The Global Health Crisis Coordination Center (GHC3) was tasked by the CDC Foundation to share information and coordinate resources between public health, private sectors and philanthropic organizations during this public health crisis through:
As a Senior Executive at Philips Healthcare, Ken most recently served as the Global Lead for Strategic Partnerships and Alliances where he was responsible for managing relationships with Electronic Health Record (EHR), technology and application partners that impact the ecosystem of Philips customers and users.
Mr. Berta is the Co-founder of Cedar Grove Creek, LLC. and a principle in the firm’s consulting arm, MBTC Strategy Consultants. He has broad experience working with both public partners such as The Air Force Research Labs (AFRL), the Department of Veterans Affairs, FEMA, NATO, the Ohio Department of Development and Fortune 100 companies including Philips Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard. Ken has also been a strategic advisor to large healthcare providers such as Ohio Health, The Kettering Health Network, The University of Toledo Health Network and Emory’s Innovation Hub led by 11|ten Innovation Partners. Cedar Grove Creek is also one of the founding investors of the Ohio Tech Angle Fund, a private/public economic development partnership with the Ohio Department of Development.
Mr. Berta started his career as a VA researcher, surgical technician and medical device designer. He quickly rose to the head of Global R&D for Ferno-Washington, one of the world’s largest private manufacturers and distributors of emergency medical products. After serving as the General Manager of Global Operations for YSI Life Sciences (now Xylem) he turned to public service to found - and was the EVP for - the non-profit Wright Center of Innovation for Advanced Data Management and Analysis (renamed daytaOhio). This state sponsored organization was made up of the AFRL, 5 Universities and 60 companies building Big Data solutions for Medicine, Energy and Defense.
While at daytaOhio, Mr. Berta was one of the leaders of the $200M bid for the development of the M.A.T.E. (medicine at the edge) center for extreme medical care - a private /public partnership between leading medical device companies, AFRL, HSA, FEMA and 4 academic medical centers. The resulting operation “Calamityville” is now the National Center for Medical Readiness that serves first responders, first receivers (physicians, nurses, mid-level providers, hospital staff), and Department of Defense (DoD) Special Operations units. With over 30 years of healthcare technology, strategic consulting and venture capital experience, Mr. Berta has designed and launched dozens of products, has been awarded 5 international patents, started 7 companies and received an executive appointment - The Order of the Ohio Commodore – the highest honor awarded a citizen by the Governor of Ohio.
Ken holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering focused on artificial organ design from Wright State University and an MBA in international business from the Williams School of business at Xavier University.
Dr. Breiman was most recently Director of the Emory Global Health Institute and holds faculty appointments in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health and in the Infectious Disease Department of the Emory University School of Medicine. During his over 30-year career in public health and academia, Dr. Breiman’s primary areas of research have been related to addressing inequities with focus on child mortality, immunizations, urbanization in impoverished settings, and a range of respiratory and enteric diseases, as well as a variety of emerging infectious diseases.
In addition to his research, Dr. Breiman is currently working on translating global health work to increase public awareness and engagement. Until 2020, he was the Executive Director and Principal Investigator for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network. CHAMPS, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), is designed to characterize and provide crucial data for preventing childhood mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; it currently works in S Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and India. Dr. Breiman has also been PI of BMGF and Gavi-funded projects focused on typhoid surveillance, rotavirus immunization impact, and characterizing the evolution of pneumococcal genetics globally during the era of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use.
Before joining Emory in 2013, Dr. Breiman worked at CDC for 26 years. From 2004-2013, he was based in Nairobi, Kenya as the Director of CDC-Kenya’s Global Disease Detection Division, and for three years as overall Director of CDC-Kenya. Breiman was Head, of the Programme on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences at the internationally acclaimed International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) from 2000-2004. He was Director of the United States National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) from 1995-2000 and was Chief of the Epidemiology Section of the Respiratory Diseases Branch (RDB) from 1989-1997. He served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at CDC from 1987-1989 in RDB.
Dr. Breiman was elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 2017 and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).
Mr. Weakland has directed and managed international and domestic health programmes for over 30 years. He most recently served as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Management and Operations and guides and supports the development of public health programme management and business operational systems for advancing Africa CDC scientific and strategic goals and objectives within the context of the African Union. Prior to joining Africa CDC, Mr. Weakland served in a number of executive and line management functions with the US CDC, including serving as the Deputy Director, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria and Associate Director for Management and Operations in the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.
