Appendix D

Committee and Staff Biographical Sketches

M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S. (Chair), is chancellor emeritus of the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center and president emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at Wayne State University. He also served as deputy director of strategic scientific planning and program coordination at the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Wilson holds elected memberships in both the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the author of an award-winning memoir, The Plum Tree Blossoms Even in Winter. He has served on the advisory council to the NIH director, as well as the advisory councils of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Center for Research Resources. Dr. Wilson served on the executive committee of the NIH-funded Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study and chaired the data monitoring and oversight committees of both the NIH-funded Los Angeles Latino Eye Study and the African American Eye Disease Study. Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and M.S. in epidemiology from UCLA; he completed medical school, ophthalmology residency, and glaucoma fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Allison Aiello, Ph.D., is the James S. Jackson Healthy Longevity Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. Previously, Dr. Aiello was a professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She has served as the deputy director of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) since 2021. In 2019, Dr. Aiello was awarded the Carol Rowland Hogue Award for Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement in Epidemiology from the Society for Epidemiological Research for her achievements. Dr. Aiello’s research focuses on identifying the processes by which health

inequities in aging emerge across the life course, with the goal of uncovering points of intervention. Her research program has focused on some of today’s most pressing and complex health exposures and conditions, including socioeconomic inequalities, biological aging, Alzheimer’s disease, immunity, and susceptibility to infectious diseases. She received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from Columbia University with distinction and was awarded the Anna C. Gelman Award for outstanding achievement and promise in epidemiology.

Efrén J. Flores, M.D., is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and serves as faculty in thoracic imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he completed his diagnostic radiology residency and fellowship. Dr. Flores is a nationally recognized health services researcher focused on understanding health disparities and advancing health equity among historically underserved racial and ethnic minority communities. He has served in several leadership roles at MGH, including his current role as vice-chair for radiology diversity, equity, and inclusion and as the founding director of the Radiology Inclusion and Systemic Equity Center. Dr. Flores is recognized as a national thought leader in health disparities research as evidenced by numerous awarded grants, invited presentations nationally, and peer-reviewed publications. His health equity work is guided by the overarching goal of fostering trust and a sense of belonging. In recognition for his work, Dr. Flores was selected as one of the inaugural NAM Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence in 2021, and he currently serves on several institutional and national committees, including as co-chair of the health equity committee for the Radiological Society of North America and as associate editor of health equity for the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Carmen Guerra, M.D., M.S.C.E., is the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the vice chair of diversity and inclusion for the Department of Medicine and the associate director of diversity and outreach for the Abramson Cancer Center where she leads community outreach and engagement, including a Genentech-funded Cancer Clinical Trials Ambassador Program that promotes clinical trial awareness through peer-to-peer education. A general internist trained in epidemiology and a health equity researcher, Dr. Guerra has designed and evaluated interventions to increase access to cancer screening and cancer clinical trials for underserved populations. Dr. Guerra serves on the American Cancer Society’s Guideline Development Group and is an author of the American Cancer Society’s current colorectal, cervical, and lung cancer screening guidelines as well as the current HPV vaccination guidelines. In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Guerra received the American Cancer Society’s St. George Medal in 2017, the Association of Community Cancer Centers Research Award in 2022, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Excellence in Health Equity Award in 2023. She is also a member of the advisory board of Guardant Health, a company developing blood tests for colorectal cancer, and is the U.S. deputy chair of the health equity workgroup of the Multicancer Early Detection Consortium.

Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Her work focuses on cultural aspects of ethics in clinical medicine, biomedical science, and public health, particularly international standards of research ethics and education in the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Dr. Heitman teaches research ethics and RCR across UT Southwestern through the Center for Translational Medicine and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and she leads ethics education for two National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grants on cardiovascular health disparities, Obesity Health Disparities PRIDE and the Jackson Heart Study Graduate Training and Education Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Heitman co-directs two NIH Fogarty International Center–sponsored international research ethics education programs, one with Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique, and one with Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. She is a national associate of the U.S. National Research Council and has been chair or member of eight U.S. National Academy of Sciences programs in research integrity education in the Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In 2015–2016 she co-chaired the National Academies Committee on Gene Drive Research with Non-Human Organisms.

