they sold their home and are presently traveling the country speaking on gun violence prevention and forming coalitions with other grass-roots groups. In the seven years since the death of their daughter they have been on the ground in the  immediate aftermath of fifteen public mass shootings. They founded a nonprofit,  “Survivors Empowered” that provides resources, guidance and a soft place to land for survivors of gun violence.

As deputy physician-in-chief and senior vice president of physician network operations, Thomas McGinn, MD, oversees all physician network operations for Northwell Health’s growing medical group —Northwell Health Physician Partners. He works closely with and coordinates Northwell’s clinical service lines, Premium IPA, Clinical Joint Ventures, Large Physician Group Medical Operations and Ambulatory Facility Response.

Previously, Dr. McGinn was senior vice president and executive director of medicine for the health system, responsible for managing the activities of the Department of Medicine.

Dr. McGinn, who also serves as chair of medicine at Zucker School of Medicine, joined Northwell after serving as chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. In that position, he supervised Mount Sinai’s adult inpatient and outpatient care of general medicine patients, developed a research and fellowship program, mentored and promoted clinician-educators, created an academic hospitalist program, expanded primary care services and recruited faculty.

In addition, Dr. McGinn served as vice president of alliance development at Mount Sinai, helping to develop relationships and partnerships with other institutions and large medical practices throughout the metropolitan area. He was also involved in the medical center’s efforts to implement a systemwide electronic medical record.

Dr. McGinn is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He is an authority on evidence-based medicine (EBM), comparative effectiveness and medical education, and has established his own core research programs. He has received state, federal and foundation funding to support his research and training in those areas, as well as support for a unique program in hepatitis C. He has also published extensively in the areas of EBM, medical education and clinical research.

Dr. McGinn earned his medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. He also received a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University.

Marisol Martinez is an 18-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.  She is a writer, musician/lyricist, teaching artist and award-winning spoken word poet.  She teaches and runs the Spoken Word Club at MSD, currently the number one competitive team in Florida, and is individually ranked second in the state.  Playing the bass guitar and rapping, Marisol worked as a core lyricist on Operation Respect’s Parkland Project, Wake Up America.  Her musical inspirations include Queen, Mitski, Andre 3000 and David Bowie, as well as the poets Shane Koyczan and Sappho.  Marisol lost two dear friends in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and feels strongly that she is bound by a “sense of responsibility to make the world better in a way they would have, had they not been taken so soon.”  She believes a cultural shift is imperative when it comes to conflict resolution and violence prevention in the country, and that legislative action alone is not enough to effectively combat the issue.  In her words, “If we want to fix these issues, people need to understand them.  Music and art are common languages for all of us, and can be used to bridge divides between all peoples.”  Marisol believes there is no room for complacency or hesitancy; the time is now for us all to take an active stand.  In addition to speaking out against gun-violence, Marisol cares deeply for issues of LGBT+ rights, racial justice and mental health awareness.

John A. McKenna is a public affairs specialist in the mass media and nonprofit space.  He is founder of KENNASCOPE, a consulting company operating at the intersection of content creation and social impact, launching MusicUnits, which introduces, develops and promotes music therapy programs within healthcare and wellness centers.  Appointed Executive Director of Operation Respect in 2018, he leads innovative efforts to promote peace-building and conflict-resolution through creative forms of expression, including music.  In such capacity he has developed public engagements and media relations for The Parkland Project, a series of activations and performances raising the profile of the national movement to end the gun violence epidemic in America.  He has served as Executive Director of the Playing For Change Foundation where he developed Instruments of Change – The Official Alliance in the Playing For Change Movement, securing dozens of partnerships including a multi-year agreement with UNICEF announced at the United Nations on the International Day of Peace.  For A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project he directed the annual Justice on Trial Film Festival led by CNN Top Ten Hero Susan Burton.  He developed educational campaigns via a consortium of foundations, corporations and philanthropists united in boosting opportunities for inner-city schools and at-risk students, creating the Reaching Out Supporting Education (ROSE) Partnership, raising funds for capital improvements, faculty development and scholarships.  He steered public relations for several film and television projects including “Cesar’s Last Fast,” the compelling documentary of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.  For ten years he built the foundation of global mass media trade associations, exhibiting and speaking at the major film and television markets, festivals and conferences around the world.  For the National Association of Television Program Executives he bridged partnerships with the emerging new-tech and digital-content industry, and as Director of Membership Development for the Independent Film & Television Alliance he successfully recruited over 100 member companies in his tenure.  Mr. McKenna has served as advisor for the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma and the Advisory Board of Sanctuary of Hope, a groundbreaking project providing essential programs for youth emancipated from foster care.  Additionally, he leads volunteer and fund-raising efforts in support of the Divine Mercy Orphanage in Tecate, Mexico.  A graduate of UCLA, he was a member of the Political Science Honor Society and reported on public policy for the Daily Bruin.

Payton Francis, from Parkland, FL, is 16 years old and a sophomore at American Heritage High School.  Payton has been a competitive dancer for eight years and has danced since she was three years of age.  She is involved in musical theatre and was part of her school’s production of Hairspray last year.  Payton’s biggest passion is singing.  She is a member of the Show Choir and Music Honors Society.  In addition, she is involved in Thespians and as a freshman received a Superior rating on her vocal duet.  Payton was recently chosen by the administration as an ambassador to represent her school and serve as a peer mentor.  In addition she is a member of the National Honor Society and Student Government.  She enjoys babysitting and volunteering as a counselor at a performing arts summer camp.  Payton is a member of March for Our Lives and participated in her school’s walk out for gun violence awareness.  She participated in Operation Respect’s song writing collaboration in Parkland, which produced the recently released album, Wake Up America , designed to help the students heal through music.  Payton has traveled around the country with Operation Respect, sharing this music at high-profile educational conferences, summits and events throughout 2019.  Through the performance of their own music, this group of young people have aided their own recovery and also focused the attention of young people and adults around the country on the importance of ending gun violence.  Payton’s goal is to continue to use her musical ability to end gun violence and promote healing.

Sandy Phillips is the parent of Jessica Ghawi who was murdered in the Massacre at the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Summer of 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. In order to attend the trial of Jessi’s killer her and her husband Lonnie Phillips rented out their home and bought a camper trailer that ended up on a friends property for the duration of a trial which lasted over four months. After the trial was over they sold their home and are presently traveling the country speaking on gun violence prevention and forming coalitions with other grass-roots groups. In the seven years since the death of their daughter they have been on the ground in the  immediate aftermath of fifteen public mass shootings. They founded a nonprofit,  “Survivors Empowered” that provides resources, guidance and a soft place to land for survivors of gun violence.