In his 28 years with CDC, Leo is most proud of his work in supporting research leading to the successful antiretroviral therapy and life-saving treatment of Africans living with HIV. His work in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, the American Red Cross and the UN Foundation to support African Member State efforts to immunize children against measles helped achieve a 60% reduction in related mortality between 2002 and 2007 in Africa. Mr. Weakland holds a Master of Science in public health with specialization in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is fluent in English, French and Haitian Créole.
Dr. Adams has more than 20 years of experience in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, she served as a consultant with King and Spalding’s intellectual property counseling practice. As Senior Patent Agent, she worked with inventors, universities and biomedical companies to evaluate potential inventions for patentability and commercial value while developing and implementing appropriate strategies. Her management and prosecution of global patent portfolios for over a decade resulted in the issuance of dozens of patents. Stephanie’s expertise extends across a wide range of biotechnology areas, including molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology and vaccines.
Stephanie also served as Executive Director of Southeast Life Sciences (formerly Southeast BIO). As director of this regional nonprofit organization, she augmented the growth of the life sciences industry in the Southeastern U.S. through efforts that promoted entrepreneurship and brought together companies, investors, universities and support organizations.
She has been active in the Georgia and Southeastern life sciences communities for over twenty years, promoting its growth through involvement in industry organizations, events, speaking and client counseling. This promotion has extended into the community through a variety of science-based initiatives at local schools.
Stephanie obtained her Ph.D. from Emory University. Her research focused on the molecular biology of novel peptides involved in the central control of reward and satiety and was presented at numerous international symposiums and published in prominent scientific journals
For two decades, Brandy has worked extensively in communications and public information, helping multiple organizations and agencies navigate their crisis communications and reputation strategies. Her experience includes work in military/veteran/government, corporate, nonprofit, emergency management, homeland security, and public safety sectors, including a position as lead public information officer for a state emergency management agency. Brandy's certifications as an emergency manager and POST Instructor allow her to manage crisis and teach public safety professionals how to coordinate information efficiently and effectively during preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.
Brandy's education includes military public affairs training at the Defense Information School, bachelors of journalism from Northwestern State University, graduate coursework in strategic communications from Purdue University. She is also a current law student, giving her the legal knowledge to support her communications efforts. Her successes include a statewide Top 40 Under 40 award in Georgia for her public relations work with veteran nonprofits, contributions on an Emmy Award-winning project, placement of a previous employer on the Inc. 5000 “fastest growing company” list, and student bar election as representative to the American Bar Association.
Maria Thacker Goethe has over 13 years of experience in non-profit management and development. She was appointed president and CEO for Georgia Bio and the Georgia BioEd Institute in February 2019. Maria has helped build the organization into one of the top state bioscience and medtech associations through her community outreach and engagement, member development, and leadership on various special projects and programs to increase community connections and resources. Additionally, she had been responsible for conceiving, developing and executing a comprehensive internal and external communications strategy.
In addition to her work with Georgia Bio, Maria is Executive Director of the Georgia Global Health Alliance which strives to advance global health equity by promoting and facilitating collaboration amongst business, academia, non-profits and government organizations within Georgia and linking them with partners in the US and other countries. Officially launched in late 2016, GGHA is working with the global health community in Georgia, local community business leaders, and national partners to develop strategy and organize the sector to embrace collaboration and speak with a collective voice. GGHA is a lead partner along with the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Deloitte for the Global Health ATL campaign.
Maria has a diverse background including environmental health, women’s health and health communications and marketing. Prior to joining Georgia Bio, Maria participated in a fellowship at Centers for Disease Control & Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in environmental investigations, working closely with the National Center of Environmental Health in Chemical Demilitarization.
Maria serves as a board member of the CJD Foundation, the Southeast Life Sciences Association, the Council of State Bioscience Associations, the Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes, and the Kennesaw State University Research and Service Foundation. She is a 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 Award for career achievements and having demonstrated social responsibility; 2019 recipient of the Metro Atlanta Chamber Phoenix Award for her role as an ambassador for life sciences and global health in the state of Georgia; and 2009 recipient of the Power 30 Under 30 Award for professional and community excellence.