Matthew F. Hudson, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the director of cancer care delivery research at Prisma Health (Greenville, South Carolina), and professor of medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. Dr. Hudson conducts and oversees research on patient-, provider-, and organization-based interventions improving cancer care outcomes and patient well-being. Dr. Hudson served on multiple National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities study sections designed to augment workforce diversity. Dr. Hudson’s own research examines racial differences in pain reports and management experiences among patients with cancer. Dr. Hudson served the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as a member of their patient engagement advisory panel; he also co-authored the PCORI report Equity and Inclusion Guiding Engagement Principles. Dr. Hudson received his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College, M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.A. from the University of San Francisco. Dr. Hudson also received a certificate from the National Cancer Institute’s Multilevel Intervention Training Institute (MLTI), and subsequently served MLTI as a small group junior faculty member.

Husseini K. Manji, M.D., is co-chair of the UK Government Mental Health Mission and professor at Oxford University. Previously, Dr. Manji was global head of science for minds at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where he led a global team to discover and develop new therapeutics for major neurologic, psychiatric, and pain-related diseases with a high unmet need for effective treatments. Dr. Manji’s research has helped to conceptualize severe neuropsychiatric disorders as genetically influenced disorders of synaptic and neural plasticity and led to the investigation of key novel therapeutics. The major focus of his research has been the investigation of disease- and treatment-induced changes in gene and protein networks that regulate synaptic and neural plasticity in

brain and behavior disorders. Before joining J&J, Dr. Manji was director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest research program of its kind in the world, at the National Institute of Mental Health. His work led to approval of the first novel antidepressant mechanism in decades, SPRAVATO (esketamine) nasal spray for adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Canada, and the European Commission. Dr. Manji is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He also serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Dana Foundation and of Vanna Health.

Amy Moran-Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and teaches in the graduate program in history, anthropology, and STS (Science, Technology, and Society). She is interested in how social perspectives on design can contribute to producing more equitable technologies. Her work combines insights from ethnographies of science and medicine; material histories of design; and STS perspectives on health and environment. Her essays helped draw attention to longstanding racial biases encoded in color-sensing medical devices and catalyzed clinical reexaminations of the pulse oximeter, including recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration hearings that led to new safety advisories. Dr. Moran-Thomas’s writings have appeared in publications such as New England Journal of Medicine and Wired. Her first book, Traveling with Sugar: Chronicles of a Global Epidemic (2019), offers an anthropological account of diabetes technologies in use and the lives they shape in global perspective. Her research and writing were supported by the Mellon-American Council of Learned Societies, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Her work has received five book awards, including the Wellcome Medal for Anthropology as Applied to Medical Problems. Professor Moran-Thomas received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Princeton University in 2012.

Margaret Moss, Ph.D., J.D., R.N., is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota. She is currently professor and associate dean for nursing and health policy at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She holds both nursing and juris doctorates. She has been a nurse for 34 years and an academic for 23 years across four universities. Previously at the University of British Columbia (UBC), she was a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science, School of Nursing (20 percent) and director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning (80 percent). During this time, she served as interim associate vice president of equity and inclusion at UBC (2022). Dr. Moss sat on the American Academy of Nursing board of directors in 2021–2023, is a new member of the National Academy of Medicine (2022), and is a member of the National Academies Board on Population and Public Health. Dr. Moss was a committee member on the recent consensus report Federal Policy to Advance Racial, Ethnic and Tribal Health Equity (2023). She wrote an award-winning text, American Indian Health and Nursing (2015), followed by Health Equity and Nursing (2020). She co-led the development and launch of the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan (2020) and was a consultant on the In Plain Sight Report: Addressing Anti-Indigenous Racism in Healthcare in BC for the Minister of Health (2020). Dr. Moss was named an

inaugural member of the Forbes 50 over 50 Impact list 2021. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy fellow, staffing the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and was a Fulbright chair at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Elizabeth O. Ofili, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and a practicing cardiologist with Morehouse Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. She serves as chief medical officer for Morehouse Choice Accountable Care Organization, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shared savings program, which includes federally qualified health centers across the state of Georgia. Dr. Ofili is a nationally and internationally recognized clinician scientist with particular focus on cardiovascular disparities and women’s health. In 2002, as president of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), she led the initiative to implement the landmark African American Heart Failure Trial (AHEFT), whose findings changed practice guidelines for the treatment of heart failure in African Americans. Dr. Ofili is the founder and chief executive officer of AccuHealth Technologies Inc./Health 360x™, a patient-centered platform for population health management and clinical trial diversity. Dr. Ofili is the immediate past chair of the board of the Association of Black Cardiologists. She serves as chair of the board of directors of Alliant Health Group, a nonprofit quality improvement organization. Dr. Ofili is a principal investigator (PI) in the National Research Mentoring Network and contact PI of the Coordination and Evaluation Center for the National Institutes of Health Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program for Inclusive Excellence. She serves as PI of the Amgen-sponsored African American Heart Study, multi-PI of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, and contact PI of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Coordinating Center. She serves in advisory roles for Amgen’s Rise program and the Bristol-Meyers-Squib-Pfizer alliance initiative. Dr. Ofili has received many awards for her contributions and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Ofili graduated with distinction from Ahmadu Bello University School of Medicine in Nigeria and received an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

