EQTY 2023: A Summit for Health Justice

Aviva Lee-Parritz, MD

Aviva Lee-Parritz, MD, is Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, where she is also an associate professor and the assistant dean of faculty practice. Dr. Lee-Parritz is an expert in treating diabetes in pregnancy, cervical incompetence, surgical complications of pregnancy, maternal heart disease, and medical complications of pregnancy. She received her medical degree from Tufts University and has been in practice for over 35 years.

BMC bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/aviva-lee-parritz-md

Stephen Wilson, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Stephen A Wilson, MD, MPH, FAAFP is the Chief of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Wilson has published more than 85 peer-reviewed publications, and numerous book chapters, handbooks, and letters to the editor. He and team members have been recognized for their research and scholarship by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Dr. Wilson has served on the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry and in multiple roles on the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Wilson received his medical and public health degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

BMC bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/stephen-wilson-md-mph

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-a-wilson-8574b73b/

LaKedra Pam, MD

BMC bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/lakedra-s-pam-md

Megan O’Brien, RN

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-o%E2%80%99brien-07a6581a/

Giavanna Gaskin, MBA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/giavanna-gaskin-3a1947139/

Audra Meadows, MD, MPH

UC San Diego School of Medicine

Dr. Meadows cares for women before, during, and after pregnancy to ensure positive pregnancy and birth experiences. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Meadows teaches residents and medical students and devotes time to prenatal care practice innovation and advocacy. Her clinical, public health, and policy initiatives aim to prevent preterm birth and infant mortality, achieve health equity, and create value. In her previous position at BWH, she was the Director of Practice Quality and Innovation in the Ambulatory Obstetrics Practice. In Massachusetts, Dr. Meadows holds leadership roles with the Massachusetts Perinatal Quality Collaborative (MPQC) and PNQIN (the Perinatal Neonatal Quality Improvement Network of Massachusetts). Dr. Meadows completed the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School and obtained a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2008.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrameadowsmdmph/

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH

Dr. Allison Bryant is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Harvard Medical School. She received degrees in biology, public health, and medicine from Harvard University, where she also completed training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowships in Maternal/Fetal Medicine and the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy. She is currently the Senior Medical Director for Health Equity at Mass General Brigham integrated health system, working to develop and enact the elements of the United Against Racism campaign and the MGB Health Equity Roadmap across the enterprise. She previously served as the Vice Chair for Quality, Equity, and Safety in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mass General Hospital, a role that underscored the critical role of equity in care quality for all patients. She currently serves as a member of several regional and national women’s health and equity improvement efforts; among them, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which she chairs, ACOG’s Committee on Obstetric Practice, and Board of Directors of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-bryant-mantha-91807711/

Lilly Marcelin, MPP

Lilly Marcelin is a community activist and organizer who has dedicated herself to a lifelong journey around racial and social justice equity. Ms. Marcelin has worked on a broad range of issues from gender-based violence, human trafficking, and health and socioeconomic disparities to women’s reproductive health and rights. She is the founder and executive director of the Resilient Sisterhood Project (RSP) with a mission to inform and empower women and young adults of African descent about the common diseases of the reproductive system that disproportionately affect them. Ms. Marcelin strongly prefers to work in partnership with, rather than on behalf of, Black women to address deeply rooted systemic racism.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilly-marcelin-057aa310/

Petrina Martin Cherry, MBA

Petrina Martin Cherry is the Vice President of Community Engagement and External Affairs at BMCHS where she leads community program development, particularly around the hospital’s efforts to increase health care equity and diversity and inclusion, as well as address social determinants of health. She has done significant advocacy work creating community-based programs to bring awareness to sickle cell disease, roll out BMC’s COVID-19 vaccine program, promote mental health and wellness in innercity communities, reduce recidivism and influence successful reentry, and to build equity instead of charity in previously red-lined communities. Petrina’s work has successfully elevated the health equity work of BMC with our State and local government officials, corporate partners, and community leaders. She was appointed by Mayor Walsh in 2020 to the City of Boston’s COVID-19 Health Inequities Task Force and was recently appointed to Governor Maura Healey’s council on Black Empowerment. Petrina serves as the Co-Chair of the Women’s Forum for the National Association of Healthcare Executives (NAHSE) and sits on the board of trustees for the Urban League of Eastern MA (Emeritus), the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, the Boston Arts Academy (BAA), and Arts Emerson at Emerson College. She holds an MBA from Georgia State University.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petrina-martin-cherry-310bab15/