Maria received her Master in Public Health in health education/communication, and maternal and child health from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Sweet Briar College. Additionally, Maria has volunteered for over 10 years with the Junior League of Atlanta/La Amistad Estrellitas program which works to empower Latina teens. When she is not busy working or volunteering, she spends her time with her daughter Cecilia and husband Patrick.
Learn more about Georgia Bio at www.gabio.org.
Learn more about GGHA at: http://www.gghalliance.org/
Clark Dean helps directs Transwestern’s Occupier Solutions business and is the founder of the company’s Transaction Sciences platform, which operates across service lines. Clark is a member of Transwestern’s Board of Directors and its National Occupier Solutions Steering Committee. He also helps lead the company’s global partnerships with BNP Paribas Real Estate and Devencore.
With a background in biomedical engineering, management consulting, and financial structuring, Clark is known for being a disruptive innovator in the brokerage industry. His Transaction Sciences practice combines robust brokerage capabilities with behavioral science, organizational science, and decision science to deliver real estate solutions that optimize culture, function, and economics for occupiers and investors. Prior to joining Transwestern, Clark was a founding principal of Studley’s Corporate Services Group where he spent over a decade working on some of the firm’s largest and most complex assignments. Before that, Clark was a management consultant and later chief operating officer for a management consulting firm specializing in strategic and operational consulting for insurance and financial service companies. He began his real estate career with Studley as a financial analyst in Washington, DC.
Clark is an active member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and the Harvard Clubs of Georgia and New York City. He is an elected Deacon in the Baptist Church, a former coach for youth football (PeeWee Coach of the Year 2008), and a frequent contributor to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. He serves on several boards including The Rotary Club of Atlanta (President 2017-18; Chairman 2018-19), Shepherd Center (Executive Committee), YMCA of Metro Atlanta (Executive Committee), Covenant House GA (Secretary), the Honduras Agalta Valley Education Foundation (Chairman), and the Georgia Global Health Alliance. Clark is also Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Chick-fil-A Foundation and serves on the Board of Councilors for The Carter Center. He is a member of the 2012 Class of Leadership Atlanta and was recognized by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in its annual “40 Under 40” list in 2005.
Clark graduated cum laude with an A.B. in Engineering and Biological Sciences from Harvard University, where he played varsity football, served as a class officer, and delivered the Harvard College oration as a graduating senior. He furthered his professional development through executive education at Harvard Business School, where he completed the Real Estate Management Program: Developing Future Leaders and Distressed Real Estate: Examining Debt and Equity Structures to Mitigate Losses and Identify Opportunities.
Russell M. Medford, MD, PhD is Chairman and CEO of Covanos, Inc, an Atlanta-based development stage medical device company, developing advanced computational technologies for the non-invasive diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. He is a senior executive with over 25 years private and public company experience as Chief Executive Officer and Board member of multiple public and private biotechnology, medical technology, digital health and other health related companies, organizations and research institutes.
Dr. Medford serves as Founding Chairman of the recently formed Center for Global Health Innovation that represents a coalition of over 250 Georgia and national organizations and companies involved in global health, life science innovation and health technology through the merger of Georgia BIO, Georgia Global Health Alliance and Global Health ATL. Previously, he was Chairman of Global Health ATL, Founding Vice-Chairman of the Georgia Global Health Alliance and a past Chairman of Georgia BIO.
He is a board-certified physician, member of the External Advisory Board for the Petit Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology, member of the Board of Directors of the cell-based therapeutics manufacturing company ThermoGenesis Holdings (Nasdaq:THMO), an inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association, and a past member of Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) Board of Directors (2002-2014), Co-Chairman of BIO’s Bioethics Committee, Chairman of the BIO's 2009 International Convention Steering Committee (held for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia) and a member of the Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. From 1995 to 2009, Dr. Medford served as co-founder, President, CEO and Director of publicly-held AtheroGenics, Inc (Nasdaq: AGIX) and was a founding Board Director of publicly-held Inhibitex, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHX).
He has received numerous awards including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Southeast), the Biomedical Industry Growth Award (Georgia Bio), CATALYST Magazine's Top 50 Entrepreneurs, the SCRIPP Best Partnership Alliance (London) and Platinum Winner (Covanos) of the AMP'D Arena Pitch Competition at the 2019 Medical Innovation Summit, organized by Cleveland Clinic and co-sponsored by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
He received a B.A. from Cornell University, and a M.D. with Distinction and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completing his residency and cardiology fellowship at Harvard’s Beth Israel and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals where he also served on the faculty of Medicine. He served on the faculty at Emory University as an Associate Professor of Medicine prior to founding AtheroGenics and serving as its CEO. He publishes widely and holds over 16 U.S. and international patents.