Neil R. Powe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is chief of medicine at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the Constance B. Wofsy Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He also serves as the chief science officer for the Commonwealth Fund. Dr. Powe led the National Kidney Foundation–American Society of Nephrology Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases, which led to elimination of race from estimation of kidney function, for which he was recognized by Time100 Health. As member and now chair of the Journal of the American Medical Association oversight committee, he provided important decision making regarding a podcast on structural racism. Dr. Powe is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served on previous National Academies consensus study committees. Among his honors are the Diversity Award from the Association of Professors of Medicine, the John M. Eisenberg Award for Career Achievement in Research, and the Robert J. Glaser Award from the Society of

General Internal Medicine, the David Hume Memorial Award from the National Kidney Foundation, the 2021 John Phillips Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Clinical Medicine from the American College of Physicians, the Cato Laurencin Lifetime Research Award from the National Medical Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Powe holds an M.D. and M.P.H. from Harvard University, and at the University of Pennsylvania he completed residency, was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, and earned an M.B.A.

Aliya Saperstein, Ph.D., is the Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor in Human Biology and a professor of sociology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the conceptualization and measurement of race/ethnicity and the consequences of these methodological decisions for studies of stratification and health disparities, including in the field of precision medicine research. Her work has been published in Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Sociology, and the Annual Review of Sociology, among others. Dr. Saperstein has been a visiting scholar at Sciences Po and the Russell Sage Foundation. Her scholarship has been honored with multiple article awards as well as the Early Achievement Award from the Population Association of America. Dr. Saperstein has a Ph.D. in sociology and demography from the University of California, Berkeley.

Roland J. Thorpe, Jr., Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, founding director of the Program of Men’s Health Research in the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, and director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Thorpe is a social epidemiologist and gerontologist whose research focuses on how social determinants of health affect health and functional outcomes among men across the life course. Dr. Thorpe serves as principal investigator (PI) on several National Institutes of Health–funded grants and is a multiple PI of the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD). Dr. Thorpe is the inaugural associate vice provost for faculty diversity at Johns Hopkins University. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Dr. Thorpe earned a bachelor’s in theoretical mathematics from Florida A&M University, a master’s in statistics, and a Ph.D. in clinical epidemiology with a graduate minor in gerontology from Purdue University. He received postdoctoral training in health disparities and gerontology from the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Thorpe is a member of scientific advisory boards, including the National Center for Health Statistics Board of Scientific Counselors, and is the editor-in-chief of Ethnicity & Disease.

Shyam Visweswaran, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor and vice chair of clinical informatics in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. His research broadly focuses on computerized clinical decision support driven by machine learning; patient-specific modeling, in which statistical models are tailored to the

characteristics of the patient at hand and optimized to perform well for that patient; and the development of statistical machine learning methods for causal discovery using electronic health record data, molecular data, or both. His current research focuses on cataloging clinical algorithms that incorporate a person’s race and ethnicity and developing computational methods for understanding the effect of race and ethnicity on model bias. He holds an M.B.B.S. degree (M.D. equivalent) from the Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India, an M.S. degree in physiology and biophysics from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and a Ph.D. in intelligent systems (artificial intelligence) from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his neurology residency at Boston University.

Genevieve L. Wojcik, Ph.D., is an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As a statistical geneticist and genetic epidemiologist, her research focuses on method development for diverse populations, specifically understanding the role of genetic ancestry and environment in genetic risk in admixed populations. Dr. Wojcik integrates epidemiology with statistical and population genetics to better understand existing health disparities in minority populations, as well as underserved populations globally. In 2021, she was the recipient of one of National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI’s) Genomic Innovator Awards (R35). She is a long-standing member of multiple NHGRI consortia focused on diverse populations, such as the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study and the PRIMED consortium. Prior to her faculty appointment, Dr. Wojcik was a postdoctoral research scholar at Stanford University in the departments of genetics and biomedical data science. She received her Ph.D. in epidemiology and M.H.S. in human genetics/genetic epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her B.A. in biology from Cornell University. She was recently a member of the National Academies Committee on the Use of Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genomics Research, which published its report in 2023.