Thea James, MD, MBA

As Vice President of Mission, Dr. James works with caregivers throughout BMC. Additionally, she has primary responsibility for coordinating and maximizing BMC’s relationships and strategic alliances with a wide range of local, state, and national multi-sector organizations, including community agencies, housing advocates, and others that partner with BMC. The goal is to foster innovative and effective new models of care that are essential for patients and communities to thrive and reach full potential. This includes focus on the intersections of health and wealth, economic mobility, and other upstream drivers of predictable poor health outcomes. These care models are critical to operationalizing equity in the broadest sense.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thea-james-a2870810/

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, PhD

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is a professor of history, race, and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. His academic work focuses on racial criminalization and the origins of the carceral state. He is the author of "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America" (Harvard University Press, 2010), which won the 2011 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the best book in American studies.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalil-gibran-muhammad-11ba146/

Sheila Phicil

Sheila Phicil is the Director of Innovation at Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) Health Equity Accelerator where she leads initiatives that advance racial health equity. Before her current role, Sheila served as the Administrative Director of the Neurology Department at BMC, where she oversaw the operations and finance in support of the Department’s clinical, research, and teaching missions. Sheila has 13 years of experience in healthcare spanning policy, strategy, and operations. She has worked at multiple healthcare institutions, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the Veterans Health Administration. Sheila holds two Master’s degrees in Public Health and Financial Economics and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP). In 2020, she received the BMC Leadership Impact Award for transformative leadership on diversity, inclusion, and health equity. In 2022, Sheila was one of 24 high-potential healthcare leaders selected to participate in the Massachusetts Health Leadership College fellowship program. Sheila believes every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it gets. Therefore, she is passionate about innovating systems of care designed to work for and with vulnerable and marginalized populations. Sheila also has a knack for storytelling to shed light on complex issues, often drawing from her lived experience as a first-generation Haitian American woman.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-phicil-26a001171/

Elena Mendez-Escobar, PhD, MBA

Elena’s passion is to right inequities and improve healthcare for underserved populations. At BMCHS she co-leads the Health Equity Accelerator and oversees our Grayken Center for Addiction. Prior to joining BMCHS, she was an Associate Partner at McKinsey where she helped states, health plans, and other organizations serving Medicaid populations rethink strategy and transform operations. She also co-founded McKinsey’s Center for Societal Benefit through Healthcare, focused on underinvested areas of healthcare, such as mental health, addiction, or social determinants of health. Elena was recently named as one of Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40 honorees.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elename/

Michael Fischer, MD, MS

Michael Fischer, MD, MS, is Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine at Boston Medical Center / Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. He is a primary care physician and health services researcher with expertise in developing and evaluating interventions to increase the use of evidence-based medical practices. Dr. Fischer began his career at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, conducting research evaluating medication adherence; the appropriate use of prescription drugs; dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices; prescription drug reimbursement policy; and the impact of electronic prescribing. He is the Director of the National Resource Center for Academic Detailing (www.NaRCAD.org), an initiative supported by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assist organizations implementing interventions to improve health care quality and patient outcomes.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-fischer-a539657/

Renee Crichlow, MD, FAAFP

Renee Crichlow, MD, FAAFP, has practiced full-spectrum Family Medicine with Obstetrics for more than 20 years and is now the chief medical officer of Codman Square Health Center in Boston, the vice-chair of Health Equity at the Boston University Department of Family Medicine, and serves as the medical editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the journal, American Family Physician.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drreneecrichlow/

Julien Dedier, MD, MPH

Dr. Dedier is a primary care physician at BMC and a leader of the Equity in Diabetes initiative. Dr. Dedier is leading work that is part of an IHI / BCBSMA to improve A1c control and hypertension for BMC GIM patients. Dr. Dedier shares that, "As the foremost safety-net hospital in the region, BMC is using the Health Equity Accelerator to help align its clinical, research, advocacy, and community engagement efforts for the health of its patients and their communities. Only this type of broad, system-wide approach can really move the needle in diabetes care and outcomes."