Before joining the Chamber, Hartnett served as the president and CEO of Maco Pharma® (formerly United Pharma) a privately held US medical device/pharmaceutical company based in Duluth, Georgia, headquartered in Lille France. Before Maco Pharma, Hartnett was president and CEO of SteriFx® Corporation, a specialty chemical start-up, contracted by U.S. Department of Defense (DARPA). Prior to SteriFx, he was the executive vice president of the North American headquarters of Given Imaging, Inc. an Israeli start-up with corporate headquarters in Yokneam, Israel. Under his leadership, the company commercialized the “PillCam” video capsule, a disposable capsule that captures video after it is ingested by the patient. Hartnett helped to raise close to $30 million in a private placement for corporate infrastructure development and product commercialization before the company going public in 2001 (GIVN-NASDAQ). Hartnett served as vice president of marketing at ERBE Electro-surgery, the largest manufacturer of electrosurgical systems in the world, where he was responsible for commercial marketing throughout North America.
He has also served in a variety of other senior sales and marketing roles for the following companies: Karl Storz Lithotripsy, Genzyme (formerly Deknatel), STERIS (formerly AMSCO) and the XEROX Corporation.
He holds a B.A. in Communication from San Diego State University with a master’s equivalent in marketing through post-graduate studies.
He currently serves on the following boards:
- Carter Center, Board of Councilors
- Atlanta Science Festival™, Chairman of the Board
- Georgia Global Health Alliance, Board of Trustees
- Innovation Crescent Regional Partnership, Chairman
- Southeastern Medical Device Association, President Emeritus
- Venture Atlanta™ Coalition Director/Co-Founder
- Georgia Bio (statewide trade association), Director
- Institute for Healthcare Information Technology, Director/Co-Founder
- Leadership Atlanta Alumni 2013
Hartnett is married with four sons, was raised on Coronado Island, California and is an active member of the Atlanta business community.
Kenneth I. Moch has broad expertise building, financing and leading private and public life science companies from start-up through commercialization, with a focus on the development of novel first-in-class medicines that address unmet needs in chronic and acute life-threatening diseases. He has played a key role in building six life science companies, resulting in multiple marketed products.
Ken has been responsible for the successful completion of more than 30 public offerings and private placements, including two market opening IPOs, cumulatively raising over $750 million in equity and non-dilutive capital for cutting edge research and clinical development programs. He has served as President & CEO of five companies: Cognition Therapeutics (Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases); Chimerix, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMRX; life-threatening viral diseases); BioMedical Enterprises (nitinol orthopedic implants; acquired by J&J); Alteon, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALTN; cardiovascular diseases and diabetic complications); and Biocyte Corporation, where he pioneered the storage and therapeutic use of cord blood stem cells and launched the first cord blood stem cell storage bank. Ken started his career in biotech drug development as a co-founder and Vice President of The Liposome Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIPO), a pioneer in the use of liposomes for the delivery of anticancer and antifungal drugs. He has also been a Managing Partner of The Salutramed Group, LLC (life sciences strategy consulting), a Managing Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at ThinkEquity Partners, a founder and Managing General Partner of Catalyst Ventures (seed stage venture capital fund), and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Building on his longstanding interest in health policy, Ken served for over a decade on the Governing Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where he held numerous leadership roles in policy areas including capital formation, business development and regulatory policy, and most recently chaired BIO’s Bioethics Committee and co-chaired the Emerging Companies Section Strategy and Policy Committee. He is a past Chairman of BioNJ, New Jersey’s biotechnology trade organization, and a past member of the Executive Committee of the New York Biotechnology Association.
Ken has unique expertise in preapproval access, crisis management and patient advocacy, growing from experiences which he described in “Ethical Crossroads: Expanded Access, Patient Advocacy and the #SaveJosh Social Media Campaign.” He is a founding member of the NYU Working Group on Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Access, and has co-authored several articles with Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., the Head of Medical Ethics at NYU Medical Center, on the ethical issues surrounding access to experimental medicines, including "Rescue Me: The Challenge of Compassionate Use in the Social Media Era" and a five-year update on the field of preapproval access, “Rescue Me Revisited.” Most recently, Ken contributed a chapter entitled “Bioethics and the Need for Ethical Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic” to “Biotechnology in the Time of COVID-19.”