Ruqaiijah Yearby, J.D., M.P.H., is the inaugural Kara J. Trott Professor in Health Law at the Moritz College of Law, a professor in the Department of Health Services Management and Policy at the College of Public Health, and a faculty affiliate of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. An expert in health policy and civil rights, Dr. Yearby has received over $5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study structural racism and discrimination in vaccine allocation and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the equitable enforcement of housing laws and structural racism in health care. She was a keynote speaker for the fifth annual conference of the ELSI Congress and has served as a reviewer for NIH, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. Dr. Yearby is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Bioethics and is a committee member for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Bioethics, American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, and the Oxford Journal of Law and the Biosciences.

STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

Sarah H. Beachy, Ph.D., PMP (Study Co-Director), is a senior program officer with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this capacity, Dr. Beachy serves as director of the Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health and the Forum on Regenerative Medicine, in addition to leading other projects. In these roles, she has facilitated impactful activities on topics such as Population Descriptors in Genetics/Genomics Research, Improving Diversity of the Genomics Workforce, Changing the Culture of Data Sharing and Management, and An Examination of Emerging Bioethical Issues in Biomedical Research, among others. In 2022, Dr. Beachy was awarded a National Academy of Medicine Cecil Award for Individual Excellence for her contributions to the National Academies. Prior to her time at the National Academies, Dr. Beachy completed an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship in diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, working closely with the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary. She was selected as a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academies in 2011. Prior to moving into science policy, Dr. Beachy was a postdoctoral fellow in the Genetics Branch at the National Cancer Institute, where she generated and characterized transgenic mouse models of leukemia and lymphoma. She earned her Ph.D. in biophysics from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Graduate Division at the University at Buffalo.

Samantha N. Schumm, Ph.D. (Study Co-Director), is a program officer with the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. During her time at the National Academies, she contributed to a consensus study on the Use of Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genomics Research as well as planned public workshops and led working groups on topics including workforce development and emerging manufacturing technologies in regenerative medicine. Prior to joining the National Academies in 2021, she studied mild traumatic brain injury at the University of Pennsylvania, using a variety of neuroscience techniques. Dr. Schumm developed a novel computational network model of the hippocampus brain region and analyzed emergent complex behaviors of neuronal networks. Her other interests include writing and promoting effective, inclusive mentor-ship in the sciences. Dr. Schumm has a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale University.

Lydia Teferra is a research associate with the Board on Health Sciences at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, staffing the Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health and the Forum on Regenerative Medicine. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2020 with a B.A. in psychology and global health and has been working at the National Academies for 3 years. During her time at the Academies, she has staffed a number of projects, including consensus studies on the use of respiratory protection for workers and the public along with the use of nonhuman primate models in biomedical research. Prior to her time at the National Academies, Ms. Teferra interned and volunteered for local nonprofit organizations addressing a number of public health issues. She hopes to pursue a master’s degree in public health in the near future.

Ashley Pitt is a senior program assistant for the Board of Health Sciences Policy. Ms. Pitt graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2022 with honors, earning a bachelor of arts in public health. Prior to joining the National Academies, she worked as an assistant office manager for an oral surgeon where she demonstrated expertise in optimizing operations and enhancing communication between the front office and clinical staff.

Joseph Tumfour, M.H.S. (until July 2024), is an associate program officer with the Board of Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where he supports the consensus study on the Use of Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research. He earned his M.H.S. in environmental health and engineering from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, his B.S. degree in environmental biology from Kean University, and his A.S. degree in biology from Union County College. Mr. Tumfour’s primary interest is in environmental health and justice, including a key role for community involvement in research and in formulating policies, legislation, and regulations. He aims to understand how environmental challenges adversely affect disadvantaged communities. During his time at Hopkins, he worked on impactful projects such as analyzing radon levels in Pennsylvania homes that reside in environmental justice communities. Prior to joining the National Academies, Mr. Tumfour worked as an environmental health and safety engineer at Genscript Biotech Corporation.

Alex Helman, Ph.D. (from March 2024), is a senior program officer with the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. During her time at the Academies, Dr. Helman has led impactful activities on topics such as Mitigating Liability for Clinical Research Involving Pregnant and Lactating Populations, Building Research Equity for Women and Underrepresented Populations, and Strategies to Recruit, Retain, and Advance Women in STEMM Disciplines. She also led the Prevention Working Group and the Evaluation Working Group for the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. Before joining the National Academies full time, Dr. Helman was as a 2018 Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academies. Prior to her science policy work, Dr. Helman studied vascular contributions to cognitive impairment in individuals with Down Syndrome. Dr. Helman received her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biochemistry from the University of Kentucky, and her B.S. in biochemistry from Elon University.