BMC bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/julien-j-dedier-md-mph

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-dedier-08912b13/

Kathryn Fantasia, MD, MsC

Dr. Fantasia is an endocrinologist at BMC, a leader of the Equity in Diabetes initiative, and is completing a research fellowship with the Evans Center for Implementation and Improvement Science. Dr. Fantasia is committed to improving the lives of people living with diabetes through both research and clinical care. She partners with the T1D exchange quality improvements collaborative to improve the quality of care for adults with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes cared for in our Endocrinology and Diabetes clinic at BMC.

BMC bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/kathryn-l-fantasia-md

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-fantasia-a29b24128/

Osagie Ebekozien, MD, MPH

Osagie Ebekozien MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer at the T1D Exchange. In this role, he directs a learning health network of over 55 diabetes centers across the U.S. In addition, he collaborates internationally to improve diabetes care globally. He is an adjunct professor of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Associate Faculty with Ariadne Labs. Dr. Ebekozien's research interest is on advancing health equity through quality improvement and implementation science. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2022 Eli Lilly Leonard Award and the 2021 ISPAD International Award for Innovation in Pediatric Diabetes.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osagieebekozien/

Joshua J. Joseph MD, MPH

Joshua J. Joseph MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine with Tenure in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Joseph’s research focuses on advancing cardiometabolic health equity through novel approaches to cardiometabolic disease prevention and treatment. Key areas of interest are addressing social determinants of health, modifiable risk factors including American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 and the neuroendocrine system including aldosterone and cortisol. He currently leads or co-leads multiple federal and foundation grants from NIH, AHRQ, Department of Defense, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and American Heart Association. He is an ardent advocate for clinical trial diversity co-developing conferences and webinars including the “Health Equity through Diversity: From Communities to Clinics to Clinical Trials” series with Drs. Darrell Gray and Timiya Nolan.

Dr. Joseph is also an experienced international healthcare leader. He currently is Chair of the Endocrine Society Clinical Affairs Core Committee and Co-leads the Future Leaders Advancing Research in Endocrinology (FLARE) program. In the American Heart Association (AHA), he is the Chair of the Epidemiology Council Early Career Committee and is incoming chair of the AHA Diabetes Committee. He also serves on multiple scientific advisory committees including the “Know Diabetes by Heart” committee of the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association.

Segun Idowu

In December 2021, Chief Idowu joined the Wu Administration as the Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion where he is focused on making Boston a resilient, economically equitable, and vibrant city that centers people and creates opportunities to build generational wealth for all communities.

Markita Morris-Louis, Esq.

Markita Morris-Louis is CEO of Compass Working Capital. Prior to becoming CEO, Morris-Louis was Compass’ founding Chief Strategy Officer, leading the organization’s national strategy for scale and impact. She has served on numerous community-based boards and currently serves on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Consumer Advisory Board and the Board of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. She graduated from Brown University and New York University School of Law and grew up in subsidized housing.

Anas El Turabi, MD PhD

Dr. Anas El Turabi MD PhD is a partner at McKinsey & Company, in Boston. Anas works with clients across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors on issues of strategy and innovation, with a particular focus on population health science, biomedical innovation, and health equity. He sits on McKinsey’s Action 9 Leadership team, overseeing McKinsey’s $200m pro bono commitment into advancing racial equity. He is also a leader in McKinsey’s Institute for Black Economic Mobility, a think tank dedicated to inclusive growth and racial equity, and recently presented McKinsey insights on the link between financial inclusion and generational wealth at the NAACP National Convention.

Anas received his BA and MD from Oxford University, a Master’s in Clinical Science from Cambridge University, and his PhD in Health Policy from Harvard.

Uché Blackstock, MD

Dr. Uché Blackstock is a thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare. She appears on air regularly as medical contributor on MSNBC and NBC News and is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, as well as a former associate professor of Emergency Medicine at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University. Dr. Blackstock’s debut book, LEGACY: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, will be published by Viking Books next January.