Ken currently serves as a member of the Boards of Gamida Cell (Nasdaq: GMDA) and Zynerba Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ZYNE). He is a Chief Mentor for the NYU Endless Frontier Lab and a member of the Business Review Board of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. He served for over a decade on the Board of M2Gen, Moffitt Cancer Center’s oncology-focused informatics solutions spinout.
He holds an A.B. in biochemistry with a minor in health policy from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
David A. Ross, ScD, took office as The Task Force’s third president and chief executive officer (CEO) in May 2016. A recognized leader in global health, Dr. Ross has led collaborative programs to strengthen information capacity of public health systems in the United States and other countries for more than three decades years. “We have long believed collaboration is essential to solving large-scale health problems,” said Dr. Ross. “No one organization has the resources or expertise to address these issues. It is through our partnerships that we have been able to have an extraordinary collective impact.”
Dr. Ross provides strategic direction to The Task Force and oversees 13 programs focused on disease elimination, prevention, and protection. He assumed leadership of The Task Force on May 1, 2016, after 16 years as director of The Task Force’s Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) and its predecessor All Kids Count.
For more than 35 years, Dr. Ross has led collaborative programs to strengthen information capacity of public health systems in the United States and other countries. In addition to his non-profit experience, he has worked in the public and private sectors on both healthcare delivery and medical informatics.
Dr. Ross launched PHII in 2002 and spearheaded its growth to become internationally recognized in the field of public health informatics, a discipline that focuses on using information to improve health outcomes. Today, PHII has a $7.4-million annual budget with a diverse portfolio of domestic and international programs supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and top-tier national foundations. Most recently, PHII partnered with the Emory Global Health Institute on a major initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help understand and ultimately address the causes of death and serious illness for children under 5 in developing countries. This initiative will last at least 20 years and may commit more than $1 billion in funding to support improved disease surveillance.
Dr. Ross is a thought leader and one of the pioneers of public health informatics. He was founding director of CDC’s first national initiative to improve the information infrastructure of public health in the United States. Dr. Ross also has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and frequently serves on national panels focused on public health informatics. He co-chaired “Data for Health,” a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative that is exploring how information and data on health can be harnessed to help people lead healthier lives.
Before joining The Task Force, Dr. Ross held leadership, administrative, and corporate consultant roles with the U.S. Public Health Service, CDC, a private hospital system in Maryland, and one of the largest health information technology firms.
Dr. Ross holds a doctor of science degree in operations research from The Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado.
Charles Redding has served as CEO and President of MedShare International, Inc. since 2014. From 2012 until 2014 he served as Chief Operating Officer, leading efforts to expand to a third region in the Northeast with a Sorting and Collection Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Under Charles’ leadership MedShare has experienced record-breaking years of humanitarian aid shipments, programmatic interventions, fundraising and community outreach. His strategic shift from outputs and a relentless focus on measurable outcomes and impact are recognized as major contributors to the organization’s expanded success. His leadership in responding to the 2014 Ebola Virus outbreak in West Africa garnered recognition and accolades.
Charles honed his global leadership skills at Johnson & Johnson from 1988 until 2011. As Vice President of Global Operations for the Aesthetic Medicine Business (Mentor), based in Santa Barbara, California, his responsibilities encompassed 1,200 employees in the U.S., France, The Netherlands, and Mauritius with an operating budget in excess of $200 million.
Early roles with the multi-national medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer goods manufacturing company included serving as the first Plant Manager for Ethicon, Inc. (J&J) in Juarez, Mexico. While based in Shanghai, China he served as Director of Asia Pacific Operation, managing medical device manufacturing facilities in China and India. His work abroad informed his recognition of global health and human services deficiencies. A successful transition to non-profit leadership is reflected in MedShare’s 4-Star rating by Charity Navigator and the Platinum Seal of Transparency received from GuideStar. MedShare is also a member of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD), Georgia Global Health Alliance (GGHA), and the Medical Surplus Recovery Alliance (MSA) with Charles serving on the boards of PQMD and GGHA.
At Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, Charles is an Advisory Board Member of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and serves as a guest lecturer. He is a frequent speaker to civic organizations and presenter at industry events.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, he holds a BS Degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a certificate in Team Management from the Daniel School of Management at the University of South Carolina. He resides in the city with his wife of thirty years and his son. He enjoys reading, sports, teaching, mentoring, and developing people.