Francis K. Amankwah, M.P.H., is a senior program officer in the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is currently the responsible staff officer on the National Academies’ consensus study on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. Among his recent work are the workshops on Innovation in Electronic Health Records for Oncology Care, Research, and Surveillance; Promoting Health Equity in Cancer Care; Innovation in Cancer Care and Cancer Research in the Context

of the COVID-19 Pandemic Care; and Suicide Prevention in Indigenous Communities. He served as the responsible staff officer on the National Academies’ congressionally mandated consensus study that produced the consensus report Medications in Single Dose Vials: Implications of Discarded Drugs. He also played an integral role in the development of the National Academies’ consensus reports Guiding Cancer Control: A Path to Transformation and Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative. He is a recipient of the Health and Medicine Veteran, Mount Everest, and Fineberg staff achievement awards. He earned his M.P.H. and a graduate certificate in global planning and international development from Virginia Tech. He was raised in Ghana, West Africa, and earned his B.S. degree in agricultural science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Ronique Taffe, M.P.H., joined the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice in 2023 as the program officer for the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. Previously she worked for the National Association of County and City Health Officials where she supported health equity work within the context of overdose, injury, and violence prevention. She worked at the National Committee for Quality Assurance for a number of years where she supported the product development team in developing and maintaining evidence-based and equitable health plan accreditation standards. Ms. Taffe obtained her M.P.H. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in public health practice and policy, and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in health administration and policy with a minor in sociology. She was selected to participate in the 2020 inaugural class of the National Academy of State Health Policy Emerging Leader of Color Fellowship.

Clare Stroud, Ph.D., is senior board director for the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this capacity, she oversees a program of activities addressing the basic biomedical and clinical research enterprises needed to improve the health and resilience of the public, including examining social and ethical issues that accompany science and technological advances. Previously, she served as director of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, bringing together leaders from government, industry, academia, and patient advocacy organizations to discuss key challenges and emerging issues in neuroscience research, development of therapies for nervous system disorders, and related societal issues. She also served as director for consensus studies and other projects on topics such as dementia caregiving, preventing cognitive decline and dementia, clinical research data sharing, young adult health and well-being, and disaster preparedness in health systems. Dr. Stroud first joined the National Academies as a science and technology policy graduate fellow. She has also been an associate at AmericaSpeaks, a nonprofit organization that engaged citizens in decision making on important public policy issues. Dr. Stroud received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, with research focused on the cognitive neuroscience of language and face perception. She received her bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University in Canada and spent a year at the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Michael Zierler, Ph.D., is the founder and co-owner of RedOx Scientific Editing, a small shop that provides developmental editing and related editorial and writing services. He has an undergraduate degree in biology from Brown University and a Ph.D. in biology from Johns Hopkins University, where he worked on the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes, stockpiling of DNA polymerases during embryogenesis, and intramolecular movements in hemoglobin studied using hydrogen exchange. Prior to graduate school, he spent a summer studying the behavior of lemon sharks off the Florida Keys and worked for a cardiothoracic surgeon at the West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center, doing research in the laboratory and the operating room on monitoring and improving the physiology of the heart during open heart surgery using mass spectrometry and a miniaturized pH electrode. After graduate school, he completed a postdoctoral position at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, helping to identify the molecular components of the Salmonella injectisome, a bacterial invasion system. He has taught biological sciences at the high school and college levels. He has also served as the deputy mayor and the chair of the planning board in his hometown of New Paltz, New York.

Benjamin Weston, M.D., M.P.H., is the 2022–2024 National Academy of Medicine Fellow to Advance State Health Policy. Dr. Weston is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He serves as chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County working to enhance the health of 1 million citizens. In addition, Dr. Weston is the director of medical services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, overseeing medical services for the 15 fire departments throughout the county. He practices clinically in the emergency department at Froedtert Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma Center. His research interests include prehospital care, resuscitation, health equity, and public health surveillance. Dr. Weston served as the medical director for the Milwaukee County/City/Municipality COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center. He has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and in Politico and The New York Times. He has provided medical direction and oversight for events including NFL, NBA, MLB, Indycar, and USA Triathlon. He has been selected as Milwaukee Business Journal’s 40 under 40, named the Public Health Leader of the Year, and listed as “Best of Milwaukee” in Milwaukee Magazine. Dr. Weston received his M.D. and M.P.H. from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and completed his emergency medicine residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. Dr. Weston is dual board-certified in emergency medicine as well as emergency medical services by the American Board of Emergency Medicine after completing his emergency medical services fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

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