Dr. Judith Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, has dedicated her career to protecting people and saving lives. She joined the CDC Foundation in February 2016 as president and CEO, following her role as a deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and director of CDC’s Office of State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support.
In her work at the CDC Foundation, Dr. Monroe advances priority programs that improve the health of people across America and around the world.
The CDC Foundation mobilizes philanthropic and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection work, managing hundreds of programs in the United States and in more than 130 countries.
With the emergence of the COVID-19 global public health crisis, the Foundation activated its emergency response fund on January 27, 2020, to support CDC’s COVID-19 response. The CDC Foundation is in daily communication with CDC and state and local health departments, gaining on-the-ground insights into the evolving emergency situation and a clear understanding of immediate gaps where philanthropy and public private partnerships are most needed.
Under Dr. Monroe’s leadership the CDC Foundation responded to the Zika epidemic as an implementing partner in addition to mobilizing resources; supported the response and recovery from the 2017 hurricane season; and serves as CDC’s strategic partner for global health security. Dr. Monroe currently co-leads a Global Health ATL tiger team focused on improving humanitarian logistics and response during public health crises. In 2019 she was recognized by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce with a MAC Heroes of Global Health award.
Prior to the CDC Foundation, Dr. Monroe oversaw key activities and technical assistance at CDC supporting the nation’s health departments and the public health system. Throughout the 2014–15 Ebola epidemic she served as senior advisor for the domestic response. During her tenure as the state health commissioner for Indiana she served as president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials through the H1N1 pandemic. She envisioned and founded the ASTHO president’s challenge in 2008. This leadership platform resulted in initiatives with significant health improvements and focus of ASTHO annual meetings.
Dr. Monroe currently serves on the board of directors for the Center for Global Health Innovation and for the Georgia Global Health Alliance, and is a member of the Milken Institute’s Public Health Advisory Board. Additionally, she serves as a member of the World Health Organization Foundation’s Advisory group, as well as many national advisory committees and boards.
Dr. Monroe was recognized in 2019 with the American Public Health Association’s Presidential Citation for her work to improve the health and well-being of people around the world, and for her commitment to the future of public health as a mentor to young physicians and public health students.
Dr. Monroe received her doctor of medicine from the University of Maryland and a bachelor of science degree from Eastern Kentucky University. She completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Cincinnati, a rural faculty development fellowship through East Tennessee State University, and a mini-fellowship in obstetrics through the University of Wisconsin. She also participated in the State Health Leadership Initiative at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and received an honorary doctorate from Purdue University in Health and Human Services.
Dr. Paruk has a unique background as a practicing physician, public health expert, and industry leader who has leveraged AI & ML to disrupt population health outcomes.
Dr. Paruk was most recently the Chief Medical Innovation Officer with Microsoft’s US Health & Life Sciences Industry Team. Prior to joining Microsoft, she provided medical leadership to world class team of data scientists at Allscripts, successfully demonstrating the power of big data in the EHR industry.
Utilizing longitudinal clinical and claims data on millions of lives, her team leveraged AI and machine learning in the development of predictive models to improve population health. Her team facilitated early identification of chronic diseases, quantified impacts of social determinants of health, and worked to deliver these insights to the point of care within evidence-based clinical workflows.
Prior to her work in industry, she completed her fellowship in Health Systems at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, she was responsible for leading strategic programs to improve the trauma care across the continuum of care. She spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives and established the first mobile, electronic injury surveillance system in Africa to collect data on causes of injury and identify gaps in care. This translated into defining minimum standards for emergency care and was instrumental in operationalizing access to emergency services for Kenya’s 40 million citizens.
Fatima has been named to EY’s Most Powerful Woman in Health IT, Microsoft’s list of Women to Wa tch in Healthcare and Becker’s Healthcare Leaders Rising Stars lists. In addition, Fatima lectures on utilizing predictive models in health. She remains actively involved in global disaster response and volunteers for non-profits dedicated to the improvement of healthcare in the US and abroad.
Steve Gertz is known nationally as a business development authority with 25+ years of experience. He is the Founder of Rhythmic Ventures, a growth consulting and business development firm that focuses on curating, cultivating, and compounding high-impact relationships for venture-backed companies, accelerators, private equity portfolios, and large corporate enterprises. Steve's life and business mantra has always been "1+1=10!" Or in other words, empowering people, businesses, and industries to create more and do more by matching the right partners in the most ideal ecosystem that drives value creation. This mission led him to co-found 11|TEN Innovation Partners. At 11|TEN, he focuses on developing strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and high potential startups in healthcare, technology, food, and agriculture to build out rich ecosystems that can accelerate innovation and grow businesses. Today, Steve and his team at 11|TEN Innovation Partners oversee the direction and operation of the Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub (EHIH). For EHIH, they incubate, pilot and commercialize new solutions between healthcare and technology partners to improve the evolving health and wellness needs of patients and providers. Partners include Verizon, Cerner, Konica Minolta Healthcare, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Philips, Sharecare and Stryker.
Prior to Rhythmic Ventures and 11|TEN, Steve served for a decade as Partner and Chief Strategy Officer for an accelerating growth platform backed by Joe Gibbs, a three-time Super Bowl Champion Coach and current owner of a NASCAR Cup Series Championship race team. At Joe Gibbs Driven (JGD Investors), Steve built and managed a very successful investment and business development portfolio. Steve resides in Atlanta with his wife Lani and four kids under the age of eleven. Steve enjoys traveling, being involved in his church and the community, playing golf (if there’s time) and experiencing life with his family.
As Hospital President and SVP for Wellstar Windy Hill Hospital, Mr. Wilson has over 20 years of experience in hospital administration and multiple tours leading incident commands. At Wellstar, he envisioned and directed Post-Acute Care operations, implemented system-wide business strategies and hospital alignment initiatives for the largest health system in Georgia consisting of 11 hospitals and an 1,100-member physician medical group.
Key responsibilities included identifying organization and departmental gaps and opportunities; developing strategic initiatives that benefit patients and staff with minimal operational disturbances while expanding growth opportunities; identifying staff and physician project champions and building effective teams. Responsible for the formation of Georgia’s largest Trauma Network; added four trauma centers aligned with WellStar’s existing trauma centers in coordination with the State of Georgia Public Health. Incident Commander for Wellstar for Ebola, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy.
Jeff Dunkel serves as the CEO of NuHope, a multispecialty outpatient approach which delivers optimal outcomes to patients dealing with opioid or chemical dependency. Mr. Dunkel is recognized as a leading health care strategist and national lecturer with successful experience in taking innovative products and processes from initial concept to successful commercialization. His contributes to population health in the areas of novel technology access, post market surveillance, real world evidence, and substance use dependency. Mr. Dunkel’s experience spans from start-up clinics to research institutions, includes smaller device companies to fortune 500 healthcare mainstays, and has involved successful exit strategies of acquisitions and divestitures. His contracting strategies, which included accountability for patient outcomes and cost guarantees, have been recognized by Forbes magazine for leading the industry in risk share arrangements. Mr. Dunkel led efforts on the creation of a CMS new technology categories and eight Section X ICD-10pcs codes for a previously unrecognized area of orthopedic medical devices. He holds an advisory role with the US Department of Health and Human Services Center for Clinical Innovation, sits on the Executive Committee for the Food and Drug Administration sponsored Medical Device Epidemiology Network, is a mentor for small businesses working with the National Institute of Health, held two former population health advisory roles with the White House, is a special advisor to the Global Health Crisis Coordination Center, and actively contributes to national legislation language with members of Congress and the Senate. Mr. Dunkel has a Bachelor of Science from the School of Public Health at Indiana University, where he spent three years in pre-med studies and two in business studies.
Dr. Bob Lubitz brings nearly 30 years of experience as a physician-executive in academic and community health systems, public health and ambulatory healthcare. He has an extensive background in strategic planning, operations, clinical integration, population health, medical research and teaching. He is recognized for planning and implementing start-up programs and achieving complex turn-arounds.
Dr. Lubitz currently serves as a national strategic health system consultant and medical advisor to the CDC Foundation. He advises health systems and companies on pandemic planning and response, and most recently stewarded an advanced pandemic response plan for a health system in northern California – at the epicenter of the US COVID-19 outbreak. He authored the pandemic response plan for St. Vincent Health in Indianapolis that was successfully implemented during H1N1 and was a co-founding member of Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare (MESH) Coalition a non-profit public-private partnership that coordinates, supports and strengthens healthcare preparedness.
Dr. Lubitz previously served as a senior executive in two large multi-hospital systems, and was Medical Director of one of the largest free-standing multi-specialty clinics in the U.S. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer of 3Oe Scientific, a biotech start-up focusing on hand sanitization in healthcare. He also serves on Advisory Boards for the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and the Purdue University Department of Public Health.
He received his MD from the University of Cincinnati, completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and a Master’s in Public Health from Indiana University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Fellow and Master of the American College of Physicians.
Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACMI, is a member of the Executive Team at The Task Force for Global Health. Dr. O’Carroll provides strategic and operational direction to The Task Force’s health systems strengthening sector, currently comprising the Public Health Informatics Institute, TEPHINET, the African Health Workforce Project, MedSurplus Alliance, and the global Health Campaign Effectiveness program.
Dr. O’Carroll joined CDC in 1985 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, and spent 18 years with CDC as an epidemiologist, informatician, and program director. A Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, Dr. O’Carroll developed the nation’s first training course and textbook on the discipline of public health informatics. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, and has extensive experience working across numerous public health domains including public health systems development, global health and disease surveillance, immunization, bioterrorism, and infectious disease epidemic control.
Before joining The Task Force in 2016, Dr. O’Carroll served for 13 years as the Regional Health Administrator (RHA) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region X (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). As RHA, Dr. O’Carroll was the principal federal public health physician and scientist in the region. During the latter part of this assignment, he served as Senior Advisor to the Acting HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, and as HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health for Science and Medicine.
Dr. O’Carroll received his medical doctorate and masters of public health degrees from Johns Hopkins University, and holds affiliate professor appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Health Services at the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health, and in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the UW School of Medicine. Dr. O’Carroll is also an Adjunct Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.
Margaret K. Offermann, MD, PhD is founding President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoSpherix, a pre-clinical stage oncology drug development company that is
advancing a proprietary platform of small molecule therapeutics for advanced cancers that target regions where tumor cells have outgrown their blood supply and are hypoxic. She previously served as member of the Board of Directors and President for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), Deputy National Vice President for Research at the American Cancer Society and Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Emory University, where she served as co-director of the MD, PhD training program, Associate Director of the Postgraduate Training Program in Hematology and Oncology and Associate Director of the Winship Cancer Institute. She is widely published, a nationally recognized authority on innate immunity and RNA viruses (which includes SARS-Cov2), and has won numerous awards. She trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals and in Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and in Medical Oncology.
Clifford Goldsmith brings a unique experience to Microsoft as a physician who also has over 33 years of know-how envisioning, designing, developing, and selling high-performance solutions for the healthcare industry. He has been with Microsoft’s Healthcare team for more than 20 years and in his current role of US Chief Medical Officer, he designs, develops and executes Microsoft’s strategy for the US Healthcare Provider Industry. Dr. Goldsmith has focused on numerous areas of healthcare information technology including value-based payment models, AI and ML for Health, rare diseases, clinical trials, medical devices and embedded systems, clinical process improvement and patient engagement. He has also served as Chief Medical Officer of Aptima Corporation, where he led a team in transitioning well-tested concepts on human-centered engineering from aviation and the military into healthcare. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1998, Dr. Goldsmith worked for Harvard University’s Department of Medicine and the Center for Clinical Computing, developing and managing various aspects of IT for both Beth Israel and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals. During this appointment, he pioneered full, remote access electrocardiograph (ECG) integration with the EHR. He founded and managed LINK Medical which delivered a commercial product that integrated ECGs and other waveform diagnostics into the EHR. He joined the HL7 (Health Level 7) Committee in its early years and collaborated on both the Order Entry and Results Reporting standards. Dr. Goldsmith received a B.S. and a M.B.B.Ch (MD) from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
GHC3 is a division of the Center for Global Health Innovation (CGHI). The Center for Global Health Innovation is an Atlanta based 501(c)3 organization that was launched in 2019 to bring together diverse Global Health, Health Technology and Life Sciences entities to collaborate, innovate and activate solutions to enhance human health outcomes around the world. At its core, CGHI will orchestrate programs that promote cross discipline cooperation to strengthen capabilities, accelerate problem solving and respond to global health crises. The Center will continue to support its subsidiary organizations, Georgia Bio and Georgia Global Health Alliance and is standing up a permanent Global Health Crisis Coordination Center to bringing to bear the best private sector and public sector capabilities and experience in times of need.